Younger fans in the UK of Marvel’s classic Batman-rivalling comic-superhero, ‘Spider-man’ came to the theatre more than dispirited to find out that those wonderful people at the BBFC gave a ‘12’ certificate to Columbia’s long awaited release of the movie. This, of course meaning that over half of the film’s market was wiped out in an instant and, as a result, made the summer of cinema fun, not so fun as the little brats ended up having to make-do with the appalling likes of ‘Scooby Doo’ as a lame compromise.

There is hope, however, as Treyarch and Activision, under licence from Columbia pictures have brought the movie magic to the Xbox allowing you to play the game at home, which for all those whippersnappers out there, that’s more than a fair compromise don’t you think?

The game version follows the story of the film, which follows the story of the original Marvel comic series; so to be honest, you’re not missing anything new if you’ve already read the graphic novels. After a rather striking intro to the game, you start with a brief synopsis of the original plot which basically explains how Peter Parker uses his new spider powers on a journey to seek justice for his uncle Ben and all that load o’… Anyway, after a the first level and you’ve killed the man responsible for his uncle’s death, Spider-man’s thirst for blood, err, I mean justice comes again when The Green Goblin reeks havoc among the city of New York and it’s your job to do what’s right, and so starts your epic adventure…

Gameplay:
Picking up and playing the game is probably one of the simplest things that you will do on Spider-man. All the controls are pretty much what you’d expect them to be, with lots of buttons to press. So whether you’re a button basher, or a skilled expert, you’ll probably find the first couple of levels fairly simple to begin with; especially as the levels themselves actually allow for you to test your skills and put them into practice. If you’re not so confident however, you can access one of many training levels, where you can learn new skills as well as brush up on given ones. These include obstacle courses, Zip training, and brawl fights. You even get a self-obsessed narrator to direct you on your way.

Moving about the levels is pretty simple, as much as it can be annoying. Almost anything you WANT to do, you can actually do. You can climb up walls, towers and ceilings, as you’d expect. To avoid being seen by enemies, you can crawl into dark patches where you appear invisible to them and when they least expect it, attack them with your spider web before beating them to a pulp. If too many people surround you at once, you can easily throw them off your back by wrapping a web around your body, which explodes in full 360 degrees to anyone in your wake. Impressive stuff.

Dodgy camera angles lets the gameplay down somewhat as it’s sometimes hard to make fair judgement as to what you’re doing in the game or to decide what you’re doing next. There are some cool spider web techniques, which allow you to hover down and get a better perspective, which helps a little bit, but still it’s a no cop for what should be a simple factor. When you get to play onto the outdoor city levels however, you find you’re almost having to face the opposite problem, you can see too much around you, and as a result makes the game look a tad hollow when you have to travel a couple of tower blocks away to fight one guy, get some kind of item then go all the way back to activate it or whatever. It seems a tad lame that this format of gameplay is still in use. And more to the point, how the hell is that web attaching itself to the sky? Now I know this is only based on a factional character, but that is TOO unrealistic.

Fighting in the game is actually a nice feature, while it’s nothing compared to the beat ‘em ups that you’re likely to play elsewhere, there’s something about this that is actually strangely addictive. Maybe it’s just the little riot demon within me. If you don’t agree, then perhaps the option to change your combat controls will help you get a little more comfortable.

Graphics:
Despite the FMV sequences, which commonly lead you into belief that this is as-good-as-it-gets, the graphics on ‘Spider-man’ are actually pretty awesome – almost living up to those standards. This somehow doesn’t surprise me, as there is such a large financial backing to this game, but never the less, the characters and levels are extremely well designed and rendered. The animation is also so smooth you actually feel like you’re in control of Tobey Maguire – well, I don’t know about you, but that’s my Christmas wish come true.

Some of the levels themselves have some stunning lighting effects, the shadows of characters are absolutely spot-on, especially when there are explosions and fire effects that make the graphics even more of an awe. The combined translucent reflection effects whilst climbing tower blocks and such definitely show some of the effort in making this game look pretty anyway.

Again, the only downside with this aspect is those annoying camera angles that never seem to be on your side, which is a shame really because you can’t often get to LOOK at how pretty the game is.

Sound:
The sound quality is excellent, probably taking use of Dolby Digital, DTS, 5.1 surround and just about anything else they can throw in with clever names to make you want to buy the game. The music is partly running off the themes of the film, but in some of the orchestral pieces, it actually sounds more like Disney’s up-coming summer hit released on DVD where they show lots of kids saying “I like it because it’s good”. Or perhaps I’m getting too carried away there?

Speech effects are also top-notch, but the presentation of the sound itself, not to mention the narrator who is not only egocentric, but likes to be as patronising as possible (“Why don’t I play the entire GAME for you?”) brings this score heavily down.

Longevity:
Unless you’re actually under the age of 12, you’ll probably complete this game in a matter of hours if you’re really bored, or perhaps a couple of days if you simply play it casually… That is, if it hasn’t out-bored before that happens. While this game may be simple to play, some how it’s actually too simple and there doesn’t seem to be very much in the game which is really even worth talking about because it’s just so samey. It’ll be a great one for the kids, but I still believe there are hundreds of more interesting, not to mention, challenging platformers out there.

Round Up:
‘Spider-man’ is just about anything you’d expect from a film licence. While as they go, this one is slightly better. It seems a tad ironic that while under 12’s couldn’t see the film at the cinema, over 12’s will probably ditch this game out of boredom. Great one if you have kids, but you might want to choose more carefully if you’re looking for a game for all the family to enjoy, and besides, the ‘Spider-man’ DVD comes out soon.