Grumpy Old Nerds

So what would you do if you wrote your very own Spiderman game? Most of us would take pieces of the games in the past that we liked and cobble them together into one super conglomerate of Spidey goodness. Maybe even varying up the gameplay enough to never make you feel like you're just slowly chipping away at the game while keeping things fresh. However in this go-round of the Spiderman gaming franchise... well we got porked worse than Spider-Pig.

Shattered Dimensions appealed to the gamer in us all by juggling us through varied and beautiful environments that were so radically different that sometimes you'd just stop running around the map to admire the work done. Which was expected, and even encouraged in a few levels where you were handed a wide pallet of scope to gaze at lovingly while trying to throw down with various bad guys. Not to mention how different the four Spidermen played. Between the extremely goofy Amazing Spiderman's web weapons to the gritty stealth assaults of Noir Spiderman.

However returning to this series are none of those good ideas. The four player cast is reduced to half. Giving you only Miguel O'Hara and Peter Parker to play with, and while this may not have been a bad thing to do in the end, it left the bad taste in my mouth that I couldn't appreciate the crafty chaos of Peter Parker's web antics as much without sneaking in the shadows as a hushed and gritty Noir Spiderman to contrast with.

Also the distinctive art styles varying from the hard edged black and white Sin-City style characters and locals to the fresh-and-clean plastic shapes of the world of 2099 are pretty much tossed. Instead both Spidermen share one style of graphics. The 2099 style, if you're a fan of the first game. While this worked so well in the first, this time you miss seeing those blotchy black outlines while playing Amazing Spiderman. At first I thought it wouldn't matter, but as time on this game ticked by I noticed I did, in fact, care. And missed that comic style art. However that alone cannot harm a game it's self.

The distinctive fighting styles, at their core, are still different, however both embrace a chaotic and sometimes satisfying smash-them-all style. Miguel still looks like he's got lightsabers on his hands, and Parker still strikes an impressive pose every time he lashes out with a punch or kick worthy of the hundreds of fan-favorite comic covers over the years. Still the end results are not very different. Even the movement system that left Miguel free-dropping for miles at a time to beat up on a bad guy that we loved so much? It's back. Far too much of it is back, in fact. Too much cake makes you sick, dontcha know?

I can nit pick all I want about the game, but the story is actually at least entertaining after you remind yourself that this is a Spiderman story. Which is usually comprised of the nearly impossible happening and you just have to roll with it. Once you jump that shark (or nuke the fridge, depending on your phrase of choice) it offers and interesting tale of how an Alchemex employee from 2099 went back in time to start the company earlier. And how Miguel and Parker have to work together to bring it down in two time lines.

The small picture in picture of the other Spiderman in the bottom right is entertaining. And their back-and-forth is very Spiderman worthy. It displays that the writers went into this with a real sense of Spiderman's core attribute at heart: A wit that never fades. And while listening to them banter through mediocre scenes makes much of the more boring parts bearable, it doesn't redeem the obserdity of the meddling they do with the timeline to get past particularly nasty surprises. Back to the Future with webs. Nuff said.

What about web swinging, you say? Yeah... what about it? There's very little. Most hallways are too small, short, and enclosed to really allow you to get that engrossed feeling you got from earlier Spidermans flops that at least felt cool to swing all through the city willy-nilly like GTA: Marvel. With slightly less car jacking or tank spawning cheats. Though that might have helped a few times here. Instead you get a cramped feeling, something that works against Spiderman's core strength as a character, and leaves you frustrated after a few hours of being given the iconic web swinger trapped in a sardine can.

We also lose that wonderful addition of first-person brawling you got periodically with certain bosses, making you feel like it was you who was dealing a whooping on them with some well placed right crosses. And sadly we're not really given any new neat gimmicks that would replace that unique and surprisingly fun feature. Bosses aren't an objective in and of themselves as the first game was, which gave the whole action of each episode a widened feel that the thugs you had to brawl were a means to an end. This time you just wish Spiderman could hide somewhere for a while and sneak past a few waves for the sake of your own sanity.

But what about the voices? We still get some veteran Spidermen from the first game. However older players like myself who remember Spiderman and his amazing friends will wilt just a little when they hear that Miguel is no longer voiced by that veteran voice actor and instead is voiced by the Spiderman from the 90s cartoon who did so well as the Noir Spidey in the last game. In fact I think a majority of my frustrations from this installment come from the fact that Noir isn't even there. He proved to be the heavy divergence from the norm and gave the other Spidermen that feeling of being that much more powerful only because he was so rooted in real world rules despite his powers.

At the end of the game you may enjoy the banter, the story (which isn't the best, but is nothing to scoff at) and even some of the game play. However after such a wonderful dose of Spiderman from the last outting this one leaves a sad taste in your mouth when it's all said and done just because no one wants to eat generic brand treats that cost as much as the real thing. Despite all this your real Spiderman fans will still have plenty of costumes to unlock, challenges to complete and difficulty settings to tear apart. Still for the majority of the gamers who're not huge fans of the Wall Crawler this will just leave you shaking your head for the small things that could have turned it into such a great second outting for the friendly neighborhood Spiderman.

All in all I think Family Guy said it best. "Everybody gets one." And sadly we already got ours.

The Breakdown:

The Good:

* The story isn't the greatest, but it still has it's moments that draw you in and makes you believe the obserdity of what's going on.
* The banter between Spidermen as they progress is excellent and can lighten the mood all on it's own.
* Voice acting and cut scenes are extremely well done, making the game feel like a Spiderman movie they probably shouldn't tell Sony about, but certainly an animated movie that we'd have loved to see.

The Bad:

* Gone are the distinctions that really stand out between the Spidermen besides a few minor gimmicks that don't really stand out on their own.
* No Noir Spiderman. Which was a great showing in the first one.
* Boss fights don't have the umph they did in the last outting. Leaving you more glad they're over simply to get on to the next part than having accomplished anything.
* Repetative cut-and-paste animations for solving environmental puzzles.
* No actual web swinging. Duh, guys!
* Only 1 really iconic villain to fight, and that's Black Cat who's cast as a villain every other game just to get her in the games themselves without blowing the story budget it seems.

Papa Mimic's Score: 6.5/10