Previewed: September 2, 2005
Previewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Activision

Developer
Vicarious Visions

Release Date: September, 2005
Genre: Action
Players: 1
ESRB: Everyone

Vicarious Visions have already proven themselves to be adept with the NDS and the Spider-Man franchise with their NDS launch title, Spider-Man 2 last year. Ultimate Spider-Man borrows on that game engine then takes it to the next evolution with some serious enhancements to gameplay and control.

Ultimate Spider-Man on the DS mirrors many of the core story elements from the console version but switches up the 3D gameplay with the more traditional side-scrolling action typically found on handheld systems. In fact, if you played last year’s Spider-Man 2 then you’ll feel right at home when it comes to swinging, crawling on walls, and web-zipping to walls and ceilings.

Ultimate Spider-Man oozes with presentation value making full use of both screens for large images and authentic comic book panel story design. Sometimes the game plays in the top screen with menu options, attack options, or mini-game screens on the bottom, and other times the game shifts to the lower screen, particularly in Venom’s missions. Regardless of which screen you are playing on, there is always something going on in the other, even if it's just stylish comic book panels complementing the action or the story.

Just like the console version, you get to play as both Spider-Man and Venom. Both characters are very unique; both in their gameplay, objectives, and the way you control them. Venom can actually be controlled with the touch screen by clicking on a target and having him attack or feed. You can also grab one of his tentacles and drag to a destination to have him whip-swing to that location.

The touch screen integration has been tweaked significantly but it’s still not as important as it should be. It’s cool to control Venom with the stylus but he works just as well (possibly better) just using the buttons. With the exception of a few mini-games, the touch screen is seldom “required”, but it does make navigating the menus easier.

Ultimate Spider-Man is still all about the combat but the designers have managed to mix in some rather ingenious puzzles, some of which are integrated into the gameplay and others that appear as mini-games in the lower screen. Some of the mini-games are as mundane as a "Simon Says touch the on-screen buttons to match a real-time pattern" to something as integrated as sweeping the pen from bottom to top to lift a car off a trapped civilian.

Much like the console version, you will often have numerous objectives that require quick prioritization. In one early scene you have a guy trapped under a burning car and another trapped by a downed electrical wire. Noting that the man under the car is dying quicker than the other you have to jump the power line, hop over the car and punch/kick the fire hydrant to put out the fire then lift the car off the man.

Combat is just as intuitive as the previous Spidey game with an assortment of punches and kicks along with numerous specialty moves that you can assign to your special move button. Each of these moves requires a certain amount of power on your special meter. As you engage in normal combat this meter slowly rises and when you reach the required limits you can invoke these special Spidey attacks.

There is a surprisingly thick plot for Ultimate Spider-Man that includes a branching storyline and missions that unfold in unique ways based on your actions in previous levels. It will take you several passes to see all of the major variations but even then there may be some subtleties that you might not see without excessive replays.

Of course all of this replaying will eventually unlock all sorts of bonus content including characters and levels for multiplayer. While there is no single-card play, if two gamers both have a copy of Ultimate Spider-Man they can engage in exciting versus combat in up to eight locations and choosing from five characters.

Ultimate Spider-Man has all of the exciting gameplay that you are used to and puts an “ultimate” twist on the visual style. Admittedly, this style comes through more in the cutscenes and panel-like presentation. The cel-shaded goodness of the console version is slightly lost on the smaller DS screen, but there are some noticeable variations in the exaggerated design of Spidey and the overly saturated colors of the levels that give the game more of a graphic novel feel.

Bottom line, if you loved the original Spider-Man 2 on the DS then it just got a whole lot better, and there is no denying that playing as Venom is a guilty pleasure that is long overdue.