Ultimate Spider-Man - T
Common Sense Note
Parents should know that Ultimate Spider-Man contains a lot of cartoonish action, including some gunplay (in one instance, a super-villain is shot through the mouth). There is no swearing but sometimes the teen hero uses the language of his age group, words like "hell" and "sucks." Players will spend some time saving people as Spider-Man, but they will also play as the evil Venom, a vampire-like monster that can only live by killing innocent bystanders. Players will also be confronted with in-game advertisements from Nokia.
Families who buy this game may want to discuss the differences between playing a hero and playing a villain in video games. Is it more exciting to do bad things in a game than good things? Do games that allow bad behaviors encourage those behaviors or are they a safe outlet?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Chris Jozefowicz
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN is an action-packed, single-player, web-slinging adventure featuring high-school-aged Peter Parker as the hero. The comic book style presentation is fabulous, but the main action is over too soon. This is better as a rental than as a game to buy.
Ultimate Spider-Man follows Peter Parker and Eddie Brock, childhood friends who have been driven apart by circumstance. While Parker fights crime as Spider-Man, Brock embraces an evil power in the form of Venom, an experimental super-suit that bonds with the mind and body of its wearer.
On the convoluted path leading to the confrontation of hero and villain, players tackle missions as both Spidey and Venom. Along the way, they'll battle familiar foes both good and bad, including Wolverine, Green Goblin, and Silver Sable. The story and cast is sure to please any fan of the Marvel Comics universe or super-hero comics in general.
The game is set in a fanciful New York City. While players might recognize some landmarks (Central Park, the Chrysler Building), the setting is not scrupulously accurate. Completing small tasks like saving people from muggers, stopping bank robberies, or challenging the clock in races through the urban canyons opens up story missions, which advance the plot of the game. Usually Spidey or Venom fight another superhero in these.
Despite the overall similarity between the Spider-Man and Venom missions, each character has his charms. Spider-Man is easy to control as he zips from rooftop to rooftop, races up the side of a skyscraper, or swings across a bridge over the East River. What Venom lacks in grace he makes up for with destructive power; he is like a villainous gorilla that can leap over buildings and hurl cars at his attackers. For overall fun, though, Spider-Man wins because Venom's health constantly drains and must be replenished by breaking from the mission objective in order to suck the life from bystanders -- an annoyance to be sure, and sort of problematic.
The game's greatest appeal is in the presentation. The graphics are colorful and use the cell-shading technique that makes the game feel like a playable cartoon. Cut-scenes employ the panel-by-panel style of a comic book, but they are spiced up by the fact that the animated characters can jump right out of the panel. Only the numerous Nokia cellular phone advertisements spread around the game environment shatter the illusion.
Within this comic world, the action and attitude are appropriately pulpy. The supermen are hyper-muscled and the superwomen compete with their impossible curves. The action and violence is cartoonish and persistent, with some gunplay and a whole lot of fantastic fisticuffs. The game also successfully replicates the wry and corny humor of the more self-aware superhero comics. A lot of the jokes are groaners, but it is hard not to smile the first time a person on the street marvels at Spider-Man and exclaims, "You are so much better than Daredevil."
Unfortunately, the game falters when it comes to depth of gameplay. The story missions feel a little disjointed set among the free-roaming action that dominates the game. And it is a bit of a surprise when, suddenly, the credits begin to roll, capping a story clearly primed for a sequel. Most gamers will be able to finish the story mode in five or six hours. There is some replay value in the numerous city missions and in finding tokens hidden around the city, but this grows old quickly. There are a variety of unlockables (costumes, artwork) to provide some incentive to continue playing, but once the sugar-rush of the first few hours wears off, players find themselves wishing for a little more depth from their excitable teen hero.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentSome sexy female superheroes. |
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ViolenceAll the violence is presented in a cartoonish style, but there is plenty of fighting and shooting, including one point-blank shot through a character's mouth. |
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LanguageThe teen hero uses the language of his age group, words like "hell" and "sucks." |
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Social BehaviorPlayers play as both Spider-Man an as the villian Venom. |
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CommercialismNokia ads dot the game environment. The game is part of the Spider-Man franchise. |
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