Platform: PSP

Genre: Action

Number of Players: 1
 

My Spidey Sense has gotten . . . . well . . . . smaller. Like it or not, Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film shave been making a good deal of money for Columbia/Tri-Star, and just like any good film (or even bad film) that means that you can bet your web shooters that there will be a game to coincide with the release of the film. In this case however, Spider-Man 2 has already came and gone to theaters, has been released on DVD, and has even become the flagship UMD film for the release of Sony's PSP. I suppose that it only seemed natural to also release a new Spider-Man 2 game for the PSP.

The game loosely follows the plot of the second film, with a few changes and additions throw in for good measure. It doesn't take any special powers though to realize that you will be assuming the role of Peter Parker, or rather, Spider-Man, the friendly, neighborhood wall-crawler who is up against some rather harsh villains. Dr. Otto Octavius, thanks to a recent experiment, has become the deadly Doc Ock (or Dr. Octopus) and all of New York City is feeling his wrath. It's going to take all of Peter's web-slinging skills to put a stop to him before its too late, but with common thugs and escaped super-villains from The Vault standing in his way, it's certainly not going to be easy.

With portables, we generally see a direct port of games show up, and I'm sure this is what you might be thinking. Fear not, true believers, this version of Spider-Man 2 is NOT the version that appeared on the home consoles, nor is it the rather bland looking, 2D version that showed up recently on the Nintendo DS. No, developer Vicarious Visions has given fans an all-new Spider-Man game that hasn't shown up on the other systems. So much for the theory of doing direct ports, and in this case, I'm sure fans are going to be rather pleased.

Much like the home console versions of the game, Spider-Man 2 is designed in the three-dimensional environment, allowing you, for the most part, to have free reign of exploring the city. This is the game that showed me that reading the instructions that come included with the system or game always pays off. You see, I never realize that the strange little circle underneath the D-pad on the PSP unit was actually an analog stick, and that's where you'll be controlling Spidey. It's a bid awkward at first, but after a few training missions, it comes as naturally as using the analog sticks on the PS2.

The game itself is divided into 19 different stages. These will range from simply trying to bash your way through thugs to tailing evildoers to even rescuing those in danger. It's a thankless job, but someone has to do it. Spider-Man, as we all know, has a variety of fighting skills at his disposal. You can jump into the thick of things and do hand-to-hand and foot-to-skull if you'd like. The game has a wide variety of combos for you to utilize, though I will advise first going into the games training mode to get a little more accustomed to them. Spider-Man can also web his opponents up, rendering them helpless, web-grab weapons from their hands and even web and fling them around his head. You'll also find that using a few aerial tactics never hurt anyone, well; they never hurt you at least.

You will need to be wary of a few things however besides just your health. Spidey doesn't have an infinite supply of web fluid, but carefully looking in stages will find icons to fill those shooters back up and replenish health as well. There are also secret tokens hidden in stages. Collecting these will give you some bonus points that you can spend in-between stages. The store will let you build up your health, increase your web fluid stock or how quickly it rebuilds, or even buy some new combo moves to use through the course of the game. There are even features related directly to the game itself that can be purchase for those that want to get everything they can out of Spider-Man 2.

The game isn't all about action though, and you will find that there is some minor puzzle solving involved as the game progresses, and what Spider-Man title wouldn't be complete without some boss battles here and there? No this one, that's for sure. You will find yourself in highflying combat with the Vulture, banging heads with Rhino, and even discover some rather electrifying combat with the Shocker. They may not appear in the theatrical film, but having stages with Peter moping around and giving up being a hero would make for a rather boring game.

Also like the home console versions of Spider-Man 2, you will find that many of the actors involved with the film have reprised their roles in computer-animated form. The cut scenes in the game are very well done, though I have read a few reviews on other sites that haven't found them to be to their liking. The thing is, we're talking about a portable system here, not a home console, and I don't think that many of the games need to have a high degree of detail. The cinematic sequences in Spider-Man 2 however do have some very good animations in them and some attempt to replicate some of the moments in the movie.

As far as the in-game graphics go however, they are outstanding. This is a game that shows what the PSP is really capable of, though that is true of most of the launch titles. Remember though, the PS2 has some impressive titles when it launched, so just think of what the PSP will be showing as developers grow more and more accustomed to what this little system can do. What you will find with most of the stages here though is that there is some good detail, a great deal of depth in the exterior stages, and overall some rather breathtaking environments that make the game just as much fun to look at as it is to play.

I do have a couple of minor complaints about the game however. The camera could use a little work, and getting used to using the D-pad to reconfigure your view can be a little frustrating at times. Off and on, I did note that Spider-Man 2 had a tendency to swing the camera in a very odd angle, and my line of vision was obstructed by walls and such, usually resulting in an aggravated rush to realign things and continue fighting. The other problem is that the game is simply too short. Within four or five hours I had played the game from start to finish, the only saving grace really being that there are cheat codes to be used and other secrets, giving the game a bit of replay value.

I can't say that I'm a fan of the movies, but as far as Spider-Man 2 goes for the PSP though, it's not a bad little action title, and one of just many ways to show your friends what Sony's new system can do. It beats the heck out of Nintendo's two-dimensional platform fighter, but most things on the PSP do. It doesn't matter if you're into the Spider-Man movies or games in the least, but I'd advise that you swing on by your local retailer and grab this game as quickly as possible.
 

-mike-