Spider-Man 3 (Wii) Review
Posted by Jay Bryant on 05.07.2007
Look out! Here comes the Spider-Man! Now with web-slinging action!
For about two weeks, all I could think about was Spider-Man 3. The game and the movie have both flooded my thoughts for the past two weeks. Honestly I was more excited for the game then the movie. Even when I was in the movie, all I could think about was going to the mall to get the game afterwards. Spider-Man 2 (the game) set a standard for movie games that would be difficult for any franchise to live up to, but one can’t help but to expect the same excellence from the sequel.
Spider-Man 3 is the (you guessed it) third installment of the Spider-Man movie franchise. It continues the story of Peter Parker who was bitten by a radio-active spider in high school which bestowed upon him the abilities of a spider. Once a social outcast, both Peter and Spider-Man have found acceptance in the people of New York in the third film. This is short lived though as Peter’s best friend still blames him for his father’s death (The Green Goblin), and Spider-Man must not only battle two new enemies, but himself as well. After a symbiote from a fallen meteorite attaches itself to Spider-Man’s suit, it not only changes the physical aspects of the suite, but it enhances the darker personality traits of our hero.
One thing Wii owners are learning is to expect something different from our little white box. Spider-Man 3 wasn’t going to be Spider-Man 2 with a new story line and Wii controls (or even updated graphics). With that in mind, I didn’t quite know what to expect when I booted up the game for the first time. I knew of the new swinging mechanic, but that was it, and so begins our adventure with Spider-Man.
First Impression
As soon as Spider-Man 3 loads, you’re in the game. There’s a short cut-scene that puts you right in the middle of things. This stage also serves as your tutorial for those who don’t read the manual (shame on you). The fighting mechanic is the first thing introduced, it works much in the way that TMNT did. You swing the Wii Remote for quick attacks, but you can press “A” or swing both the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk for Spidey’s strong attack. You begin with only a 3-hit combo, and all combos either end with a strong attack, or a quick attack. When you end with a quick attack, Spidey is left open to get hit by his enemy. The attack system was very unresponsive for quick attacks. I found myself counting how many times I swung the remote in order to finish the combo with a strong attack. When it came to combat I was very unimpressed and at times frustrated. Next came the jumping mechanic which is very simple, just press “Z” on the nunchuk for a short jump, or hold it to charge for a higher jump. The last part of the tutorial covered the swing mechanic. I was excited; this was all I had heard about for the longest. I’ll admit it, when I first heard about it, I didn’t think it’d work out that great, but then I saw video’s and heard more about how great it was, so I was excited to try it for myself. The excitement died down quick. Very quick. I couldn’t get it to do what I wanted. I knew this was my main mode of transportation so I was baffled at why it didn’t work well. It was more annoying than fun, and I didn’t see myself enjoying it at all.
With a weak combat system, and an unimpressive swinging system, I was very disappointed at the beginning. In some cases all it takes is getting past the learning curve, and a game seems to take on a new life. Is this one of those cases? Keep reading to find out.
Graphics
As we all know, the Wii isn’t about graphical power. I refuse to compare Wii graphics with that of the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3. At best this games looks like a poor Xbox game. The main character models look like ugly cousins of their true life counterparts. Honestly, the character models in Spider-Man games never looked great to me. In Spider-Man 3 the masked characters look the best, especially during the games night time levels. The pedestrians in the game don’t very much at all. In fact I think Mary Jane has a view clones running around virtual New York. Speaking of New York, the city is HUGE! When you’re on the streets it looks great. The buildings are detailed, the streets are alive. That’s only on the street level though. If you swing to the tops of some buildings, everything looks like building blocks scattered on a gray floor. In fact, it begins to look like the overhead map, just general representations of what’s there. All in all, the graphics are lacking. With repetitive NPC’s, ugly main character models, and buildings that either loose their texture or disappear/reappear randomly Spidey possesses, to say the least, some graphical issues.
Sound
As with previous installments of Spider-Man games, the cast of the movie came in and recorded for their in-game counterparts. Tobey Maguire returns with his sleepy voice (but surprisingly puts some anger into one cut scene, almost made me jump). Kristen Dunst is rarely used in the game, and the same goes for the rest of the movie cast. That’s right; most of the voices in the game are from characters that do not appear in the movie. In fact, outside of Dr. Connors/the lizard, most of your battles will be against characters that have never been seen on the big screen. Traveling on the streets of New York will allow Spidey to hear the cheers or the boo’s of the few pedestrians that litter the sidewalks. The voices are all loud and clear whether they are NPC’s, main characters, or a dispatcher over the radio.
Controls
When you bought a Wii you gave up graphic and processing power for the hope that the innovative controls would make up for it. In Spider-Man 3, the controls definitely give you reason to come back and play some more. Basic movements are handled by the analog stick on the nunchuk of course. As explained earlier, attacks are mapped to movements with the Wii remote, and the “A” button. Spider-Man’s web attacks are handled with the B button, left and right on the d-pad changes you in and out of the black suit, up on the d-pad activates your camera, and down on the d-pad activates you adrenaline moves. Whew! Did you catch all that?
Last but not least, Spider-Man 3’s claim to fame on the Wii is swinging system. In short all you have to do is press a button and give a flick of the wrist and you’re off. Sounds simple right? If only that were the case… Initially, swinging through New York is more difficult than it seems. With the way the controls are mapped, the nunchuk and Wii remote are literally your left and right hands respectively (or for you lefties out there, you can switch your handedness in the options menu allowing you to hold the Wii remote in your left hand and nunchuk in your right hand. Nifty). When you cast your web, you can actually control the direction it goes by flicking your wrist more to the left or right. This really works well for the game after you get past the steep learning curve. As I explained at the beginning, swinging in the game isn’t necessarily intuitive. It takes a while to get the system down, but once you do get it right, it’s very rewarding. This isn’t to say that the system is perfect though, as you will often find yourself trying to cast a web at the side of a building, but you end up casting it on the front, which turns you around a little and can be frustrating when you’re in a hurry to get to the next area of the game.
Gameplay
Now we’ve reached the part where everything comes together to try and deliver a great game. Spider-Man 3 is a fun game once you get the controls down, but it does have its character flaws so to say. For one, as if the unresponsive attack controls weren’t bad enough, the game lacks a real lock-on mechanic. The way it works is that if you’re facing a bad guy, a reticule will appear on their chest and all attacks will be aimed at them. The problem comes when you’re facing multiple enemies. There’s no button to automatically switch who you’re aiming at. So while some enemies may be closer to you than others, the only way you can attack them is by turning towards them with the analog stick, but you have to be careful not to move too much or you’ll just start to run towards them. This could’ve been avoided by using left and right on the d-pad to switch who you’re locked on to, and just use the 1 and/or 2 buttons for your costume change as they are not used at all in the game for anything else. Speaking of the black costume, it’s introduced fairly early in the game, and it can be used whenever you like from that point on. When you wear the black suit, Spidey becomes stronger and thus deals more damage to your enemies. If you wear the suit too long the screen will gradually turn black and Spider-Man will pass out. The game gives you plenty of time to deal out the damage though. Just like in the movie, getting out of the symbiote suit is not as simple as getting in. When you press the button to change suits, Wii remote and nunchuk motions appear on screen. The longer you wear the suit, the harder and longer the sequence is.
The camera in Spider-Man 3 is manipulated with the “C” button and tilting the nunchuk. This system was used in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance as well, except you didn’t have to press any buttons to activate it. Honestly the only time I manually changed the camera was in the tutorial. The “C” button alone will re-center the camera behind Spidey, and that’s all you really need. For some reason, the camera will choose some weird angles throughout the game, but they can easily fixed just by pressing “C.” Spider-Man 3 offers you 10 short storylines that include the movie plot. The game also includes a “gangs of New York” type system for when you want to stray from the beaten path. This game makes the same mistake other GTA clones have made; it doesn’t give you much reason to do anything outside of events that further the story. One game that did give you a good reason to stray from the main story is The Godfather: Blackhand Edition which is also on the Wii. You felt a certain sense of accomplishment after taker over a racket or taking control of a part of New York from a rival family that Spider-Man 3 just doesn’t deliver in its mission outside of the main story lines. In-between missions, you have the option of going on a crime watch, or you can respond to a random crime that you hear over the police radio. The random missions range from delivering pies for a baker whose truck has broken down, to stopping a gang who has planted a home made bomb on the top of a building. The missions aren’t too deep, so it’s pretty easy to finish one while you’re one your way to your next mission. As for the gangs of New York, in order to stop them you must finish a string of missions, which will erase them from that area of the map, and eventually they vanish from New York all together.
All in all, the game almost feels unfinished. There are glitches that just shouldn’t be there. For example when I was going through the tutorial, when it got to the swinging system, Bruce Campbell’s smooth narrative started to skip. That’s when I knew I was going to be in for an interesting ride. Along with that, when you’re in a string of missions you may have to deliver a package or something, and the game shows you two identical reticules in two different locations. Head for the wrong one, and your mission is a failure. There was also a mission where a gang is attacking a news van. This wasn’t the first time I had this type of mission, so I was prepared to see about 3 gang members attacking this van. I get there and there is no one attacking the van, and no way to finish the mission. After looking around the van for a good three to five minutes, the “Mission Accomplished” message showed up on the screen. I was confused and baffled. The game also froze once when I was in the middle of a mission, and since there is no auto-save, I had to begin again from my last save, very frustrating.
Fun Factor
Spider-Man 3 is a fun game, no doubt about it. Once you get the hang of things, you’ll love it. It’s just getting the hang of things may take a bit longer than you want. In reality all that matters is how much you want to enjoy the game. The game loosely follows the movie plot, only staying/altering the story line in certain areas. The story line from the movie takes a back seat to the story lines from the game, but it works out pretty well. The boss battles were pretty fun as well. The final battle is, of course, the hardest one. Swinging through New York couldn’t have been done better. It has its quirks, but in the end, it’s probably the most fun part of the game.
Lasting Appeal
Spider-Man 3 is said to boast 15-20 hours of fun! I beat the main story mode in just over 5 hours. Let it be noted that I didn’t stray much from the main story line to stop the many gangs found all over New York, nor did I attempt to find the meteorite pieces, or Spidey emblems scattered across the city. After you beat the main story, you have the option to fight the gangs, and collect all that stuff if you want. There is a surprise awaiting those who do find all of the Spidey emblems, so if you’re in the mood for a hunt, good luck! Honestly, the swinging system alone will probably bring some back to play the game for a few minutes here and there. There’s something about the game that just doesn’t let you put it down for too long, even when you’ve beaten it.
The 411
Spider-Man 3 is a hate it or love it type game it seems. When it’s working it’s working great and fun to play. Then again, when the glitches kick in, they kick hard. Activision set out to make a fun game to accompany the movie, and they did. You just have to give it some time, and they game will grow on you.
Graphics
6.5
After reminding myself that this is a Wii game, I can't expect much from the graphics, so it'd be unfair to penalize too much for them.
Gameplay
8.5
It takes a while to grow on you, but when it does, you won't want to put the game down.
Sound
8.0
The cast from the movie comes to give their voice talents to the game as well, and Bruce Campbell also returns to add much needed humor with his one liners.
Lasting Appeal
7.0
The game is just too short, with the story mode only taking about 5 hours, and not much to bring you back afterwards
Fun Factor
9.0
The fun in this game is found in the controls, they aren't the easiest to learn, but once they do, what was a mediocre game becomes great fun.
