GameSpot editors' review
-
CNET editors' rating:
stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 07/16/2004
- Released on: 06/29/2004
- Originally published on GameSpot: Spider-Man 2 (Game Boy Advance) Review
Most likely, the main things you want to know about Spider-Man 2 for the GBA are whether or not it does a good job of retelling the events from the movie and how much it lets players cut loose with Spider-Man's superpowers. The answers are "Yes" and "Quite a bit." The game doesn't set new standards in graphics or game design--which is about what we've come to expect from side-scrolling action games on the GBA--but between Spider-Man's unique abilities and the way other enemies (besides Doctor Octopus) have been incorporated into the levels, developer Digital Eclipse has managed to put together a game that every Spidey fan can enjoy.
Jumping between moving cars is no problem with Spider-Man's webbing.
After a slick video montage pieced together from actual movie footage, the game opens with a couple of quick training missions. If you've already watched the movie, you'll recognize the openers as the pizza delivery and fusion lab scenes that occurred during the early minutes of the film. These missions are fairly uncomplicated and aren't difficult by any stretch, so some people may finish them wondering if the whole game is just as easy. It isn't. They're merely meant to get players used to the basic webswinging and attacking controls and to introduce the experience points system, which lets players upgrade Spidey's abilities as the game goes on.
The rest of the game's 30 or so missions vary in difficulty and structure. Like the console versions, the GBA game lets you pick and choose missions in any order you want by swinging around a 3D facsimile of New York City. The missions themselves use the same sort of 2D side-scrolling graphics that are pretty typical of most action games on the GBA. Every level is set up so that players can cut loose with Spider-Man's abilities. There are wide-open spaces for webswinging, buildings that you can latch onto using Spidey's webs, walls and ceilings that you can crawl up, secret ducts and tunnels to go into, and, of course, plenty of bad guys to pummel. Some missions involve hand-to-hand combat or searching around for keys and clues. Others involve chasing down a particular enemy, webswinging through a maze of obstacles, or escaping each floor of a building with flames following right behind you. The Doc Ock plotline from the movie is the main thread that the game keeps coming back to, but the developer made a wise move and expanded the story to include milestone events from the comic book as well. This adds to the variety of missions and introduces moviegoers to characters--like Rhino and the Lizard--that haven't been broached in the movies yet.
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