DISCONTINUED
Back in 2002, Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movie garnered praise in many quarters. Up until then, the history of attempts to make live action Spider-Man entertainment had been an ignominious one, notable only for 70s kitsch-ery and none of the expression of spectacular power and grace familiar to fans of the Marvel comics Superhero.Activision were already guardians of the Spidey license at the time (Spider-Man being no stranger to video games excursions). The most recent iterations had been created by Neversoft, the people that brought you the Tony Hawk skate series. This time Activision turned to Californian dev studio Treyarch, who used Renderware middleware to bring the action from the movie to the home video games console market. Poorly realised movie tie-ins are given no quarter by games journalists, but this version is remembered fondly for the exciting web-slinging, swinging, wall-crawling action, the levels enacted outside on New York's skyscrapers being particularly good fun.Accompanying the inevitable Spider-Man 2 movie, which delivered another dose of the spectacularly CGI-realised superhero to Spider-Fans, was Spider-Man 2 across all platforms. Treyarch once again developed the game, which has been acclaimed by fans for its GTA-style, non-linear, mission-based gameplay. Now the Spider-Man franchise comes to Nintendo DS too, accompanying the launch of the coveted console.This time Vicarious Visions do the development honours, and the game, though played on a 2D plane, has a 3D background. It's old school platform beat-em-up action all the way, and Spidey must swing satisfyingly through the levels against the clock, battering thugs and rescuing hostages. Based faithfully on the movie's plot, the action pulls you along to a showdown with Dr. Octopus, fiendish alter ego of Dr. Otto Octavius, celebrated nuclear physicist. The DS touch screen is employed for quickly selecting which of Spidey's special moves are assigned to the R button, whilst the L button activates your'Spider sense', allowing you to slow down time and make your meathead foes look stupid. Fans of the comic books and movies should certainly look into this fun action game for their new Nintendo DS console. |
