Ultimate Spider-man – NDS – Preview 2

His name is
synonymous with Marvel’s Ultimate Spider-Man comic book series, and so when the
opportunity came for Brian Michael Bendis to pen the script for Activision’s
Ultimate Spider-Man title, it was a dream come true.

Vicarious
Visions has taken that story and adapted it to the Nintendo DS, and fans of the
console will be pleased to note that while Spider-Man is played mostly on the
top screen, with the bottom being used to set up powers, some motion graphics
panel work and his power meter, Venom can be controlled through the touch pad.

First the
story, as it is one of the most important aspects of this game …

Spidey
uncovers some information that both his father and Eddie Brock’s father were
working on a bio-chemical suit that would encase the body and give it the
ability to call upon natural body chemicals and compounds to destroy cancer
cells. It was supposed to be the cure for cancer (all of this is detailed in
Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 6). The partners ran into funding problems, went to
work for a corporation who found out about the “suit,” and immediately claimed
it for their own, seeing military applications. The Parker-Brock partnership was
ruined. They tried to recreate the compound, but never got far enough along.
Both were killed in a plane crash – which may have been murder, but that point
is left hanging.

Peter, as a
15-year old, looks up Eddie – whom he knew in childhood – to share some videos
he found of their parents. Eddie shows him a vial of the compound, which
basically looks like black ooze. As Spider-Man, he attempts to take a sample to
work on and try to continue his father’s work, which is also what Eddie is doing
as a student at ESU. Some of the gunk spills on Peter’s bare hand, and it
spreads and envelopes him in a living suit, which begins to feed off him. Only
through his supernatural (aka mutant) abilities is he able to get the suit off
him. He confronts Eddie with the truth of the ooze, and takes the vial to
destroy it. Eddie is not happy. And he has a second sample, which he puts his
hand in. The suit envelopes him and thus is born the malevolent force known as
Venom.

Both Spidey
and Venom are playable in the game. There are about 18 missions or so, and
players will either play as one or the other, but here is the kicker – while
Spidey’s missions are much more chivalrous, Venom’s are pure evil, something
reflected not only in the texturing and shading used in the game, but the music
is more ominous as well. Remember, the “suit” feeds off Eddie Brock’s lifeforce,
so in order to survive it (and Eddie cannot control it, it controls him), the
suit feeds off enemies and even civilians.

Now, the
nice thing about feeding off others is that using the touchscreen, you can
actually “grab” the victim and drag them into Venom’s body. Other objects can be
picked up and tossed using the touch screen. Most of Spidey’s, on the other
hand, is stock DS controls, although you can use the bottom screen to pick the
special power you wish to use.

 

The game is
basically a two-dimensional side-scroller platformer, replete with puzzles that
have to be solved to advance to the next level. The animation and framerate (in
the previewable code on display at a recent Activision event in San Francisco)
were smooth. Like a lot of platform games of the type, though, there is some
repetition. Early on, Spidey will have to defeat a stream of villains in order
to activate the portal that will move him to the next level. After so many are
defeated, the portal activates. And the easiest path is not always the
ground-level horizontal one. Of course, Spidey can zipline to the ceiling or
jump, and work backwards to find power-ups and clues and unlock game elements
that help clear his path.

But while
the NDS version is in a markedly different style than its home-console cousins,
the Bendis storyline is still a rich and entertaining experience, and should
give Spidey fans something to look forward to when the game releases in late
September.