Spider-Man: The Movie (Sony PlayStation 2, 2002)

Spider-man for the PS2 arrived in line with the 2002 release of the film, although the plot points in the game has very little to do with the movie.

Story aside, the game is still fun. It feels like a natural bridge between the Spider-man titles on the PS1 and Spider-man 2. You can see the progression taking place.

It plays in third person mode with much of your time swinging around sections of the city; only sections mind you. The swinging is a little too automated for my liking. You can swing, swing faster or be falling. There's little of what comes in subsequent games with cool acrobatics, an improved zip line, the ability to run on the walls, and the ability to string together in flight moves which really make you feel like the web-head himself.

During your time outdoors you'll be given a few city blocks for that stage that you're in, to do whatever it is you need to do. Usually this will be tracking down and beating up thugs, or robots, or squaring off against a boss. All your time is spent either swinging between the buildings, or running on the rooftops. I don't think I touched the street level once. I don't think you can get to street level in this game. But that's not a bad thing. There's lots of aerial combat which does help to make you feel like a tried and true web-slinger, although I found the number of mid-air attacks you have in your arsenal is somewhat limited.

When you find yourself indoors there's a variety of locations presented, from office spaces to sewers. Since swinging around in these areas can be cumbersome, you'll resort to a lot of wall crawling. At times you'll be doing so in the shadows as you attempt to creep past guards. There is an option where you can aim a web zip-line from where you are to a nearby wall, ceiling or whatever, which will get you around pretty quickly. This is made even easier by allowing you be in this mode even while you're moving.

Combat is decent, with a variety of combos and a few web attacks to pull off. You can unlock new moves by finding tokens spread throughout the levels. The button combinations are fairly easy to remember and execute, allowing you to quickly make short work of most bad guys that cross your path. It's just too bad that the controls can take some time to catch up with the camera. That is to say, if you spin the camera 180 then push right immediately, Spider-man will keep moving left. It's needs a second to realize the camera has moved, and to compensate accordingly.

There are of course boss battles in the game, and there's a decent number of them considering how short the game is. You'll come across Shocker, Vulture, Scorpion, a giant robot, and of course a couple of rounds with the Goblin. It's just unfortunate that all of the boss fights outshine the final duel with the Goblin, which was dull and un-inventive.
When you have completed the game you can go back and reply previous levels so you can get a higher score. The high-scores will allow you to unlock bonus stages, like the mini-game where you swing down a bowling lane and try to knock down giant pins.

It would have been a great Spider-man game at the time of it's release, but better titles that followed has made this one lose it's appeal over time. I say that it's still worth a play if you're a Spider-man fan; it's not like it will take you very long to get through.

I liked this game's graphics. I Always Had wanted to play as Spiderman and fight Villans like Shocker, Vulture, and the Green Goblin. The game was too easy to win. I recomend playing Spiderman 2 intead.

I am not very good at this game, but the feeling like I am web slinging through the city is just awesome. I am still learning the moves and special tricks, but I have mastered some of the basic technics. Also crawling on a ceiling or a wall and spying on people is way cool!
I wanted to buy this game to see what it would feel like to be spiderman, the game did not disappoint.

My seven year old son loves to play this game. If my seven yeard old (PS2 pro) can play it and has a hard time beating the game then it was worth every penny. I purchase all my Playstation 2 games for my son on ebay and always find a great deal. This was a good buy

Game has great graphics and is easy enough for the kid. Lots of neat stuff to do, training area for you to hone your skills. I'm not much of agamer so this makes for a great place to cut my teeth. PLus, you can get it for a great price on ebay!