Handheld
(PSP) Spider-Man 2
By George Damidas
Jun 6, 2005, 10 :30 pm

Spider-Man has been one of the more fortunate superheroes when it comes to videogames. While the wall-crawler’s past was somewhat rocky, it is also one of the more encouraging in terms of comic characters being faithfully represented in games, thanks to the exceptional releases on the Genesis and Sega CD.  Treyarch’s later stab at the series, for the 32-bit systems and the Dreamcast, successfully used the power of the systems to bring Spidey’s acrobatic skills into 3D environments.  Then came the releases based on Spider-Man: The Movie for the latest round of consoles.  Aside from being based on the movie’s storyline, and looking quite fetching, it was the first release to give open areas in full 3D to swing around in, as opposed to the canned areas in the previous release; though these new areas were limited themselves, but tended to take place outdoors and give a greater appearance of freedom. 

Spider-Man 2 lopsided the series by taking web-slinging portion to its apex – we’ll ignore the anomalous PC version – with a focus on both the basics of slinging and advanced moves to do while in the motion, and also giving gamers an open area to freely explore.  Unfortunately, the lack of the rigid mission structure of Spider-Man: The Movie caused the design to become too lax, causing the title to focus too much on swinging and only giving players repetitive tasks and dull story events to participate in.  Spider-Man 2 on the PSP is a strange mixture of the past Spider-Man titles - one that has the feel of freedom with of the sequel, but also with the more focused overall design of its predecessors.  Despite the game being a hodgepodge of the two better parts of the last releases, the end result is surprisingly mediocre.

The best part of Spider-Man 2 was the sandbox-feel to it - a Grand Theft Auto-like openness that allowed players to swing around for hours, saving people, and picking up points to use in purchasing new abilities.  Towards the end of the game you could do some amazing moves that were accentuated by the ragdoll physics, creating a very effective combination that really got the adrenaline going. The PSP version, however, is no longer free-roaming.  Alas, the days of leisurely web-sling across New York, taking death-defying dives off skyscrapers and zipping past traffic, are no more.  The levels are now missions that are confined, similar to the earlier releases, to smaller areas, which means the really great part of Spider-Man 2 is now all but absent. Since the controls and animation are similar to the console version, Spider-Man himself really sells the web-slinging part, making it look and feel much more open than it actually is – a trick used in its predecessors.  This approach is serviceable, but for a game billed as Spider-Man 2, it really doesn’t come across as Spider-Man 2 - although PC gamers know that feeling already.

Instead of having a trigger kick in to let you know that it is time for the story to progress, Spider-Man 2 on the PSP simply goes from one mission to the next.  With cutscenes spliced in-between missions, the story unfolds through a series of levels shoestringed together.  So after Spider-Man saves Aunt May from some bank robbers, the level immediately ends and you are taken to a menu screen.  This new menu takes the place of the various locations that had to be visited in the console version. Now, instead of going to a store to purchase new moves, you simply press a shoulder button to skip to the purchasing menu and spend your points accordingly.  The whole ‘living city’ aspect of its predecessors is gone.

The missions themselves are decent, but nothing overly exciting. Spider-Man will stop robbers, battle famous villains (The Vulture, Doctor Octopus, etc.), and take part in dreaded chases.  The chases were easily the worst part of the game. Often Spider-Man finds himself in pursuit of a villain, and he having to stay within a certain range, indicated by a meter, so that they do not get too far away and escape.  During the pursuit, he will often have to overcome obstacles laid out by the villains. The problem with this is that the meter that is supposed to let you know how far you are from the villain is frequently wrong.  There will be moments when you are still in range, but then an animated sequence kicks in of the villain getting away because they were apparently too far ahead.  These are extremely frustrating because they can be somewhat long, and there is little else worse in gaming than having to completely replay a boring part of a level that was almost finished.

Some of the tasks Spider-Man has to do aren’t bad.  Many of the missions take advantage of his various abilities, like shooting web balls, slinging people up, and web zipping - escaping poisonous gas and fireballs is always more fun when webbing is involved. The stop-and-go approach does have the negative side effect of going against the fluidity that the console version and the movie presented so well.  Also, for a game based off a comic, there were just too few imaginative moments in the levels that required ingenuity or really felt Spider-Man-y – most of the situations could be handled by just a regular Joe with a strong jaw and a kevlar vest.  While the PSP release isn’t necessarily supposed to be like exactly like the console version, it isn’t too far out to think that someone who played it will be picking this up expecting a similar experience, and it is an experience they will not get.

For a handheld, the graphics are initially impressive, but they tend to be less smooth than they should’ve been.  Character models of the generic enemies tend to look rigid, and the color tones in many areas are drab.  The cutscenes, on the other hand, look very well when little flesh is involved, but it’s when a human is shown that things can get a little scary.  The likenesses to the actors seem to be off, but their voices aren’t, which creates a weird dichotomy. Similar to the production values, the controls also have a flaw in an overall decent package.  While most actions are handled fairly easily, I found that there was a lag with jumping - this could be due to the infamous button problems though.

Overall: 6/10

In an effort to condense the better parts of the past Spider-Man titles to accommodate the pick up-and-play style of handheld gaming, Vicarious Visions slipped up.  What should’ve been a great combination turned out to be one that is wanting.  While Spider-Man 2’s streamlined design does work towards gaming in shorter bouts, the experience itself just isn’t that is exciting.  Fans of the previous releases might enjoy its throwback style, but those who have had a taste of swinging around New York in spandex will have a hard time going back.