The Review: Spider-Man 3

Halfway through “Spider-Man 3” the movie I was pretty happy. I was thinking to myself “Hey, this is pretty good. Its not Spider-Man 1 good but this is as good as Spidey 2”…then the last half of the movie happened and suddenly I’m watching that last crappy Batman with George Clooney and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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Unfortunately “Spider-Man 3” the game feels the same way. At first it just feels good to be swinging through skyscrapers and thumping costumed goons again. But the longer you play the game, the more the problems with it get on your nerves until finally you’re initial excitement is gone.
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Does this mean the “Spider-Man 3” video game isn’t worth your time? Absolutely not, there’s a lot in this title, especially for us die-hard fans. But if you don’t have Spidey blinders on, the glitches in the game will make you angrier than J. Jonah Jameson.
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If you’ve played Spidey games before, you know what to expect in this version - swinging around town in a sandbox environment, choosing missions at your own leisure and stopping random crimes as you cruise around the city. The game ties loosely to the movie as Sandman, New Goblin (horrible name by the way) and Venom all make an appearance. Lizard, Scorpion and a few others show up as well. Pretty much what you’d expect, and that’s the problem.
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“Spider-Man 3” looks and plays almost exactly like “Spider-Man 2” with an almost identical combat system and, with the exception of the city, no visual upgrades to speak of. When my non-game-playing wife thinks they’re the same game, that’s not good. This isn’t a horrible thing because Spidey 2 was so good, but come on! This is supposed to be a next-gen title but the collision detection issues, poor looking character models and enemies that like to get stuck in walls give the game an unfinished feel.
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This isn’t to say that “Spider-Man 3” doesn’t have its strengths. The contextual mini-games (where gamers hit buttons that match up to activities onscreen, ala “God of War”) are a nice new addition, there’s a ton of content to play through (at least 25 hours worth), the audio is solid (Tobey Maguire, James Franco, JK Simmons Thomas Hayden Church and Topher Grace are all in the game) and swinging through the city never gets old. And again, you get to play as the greatest superhero ever.
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Still, just like the movie you’ll feel that something isn’t quite right, that something is missing. Whether you can see past these flaws depends on your point of view. For a man who once dressed as Spider-Man for Halloween for four straight years (and I’m saying if I was an adult or not during that time), I can overlook these flaws. For everyone else, it might be a giant Sandman-sized distraction that can’t be overcome.

Spider-Man 3
Cost: $29.99 - $69.99
Players: One
Formats: PS3, PS2, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, DS, GBA
Category: Super Hero Fighter
Rating: T (Teen)
Grade: C+ (B- for us webheads)

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And one more thing - The Halo 3 beta starts up at 6am tomorrow morning and I'm going to try get up right at 6 and try it out. Since I'm not a morning person, the word "try" is the key word in that last sentence. The odds I'll actually be able to do it? 50/50

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terry.terrones@gazette.com

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Quick update - Just got a late night email from my contacts at Microsoft letting me know that the release date for "Halo 3" will be September 25. There was also something about a new "Halo 3" Zune going on sale June 15 for $249 but who cares. I don't know anyone who owns one of those things anyway.