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Product summary
From start to finish, Spider-Man 3D: NY Rooftops feels like a soulless tech demo.
Specifications: ESRB: Everyone See full specs
GameSpot editors' review
- Reviewed on: 02/09/2005
- Originally published on GameSpot: Spider-Man 2 3D: NY Rooftops (Mobile) Review
At this stage in mobile gaming, three-dimensional graphics are often a gimmick, and many times they are included at the expense of decent gameplay. Spider-Man 2 3D: NY Rooftops is a good example of this phenomenon, but it is by no means a good game.
Spider-Man 2 3D isn't a cohesive experience; instead, it's a collection of frustrating timing-based minigames. These snippets of gameplay are loosely connected by a poorly translated plot involving Doctor Octopus. In the first scene, you'll have to dodge his mechanized tentacles as you ascend a building. This involves having to rapidly switch between three different paths up the building in order to avoid his incoming arms. Occasionally, all three arms will descend at once, which leaves you with no way to dodge them. This is tremendously aggravating, and it seems like a design flaw. The next game is a fighting sequence in which you must use rhythm action-style timed presses to complete devastating combos. In practice, this means you'll input a bunch of commands and watch Spidey kick butt. This isn't terribly engaging or rewarding. Yet another minigame involves pressing a button to "ready" Spider-Man to strike in various directions and then commanding him to do so when the time is right.
All of these games are difficult to beat, but not for the right reasons. This may be the game that causes you to break your fancy new phone out of frustration. Watching--powerless--as Spider-Man is beaten to a bloody pulp is downright demoralizing. There's not very much content here, but the game's oppressive difficulty means it will take you at least one to two hours to beat. Simply put, this game doesn't even provide lasting anguish.
Spider-Man 2 3D's strong suit is right there in the title: its three-dimensional graphics. While the game's models are fairly impressive and bear a decent likeness to actual human beings, there's never a tremendous amount of them displayed onscreen at any given time. In the climbing levels, you'll see the texture of the building as Spidey attempts to move upward. In the beat-'em-up game, Spidey costars with one thug at a time or with Doc Oc. Unsurprisingly, Spider-Man 2 3D runs at a decent frame rate, although not as fast as other 3D titles on Verizon's new flagship handset, like Asphalt: Urban GT.
Considering the game is on a phone capable of playing MP3 audio, Spider-Man 2 3D's sound is pretty poor. A single repetitive loop plays unyieldingly throughout this entire train wreck of a game. You'll want to disable the audio pretty quickly.
From start to finish, Spider-Man 3D: NY Rooftops feels like a soulless tech demo. It's got some graphical chops, sure, but no gameplay to back it up. Chalk this one up to mobile growing pains.
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