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Spider-Man: The Movie (Xbox)

Manufacturer: Activision Part number: 80329

$12.69 - $14.99 at 3 online stores

CNET Editor rating:
3.5 stars Very good
Average user rating: 4.5 stars out of 1 review

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Description:: Bitten by a genetically altered spider, high school student Peter Parker is suddenly empowered with supernatural abilities, including Spider Sense, web-slinging and wall crawling. Take the role of Parker as he adapts to his new powers and becomes Spider-Man. But beware - the city's villains won't be pleased to see a new hero on the scene.

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Gamespot editors' review

Spider-Man: The Movie (Xbox)

price range: $12.69 - $14.99

Reviewed by: Giancarlo Varanini
Reviewed on: 04/18/2002
Released on: 04/15/2002

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With the success of the earlier Activision Spider-Man games for the Dreamcast and the PlayStation, it makes perfect sense that the core gameplay of Spider-Man: The Movie for the Xbox is similar--but that its graphics really show off what the Xbox can do. As a result, the environments are much larger, and there's significantly more detail throughout the game. But in the transition to a new platform, Spider-Man: The Movie has inherited some of the problems that plagued Activision's previous Spider-Man games, particularly the shoddy camera system. While that may be a necessary evil in attempting to capture the movements of Marvel Comics' famous webslinger in a game, other issues--like the game's questionable enemy AI--could have been avoided. Still, Spider-Man: The Movie executes the core elements of the Spider-Man experience well and, in particular, features some great outdoor levels. Most players will have fun swinging in between (and mysteriously high up above) massive skyscrapers or lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting villain. The excellent graphics will also help most Spider-Man fans look past most of the game's flaws.

If you've played any of the other Activision Spider-Man games, then you'll be able to jump right into Spider-Man: The Movie--the default control scheme is essentially identical to the one found in those games. Likewise, newcomers will find that the default controls are relatively simple, with each of Spider-Man's main abilities--including hand-to-hand combat, webslinging, and web zip lines--mapped to individual buttons on the Xbox controller. The default control scheme has some problems, though. When you want to perform a web pull or shoot a ball of webbing at an enemy, you have to press a button, as well as a corresponding direction, on the analog stick. It's easy to mess this up--if you don't time the combination precisely, Spider-Man will merely take a step in the direction you've indicated, rather than perform the move. This can have deadly consequences, especially during a boss battle.

Fortunately, the development team at Treyarch has tried to address this by incorporating an "enhanced" control scheme, through which web attacks--such as the web pull, the web ball, and the web dome--are executed by pressing a web-modifier button and then a corresponding action button. This system actually works quite well, and you won't run into any of the movement problems associated with the default control scheme.

But inevitably, you'll encounter serious control problems that have nothing to do with the layout or how responsive Spider-Man is to your commands. Many of your frustrations with Spider-Man: The Movie will be directly linked to the game's camera, which seems to take on a life of its own. The camera doesn't have a default position where it stays directly locked on Spider-Man's back, so, for example, even when you're simply running down a hallway or across the rooftops, you'll find yourself perpetually having to adjust the camera and Spider-Man's direction. This problem is significantly magnified when you use the lock-on option. There are numerous moments in which you'll be heading in one direction and then all of a sudden switching to another so that the camera can compensate to keep both Spider-Man and the enemy onscreen at once.

The perspective works at least reasonably well in the outdoor areas and during missions that require stealth, which occur quite frequently near the end of the game. However, the stealth element isn't done nearly as well as in games like Metal Gear Solid or Tenchu, and more often than not, you'll find that taking the time to be stealthy just isn't worth the effort. Spider-Man can essentially hide himself in the shadows, but some shadows offer more cover than others do because you won't be fully hidden--unless the icon in the upper right-hand corner of the screen is completely shadowed. The stealth system is not only inconsistent, but also just doesn't make sense at times--clinging to a certain spot on a wall that's completely visible will shade the icon, while lurking in a shadow in a corner of the ceiling will not. If anything, this makes the game more time-consuming and challenging; however, there's no denying that Spider-Man's stealth sequences can be pretty awkward.

Thankfully, there are other types of gameplay that are much more fun. Most, if not all, of these occur in the outdoor levels, which unfortunately are less frequent (and shorter) than the indoor levels. As such, there will be times when you'll wish the game wasn't based on the movie so that it could include more of these outdoor levels with their straightforward but fun action. On the other hand, the indoor levels fall victim to boring conventions--like those requiring you to find items and then backtrack through a level to use them--that at best sometimes give the illusion that the gameplay is deeper and more involved than it really is. It's unfortunate, because Spider-Man: The Movie probably would have been much more enjoyable without these indoor levels.

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Average user rating: 4.5 stars out of 1 review
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9 stars

One of the best Spidey games out there.

by Darkpower727 on February 27, 2008

Pros: Awesome Graphics, Great gameplay, good music and voice acting.

Cons: Crap camera, short game and music could improve.

Summary: Spider-man the movie for the Xbox

Spider-man the movie for the Xbox is properly described as one of the top ten best superhero games of the century. The reason behind

...

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Summary: Spider-man the movie for the Xbox

Spider-man the movie for the Xbox is properly described as one of the top ten best superhero games of the century. The reason behind this is a story based on a blockbuster movie, excellent gameplay, outstanding graphics (for a 2002 game anyway), and good voice acting from Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe.

The gameplay is a spider-fan's dream. It?s actually like being the webslinger himself; you can do webswinging, acrobatic leaps, and awesome combat moves that contribute to a very unique experience. For the combat to start off your only left with a few attacks so you won't have the most coolest and powerful attacks such as Scissor Kick, Dive Bomb, Sting, Palm or High Stomp and in order for you to use these special attacks you have to go and look for gold Spider icons. There are a total of 30 different combinations and you have a variety of stylish or powerful attacks. This is really good 'coz it extends the game a bit. When you execute each of these stylish and powerful combat attacks they really emphasise Spider-man's character, he has superstrength, superspeed, superagility and the ability to spin organic spider webs; and the combat incorporates all those traits. Some attacks are much more powerful than others, but some are faster and they can save from heavy damage. What really impressed me about the game was the ability to jump on bad guys back even on the aerial villains'.
In the indoor levels you can basically do the ground combo attacks that I mentioned above which l thought the animations for them look spectacular, do aerial acrobatic attacks, stealth mode, lift up cars and throw them which are very good features and make the indoor levels great, but the outdoor levels are really the ones that take the cake. You can swing around from place to place, do aerial acrobatics and aerial acrobatic attacks and several other cool things. But even with these spectacular feats the gameplay would've truly made you feel as if you were Spider-man if the web didn't stick to the sky and swinging through New York traffic was allowed and if the camera system was much more improved. Heck, I just wanted to throw the damn controller right at the screen 'coz it was so "£%^$*(! frustrating! But overall the gameplay rocks!
P.S. You can play as goblin when you finish the game on hard and in the Xbox version you fight Kraven the Hunter as an extra villain.

Since I've finished talking about the gameplay, now I'm gonna talk about the graphics. Oh my God are they awesome! On graphics the Xbox truly shows off its superior texture and lighting affects. The environments are crisp and clean and every other character model is given a fare amount of detail but the best character model is Spider-man. The environments, the color and printing of his suit truly stands out and the reflective effects on his eyes are very realistic. My only complaints are the Green Goblin because he looks so @$%£") crap. There is absolutely no good damn detail on his $%**(^' costume, maybe they were spending more time on Spidey so they couldn't give a damn about him. Okay, okay I'm exaggerating, but not by much. The only good details in goblin are his helmet and his glider, other than that he is looking! £$%&^) crap! All in all the Xbox is the most superior in terms of graphics and this should be your most favourable pick.
But even though goblin totally sucked and there were web swinging issues and camera issues, I'm thoroughly pleased with this truly awesome game and people should experience this thrill. Like I said if the camera system was improved the game would've been nearly flawless in terms of the graphics. The cut-scenes were spectacular! The Great Graphics and beautiful gameplay truly make it a worthwhile experience. Regretfully it is a short game, but fun bosses and plenty of secrets to find and unlock various goodies; it makes up for its shortness.

For sound the action music is good but could use some more rock elements to spice things up. Spider-man is pretty funny and keeps you entertained because of the wise-cracks and witty one-liners he make but only from 72% of Tobey Maguire's acting is exceptional and 28% of it is boring and simply crap, but the dude who plays Vulture is spectacular, Shocker sound great and Scorpion sounds okay, they all make up for Maguire.

Overall it's a beautiful looking game, with crisp and clean environments, great character models, a nearly perfect looking Spidey and awesome gameplay, it's simply just an exhilarating thrill and everybody should give it a try, or better yet...BUY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Specifications

Manufacturer: Activision
Part number: 80329
Description: Bitten by a genetically altered spider, high school student Peter Parker is suddenly empowered with supernatural abilities, including Spider Sense, web-slinging and wall crawling. Take the role of Parker as he adapts to his new powers and becomes Spider-Man. But beware - the city's villains won't be pleased to see a new hero on the scene.

Product Basic Spec
Platform Xbox
ESRB rating Everyone - Violence
Genre Action
Elements Beat-'Em-Up
Context Science-fiction
Number of players 1 Player
Difficulty Hard
Learning curve About 1 hour
Sound Dolby Digital 5.1
Resolution 480p
Recommended
CDROM 0
DVDROM 0
Disk 0
Other Memory Unit, Arcade Stick
RAM 0
VRAM 0

Game
Developer Treyarch
ESRB Everyone
ESRB descriptors Violence
Max number of players 1
Release date 4/15/2002

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Spider-Man: The Movie (Xbox)

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