Based on the Marvel comic book series, ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ swings into action fighting famous villains and other Marvel characters in the new game for the PS2.
Once again, Peter Parker is fighting crime across New York City. Playing inside this living comic book, you discover what Spider-Man goes through every day. From web-swinging injured citizens to the nearest hospital to webbing gang members in their tracks, this game is filled with action-packed adventure.
Throughout ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ you must complete chapters (which are like checkpoints) to progress through the game and each consists of different activities that you must complete. Whether it's completing a mission or wandering around the city saving citizens and stopping crimes, these are important elements of the game. When you choose to do a mission, you probably will face a villain or do something with another Marvel Character. Some of the characters include: Venom, The Human Torch and Wolverine.
An interesting attribute of this game is that in some missions you are Spider-Man but in others, you play the role of Venom. Venom's main talent is jumping high from building to building and using his tentacles to absorb people. Unlike Spider-Man, Venom can destroy almost anything you throw at him. He damages roof tops, cars, buildings and many more things. The only aspect I dislike about Venom is that he slowly loses energy as you go on. To fix that problem, Venom must go on the ground, find someone, suck them inside him and drain all their energy. Being Venom sure can be fun!
After a tough mission, you can choose to race against time, help local citizens, stop gangs or you can just simply cruise around the city and explore. A cool thing about this game is that is has a very large playing area so it will take you a while before you start memorizing where you are on the map.
The graphics in this game were okay but yet it was probably meant to be that way since it's like a cartoon/comic book. However, it was deja-vu for me because of the previous Activision Spider-Man game. ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ is like ‘Spider-Man 2’ but with improvements. Another interesting facet is that Spider-Man could do no wrong in the city. I know he's not supposed to do bad things - he's supposed to save lives, not hurt them - but it would be fun in a weird sort of way if Spider-man could go all Grand Theft Auto on New York City.
Overall, ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ was very well done. It was fun to play and is definitely worth buying if you like the Marvel series. In my opinion, this is the best game I've seen Activision put out in a while.
Grant Nunney is a 14-year-old high school student from Barrie, Ontario, Canada.
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