Two years have passed since Peter Parker first hit the streets of New York City as the conflicted crime-fighter Spider-Man. Now he finds himself battling his most diabolical villain yet, the mechanized, multi-tentacled Doc Ock. The nefarious Doc Ock was once Dr. Otto Octavius, a brilliant nuclear physicist. But a freak accident transformed him from a timid researcher to a criminally insane megalomaniac who blames Spider-Man for his horrible transformation. Now the scientist Peter once idolized for his remarkable intellect has marked our web-slinger for death.

Spidey is back in an all-new action-adventure on the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP! Spider-Man 2 not only celebrates the launch of these two innovative handheld game systems with one of the best super-hero franchises of all time, but Vicarious Visions has gone inside each system to make the most of each one's unique and special features and push the boundaries of gameplay and hardware.

The Nintendo DS features amazing 3D graphics, touch screen move selection, and mini-games while the powerful Sony PSP brings to the handheld an experience not unlike something you would find on a full-size console.

Game Chronicles talks with Vicarious Visions on just what it takes to bring a major title like Spider-Man 2 to, not just one, but two handheld systems at launch.

GCM:	Thank you for your time! Please get us started by introducing yourself and telling us about the team behind the handheld versions of Spider-Man 2.
Karthik Bala:	I’m Karthik Bala, CEO of Vicarious Visions. We’re best known for a lot of our handheld games, dating back to Spider-Man on Game Boy Color and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, which was a launch title for the GBA. Most recently we released Doom 3 for Xbox and of course two new Spider-Man 2 titles, one for the Nintendo DS launch and one for the Sony PSP launch.

GCM:	Spidey had the luxury of being a launch title for both the DS and the PSP. Did this put any extra pressure on the dev team to really show off each system’s capabilities (i.e. the touch pad on the DS)?
Karthik Bala:	Oh yeah, I think this is the case when doing any launch title! Whether it’s Sony, Nintendo, Activision or the gamers, everyone wants to see what a new system can do. So the challenge is figuring out what the strengths and weaknesses of each system is and creating a compelling game that is true to the IP (in this case Spidey) but also plays to the strengths of each platform.

GCM:

Were there any limitations on either system that kept you from including a certain game feature you really wanted?

Karthik Bala:

The biggest limitation was really, time. Working on a launch title is challenging in that it’s not until very late in development do you have final hardware. In the interim, the development teams work with documented specs and early prototype hardware. So we have to be careful in planning out design features based on what we know and some good educated guesses. :) Towards the end of each project, we really got a good sense of the final hardware and that spurred a ton of ideas – many of which we’re saving for our upcoming titles!

GCM:

The touch screen on the DS offers a whole new level of interactivity. How did you come up with some of the brilliant boss and challenge sequences that make use of this input device?

Karthik Bala:

The touch screen really does open up a new way to interact with the game. And to be honest, early on we were wondering whether it would be a short lived gimmick or whether there was a lot of substance underneath the hype. But as we really thought through the design possibilities, we realized there were a ton of neat things we could do to offer new kinds of experiences to the gamer. One thing lead to another in our design brainstorming sessions and we’re quite happy with how the bosses and touch screen combat system turned out.

GCM:

The visuals on the PSP version of Spidey are amazing. Some of your cutscenes look better than the UMD movie that shipped with the PSP. Can you explain the technology behind creating these high-quality movies?

Karthik Bala:

We knew the PSP had the power to bring a console class experience to a handheld platform. We wanted to take advantage of the media rich capabilities of the PSP and really tie it into the cinematic feel of Spider-Man 2. We wrote a script that weaved in and out of the main movie storyline of Spider-Man 2, in effect telling a larger story. In order to pull it off, we had to do a mix of pre-rendered FMV sequences, all done in Maya with in-game cinematics and gameplay. Really it came down to a great, hard working team who were hell bent on producing the highest quality visuals and gameplay, never before seen on a handheld platform.

GCM:

No offense to Jim Meskimen, but was there any reason that Bruce Campbell did not join the rest of the voice talent to reprise his role as the “narrator” on the PSP version of Spider-Man 2?

Karthik Bala:

I believe it had to do with the actor’s availability. We were very lucky to bring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and Alfred Molina in to do specific dialog for the PSP game. Typically, handheld games don’t get this sort of attention. But we wanted to create a unique Spider-Man 2 game, that was not a port of the PS2 game. With new story elements and a unique design, it required we bring back the main cast. We were incredibly lucky to bring in JK Simmons to do the voice of Jameson – which was a PSP exclusive. He did an amazing job – some of his lines were just priceless.

GCM:	As launch titles you obviously had a firm release date to meet. If you had an extra month or two to work on either of these games would there be anything you would change or add?
Karthik Bala:	Aha! The game developer’s dream. :) Certainly, we would have spent more time tuning and polishing overall. We’re very proud of how the games turned out and I think we can safely say that on any game project, a developer would love to just continue to tune and polish given any extra time.

GCM:

Vicarious Visions has a long history with the GBA. Just how different is it to program for the DS and PSP?

Karthik Bala:

The DS is an interesting system. It’s a really well balanced piece of hardware that is essentially a souped up GBA with 3D graphics hardware and unique features like touch screen. The PSP is somewhere in between a PS1 and PS2. Both are very different architectures and certainly significantly different and more complex than GBA. Our teams on DS and PSP have been a mix of GBA and console experts. That’s really allowed us to create experiences that are suited for handheld gamers, now with richer console level production values.

GCM:	With both systems featuring wireless networking, were you ever tempted to try and implement some sort of multiplayer game mode?
Karthik Bala:	Oh yeah. But with all the ambitious features we had planned, it fell on the cutting room floor, so to speak. But wireless multiplayer is going to become an essential part of handheld gaming and it is something we’re heavily involved with for our upcoming titles.

GCM:	Did Stan Lee play any role in the creation of either of these titles (i.e. supervisory or consultant)?
Karthik Bala:	I believe Stan wasn’t too involved on this project. He definitely gets involved in other Marvel projects at Activision – especially those that are comic book based. Sam Raimi was involved with both of our Spider-Man 2 titles. After all, it was his movie. :-)

GCM:

What’s next for Vicarious Visions (that you can talk about)?

Karthik Bala:

Well, just released was Madagascar on GBA & DS. The DS version has wireless multiplayer and some really fun 3D mini-games. Also coming up this fall will be X-Men Legends II on PSP, Ultimate Spider-Man on GBA & DS, and most recently announced at E3, a new Tony Hawk game exclusively designed for the Nintendo DS. This title will be one of the first online titles for the DS. We’re really excited about our fall line up!

GCM:

Thank you again for your time! Do you have any last impressions or thoughts for our readers?

Karthik Bala:

It’s never been a better time to be a handheld gamer. The DS and PSP really are leap forwards in game experiences on a portable system. With wireless and online play just starting to take off, the game play possibilities are truly amazing! Let’s not forget the GBA. With Nintendo’s surprise announcement of the Game Boy Micro, there’s still a lot of life left in the system and there are some really great games coming out for it this year. Thanks for the interview!

Sony PSP Screens


Nintendo DS Screens

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