Recently, I compiled a list of the top 10 favourite video games that I own, inspired by GameFAQs’ recent “Best Game Ever” contest (btw, my number one, Super Mario RPG, already lost). One thing that’s a little odd about my list is that there are a few games on it that didn’t make in GameFAQs’ contest, such as Guitar Hero 3 (or any GH game, what’s up with that?) and Sonic Heroes (or any 3D Sonic game). But one game on my list is somewhat of an odd ball, as it doesn’t even appear as its going to be good at first glace. The one I’m talking about is Spider-man for the Playstation. I know it only got the number 10 spot on my list, but I think this game deserves a better look.

The story keeps things simple and classic (camp style, if you will), very Spider-man styled. It starts off with Peter Parker at a convention where Dr. Otto Octavius (better known as Dr. Octopus/Doc Oct) is demonstrating his latest invention, which in a bizarre change of character, is going to be used to help the world. Peter expresses his disbelief at this too, but figured this is a good chance to both take some pictures for the Bugle and keep an eye on one of his enemies. Eddie Brock (also known as Venom) is also taking pictures for the Bugle, but suddenly an imposter Spider-man jumps on stage, steals Oct’s machine, smashes Eddie’s camera and escapes. After the crowd is gone, Eddie starts thinking about what J. Jonah Jameson is going to say to him and how its Spider-man’s fault his life sucks, eventually enraging him enough to call out Venom. After that, all hell breaks loose: Spider-man tries to figure out who was impersonating him and what they wanted with Doc’s machine, but he can’t concentrate since there’s a bank robbery going on, a fog has covered the town, Scorpion escaped and is threatening JJJ, Rhino is causing destruction at a power plant and Venom is taking his revenge by kidnapping Mary-Jane. In total, Spider-man will have to fight 6 of his arch enemies, which is what I loved about Spider-man as a kid: the variety of villains he had, and the problems that they could cause. This captured that feeling for me.

All the levels in this game are fun and unique. Some of my favourite levels are the city top once, mostly since the fog covering the city makes it so you can’t touch the ground and can only swing around, very Spider-man like. There are levels where you have to crawl around on the walls and ceiling too, and normally you’ll have to venture around in a vent shaft or two. There are levels where you need to walk around, but these are few and far between, and rather compact, which is good, cause having to wonder around in big open areas would take away from the fast going Spidey-action. The locations you venture off to are actually diverse far as Spider-man goes (that would be, the edge of New York normally…): you got the rooftops, a bank, the sewer (including the top of a subway train in motion), a dockside warehouse and an underwater lab. Don’t get me wrong, swinging through the city is fun, but it’s nice that they change the backdrop. Each level also contains several missions, mostly including the usual adventure-platform game missions, such as get to the end, different styled races and destroy x number of a certain objects. This means most of the levels are linear, which is good, cause like I said, adventuring around in big spaces looking for one specific thing for too long is annoying.

As I’ve said before, you’ll have to fight 6 villains/bosses in this game. What I really like about them is their not always where you’d expect them to be in each level (in other words, at the end after a set number of missions), making the game SEEM less linear and more realistic. Each boss has their own unique element to them, giving them an extra challenge and making them harder to beat. Most of the time it’ll be that there is only one specific way of beating him or that you have to protect someone from dying. Normally, if you paid attention, listen to Spider-man’s hint and used a little common sense, you should be able to beat them no problem (also, knowing the villains before hand helps too). Trying to figure out how to beat them and doing it adds to the fun of game, but I must admit, they can be frustrating sometimes.

The controls are great: every button does something, except for L2 for some reason. Spider-man attacks with the square and circle buttons, jumps with X, swings around with R2, shoots strait upwards (his “zip line”) with R1 and targets with L1. His web is naturally his main attraction, and is used simply by pressing triangle and will entangle his enemies until they drop down and disappear. But, by pressing triangle along with one of the arrow buttons, you can use a whole bunch of other attacks: an exploding web shield, yanking the enemy towards you, shooting a ball of web and giving yourself web fists. Though most of these are optional to use, it does make the game a lot easier if you master them. You also stick to walls and ceilings if you jump up on them, which they make you have to use a lot and is kind of cool and fun. The only complaint I have about the controls is that there’s no real camera control, and it’s needed. They could have made it the L2 button or the analog sticks, since I believe they were common at the time. Instead, I end up tapping the L1 button just enough so it goes behind Spider-man, like it would for aiming mode, but I don’t hold on not to aim, since often I’ll be doing this to see an enemy that is probably attacking me and need to be quick about it.

There are some interesting game play elements in this game that give it that little extra Spider-man touch to it. I already mentioned the fog covering the town forcing you to swing around instead of just walking, but I figured I’d mention it again since I really do like those stages. There’s also the fact that, when you use your web, it uses up part of your web supply. This can seem annoying (especially if you go off using it all the time) but, if you look around, you can find new web cartridges at a steady rate. Also, dyeing gives you an automatic 7, no matter how many or few you had, and after your first play through you unlock a costume which gives you unlimited webbing (which is one of the extras I’ll get to later). Another cool thing is Spider-man’s trademarked “Spider-sense”. Beyond making the screen flash trippy colors and warning you when enemies are near, it also gives Spider-man his detection, which is represented by a red triangle which will either point you to where a bad guy might be or go over the head of the one you’re targeting if they’re on screen.

There are a few unlockable extras in this game too. I’ve already mentioned the costumes, so let’s start with that. Some of them are just costume changes, like the Scarlet Spider one, but others have additional powers to them, like unlimited webbing, invincibility and extra strength. Some of the powers are actually handicaps, like one where you can only carry 2 web cartridges at a time, put in just to make the game harder. The really great thing about the costumes is that their almost all recognizable, like the black suit Spider-man, Scarlet Spider, Spider-man 2099, etc… So beyond changing the game, it can be amusing. Another one of the extras are the comic book covers found throughout the game. This is pretty much just the standard “secret” found in a lot of games to encourage the player to play through the game again and search every inch of the levels. In the comic book gallery, you get to see the covers of the ones you’ve found plus a brief description. Most of these comic have to do with big events in the Spider-man world and often correspond where you found it in the game. This might be to inform people who aren’t fans of Spider-man of some things they should know. There are also other extras, including a story board of part of the game, but they can be called trivial at best. I guess this was meant to add a little extra to a short game, but the only ones that do that are the costumes and comics. These are nice if you’re into that kind of stuff, but otherwise, you’ll probably just look over it.

Now, we get to what people have the most complaints about: the graphics. Now, I only played this game for the first time when it was already 5 years old and I only owned it when it was 8, so I might not really know the perspective about the graphics at the time. That being said, I don’t think their all that bad. People in the game are recognizable to people who’ve seen them before (though it’s hard not to recognize someone like Venom). Their lips don’t move when they talk though, so the game resorts to what I call “body talking”: the characters move with pretty much each syllable, distracting us from their lips not moving. There are also times when BG panels move or change in weird ways, including the ones you have to see through, which can get in the way of certain things or screw you up, but those times are few and far between. Sometimes it seems that people talk too much about graphics and forget about just having fun, but this game prove that you don’t need great graphics for a great game.

Though the graphics can make some people skip the cutscenes, I found that the voice acting has kept a lot of people watching them. The great thing about them is that the guy who plays Spider-man has actually played him on a cartoon series, so that was pretty cool. The problem though are the lines they are given. First off, the bigger the character, the dumber they are. I mean, I remember Rhino being stupid enough to smash his head in electric poles, but Venom is a lot stupider then I remember him being. Also, some of the villains lines are just so very cliché; it’s almost like all their lines could be replaced by “grrr”, “SPIDER-MAN?!?!?” and “curses!” Actually, I think some of them really do say that… I know normally I enjoy this kind of stuff, but I already said I liked Spider-man for the amount of villains he had and how much dept each could have to their characters. It’s just a shame to see them presented in such a shallow manner. But hey, they aren’t completely messed up, and I can still get some enjoyment out of them.

So, that’s Spider-man in a nutshell. This is a game that kept things simple and was able to almost perfect it because of that. My only real complaint is that it was painfully short and that the villains weren’t very developed, but I know that could have messed with how good this game is. I’m honestly not doing it justice in this review; you really have to play it to get it. Anyways, I have to give this game a 9/10 and recommend that, if you get the chance, get this game. It’s a classic game for the Playstation, so it can be count for about 10$ in most game stores and on eBay (just make sure you don’t mistake it for the one based on the movie).

Oh yeah, I mentioned that it had a sequel in my top 10 list, didn’t I? Hmm….