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Spider-Man 2 DS Review - DS

Spider-Man is a geek turned superhero who was fortunate enough to be bitten by a mutant spider which causes the infected to gain super-human spider strengths. Although these strengths are kind of weird, they're entertaining to watch. With terms like "Go web, go!", Peter Parker became reborn on the big screen. Then the sequel was released, as what usually happens when Hollywood hits a successful movie, and so the games also came along for a ride. Spider-Man 2 however is the first Spider-Man game on the Nintendo DS, and it is very different to the mainstream console version of the game. Read on to find out more.

We hyped up this game when writing our previews for the Nintendo DS possibly because we ourselves were excited about the release of the Nintendo DS itself that we perhaps overlooked the quality of this game. Spider-Man 2 DS is a game that could and should have spent an extra 3-6 months deep in the basement of Vicarious Visions. The words: unfinished, short, below par, and disappointing come to mind after spending a few hours playing around with Spider-Man 2 DS.

All up there are fourteen chapters to play from, ranging from saving people from a building on fire to fighting Doc Ock on top of a train. The game follows the movie closely, but you'll only get to play the later more entertaining levels if you can be bothered putting up with the badly created time-limit levels, and the really annoying control system. Not only do you get to face off against Doc Ock more than once, but you also meet other villainous bosses including Vulture and Mysterio.

"Badly created time-limit levels?" you say? Vicarious Visions has made sure that Spider-Man 2 is a challenge in the wrong way. They could have had 50 henchmen in the level instead of having 12 henchmen in unusual spots and having to defeat them all in a pointless time-limit style mode. Fortunately some of the levels have time limits as secondary objectives, but you still have to get through the annoying levels in order to see the good levels. They're only "good" too, we wouldn't class and level in Spider-Man 2 DS as being awesome, especially when it's got games such as Mario 64 DS to compete against.

Controls are fairly basic. B jumps, X shoots out web, and A and Y are your punch and kick buttons. The R button is the most diverse which you'll find yourself conversing with as you use the touch screen. You see, the touch screen has a whole heap of moves that gradually unlock throughout the game, and when you select one of them by touching it, you can perform it by pressing R. The moves can be pretty cool, for instance one of the ones you get straight away allows you to grab an opponent from (continued next page)