Welcome to Modojo, 
Spider-Man 2 Review
Written by Modojo Staff on Wednesday, April 6, 2005
Graphics and sound are pretty impressive for a handheld.
Nothing new to play, and it's way too easy.
And the Spider-Man train continues to rumble on, with the authority of a hard-driven athlete and the gloss that the series is known for. Ever since the launch of last year's hit movie Spider-Man 2, Activision has been taking the license to new heights, releasing several games across the consoles last summer and even having a title ready for the Nintendo DS last November. Now it's the PSP's turn, and the web's getting a little strained with this latest take on the legendary superhero. However, those interested in a superhero adventure will still like what this game has to offer.
The game follows the oh-so-familiar plot that the others did- it pits the webslinger against the vicious nemesis Dr. Octopus (aka Doc Ock), as well as a few other faces from Spidey's past- but it's executed differently than the console versions. This one instead plays like the very first Spider-Man did back about three years ago, where he can still travel throughout the city, but it isn't as heavily detailed as part two's.
The game introduces you to this large, vast area as soon as the first level, where you get to test out your wares against the bad guys - everything from a lasso swing to a web cocoon (which is practically worthless) to a cannonball swing, executed along with your web swing. The variety of combat moves is still somewhat impressive, as you can build together some combos and dispatch of bad guys rather easily.
The web swing controls come easily, although the game now once again suffers from "what am I grabbing, air?" with the webs- they shoot nearly straight up for grabbing, even way up in the sky. (Must be those blimps.) But the game doesn't really travel into new areas of play, it just feels like a repeat of the first game. Even the humorous encounter with Mysterio feels like a rerun.
As far as graphics and sound, the game definitely works - for the most part. With sound, the game's soundtrack is nicely emulated for handheld use, and sounds thunderous on the PSP's earphones. The sound effects are mostly minimal, but still work, and most of the movie's cast, namely Tobey Maguire (Spidey) and Kirsten Dunst (Mary Jane), provide some good lines - although, for the life of me, I cannot figure out why they got rid of Bruce Campbell as game announcer. That's just SAD.
The graphics look pretty solid, creating a fast-paced 3D city to go through with very little loading time. Animation looks good, but it could be a little better in terms of smoothness. Overall it's an impressive handheld port of the console versions of the game.
The big problem with Spider-Man 2, aside from not really offering anything new, is that it's too easy to get through. I swear, I got through the whole game, most secrets discovered, in one sitting. You can crank up the difficulty to Hard and really challenge yourself if you're up for it, but once you're done, there's really no replayability. No movie clips, no multiplayer mode, nothing.
So I'd recommend Spider-Man 2 as a rental or a cheap buy. It's still a very good product that will have fans swinging around the city for a little while with the pure joy of a schoolboy reading the comic book for the first time in his life. But the adventure ends sooner than later, something that could've easily been remedied had this game not been rushed out the door. Oh, well, maybe with Spider-Man 3...
