Ultimate Spider-man – NDS – Review

Long before
Peter Parker was bitten by a certain radioactive spider, and had his DNA
altered, he was a young man with loving parents and an older, best friend named
Eddie Brock. Both Eddie’s and Peter’s fathers were engaged in bio-research,
working on a ‘suit’ that would encase people for a short time and help the body
produce the chemicals needed to destroy cancer cells.

But then, as
with any mythical tale worth its salt, tragedy struck. Both sets of parents were
killed in a plane crash and Eddie moved away. Peter’s life moved forward and
then along came a spider, which altered both Peter’s DNA and life in dramatic
fashion.

Years later,
Peter finds transcripts of the work both his father and the elder Brock were
engaged in, finds Eddie, discovers a vial of the compound, has a drop fall on
his skin and becomes wrapped within the vile, sentient armor of Venom. Only
through use of his incredible powers is Peter able to break free of the suit. He
thinks he has destroyed it, but Eddie had a second vial of the compound and
upset that Peter stole some and tested it, willingly allows the suit to encase
him. Unfortunately, Eddie does not have the strength or personality, nor the
super powers of Spider-man, and the suit overwhelms him. Venom is born as a
terror and threat in the Spider-man universe.

Ok, that is
the back story, and sets the stage for this adventure, courtesy of and drawing
from an original story by Ultimate Spider-man’s own Brian Michael Bendis. And
lest one thing that Bendis’ story gets a graphical boost by the penciling of
Mark Bagley, never fear – that is used in the DS version as well.

Ultimate
Spider-man (developed by Vicarious Visions and published by Activision) on the
Nintendo DS may share the storyline and some of the graphical qualities of its
bigger console kin, but instead of being a free-form title, allowing players to
roam all over Spidey’s stomping grounds, this is a rather linear adventure,
which works off timers for the most part. Save one person, get to the next
before the timer runs out, or you fail the level and must restart. Fortunately,
the game only requires you restart the level, not the entire game.

Much like
the story, the gameplay is also double feature. The first part is the Spider-man
phases, which play out on the top screen, use the standard array of controls.
The bottom screen uses some of the motion graphics panels, allows players to
select which attack Spidey will use, and monitors the power bar that will tell
players when that special attack can be used. Certain actions do employ the
touch screen, and players get a sense of that early on in the tutorial level.
Lift a car with the Y button (this is the general action button), and then use
the touch screen, moving the stylus or your finger in the direction indicated to
throw it off the victim.

Venom, of
course, is a different matter. The Venom suit feeds off Eddie’s energy, and in
order for Eddie to survive, he must give the suit another source of life energy
– which is where other people come into play. But the Venom suit is more than
that – it can produce tentacles that can whip about, grab items in the
environment and heave them about. That is where the touch screen comes into
play. Players can grab people and pull them into the suit to feed, or grab
environmental items and toss them about. Tapping the screen in front of Venom
unleashes a short flurry of claw attacks.

Vicarious
Visions has done a very good job of using the left shoulder button and the D-pad
in concert with the touch screen to give players control of the super villain,
and all without requiring players to grow a third hand to manage it all.

However,
there are drawbacks in this game. The levels are very short and have elements
that players must accomplish in order to advance. A typical example is a Spidey
run-through of a level featuring box cars and bad guys. You have to get from one
side of the level to the other, but before the blue portal opens to move you to
the next level, you have to defeat a certain amount of bad guys. The first
run-through will not do that. You will have to run through and beat up all the
bad guys, and then backtrack and do it again. Of course, even though this is
generally a side-scroller that does not mean all the action is either left or
right. With Spider-man, sometimes the right way is straight up. The missions are
generally on timers, but you will trigger when that timer goes off. And not
every mission is a simple run-through, beat ‘em up. Sometimes you have to be
stealthy and use your webbing at range.

The control
scheme is well designed, with only a minor learning curve. The audio can sound a
bit tinny at times, but the game boasts some witty one-liners and the graphical
cutscenes are almost like they were culled from the comic books and really do an
excellent job of propelling the story alone.

Ultimate
Spider-man is a bit short in both scope and level design, but still manages to
pull off a solid NDS experience, in large part to the graphics, story and
alternating character modes. Extended usage of the touch screen for the
Spider-man sequences would have been nice, but Venom is handled very well.

This is
definitely a platformer hat should be checked out.

Review Scoring Details for Ultimate Spider-man

Gameplay:
8.3
A tad linear, but
still the game does a solid job of utilizing both screens, particularly the
touch screen during the Venom sequences.

Graphics:
8.6
The motion
graphics panels do not have the punch that they do on the bigger console
versions, but Vicarious Visions did a very good job of integrating the comic
book style of Mark Bagley into the static shots used to advance the storyline.

Sound:
8.3
The game sounds a
little tinny at times, but the spirit is there with the witty dialogue – albeit
in small doses.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept:
8.5
The story line is
a parallel telling of the conflict between Venom and Spidey, with players taking
on both roles in alternating missions as they advance through the levels. This
game has a nice variety of ‘cameos’ from other Spidey villains and Marvel
heroes, and the use of the touchscreen particularly comes into play during the
Venom sequences.

Multiplayer: N/A
While there will
be multiplayer available, according to the main menu, this feature was not
available with the code sent for review simply because the game is not in retail
release yet.

Overall:
8.3
The game is
essentially a two-dimensional side-scrolling action platformer, propelled by an
original Brian Michael Bendis storyline with all the trimmings of the Marvel
Ultimate Universe. The touchscreen sequences for Venom are well done and use
that feature of the DS to the gamer’s advantage. But the Spidey sequences
under-use the touch screen, and the sound can be a little tinny at times, when
heard through the DS speaker. Still, this is solid platformer, with an engaging
story and told with a graphical style that is certainly appealing.