REVIEW - Daredevil | GBA | 2003

GENRE(S): Action / Beat 'em up
RELEASED: February 5, 2003
AVAILABLE ON: GBA
DEVELOPER(S): Griptonite Games
PUBLISHER(S): Encore

"The Man Without Fear", a.k.a. Matt Murdock, a.k.a. Daredevil, created by Stan Lee and Bill Everett, first appeared in the first issue of his namesake comic book series in the spring of 1964. Although he was treated as one of the most interesting and distinctive superheroes ever created - due to his blindness - and though he made many appearances in other Marvel franchises such as The Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man, Daredevil never really struck out on his own, and has been gone from the spotlight altogether for a long while now. The same goes for video games; although Daredevil has appeared in numerous games including just about every Marvel ensemble game (mostly candid cameos), the number of games which wear the Daredevil brand comes down to exactly ONE, and even that game is based on the only film thus far to wear the Daredevil brand. The film, starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner - who eventually became real-life husband and wife - premiered a week and some after the game's release, and despite a mixed reception from critics, it was a financial success considerable enough to spawn a spin-off starring Garner's Elektra. The soundtrack album was also quite successful and heavily boosted the career of the American rock band Evanescence. But how about the game? Not a notable beep from the critics or the audience; like the character of Daredevil himself, the game's been long forgotten. Unjustly so? I doubt it.

Blind fury

As a child, Matt Murdock was completely blinded while spying on his father Jack, who he found working as muscle for a local mob. Feeling responsible for his son's disability, Jack immediately attempted to get back to the straight and narrow, only to get himself killed by his former employers. Now, Matt runs an independent law firm in New York City with his best friend Foggy Nelson. What even the latter doesn't know, is that all these years Matt has developed severely heightened senses apart from his lost sight, and operates as a vigilante calling himself the Daredevil, targeting criminals who are considered to be above the law - including the man ultimately responsible for his father's death, Wilson Fisk.

All units, we've got domestic violence at the
docks.

Ah, Daredevil. This is the first and last time we meet Matt Murdock during this marathon in such a big role; I wish it'd be under happier circumstances. I first caught a glimpse of Daredevil in the 90's Spider-Man animated series, and he immediately became one of my favourite deuteragonists in that series, despite only appearing in two episodes. Since I hadn't yet realized how awesome Ben Affleck is as an actor (he's no Batman, though... just sayin') back in 2003, I skipped Daredevil in the theaters and decided to wait for the video release. I even watched that movie a few times, to write a review for a school project; even back then, if something sucked, it was fun to write about. Yeah, it did suck, in my opinion - the soundtrack was pretty good, though, and I still like Evanescence's first mainstream album as a casual listen. Affleck did his job pretty well from the dramatic angle, but pretty much everything else about that movie was a mess. Well, years later I saw Rex Smith as Daredevil in that one Hulk TV movie, and suddenly everything about Daredevil's namesake film felt like art... that's it for Daredevil in live action, unfortunately. I feel bad for the character. Turning to games, my theory is that they never came up with a good way to support the cause or incorporate Matt's disability into a game, and that's why as popular as he might've been at some time, he's been pushed back to a cameo in most of the games he's appeared in. Oh well, let's look at the bright side: at least there's not a crappy 8-bit LJN game named Daredevil out there. Even they didn't touch the issue. Even they cared enough. Or they just never thought of it. Who knows? It doesn't exist, and that's fine, so we shall leave it at that... or shall we? Daredevil on the Game Boy Advance is basically the same thing as a crappy 8-bit LJN game. Only a bit better.

This game was obviously cheap in every sense of the word. The music is even quite groovy at best, and at least each level has a different tune - but it looks like an NES game. An arcade version of Double Dragon at most, and it's not even that smooth or diverse in any part of design, physicality, or finally, gameplay. The level designs are straight out of any cheap action game made since 1987 or 1988 - streets, rooftops, docks, sewers, just as plain, straightforward and generic as they were in that one NES game you played way back when. There's nothing original here. There are a few movie stills to utterly spoil my mood, luckily they don't show up as cutscenes - a blonde Matt Murdock does, though. Sure, his hair is blonde or reddish in most comic book depictions, but this was supposed to be based on the movie... of which it has stills. It's a mess, just like the movie. That's the common factor. Well, Kingpin's still black - a fact which didn't make me too happy when I saw the movie, but it would've been ridiculous to have stills of Michael Clarke Duncan (R.I.P.) and then a fat white dude from the comics for the in-game character. Wouldn't have been surprised. (Returning to the choice of casting Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin, can you think of any XXXL white actor with actual physical prowess to go with that one giant ab? Neither can I. Hmm. Maybe they did have a point there after all.)

Now the sumbitch is in the green-tinted
sewers, beating up more women. Calling
all cars.

Daredevil is a very generic beat 'em up spliced with an equally generic platformer. Think of a poor man's Double Dragon (from the earliest end) spliced with just about any Marvel platformer from any point of time. It's not totally horrible or unplayable, but it's hardly entertaining. Matt's disability is hardly a part of the game - there's this sonar which activates from time to time, but for the life of me, I haven't figured out a purpose for it besides maybe showing you the right path to follow, as if there were many choices to begin with. Below the health meter is some sort of an automatically charging power meter, which allows you to enter some sort of godmode if there's anything left on it; your pathetic melee attacks of random collision become a little less pathetic, and you won't take any damage as long as the mode's active. Along the way, there are some collectables which unlock more collectables (mostly more stills from the movie, blech) and bonus attires for your "next round"; how hopeful on the developers' end. The godmode can also be used to spot hidden collectables. You have nearly constant access to Daredevil's nightstick, which essentially stuns enemies so you can beat them down with your fists in peace, and a projectile version which is limited to only a couple of (useless) uses. The best way to get forward is just using your fists and hope that they connect.

If the game succeeds in hogging your interest long enough, it'll not be neither a difficult or a long trip. A GameFAQs user aggregate tells us the game's length is somewhere around seven and a half hours; I haven't the faintest where they get that from, it's way less than half of that and I'm amazed if just one person went out of their way to get all of those collectables. It's the only way to raise the length bar that high.

At least Daredevil isn't horrible, but for the first and last game of the franchise, it's quite a sad tale, considering how great the character himself is. If this game was done 10 to 15 years earlier, who knows, it might even be considered a cult game and one of the best Marvel games there ever was. In 2003, we had every right and reason to expect something a little more.

UPS
+ The music is quite OK, and at least it changes
+ Simple enough

DOWNS
- Generic enough; it plays out like an NES game
- Random collision detection; and what's up with the occasional hanging from thin air?
- Not very faithful to the character
- Movie stills; they get you down worse than you might think

< 5.9 >

REVIEW - X-Men - The Official Game | GBA | 2006

GENRE(S): Action
RELEASED: May 16, 2006
AVAILABLE ON: GBA
DEVELOPER(S): WayForward Technologies
PUBLISHER(S): Activision

X-Men - The OFFICIAL Game? Well, how about that? What's the definition of "official" here? Were the other gazillion X-Men games somewhat unauthorized? Is this game supposed to be the cream of the crop, worthy enough to be endowed with the word "official"? Let's cut the crap; X-Men - The Official Game was released as a tie-in video game to X-Men: The Last Stand, the final film in the original X-Men trilogy which has since been expanded to a prequel trilogy and a stand-alone Wolverine flick, both of 'em quality stuff if you ask me. (The Last Stand itself sucked horse balls. Just putting it out there.) What might explain the "official" part in the subtitle is that the game was the first X-Men game that actually had more to do with the films than the comic books... sorta. Instead of a direct adaptation of the film - which was yet to premiere - the game was a stand-alone story in the film series' continuity, written to bridge the gap between X2 and The Last Stand. What started as a quite interesting and lucrative idea turned into a poor excuse of a beat 'em up-oriented action game. Two completely different conversions of the same plot were released for both of Nintendo's handhelds. Let's start with the Game Boy Advance version - if we must.

Colossal headache

Wolverine, Colossus, Iceman and Nightcrawler return to Alkali Lake after the tragic events that took Jean Grey's life and put Cyclops out of commission, to retrieve spare parts for Professor X's sabotaged Cerebro. They're greeted by a few old acquaintances as well as a couple of new adversaries.

Falling down towards the end of this
marathon of crap! Whee!

After finishing the review for X-Men: Wolverine's Rage, I said there were four reviews left, but make that five. I was completely certain Activision would've taken the easy way out with the handheld games and release two practically identical games for the Advance and the DS. Hell, I was fully prepared for the DS version to have some sort of splash image on the second screen (as if to say "hey, aren't we technologically adept?"), but play out and look exactly the same as the Game Boy Advance version. Well, it turns out they're "completely" different games, with "completely" different features. We'll see when we get to the next review, but if this Game Boy Advance title is any indication of what's coming, the future is not looking good. Three years after a quite decent showing in X2: Wolverine's Revenge, the X-Men franchise takes several steps back with a typical, sticky action-platformer that simply is not fun to play. How ironic that the game was developed by a company calling themselves "WayForward" when the game's the exact opposite - and you know what the company had on their backlog those days, way before they hit it big by getting associated with Silent Hill and DuckTales? Barbie games, games based on the animated version of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and one of my everlasting 16-bit "favourites", Mickey's Ultimate Challenge, plus several other crappy licensed games for kids, expiration date slated for whenever they learned to talk. Neato. And here we have an X-Men game. Feeling confident yet?

The game doesn't look that bad; it's just quick, generic work in general. It's hard to tell the playable characters apart. The cutscenes look quite all right, and personally I'm fine with the comic book caricatures of the film characters rather than badly digitized mug shots you see in so many licensed games of the era, not to mention those revolting movie stills. I last played the game five minutes ago, and I can honestly say I can't remember the music at all, it's of that variety of stock.

Wolverine's the cover boy and stars as the lead character, as well as the character you inevitably start the game with - as well as the only truly useful character in the bunch due to his range and speed. How surprising... the other playable characters are Iceman and Nightcrawler, and exclusively in this version of the game, Colossus. Characters that haven't been featured in these games for a long time, that's cool. It's funny that the exclusive character is the second most valuable character, but only due to his ability to smash certain obstacles and objects that stand in the way of actual progress. He's strong as hell, of course, but he has pathetic range. You practically have to stand an inch away from an enemy to deal damage as Colossus, and that way you'll take damage yourself, all the time. Like in that Madness in Murderworld game ages past, you can switch characters at any time the storyline allows you to, but once a character's K.O.'d, he remains that way. This time, though, there are unlimited continues, generous checkpoints, and whenever you need Colossus, it's usually in a point where it's virtually impossible to lose.

Everybody: "It's a Juggernaut!"

The game is an extremely typical, easy platformer in which making progress reminds me of that X-Men: Wolverine's Rage game on the Game Boy Color, in the sense that your only goal is to make it through the levels. It doesn't matter how much ass you kick, nothing matters except getting to the exit. You can just run through the levels if you feel like it, 'cause there are no power-ups, no collectibles, nothing to even the odds. The control scheme is, should I say, unbelievably generic considering the day and age - you have five different standard attacks, triggered by a direction on the digital pad (or none), a (shitty) special attack which is triggered with A + B, plus a Rage meter, filling which automatically puts you into an exceptionally ugly and generic Rage-mo, which doesn't even allow you to do that much more damage than per usual.

As the cherry on top, the game brings back the two age-old problems of the vintage Marvel Comics action game; hasty level design with two developmental stages, those being copy and paste, and horrible controls. Sure, the guys do what you tell them to do; it's just that they do it fractions of seconds later. It took me half an hour to get past Juggernaut - the second boss - due to the bad controls and those only. There are no right reasons for this game's occasional difficulty.

On to the DS version of the game. I already snuck a peek of the aggregates up at GameRankings, and it turns out the DS version was beaten up even worse than the Game Boy Advance version. Well, ain't that promising. Luckily I have to go to work a long-ass, aggravating shift now.

UPS
+ Good looking cutscenes
+ Good story and cast of playable characters...

DOWNS
- ...Only one of practical use, though
- Generic gameplay
- Generic level design
- Delayed controls

< 5.0 >

REVIEW - X2: Wolverine's Revenge | GBA | 2003

GENRE(S): Action
RELEASED: April 15, 2003
AVAILABLE ON: GBA
DEVELOPER(S): Vicarious Visions
PUBLISHER(S): Activision

A few weeks before the world premiere of X2, an accompanying video game was released on the three major consoles of the era, as well as the PC and Mac, entitled X2: Wolverine's Revenge. Once again, while this game seemed like official film merchandise with the X2 brand on it, and even Hugh Jackman on the cover, it was yet another comic book license that storywise had more to do with X-Men Origins: Wolverine - which was still six years away! - than the X2 film. The characters were modelled after their comic book counterparts, and Hugh Jackman didn't even lend his voice to his signature character, instead it was Mark Hamill who starred in the game. So, it's just another X-Men game, leeching the film makers' bankrolls. It was received fairly good, though. Oh, but to be completely precise, that's not the game on the plate here... what we have here is the Game Boy Advance game of the same name, released a day after the big boy. Which, against all expectations, got the best reviews. Shocked as I am to find it true, X2: Wolverine's Revenge is quite entertaining.

*Snikt!*

Outta the way, bub!

In 1968, a mutant calling himself Logan was used as a guinea pig for a secret government experiment conducted at an isolated location in Canada, codenamed Weapon X. He manages to escape the Weapon X facility, but won't leave before confronting the scientist in charge, who tells Logan that all Weapon X subjects are injected with a deadly virus that works as a failsafe, and kills a human subject within a year - its effects on a mutant are yet unknown. Over 30 years later, Logan has joined the X-Men and goes by the name of Wolverine. Beast examines his blood and tells him that the virus has bypassed his healing factor and will kill Logan within two days. Wolverine travels back to Edmonton to infiltrate the Weapon X facility, look for the one and only cure for his condition as well as clues to his vague past.

The X-Men game I'm most familiar with through time is, without question, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, released in 2009 on the tail of the movie (but which once again is only loosely based on it). Minutes into X2: Wolverine's Revenge on the Game Boy Advance, I could almost swear this was a portable conversion of THAT game. The plot is so similar, the level design is so similar - although progress is made in a mashed up order - and in this unrefined "version" of the game, you can't really tell whether they used the comic book version of Wolverine or Hugh Jackman's film version as reference for character design. Except for the splash screens and cutscenes which show the truth. Maybe being so familiar for the most part put off a good vibe right from the start, I don't know, but the truth is all the same; basically the worst thing about this game is its name. Despite some really frustrating moments from the very beginning, X2 is good, reasonably advanced handheld entertainment. Finally!

That's not Hugh Jackman.

The game looks good - no, let me rephrase that: it looks VERY good. Long before the introduction of the Nintendo DS, the camera zooms in and out smoothly depending on the situation, perhaps roughing up the pixels a bit, but fucking nothing explicitly up for the player. Character animation works, it's only the enemy design which could've used some more work, as well as the unintentional slowdown occurring whenever the camera zooms in the same time as Wolverine's in Rage mode. The music is quite good, obvious stock for any GBA action game from Shin'en Multimedia, but it works nonetheless.

Basically, the game plays out like any Wolverine game you might imagine, but good solutions to age-old problems reveal themselves right off the bat. Let's see now: I always had a beef with Wolverine's claws being confined to limited use. Well, in this game the use of the claws is basically unlimited, but if you go on a crazy Edward Scissorhands killing spree, Wolverine very quickly goes into his unstoppable Rage mode, and after he's done acting like a maniac, he cools off for a couple of seconds which leaves him completely prone to enemy attacks. Climbing walls is impossible while in Rage, and for the duration of the cool-off period, and as the entirety of the third level so irritatingly proves, climbing walls is very essential in this game, one of its most frustrating elements in fact. I'll return to it in a bit. Sheathing the claws enables Wolverine to sneak up on stationary enemies and knock 'em out with a single blow to the neck (Canadian death grip?) in a bit o' poor man's stealth action, and it also activates his healing factor - which brings into question, how closely are the plotlines between this game and the game on the big boys related? Not very. This here's a much simpler plot, which is even closer to the Origins game.

Wolverine vs. The Joker in Taco's Revenge!

The level design is fun for a change, (cue "although") ALTHOUGH the levels could be just a tiny bit shorter and we would still have a game of reasonable length at our hands. Permanent power-ups, such as dash and slide, are hidden across the levels; of course, you need these power-ups to be able to proceed, I don't really get why most of them are hidden like rare collectibles, behind frustratingly hard stretches of wankery usually related to the wall climb. Time to reveal the evils.

I said that the game had flaws from the beginning, so let's start from the beginning. There are these bridges in the first level that collapse immediately when you step on them, which means you need to dash over 'em. Now there's no problem in getting the dash power-up, it's right there in plain sight and Professor X even guides you to it if you're still having problems seeing it (which means you're blind, so sorry man, I guess your gaming days are over), but a huge problem occurs whenever you're beating down an enemy soldier in the vicinity. He might dive straight through the bridge and leave a permanent gap on it, which makes it impossible for you to cross it without risking a life. A similar splinter pops out in the next level where you're chasing Sabretooth. He makes gaps on the bridges as part of the scripted challenge, but you're in a huge hurry throughout this luckily short level. Just one second of hesitation is enough to lose track of that hairy bastard and cost you a life.

Now it's starting to look like the most recent
Wolverine flick.

Well, then the wall climb comes along and all sorts of trouble will hit you like a ton of bricks. Drones come from above without warning, hitting you on the head while you're on a wall - there's nothing you can do about 'em, and there's also nothing you can do about Wolverine letting go of the wall and falling straight down, in the worst case on a mat of spikes and dropping dead. Climbing up a straight wall is not difficult, but jumping to an adjacent one is much harder. Double that if there's an enemy on the top of that adjacent wall. One bullet is once again all it takes to send you all the way down to the start of that already frustrating vertical chute; it's like the game was designed not to have "checkpoints" along the way of those, or "checkblocks" which you could fall onto, not having to start the whole thing over. What's most annoying about the wall climb is, non-surprisingly, the fact that you cannot climb without your claws. One of the boss fights at a surprisingly early stage practically requires you to punch the hell out of your opponent with your claws - which means you'll go into Rage, and once Rage ends, there's the cool-off period - and climb both sides of the field, in rapid succession. ...Well, at least there's some strategy involved. Not what I thought after the first couple of boss fights.

Overall, even with that annoying wall-climbing madness convincing me otherwise, plus a few miscellaneous, accursed flaws, X2: Wolverine's Revenge is honestly one of the most entertaining and even innovative games I've played during the whole Marvel marathon thus far, and will very likely turn out the best X-Men game out of 'em all, as surprising as it is.

UPS
+ Wolverine's exceptionally fun to play as for a change
+ Good story, though simplified from the one of the console version
+ Good graphics
+ Notably better level design than in most licensed handhelds (and Marvel games in general)

DOWNS
- The wall-climbing ability - and its importance
- Level-specific frustrations throughout the game
- The title; it's just an X-Men game, pure and simple

< 8.1 >

REVIEW - X-Men: Reign of Apocalypse | GBA | 2001

GENRE(S): Fighting
RELEASED: September 26, 2001
AVAILABLE ON: GBA
DEVELOPER(S): Digital Eclipse Software
PUBLISHER(S): Activision

Just four months after the release of the last X-Men game for the Game Boy Color, Digital Eclipse Software tried their X-hand once more with a Game Boy Advance release by the name of X-Men: Reign of Apocalypse. Here we have something that sounds exactly like a vintage side-scrolling beat 'em up sure to get Marvel fans on the move, as well as people who were ever into such games as Final Fight, TMNT and Batman Returns - not to forget earlier X-Men games of the type. Turns out it plays much like that as well... just not as good. Stiff controls and lack of kind warnings ruin the day - almost.

Dimensional rift

Get out of my house.

Returning from a trip in the Mojoverse, Wolverine, Rogue, Cyclops and Storm find themselves in an alternate dimension ruled by Apocalypse. They must make their way through the shattered remains of this world, including the ruins of their very home, to make it back to their real home.

So, X-Men shift to the 32-bit era of handheld consoles, and not much changes. In fact, the gameplay goes back to the most successful era of the X-Men branch, a side-scrolling beat 'em up (and nothing else) in vein of X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse - kind of hard NOT to imagine the game as some sort of a spiritual sequel to that moderate success story by Capcom, with Apocalypse for the head honcho and the very concept of the Game Boy Advance, to bring 16-bit classics to a handheld's screen. However, Reign of Apocalypse is even more of a traditional side-scrolling beat 'em up than Mutant Apocalypse, with most of the genre's vintage gameplay standards intact, with the exception of a few things that mattered back in the day.

X-Men: Reign of Apocalypse looks good, and even if the game was not made by Capcom, you'd expect some good music to go with all the beatdowns just for the sake of competitive effort, but the soundtrack is decent at most. That's the first spike to the gut.

Marvel Comics presents: David Lee Roth.

I chose Cyclops for the exemplary character this time around; I've used Wolverine as the primary character in every game thus far and we're nearing the end of the marathon, so I think it's only fair, and changing the character brings some diversity to the plot at hand. I started off with an open mind like I always do when I switch to another system, but sadly, the one major issue which has bothered me in nearly every game thus far along the marathon - the whole Marvel marathon - emerges the second you start this game: bad controls. Cyclops moves like a freakin' Sentinel, and generally speaking, I think it was a bad idea to assign jumping to R, while they could've moved that to the directional buttons and used R for something more productive and standard such as blocking. Another huge problem emerges with the enemy A.I.. The enemies have a tendency to stay outside of the screen just as long as you make your move towards them, towards the end of the screen, where they have the perfect window for a cheap shot. It turns out a huge problem once the enemies get tougher, and that doesn't take longer than two levels.

Once again, a short review. Make your own quick judgement, and if the outline sounds bearable enough, go ahead and try the game; this is one of those X-Men games that might even be worth it, thanks to its simple and vintage idea, the small details of which pay even more homage to vintage beat 'em up than Mutant Apocalypse ever did. One of the better X-Men games around, though that's not saying much.

UPS
+ Good story
+ Good graphics, just what was expected
+ Like I said in defense of Mutant Apocalypse, sometimes the simplest ideas work best

DOWNS
- Controls. Again. And the control design.
- You're prone to cheap shots all the time

< 7.0 >

REVIEW - The Invincible Iron Man | GBA | 2002

GENRE(S): Action
RELEASED: December 10, 2002
AVAILABLE ON: GBA
DEVELOPER(S): Torus Games
PUBLISHER(S): Activision

By 2002, Activision had done quite good with Marvel's big names and even better stuff was on its way out of this lucrative business deal. In the end of the year, Activision was commissioned to re-introduce Iron Man to the video game circuit with a moderately cheap Game Boy Advance-exclusive probably meant to be not much more than a "test" of sorts - The Invincible Iron Man. It certainly doesn't feel like much more than a quick test, but well, at least it's better than the last game with Stark for the lead.

Scrappy's return

An alarm sounds through Stark Enterprises and Tony gets ready to don the Iron Man armour to save the day, only to find that it's been stolen. He fetches one of his extra armour sets and blasts after the thieves before they can use the armour to their advantage.

This is going to be quite brief otherwise, so I might as well tell you a little story - when's the last time I DIDN'T do that, exactly...? As I pointed out in one of the Spider-Man reviews, it was part my friend's suggestion that I did a Marvel marathon, and the thought lingered on for quite some time. The thing that finally drove me over the edge was my second viewing of the first Iron Man movie. You see, when you think of Marvel games, you immediately think of the endless swarms of Spider-Man or X-Men games, or Marvel vs. Capcom. You never think how big Marvel actually is, until movies like Blade and Iron Man, and the upcoming Deadpool slap you across the face (I'm not too sure if I want to see that last one, though). There's Daredevil, Hulk, Thor, Avengers, all that, even The Punisher and Men in Black, and if you dig deep enough, you'll find games related to each.

Guess where we're at? Starts with "D". That's
right.

Most of the aforementioned curiosities are so rare and forgotten that you won't know anything about 'em 'til you've tried 'em. That's what made this marathon such an exciting idea. Sure, most of the games thus far have been shit, but sometimes, positive surprises emerge. The Invincible Iron Man is not one of them - it's not too positive, and it's definitely not surprising. But, yet again, at least it's mildly entertaining, which makes it lightyears better than Iron Man's previous namesake.

What we have here is a very generic action platformer with obviously cheap production values in comparison to other Marvel-related franchises Activision was working on at the time. Weak music and sound effects, one-dimensional graphics, poor level design - pick the most generic and shortest Spider-Man game out of all the handheld games released in the last 13 years and downgrade it a bunch to get this one. Mild entertainment is offered in the form of decent controls; the action might not be what you expect of an Iron Man game, but it's almost what you'd expect from any Game Boy Advance action game you paid for.

There's really not more to say besides that The Invincible Iron Man was a save over the completely rotten Iron Man / X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal, but it pretty much goes to prove that no matter how awesome Tony Stark is, he was never cut out to make it in the video game circuit.

UPS
+ Decent controls and decent, yet completely unoriginal and anti-climactic platformer action

DOWNS
- Poor level design
- One-dimensional graphics
- Horrible sound

< 5.9 >

REVIEW - Ultimate Spider-Man | GBA | 2005

GENRE(S): Action / Platform
RELEASED: September 19, 2005
AVAILABLE ON: GBA
DEVELOPER(S): Vicarious Visions
PUBLISHER(S): Activision

Reboot's been the word for years, and I don't believe anyone even remembers when and where the trend began. It's most risky to reboot a comic book franchise that's been around for decades - there's always a group of nerds that won't appreciate any new direction or a rewritten storyline. Marvel Comics set up the Ultimate Marvel universe in 2000 with the first publications of Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men. Although the Ultimate series was a reimagining of the whole Marvel universe, it was never intended to take its place, and perhaps thus, these Ultimate "sidestories" turned out pretty popular... but there still was this group of stubborn nerds that wouldn't accept it, and I've got to admit that if I was a comic book fan at the time, I probably would've stood with them - I'm just that kind of traditional, old-fashioned geezer. In September 2005, a major video game based on Ultimate Spider-Man was released, and as per usual, it was accompanied by a stripped counterpart for both of Nintendo's handhelds. I guess it's time for me to accept Ultimate Spider-Man - as well as the fact that this game is not even near the console version, instead it's just another short, simple, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man game for the Advance. Nothing more, nothing less.

Every Spider-Man game ever = Ultimate Spider-Man?

Why do I have such a familiar feeling in my
gut?

Peter Parker meets up with his childhood friend Eddie Brock; Peter and Eddie's fathers used to work together on a cure for cancer until they both died in a plane accident. As Spider-Man, Peter breaks into Trask Industries to steal the "cure" - a mysterious, formless black substance - only to get consumed by its dark, parasitic power. Peter manages to escape the parasite, but it finds a new host in the embittered Eddie, and transforms him into the monstrous Spider-Man clone Venom, controlling his mind and forcing him to murder. While Spider-Man is out catching bad guys, Eddie roams the streets trying to cope with his recently split personality.

So the bottom line is this: it's always cool to reboot a game franchise. It's risky, but very often worth it - and ALWAYS exciting. It's a bit riskier to reboot a movie franchise. The ghost of Hollywood's future tends to destroy the purity and thrill of an old movie; many superhero movies, ironically, have turned out the complete opposite. Spider-Man has been rebooted _twice_ in cinema during the last 15 years, and on both occasions, the result's been great - and on both occasions, Ultimate Spider-Man's been a very influential series, even moreso when it comes to The Amazing Spider-Man, it seems. Ultimate Spider-Man itself was a reboot - the riskiest of all, a comic book reboot - not appreciated by everyone, although it wasn't nearly as radical change in direction as, say, the animated series Batman Beyond was for the Batman franchise. It kinda had the same storyline as ever, just a few changes were made to make it feel a little more emotional and visceral than the typical, straightforward "friendly neighborhood Spider-Man vs. supervillain of the month" comic book that it had mostly been about up 'til that point. Like Eddie's introduction as Peter's childhood friend instead of a rival colleague, and the Green Goblin being a real Hulk-like monster instead of a crazy scientist in a suit. To many people, the final straw was Peter Parker's death in the final issue of the original Ultimate Spider-Man, at the hands of the Green Goblin, and Spider-Man's "resurrection" with the 13-year old Miles Morales inheriting the alter ego. If you ask me, there's a certain line to shock value and with this twist, Marvel took a huge leap over that line. But, I digress; that was well after this game's time, and Ultimate Spider-Man is a decent take on a Venom origin story, Ultimate style. A bit pointless, I guess, but a solid game I think you'll appreciate if you liked any of the previous Spider-Man games on the Game Boy(s), and are able to forget all that was left out of this version of the game license.

What can I say? I'm a sucker for this guy's
entrances...

There's really not much to say about the gameplay anymore, if you've read any of the reviews relating to Spider-Man games on the Game Boy Advance. The gameplay's almost identical to Spider-Man 3 which came out a few years later, just the level design's a bit more of a mess and gameplay as Venom is absolutely horrible. By default, Venom can't even swing, he's just a black blob essentially capable of doing two things: punching the shit out of people and feeding on them to regain health. He gains more abilities on the go, but those first few levels with Venom as the lead character come very close of ruining the experience in a point way too early. It's an origin story, yeah, but some things are just not necessary for video game adaptation - nor recommendable. Spider-Man plays out the same as always, although there are some minor upgrades to his abilities available as well. The graphics are decent enough - the character animation's superb and the cutscenes look quite all right, but the backgrounds are surprisingly and disappointingly scruffy and one-dimensional. The music's boring - this monotonic, fast techno/electronica sounds like the sped-up soundtrack of a puzzle game.

...I wish I'd enjoy playing as him as much as
I usually do.

The main point of criticism here is the Game Boy Advance stripdown from every other version of the game. Usually, these things are handled pretty nicely - although Advance games always get this sort of treatment, which is only natural, sacrifices on this scale are not usually made. First of all, the thing that unites each and every version of the game is that it doesn't really have a point, or a solid plot. It's just like two standard stories of the month in one, without a real ending or a real cliffhanger, at that; the Game Boy Advance is the worst in this context, it feels outright pointless. Secondly, and most of all, the "real" game features a whole cavalcade of friends, foes and everyone in between as bosses, including: Wolverine, Human Torch, Rhino, Electro, Beetle, Green Goblin, and last but not least, Carnage. Well, Carnage is in this version too, but the only real boss besides him is Silver Sable. Shocker's talked about a lot, but you never really fight the guy. It's like Vicarious Visions made it all up on the go and just lost interest in the detailed values of the Advance game at some point, to be able to deliver with the DS version. I'd ask why they made it, then, but I think we all know the answer: because $pider-Man.

Well, despite all of its shortcomings, Ultimate Spider-Man is basically just as entertaining as the next Game Boy Advance game starring Spider-Man; absolutely no more, and not much less. It retains the most basic values of an entertaining 2D superhero side-scroller.

UPS
+ Good controls
+ Like I once said, Venom's always a plus...

DOWNS
- ...It's just too bad he (looks and) plays out like pudding in the beginning
- Not much to go on when it comes to a solid storyline
- One-dimensional graphics and irritating music
- Misses out on a lot more things than Game Boy Advance adaptations usually do
- Somewhat boring level design

< 7.4 >

REVIEW - Spider-Man 3 | GBA | 2007

GENRE(S): Action / Platform
RELEASED: May 2, 2007
AVAILABLE ON: GBA
DEVELOPER(S): Vicarious Visions
PUBLISHER(S): Activision

Sam Raimi's Spider-Man series was never supposed to be a trilogy - actually, a fourth and fifth movie were planned. It sure seemed like a trilogy, though, 'cause with Spider-Man 3, Raimi went all in. As critics and many fans would put it, all in was way too much. Raimi tried to fit everything that fans had asked for into a mere 139 minutes of film; the result was an "incoherent mess" and as great as the group of three of the best villains in the franchise was on paper, it turned out a forgettable bunch of cameos with bad casting choices. Well, on the date of the movie's U.S. premiere, the first video game adaptations of the movie emerged - one of them surprisingly on the Game Boy Advance, which was nearing the end of its cycle.

The alien sand goblin

Dude, this is not what bros do!

Peter Parker's up for the fight of his life, and it's very personal. Escaped prisoner Flint Marko - the man ultimately responsible for the death of Peter's uncle - falls into a particle accelerator and morphs into a seemingly undefeatable sand mutant calling himself Sandman. Peter's best friend Harry Osborn has learned of the alter egos of both his father and Peter, and goes on a spider-hunt under the guise of the new Green Goblin. Finally, Peter's struggling with an alien symbiote that is heavily damaging his psyche and changing his personality. When he finally separates from the symbiote, the parasitic being finds a new host in Peter's very willing, embittered rival named Eddie Brock.

The movie Spider-Man 3 was a very conflicted experience for me. It lived on the professionalism of the actors, not its ideas. Topher Grace - a.k.a. Eric Forman from That 70's Show, now and forever - was a terrible choice to play Eddie Brock, who's usually depicted gruffy and muscular in the comics. Yeah, sure, he gained some mass for the movie, but whenever he started whining about how Peter Parker ruined his life, I was expecting Kurtwood Smith to suddenly rear his head around some corner and scaring him off with a funny "foot-up-your-ass" joke. His Venom form was mostly CGI, and this time, it didn't look nearly as abysmal as in the first movie. Venom's my favourite villain in the Spider-Man franchise, as I've well pointed out, and even the thought of Grace doing the mo-cap didn't ruin the glorious five minutes he actually spent on the screen as Venom. He's a good actor, I'll give him that. As for the rest of the movie - yeah, it's a bit of a mess, but one thing it doesn't lack is action. Basically I could go on and on overanalyzing the movie without an actual point, and still end up with the conclusion that it was a better movie than most folks give it credit for. Besides, it's still one of the highest-grossing movies ever, so you can't keep calling it a total failure. How fares the game? The movie might've been a mess, but especially considering they must've buffed this game up with even more cameos, that original cavalcade of villains alone could make it work, right?

You know what they say: Once you
go black, you can never go back.

Besides missing a few very important plot points along the way - Sandman's redemption is ignored and Mary Jane isn't even mentioned - and replacing these dramatic twists in the story with stuff that doesn't really belong, but should please any Marvel freak - like the appearances of Mad Bomber, Electro and Kingpin - Spider-Man 3 is a surprisingly faithful handheld video game adaptation of the movie, and what's even more surprising, a good one. Its worst problem is its on/off level design. The gauntlet levels are simply merciless; if you're in one of these God damn mazes and your goal is to find a certain set of key items (no extras included), you might very well make it to the end of the level only to find that you've missed one or two, and there is absolutely no way to go back. It's trial and error, all the way, and it can get really, really frustrating to start from scratch over and over until you get your track straight as an arrow. There's even a glitch in at least one of the levels - even if you complete the objective, it fails to check out, and you're left running around dumbfounded until you realize that the only way to proceed is to restart the level all the way from the beginning and hope that the completed objective registers that time around. Yeah, its ridden with technical errors and the level design still reeks from time to time - I never thought it could turn out such a common problem with these games - but the graphics and sound are basically quite good, and what we have here is a neat game with perhaps the most fluid controls out of all of the games included in the marathon thus far.

I'll soak your ass, mudslinger.

Spider-Man 3 is comprised of 15 two-part levels, many of which come to a climax in a boss fight against a small all-star group of Marvel villains, starting with the Green Goblin - the new one - and ending with none other than Venom. Sandman's one persistent bugger who harrasses you throughout the game and you'll have to face off with him a total of three times in various ways, while the Green Goblin acts as the first boss and is dealt with within the first 10-15 minutes. Venom doesn't even appear before the final levels. In that sense, the game is just like the movie - only in the game, you don't have to bear Brock's constant whining. The boss fights are surprisingly diverse and clever, even if the game itself very often feels very stale. Even if the level design isn't perfect or if the advanced controls keep pissing you off in gauntlet environments, the game is very fast-paced and the amount of objectives per level is very reasonable (it grows by the difficulty level; I'm playing on Normal).

The most important addition to gameplay is obvious to anyone who's watched the movie: Peter's new suit, which makes its first appearance in the early goings of the game, and is removed before the final levels, shifting the advantage from Peter to the final boss of the game. The black suit is automatically activated by the filling of a Rage Meter, which fills each time you break background items or successfully attack enemies, and deactivated if you get hit, just once. The black suit enables stronger combos, powerful attacks that aren't part of Peter's standard repertoire, and the destruction of certain types of obstacles. Also, the developers took note that since the black suit activates automatically, it could be instantly deactivated by an incoming enemy attack - as a kind of a reward, gaining the symbiote power-up also fills up your health meter to the max. It's the small things that matter... though it's not that small of a thing, I assure you. You're going to get your ass kicked in this game, sooner or later, and you'll be thankful for the existence of that suit.

Here we go!

What else? Beating each boss, including Venom, yields some reward - usually it's one extra tick for your maximum health, but sometimes they're upgrades you really have no use for. You'll do just fine with what you're given from the beginning, plus the black suit. Since they're automatic and don't have a toll of EXP to pay like in Spider-Man 2, they're completely harmless though. Just like this game.

It's definitely not a masterpiece, but one of the most entertaining games I've played on the Advance in a long, long time, and to my complete surprise, one of the best games in the marathon thus far - I shit you not. Too bad it went so unnoticed, for this is one Spider-Man game for the Game Boy Advance I think you should know.

UPS
+ (Flawed but) fluid controls
+ Good graphics and sound
+ The black suit rocks
+ A good cast of villains for a movie game, and surprisingly clever boss fights
+ Fast pace...

DOWNS
- ...Which we're extremely thankful for, since the levels are sometimes very boring and repetitive...
- ...And the gauntlets simply merciless
- Useless upgrades
- Misses out on key points of the plot, mostly on the characters' motives
- A few fatal glitches

< 8.0 >

REVIEW - Spider-Man 2 | GBA | 2004

GENRE(S): Action / Platform
RELEASED: June 28, 2004
AVAILABLE ON: GBA
DEVELOPER(S): Digital Eclipse Software
PUBLISHER(S): Activision

The sequel to Sam Raimi's Spider-Man premiered on June 30th, 2004, and if possible, it was received even better than the first movie, and clearly laid out a path for a third one, obviously ending as the middle part of a trilogy. Once again, Activision had five to six groups of developers working on versions of the game for just about every major and handheld platform that existed at that time. The sixth-generation version of the game for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube was released a couple of days before the movie premiered and garnered in the most praise, and is considered a classic - a very influential game in the field of sandbox action and licensed superhero games. The handheld versions for the Nintendo DS and the PSP, which were released months later - the game was actually a launch title for the DS - also garnered in some attention, while a version for the Game Boy Advance was pretty much chewed up by critics, and then forgotten. It couldn't have been all that bad, now could it?

Day of the tentacle

The plot follows the movie more closely this
time around, but it's still a "bit" more complex.

The brilliant scientist Otto Octavius loses both his wife and precious nuclear research in a tragic lab accident, and is merged with his own creation of four cybernetic tentacles. He blames Spider-Man for the whole ordeal, although he was not involved, and takes to calling himself Dr. Octopus. Meanwhile, Peter Parker is persistently and unsuccessfully attempting to bury his alter ego.

From the get-go, Spider-Man 2 gave off a much better first impression than the first movie did. I took it much more seriously. It turned out a good movie, but as a usual supporter of the "middle part", I found it somewhat disappointing, even dull at certain points. As a whole, the movie's like a giant tease for an incredible third movie. It works the best when you watch the whole trilogy in succession - I know, I know, you hated the third one. I didn't really love it either, but it definitely had its moments. More about that later; in a nutshell, Spider-Man 2 was a good movie which deserved most of the praise it got. I dare to say, though, the video game got even more praise than the movie, especially since it once again took the long route - liberties with the plot were just the beginning of the sandbox classic. Personally, I'm yet to experience the game - it's been on my wishlist for years - all I have is this Game Boy Advance iteration which was pretty much destroyed by critics back in the day. I kinda understand why, but it's an OK way to pass time for the undemanding audience.

Killin' the spider, killin' it with fire.

The music is quite good, actually. The fast-paced electronica fits a Spider-Man game better than any other superhero game - here's to the composers of several Batman titles of yesteryear. However, the sound effects suck. Each one of Spider-Man's functions, whether he's swinging, clinging to a wall or taking damage is accompanied by a grunt of discomfort, like he's taking damage all the time. The in-game graphics are artificially smoother than before, but several other technical issues emerge right off the bat. The FMV cutscenes - once again swiped from trailers for the movie - look rancid. Most of the in-game cutscenes are stills, not from the movie but the console version of the game. Those look quite all right, considering. The 3D bonus levels look and play out even worse than they did in the first game, and these ones you have to play through to proceed.

There's no way to tell how rancid this really
looks. And feels.

The gameplay's exactly the same, with a few changes. Here's the good news: you gain EXP from managing objectives, and you can use that EXP after each level to buy ability upgrades. Also... wait, that's it, so here's the bulk of bad news: first off, the level design is disastrous at its worst. In the first level, you have seven and a half minutes to deliver pizzas around Manhattan. There's no fighting involved, so you'll safely assume that the game can't get any worse than this at this point. The level is huge, filled with layers, the dark side of the controls rears head a few times (let go of the ceiling, Spidey - let go!!!), and I myself am bothered by the terrible logic of some people standing on the rooftops waiting for their pizzas to arrive. Or Spidey breaking people's windows to get in and deliver those damn pizzas. I'm even more bothered by the practical side of the level's ill logic: your spider sense tells you where your boss is, which is the exact same spot each time, but you won't get any hints of your customers' whereabouts. It's a back and forth run between your boss and the customers - running, swinging, climbing (whatever) back to your boss takes a lot more time than you can afford, and it's frustratingly hard to get back on track with that damn time limit on your ass.

So here I am! Now tell me, where does our
tax money go?!

The gauntlet levels are the exact same as before, except the web rappel has been removed from Spidey's repertoire altogether - which is a good thing, it always did more harm than good. However, if not taking the utter technical failures of the 3D levels into account, the already lacking framerate sucks ass in these levels in particular, especially if you get too close to whatever's destroying the level around you.

The best thing about Spider-Man 2 is that it's most basically pretty much the same as the first game - in this case, that's indeed kind of a good thing. There's even the same assortment of secrets to find, and thankfully a few bosses to support Doc Ock's cause, once again a group of apt individuals who I guess were never considered to appear in the Raimi movies. The level design's dull and I would've expected at least some improvement for several core elements of the game, but yeah, it's entertaining enough.

UPS
+ Catchy music
+ The same as the first one...

DOWNS
- ...The level design sucks, though
- Climbing shit is frustrating
- The framerate drives one nuts, especially in the "special" kind of levels
- The 3D graphics and the FMV cutscenes look abysmal
- Ill logic

< 7.1 >

REVIEW - Spider-Man | GBA | 2002

GENRE(S): Action / Platform
RELEASED: April 16, 2002
AVAILABLE ON: GBA
DEVELOPER(S): Digital Eclipse Software
PUBLISHER(S): Activision

Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man movie premiered in the summer of 2002 and featured Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man, Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin and the gorgeous Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson. Not only did the movie become one of the greatest box office successes of all time, it was also named one of the best live-action superhero films of all time, alongside Richard Donner's Superman from 1978 and Tim Burton's Batman from 1989. Activision had been cooking up a game based on the movie for quite some time, and the game was actually released a month prior to the film's theatrical launch. The game was met with overwhelming response, considering it was a movie license (the Xbox version holds the highest average of the different versions on Game Rankings, at 78.17%). On the exact same date of this game's release, Activision also unleashed a little more comic book-like Game Boy Advance counterpart called Spider-Man, which was - a bit surprisingly - also received quite well.

Your friendly neighborhood bundle of pixels

That hostage a nun? Keep her!

After being bitten by a radioactive spider, nerdy high school student Peter Parker develops spider-like senses and abilities. After the death of his uncle in the hands of a mugger, Peter vows to use his great powers responsibly and becomes Spider-Man, the wall-crawling and web-slinging hero of New York City. Meanwhile, the brilliant scientist Norman Osborn - the father of Peter's best friend Harry - experiments with a performance-enhancing chemical designed for military use. The unstable formula works, but drives Norman completely insane, marking his transformation into a psychopathic killer who media dubs the Green Goblin.

X-Men came out in 2000, and despite what some critics were saying about the movie, I loved it - so did those critics once they got their thumbs out of their asses. Spider-Man came out in 2002, and it was met with unanimous praise. I went to the theatre all jacked up, and... initially hated the movie. Well, that's a heavy way to put it - I didn't really hate the movie, but I was distracted on the first viewing by an assortment of ugly spots. The heavy use of horrible CGI and the Green Goblin's still fucking ridiculous suit got all my attention. Kirsten Dunst's wet t-shirt too, but that was actually the key to get me to watch the movie again, and appreciate it as what is - a very good movie, one of the best superhero flicks there ever was. Still, especially after watching the sequels which had nothing as artificially ridiculous as the Goblin's get-up in them (except for the casting of Topher Grace as Venom), it might be the most conflicted movie of the trilogy. Great plot, great actors, spotty visuals. That's the first Spider-Man movie in a nutshell, if you ask me. Didn't know what to expect of the Game Boy Advance game - it looked so much like most 2D Spider-Man games I've ever played. I guess I was just hoping they somehow managed to scrape up all the best qualities.

Guess where this is? Yep, the docks!

Well, it is like most 2D Spider-Man games I've ever played. Only better. It doesn't really sound like anything, but that's better than sounding horrible. As far as the looks go... well, the in-game 2D graphics look quite decent, but the occasional dive into a 3D web-slinging setting and the few "cutscenes" look outright awful. At least there are no movie stills - as a matter of fact, not at all. The few "cutscenes" I mentioned are ripped off a teaser trailer, I believe. The main reasons for the total lack of force fed movie references are quite simple: first of all, I think they didn't want to spoil anything and secondly, the game really doesn't have that much to do with the movie. Although the very basic plot is the same - Peter becomes Spider-Man after Ben's death and Norman becomes the Green Goblin - it's very different. Norman's the one ordering other villains around from the start, as he's studying Spider-Man and his abilities, and developing his infamous "Goblin gas" further, somewhat based on his findings. These other villains are quite the small, but nasty bunch, composed of Shocker, Vulture and Scorpion - villains who I guess were not considered for the movies at that point, therefore free game for game developers. Norman's alter ego doesn't even show up before the end of the game.

This particular game called Spider-Man (the sixth one I've reviewed?) is one entertaining action game. Basics of gameplay are pretty much the same as in the few handheld games I've reviewed lately, but the game just plays out better, and the levels are designed very differently. Instead of straightforward runs, the levels in this game are either cubic mazes or gauntlets, each with a certain main objective to deal with. For example, in one level you need to find and break a certain amount of lethal gas containers to keep the gas from spreading - the level's quite small horizontally, but the freedom to swing in any direction reveals a quite large vertical base, which basically means these containers can be found anywhere in the level. After you're done with the objective, just mosey down to the end of the level and you're done with it altogether - no need to find an awkwardly-placed "Exit" sign like in many games. Sometimes you need to find extra items such as keys to be able to beat the level. There are a few secret items lying around, too, including photo opportunities which go on to unlock those movie stills luckily ousted from the in-game equation.

Crawlin' through the subway.

The gauntlets aren't that fun - although the controls are very tight in general, Spider-Man tends to get down on all fours, reluctant to get up no matter what you do (shades of the old DOS game which I reviewed first), and jumping down is much faster than crawling down, or rappelling down a web. The 3D bonus levels are of a simple, one-button scheme, but God damn painful to look at. Oh well, in a fit of positive thinking, one might say that these sorts of levels keep the game alive and create a diversion the earlier handheld games didn't have.

That's about it. I must say that Spider-Man is one of the better licensed games - especially games licensed off a movie - available for the Game Boy Advance, but I'll not boost it any further before trying out the rest. Yet, it's safe to say that thus far, it's the best handheld Spider-Man game there is. On to Spider-Man 2...

UPS
+ Not a very traditional movie license; great use of other source material
+ Objective-based levels instead of those endless runs against copy/paste backgrounds
+ Good controls...

DOWNS
- ...Climbing or crawling isn't always that fun, though, which is most evident in the gauntlet levels
- The boss fights are innovative, but consuming
- The audiovisuals are a bit disappointing

< 8.0 >

REVIEW - Spider-Man: Mysterio's Menace | GBA | 2001

GENRE(S): Action / Platform
RELEASED: September 20, 2001
AVAILABLE ON: GBA
DEVELOPER(S): Vicarious Visions
PUBLISHER(S): Activision

We're almost finished with Spider-Man's lead roles in Marvel video games - all that remains, for now, is a bunch of Spider-Man games for the Game Boy Advance. The first of them was Spider-Man: Mysterio's Menace, a stand-alone curiosity item forgotten by time - no wonder, since Spider-Man games just kept on coming back in the day, and handheld exclusives like this game were almost bound to fail, commercially. Well, it's my job to make you remember. Spider-Man: Mysterio's Menace - here we go.

The fishbowl's revenge

See? I told you!

Mysterio is attempting to take over Manhattan with the help of Rhino, Hammerhead and Big Wheel. Meanwhile, Spider-Man's torn between taking the villains down and getting a fishbowl for Mary Jane. Seriously - I'm not making this up.

I didn't know a thing about this game just a while ago. Whenever I start research on a title that has come out during the last few generations, I immediately head to Game Rankings to get a feel of how well the game has fared in gaming media. I was surprised to see Spider-Man: Mysterio's Menace rated pretty high with the average score of 80.38% calculated from 20 (!) reviews. It's actually the 7th best-rated Spider-Man game listed on Game Rankings, falling just behind the PlayStation 2 version of Spider-Man 2 (the movie-based game), which many critics consider a classic. High hopes, high hopes.

I'm blue!

Spider-Man: Mysterio's Menace could easily be called Spider-Man 3, 'cause it shares a lot of similarities with the two games released on Game Boy Color. I guess what happened here is that they ran out of good ideas for suitable villains (if this was the case, I could've helped...), and ditching the numeral justified the recycling of a Sinister Six member. It could've also been just an attempt at a whole new start for a new generation of handheld Spider-Man games. Well, it didn't come far enough from the previous games to have been a whole new start, but it's definitely the best out of the three games. It retains the stuff that made Spider-Man 2 rise high above its predecessor, and shines even brighter with a moderately fast pace and much more interesting level design.

Surprisingly, the audiovisuals are the worst part of the game. The music is quite horrible, in fact. While the game isn't outright ugly and should please a Spider-Man fan, it isn't much of a leap forward from the Game Boy Color titles, seriously. The capacity allows for level design that looks a little less like copy/paste and there's the occasional pseudo-3D environment to admire, but character animation, for example, really doesn't look that different from Spider-Man 2: The Sinister Six - just slightly smoothed out.

Another superhero game that Spider-Man: Mysterio's Menace reminds me of besides its predecessors is... Darkwing Duck on the NES. Before you start blasting me - YES, it's a superhero game for sure! And YES, I meant that as a compliment since it's one of the greatest NES games ever made. The initial layout of the game is quite similar, as there are three stages you can beat in any order. Beating the first stage unlocks a second stage to form a whole level, so there are six stages in all. Beat them all, and you go one-on-one with Mysterio in one final level.

Docks. Again.

The gameplay is very similar to that of Spider-Man 2: The Sinister Six. The Spider-gadgets are pretty much the same - easier to use since there are more buttons now - and Spidey's basic moves are exactly the same. Collision detection fails from time to time, but it's not as much of a problem as it was in the first game of this series. Spidey's movement speed is once again on the slippery side, but again, not the problem it once was. As an extra gimmick, Spidey can grab hold of different suits (including the Venom symbiote) which protect him from certain obstacles or give him different perks. That's kinda cool.

All in all, Spider-Man: Mysterio's Menace is a reasonably entertaining game. I wouldn't go calling it great or the most essential addition to your Marvel video game collection, but it's good - I can most definitely call it one of the better Spider-Man games from yesteryear, now that I'm this close to the end.

UPS
+ Kind of like Darkwing Duck meeting all the best qualities of Spider-Man 2: The Sinister Six - not bad
+ Fast pace, reasonably good level design
+ The suit power-ups are a clever addition

DOWNS
- The graphics have not evolved much
- The gameplay's still exactly the same and hickups are still present, from extra-sensitive movement to lacking collision detection

< 7.7 >