Ultimate Spider-Man
October 17, 2005
Last weekend, both intentionally and unintentionally, I ended up playing a lot of PS2. I had borrowed Ultimate Spider-Man from my 12 year-old nephew (future blog post light goes off in head) because he and his family would be on vacation for a few days and I knew he wouldn't be playing it.
After only a few hours of play I had beaten the main storyline of the game. It wasn't all that difficult and there was only about eight or ten "boss" battles. But what I thought was so well done in this game was the comic book aspect of it. Apparently, the goal of the writers and designers was to immerse the player into a 3D comic book world. From the awesome web-slinging to Midtown High in Queens, New York they definitely achieved their goal. Honestly, I don't think I've ever had as much fun in a video game as I do when I'm swinging through Manhattan.
Check out the trailer and you'll understand what I mean.
Another thing I find interesting is its close relationship to a game like Grand Theft Auto. Sure, GTA is rated M for Mature and of course Ultimate Spider-Man is rated T for Teen, but it seems as though the designers took a page from GTA and made the gameplay the same in that you can roam the city completely free. Like GTA, it also has many "side missions" where the player can get lost doing things as simple as swinging around town stopping capers and helping hurt citizens and even get into some races with Human Torch of Fantastic Four fame.