Future Games Network -- Spider–Man Review (Nintendo 64)

Spider–Man (Nintendo 64)
Published by Activision
Developed by Edge of Reality
In My Humble Opinion
Reuben Ahmed

He’s Peter Parker, the Amazing Sensational Spectacular Spider–Man, and this time he’s caught in the stickiest web of all — a poor port of an otherwise excellent game. What a revolting development this is. The Nintendo 64 version of the 3D action adventure Spider–Man sputters where the original soars. Players control Stan Lee’s cool comic book creation Spider–Man through a series of fog–swept outdoor levels and dull renderings of indoor levels in an attempt to stop a criminal conspiracy — the likes of which are commonplace in the world of the funnybook. Along the way, our brave hero will encounter such enemies as the hated Dr. Octopus, the behemoth Rhino, Venom and Scorpion, as well allies such as the Black Cat and the blind hero, Daredevil.

Until the PSOne version of Spider–Man, our beloved hero was shoehorned into poorly made videogame titles that did nothing to even hint at his true powers, or breathless existence. Activision wisely chose to pluck Spider–Man out of 2D side–scroller hell and into a game that did an excellent job of translating a classic comic book hero into a videogame one. All of Spider–Man’s comic book powers are here. He can climb on walls, stick to ceilings and crawl around in defiance of gravity. He can use his spider webs in a variety of ways, creating powerful web gloves, defensive shields, web balls and web spikes. He paralyzes his foes by gumming them up inside a sticky web, or shoots a thin strand at a foe and yanks on it for some up–close and personal fisticuffs. His Spider–Sense, a handy tool that warns of danger, is very much intact.

Spider–Strength and agility? He has those, too. Simply put, Spider–Man is a remarkable feat of engineering. Edge of Reality has done a decent job of translating the PlayStation game to a cartridge, but some elements have been trimmed because of memory restrictions. In–game cutscenes, shown as movies on the PSOne, are now condensed into static comic book images. This would not be so bad, but the original game bathed itself in exposition — which means the Nintendo 64 features an excess of still pictures.

Graphical problems also take their toll on this title. When web–slinging across the Manhattan skyline, players will be forced to run right up to a building’s edge in order to see where the next edifice is located. Sometimes, buildings will miraculously appear while Spider–Man is in mid–freefall, and the effect is both unwanted and endlessly distracting. A thick green fog seems to have swallowed the otherwise gorgeous cityline.

I come not to bury Spider–Man, but to lament that more could be done to make the Nintendo 64 version of the game as sharp as its counterpart. There’s a lot to like here, with plenty of special costumes to unlock, a decent puzzle set and a few goofy, yet action–packed, sequences that serve to quicken the pulse and churn the adrenaline. There’s something quite beautiful about sending Spidey sprinting toward a building’s ledge, making him leap into the air and watching as he begins plummeting down before firing off a web strand and arcing his way to safety. It’s too bad this beauty doesn’t transfer well, and woe betides the cartridge that sets off my non–superhuman reviewer’s sense. Buy the PSOne version instead. You’ll be much happier with the results.