The game Spider-Man 2 is loosely based upon the recent Hollywood action film. When I say loosely, I mean loosely. The game incorporates more villains and plotline modifications, so you as Spider-Man have something to do. For instance, in the feature film, the bad guy is Doc Ock, who works alone. The video game incorporates new villains like Mysterio, Rhino, Shocker, and a variety of thugs for you to go up against. For details about Spider-Man 2, please refer to any of the following movie reviews: UMD Video, Special Edition DVD, and/or Superbit DVD.

Gameplay:

As a game, Spider-Man 2 has potential, but fails on many different levels. The biggest problem Spider-Man 2 runs into is the lack of game play. Once you have the controls worked out, it should not take you more than three or four hours to complete the game. You can play through again, but the puzzles and the fighting is pretty basic and offers little attraction. There are some extras to unlock, but they are not anything too impressive.

The game is made up of nineteen short stages (not including the training levels). You basically go through one stage after the other. Once you have completed a stage, you can replay it later, if you like. When you go through a stage, you have a specific task to accomplish. Each stage offers a few different kinds of game play. In some you'll be kicking ass and taking names as you thwart the bad guys from doing bad things. In other stages your goal will be to save civilians from doom, stopping large signs from falling on the populace, saving them from a fire, or disarming bombs. The real kicker is that these stages can be completed in only a couple of minutes. Some of them get hard, which is more or less due to the difficult of the controls, and you will have to replay these stages a couple of times to get through. But really, none are so intricate you would want to do it again for fun.

On the other hand, you might want to replay some of the stages because you get points in the following categories: Level Completion, Combat Style, Health/Web Bonus, Time, and Secrets. The points you accumulate at the end of a stage allows you to upgrade Spider-Man's stats (strength, health, web capacity, web recovery, jump) and abilities (super jump, web net, web cocoon). You can also unlock some hidden content (production art, storyboards, movies). However keep in mind, when you replay levels for additional points, you will really have to replay the level. If you get 1000 points the first time you complete a certain level, then your second time around you finish with 1100 points, you will only get 100 points. So, if you try to maximize and get all the upgrades for Spider-Man and unlock the extras, you might be replaying the same stages a lot.

The other aspects of this game are the combat system and the general movement. The combat system is very basic. Spider-Man can kick and punch and use the two in various combinations for a variety of combat styles. Webbing also is a useful tool in combat. Spider-Man can throw webs at enemies, tie them up, and pry weapons from their hands. There are many different ways to move Spider-Man in game. He can walk, run, crawl, climb, and use webbing. The webbing allows Spider-Man to quickly move from one place to another. When fighting bad guys, this will be vital. For both combat and movement, it can be difficult to use the webbing at first. But once you get the hang of it, the game seems almost too easy. Although even if you do get the hang of it, the controls can still be pretty hard to deal with. The analog pad is used for movement and the d-pad is used to control the camera view. It is very difficult to toggle between the two when trying to keep your direction and change your view at the same time. In many situations it will be vital that you keep the analog pad pointing forward and there just is not time to release the analog pad and switch to the d-pad and back again. The camera also does not auto-adjust very well and all too frequently, you will be hoping you are headed in the right direction.

Overall, I was less than excited with this game. It is far too short to really enjoy, and to make matters worse, the game itself is pretty dull. There are some puzzles, of which none are too complex or difficult. The real challenge is identifying which of Spider-Man's skill can be used to defeat this or that boss. The game also includes three levels of difficulty and while playing on harder levels can be more difficult, it still does not change how dull this game gets.

Perhaps the only good thing about Spider-Man 2 (PSP) is how it looks, which in itself, is not saying a whole lot. The graphics utilize the PSP 3D rendering capabilities, delivering fairly clean and smooth models. The problem is detail does not always look really great. Some of the models are plain and generic. There are also several cut scenes within the game, which look good, but not great.

Audio:

The sound in this game is adequate for the game. The sound effects and music are fairly generic and get old pretty quick. Overall, the sound and music offered little to the gaming experience. The game also features prerecorded audio dialogue of the actors from Spider-Man 2, Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man/Peter Parker, Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson, and Alfred Molina as Doc Ock. The spoken dialogue is monotonous and contains very little emotion.

Conclusion:

Spider-Man 2 is not a very impressive or fun game and the actual game play offers little. Once you figure out the controls, you should be able to complete the game in about three or four hours. Afterwards, you will probably want to get rid of the game as soon as possible. I know I never plan on playing this game again.

All photographs representing screenshots from PSP LCD monitor and related images were taken using 3.2 MP digital camera. The replication and quality of the screen shots are not true representations of the picture/video quality. In fact, the actual LCD is substantially sharper and clearer. As well, the aspect ratios in the screen shots are not true representations. Some images may be cropped and slightly irregular. However, the provided images are intended to only provide a rough example of what picture/video quality.