Spider-Man 3 (Wii) Review

Just your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man

Both the Spider-Man 3 movie and game have recently copped a lot of flack from critics, reviewers and fans alike. The movie tries to say too much in such a short time, regretfully ruining all hope of character development and an engaging story. In the end the movie fell short from what made the previous movies before it such a spectacle to watch. A game on the other hand is not restricted by a two hour running time and in fact can be limitless as to how long it goes for and how much character development can be thrown into it. Spider-Man 3 the video game follows the same disastrous road as the movie and then some, leaving much to be desired.

The Wii, PS2 and DS versions are different to their next-gen counterparts in that they were developed by Vicarious Visions. As a result the games play entirely different from the 360 and PS3 versions, however, there are some similarities including the storyline to an extent and the seemingly lifeless void that is New York City. In Spider-Man 3, Peter Parker has the girl and now has gotten the city of New York wanting more of Spider-Man. They love and adore Spidey so much that this eventually gets to Parkers head and he begins acting ignorant and selfishly. Meanwhile, Marko Flint stumbles into a pile of sand and is transformed into the Sandman while a mysterious pile of black goo oozes away from a fallen meteorite. That is the back-story to the game with hardly any narrative supporting it making it almost impossible for gamers who havent seen the movie to pick it up and play while being fully engaged into the story. Much like Call of Duty 3 on the Wii, the cut scenes are told through crispier and prettier visuals that make it hard to endure the vomit-inducing graphics in-game.

3 Badies, check. 2 chicks, check. Bad story, check.

There are five storylines intertwined through the main movie chapter, bringing to the title villains from the comic and adding considerable length to the story. Your first encounter with Harry, as seen in every trailer, will happen very early and then youll be branched off toward helping Dr Connors, the infamous true identity of the Lizard. The game will progress to the finale pretty much like this, jumping from boss to boss in a poorly put together story. The good news is that boss battles can be very entertaining, despite the lacklustre combat system. One of the earlier moments in the game will have you swinging through a long tunnel trying to escape from a trap that is intended to see Spidey guts all over the wall.

The core aspect of this third instalment is of course Spidey and being able to web sling all throughout New York City. The even better news is that this works near perfectly and is quite possibly the only reason this game has any redeeming value beyond the poor combat, annoying camera and pathetic visuals. Web slinging is done by holding either the Z or B buttons on your Wiimote and Nunchuk and flicking upward. Its simple and very intuitive – possibly a little to much as you sometimes swing without meaning to. As a Wii game the controls are central to the enjoyment of the game and while the controls are, in the beginning, very cleverly mapped they eventually become overwhelming and unresponsive. Much like Twilight Princess, the game demands you flick the Wiimote to kick and punch while flicking the nunchuk will make Spidey perform a quick roll to safety. Numerous times the controls did not respond to even the craziest of motions that even resulted in me waving my arms around like a crazed maniac.

Waggle, no waggle… I SAID WAGGLE.

The controls are essential to the combat that takes place frequently throughout the game especially since most of the missions are basic bash up bad guy requests. The game falls flat in this regard mainly for the reason mentioned earlier, but even more so for the poor animations and boring combos that seem far too slow for nimble Spidey. Vicarious Visions did try to add some variety in the combat, including latching onto an enemies head and thumping it in, but when the controls decide to become unresponsive the tables quickly turn and it is Spideys face that ends up smeared across the pavement. Without unintentionally causing a console war, the combat in the 360 version was terrible by all accounts but compared to the Wii version of Spider-Man, it would make anyone believe to be the true and masterful combat system in any game ever.

One of the major complaints of Spider-Man 2 was the lack of variety in random crimes that occur throughout the city. While some extra attention has been given to that aspect of the game, this time around after a few rounds of the newer random crimes you start to experience a sense of dj vu. Basic random crimes will have you tracking down enemies and engaging in combat, rescuing New York citizens from fires and retrieving items from enemies. Some Wiimote gestures are thrown into these random crimes for good measure but they fail to add any excitement to the game. They shortly become a passing fancy but fortunately they are easy to ignore without making your inner Hero feel like he or she has deprived a helpless victim of a few more cyber days of life.

Strolling through New York will cause permanent Blindness

I have played over a dozen games on the Wii, most bad, some good and two great. Visually neither on that long list of titles has overly impressed me, maybe except for an early wow factor in Twilight Princess. Spider-Man 3 suffers greatly from the hurried release, most notably in the graphics department. At points in the game, especially when youre standing on the tallest buildings, all of New York becomes a series of rectangular green polygons without a hint of texture or detail. Even without this often-occurring annoyance the textures leave much to be desired. Without sounding too cruel, the game is almost comparable to later Nintendo 64 games, which is inexcusable for a game two generations later. Character models, including the leading cast, are down right disgusting. Peter Parkers face sticks out like he was in a bar fight and Harry has a block of hair of his head that looks like it has a few tubs of wax in it.

Many of the actors from the movie lend their voices to the game and even those that did not, e.g. Kirsten Dunst, sounds pretty spot on to the real-life actor. Its a shame they neither cared nor bothered to actually put any energy into their recordings and probably saw this opportunity as grocery money for a couple of weeks. The soundtrack is exactly what youd hope for in a Spider-Man game but the same track is played throughout most of the game, and even then it doesnt sound that good. Despite the sometimes midi sounding effects and terrible actor dialogue, the audio could possibly be one of the highlights of Spider-Man 3 if just for the fact they got the original actors to say a couple of lines.

The Good, the Bad, the Spider-man

I have spoken plenty of what I dont like about the game but what about the things that are actually worthy of the time to go back and experience? Firstly, the web slinging through New York City is a lot of fun and with a small tweak could become perfect in the next Spidey game. The boss battles are engaging and require some brainpower as well as Wiimote gestures at times (think Resident Evil 4). There is plenty to do even if the rewards are hardly inspiring, but the Symbiote Suit is pretty neat which is obtained very early in the game.

Spider-Man 3 is a victim of its own hype. The movie suffered from trying too much with two movies worth of material in such a short time while the game suffered by coinciding its release with the movie, despite the lack of polish that is an obvious hindrance toward the enjoyment of Spidey 3. The curse of The Matrix and X-men lives on in Spider-Man 3 and begs the question that if publishers stopped trying to push out the games at the exact moment the movie releases would the gamer eventually receive a more complete version? Who knows but for all intents and purposes this is truly the end of Spider-Man 3.