Gameplay:  
Oh boy, can we leave the web-shooting imagery behind us for this review? No? Okay, you guys like it dirty. Bizarro Lander is back! Me always said if Spider-Man is going to have organic shooters the webs should come out the same place real spiders spin their webs from.

Fortunately this game is based on the popular Ultimate Spider-Man comic book and Peter Parker does not have organic web-shooters. That does not mean you have to find web fluid scattered around the city. You have an unlimited supply. Nothing would have been worse than running out of web when you finally figure out to do, so thankfully the game's challenge comes from the game itself and not some limit placed on the character.

The gameplay is nearly identical to 2004's Spider-Man 2. You swing around freely in a giant New York City and do whatever you want. If you want to save pedestrians you can, if you want to conquer a timed race you can, if you want to see the next chapter of the story, you can.

The story itself is pretty short, so make sure you really love doing the races and the combat tours before buying this game. It's best to do a bunch of them between chapters, so you still have story to look forward to a week after starting.

Another aspect of the game is Venom play. With Venom you get to thrash stuff and eat people. When you beat the game you'll unlock a mode where you can play as Venom as much as you want. Once you start breaking the law, it turns into a GTA-clone. The worse you get the stronger the police presence trying to bring you down gets.

It's diverting for a few minutes but it's not going to keep your interest

Control:  
Controlling Spidey is easy. The GameCube microphone is necessary for this game, so when you have it you can just say "Empire State Building" and he'll zip there in a flash.

Why did I even write that? It's not true and it's not funny. Don't believe me when I do things.

Anyway, if you played Spider-Man 2 the controls are nearly identical. The main difference is in combat. You no longer have combos to memorize. Instead you just hit X and Y and try not to get hit. The more hits you land without getting hit the more crazy stunts Spider-Man will do. He'll eventually start bouncing off walls and striking from all angles like he's supposed to.

Somehow I liked the combos more though. Here it feels like the fighting is being done for me.

Sound:
The music in the game is pointless. It doesn't sound like anything. I used to say the reason people remember classic videogame themes is because they repeated so often that how could you forget?

This game proves me wrong. Sure, it repeats a lot, but I could not think how it goes if I tried. I could just make up some bland action movie music and I'd be close. Spider-Man needs an in-game iPod where you can input your own music. I know you can do that in some Xbox games, but I don't know if you can in the Xbox Ultimate Spider-Man. I doubt it.

Multiplayer:
No multiplayer content in the game, but extras include unlockable artwork and costumes for Spider-Man, as well as free-play as Venom.

OVERALL:
This game is a mixed bag. Some of it is done superbly and some of it seems rushed. It will still be fun to swing through the city five years from now, but only for 20 minutes at a time. After that you'll wonder where the game is.

 

The Lowdown on  Ultimate Spider-Man Aesthetics: Awesome Control: Very Good Gameplay: Above Average Multiplayer: Sound: Average Innovation: 3/6 Lasting Appeal: 3/6 Rating Explanation Overall: Average! "An Average Game"