Spider-man for Dreamcast
PREVIEW:
SPIDER-MAN (DC)
Previewer: Alex Makar
Developer: Neversoft/Treyarch
Publisher: Activision
Players: One
Release: April 2001
After a very successful debut on the PSX and N64, it was only a matter of time before everyone’s favourite wall-crawler would be swinging over to the Dreamcast. Thankfully, owners of the system won’t have to wait much longer, as Spider-Man will be arriving shortly, courtesy of Treyarch. For those of you who didn’t already know, Treyarch was responsible for the stellar DC conversion of Tony Hawk 2. With such a talented team working on Spider-Man, we can rest assured that the end product will be of the highest quality.
Obviously, the biggest difference will come with the graphics, which make use of the DC hardware quite nicely. No, we’re not talking about Soul Calibur quality character models here, but keep in mind that this is a conversion, and not a complete over-haul of the original title. Thankfully, Spidey has never looked better. The game now sports brighter colours, improved texture detail, and generally looks a lot “cleaner” than the previous incarnations. There will also be a few extra touches put in for certain backgrounds, so people who have played the PSX and N64 versions, will see a few new things. Cosmetic changes aside, the gameplay of Spider-Man will remain 100% true to the original versions. What does that mean to people who have never experienced Spidey before? Well, Spider-Man has a bit of everything. There are some minor stealth elements, you can crawl on ceilings, swing around the spacious city of New York, as well as having a number of offensive maneuvers at your disposal. Although you’ll rarely use any of your other skills outside of the same old “punch, punch, kick” combos, it’s still nice to have the option of taking out your enemies in many creative ways. My personal favourite involves jumping on your enemies’ back, and beating him over the head with your fists, then kicking him off a rooftop. When you get right down to it, Spider-Man is just fun to play. Peter Parker even manages to put in a sarcastic comment or two after taking out an enemy. Spider-Man is a well-done 3d action title, and we shouldn’t expect no less from this conversion.
Fans of the wall-crawler will also be glad to see all of the fan service scattered throughout the game. There are some nicely detailed character bios, which are all narrated by comic legend Stan Lee, and each level feels like a page straight out of the comics. As you beat the game numerous times, you also open up new costumes for Spider-Man, which grant him new abilities such as unlimited web fluid or invisibility. You’ve even got a comic gallery, which gives descriptions of some of the biggest moments in the history of the Spider-Man books. Of course, you’ve got to find and collect these comics in the game, as they’re scattered throughout the 6 stages.
I’m personally very excited about this conversion, as I’ve become a rather big fan of Spider-Man myself lately. Let’s hope that Activision meets its scheduled release date, and that we’ll be seeing this title on store shelves in April. Until then, this Spidey fan will be re-reading his old issues of Ultimate Spider-Man in preparation. Stay tuned true believers, as we’ll be bringing you a review upon the games release.
