bibbleisbae23

Spider-Man follows the basic events of the namesake movie that it ties into. Uncle Ben gets shot, Peter Parker tracks down the killer, Peter becomes Spider-Man, Spidey fights the Green Goblin, the end. However, in typical movie tie-in fashion, a few other random encounters (with Shocker, Vulture, and Scorpion specifically) are thrown in to pad out the game. These encounters don't really mesh well with the base story, but the story is already not too great here. The player only gets brief snippets or mentions of key events in the movie, which would be fine if the story of the game made sense without larger context. It doesn't, but this is hardly the game's biggest problem.

What this game suffers most from is frustrating gameplay. Occasionally, Spider-Man will be incredibly easy. Other times, it will kick you in the balls, and there's never an in-between. The gameplay is mostly just web-swinging, combat, and web-swinging combat, and these systems are pretty easy to understand. Web-swinging is incredibly basic, and combat is often just a choice of what three buttons you want to mash. However, your biggest enemy in any of these scenarios is the camera. I swear it's off just doing its own thing. The amount of times I died (and had to restart a level because of lack of checkpoints) because the camera decided to do anything but help me was infuriating. While there could be some fun had from the basic combat, I found myself getting annoyed most of the time because of the stupid camera.

There's definitely some good here. The cheats and bonuses are fun (playing as Green Goblin and the bowling mode are the biggest highlights), and it is fun to have Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe returning as their respective characters, even if Maguire's voicework could do with a bit of... polish. It's just that most of this is overshadowed by terribly standard and unoriginal gameplay that's only made worse by a poor camera and annoying controls. Spider-Man is a generic and frustrating mess of a game that could be something more, but is best left in the pile with the rest of the alright-at-best movie tie-in games.

Arkham Asylum is a game that I could comfortably call perfect. The story, graphics, atmosphere, gameplay... everything just falls precisely into place. From the moment you start the game and escort the Joker into the asylum, there's this undeniable hostile atmosphere. The place really feels like a hellhole, and this feeling gets bigger and bigger the more you play on. There are so many memorable moments in the game (such as the Scarecrow segments, which I'll get to in a bit) that just get under your skin and make you feel unsafe. It's wonderful and pulls you straight into the Arkham world.

The gameplay on display is just fantastic. One of the key features of Asylum is its "freeflow" combat, which is essentially press X to punch and Y to counter. While this sounds so incredibly basic on paper, it's so fun in execution, allowing you to move quickly between multiple enemies in style and create fun dynamic moments with your dodging abilities. On the other hand, stealth gameplay is incredibly engaging. You really won't understand the sheer excitement of hiding in a vent or lurking on a gargoyle, waiting to strike, until you've played this game for yourself. There's plenty of other parts making up the gameplay, such as the exploration and traversal, but it's safe to say that they're all just as good as the combat and stealth mechanics.

Something that I didn't expect to enjoy in this game as much as I did is the story. It's a very classic, simple Batman versus Joker story. Joker wants Batman to experience the madness he feels everyday, Batman has to stop him because it's the right thing to do... you know the rest. I think the strength of this simple story lies in its execution. Joker is constantly taunting you over the intercom, warning you of things to come, and is always pulling the strings to further his plans. It's great. My favourite part of the story has to be the Scarecrow segments, where you, as Batman, are exposed to fear toxin and have to face your greatest fears. These parts do so much to build Batman's character, such as his fear of madness or trauma of his parents' deaths, and on top of that they're just extremely fun to play. Arkham Asylum doesn't have the most mind-blowing story of all time, but it takes what it has and makes the most of it.

While I didn't finish every challenge or collect every trophy, I played enough of Arkham Asylum to know that this is easily my favourite superhero game I've ever played. It's gorgeous, full of style, engaging, and most of all, just plain fun. It's one of those games that I will absolutely be returning to in the future, and I cannot wait to give Arkham City a try.

Shattered Dimensions is easily the most exciting Spider-Man game on paper. You get to play as four different Spider-Dudes, exploring each of their distinct worlds to face off against deadly foes and rebuild a powerful, mystical object. Each Spider-Man is voiced by a returning voice actor from a previous TV incarnation (the MTV show, Spectacular, the 90s show, and Amazing Friends), and each one has a unique gameplay style and combat loop to ensure variety between each universe. There's plenty of other smaller things, like Stan Lee acting as the narrator during cutscenes, or the silly post-credits scene, that help build the exciting style of the game. However, the game is definitely lacking in actual substance.

While the concept is interesting, the four Spider-Men don't have enough actual differences in gameplay to keep the player's attention. While Spider-Man Noir has fun stealth mechanics, the other three Spider-Guys all follow the same basic "Punch, Punch, Block, Punch" formula with slight differences. That combined with the closed-off, linear levels contributes to the game feeling repetitive and stale after a while. The core gameplay loop is fun but it's way too barebones to hold your attention for the eight to ten hours you'll be playing the game for. Another important thing to note, as this is a Spider-Man game, is the uninteresting web-swinging. It feels like it was added as a necessity, rather than as part of the game, ending up quite weightless and unexciting, especially after Web of Shadows' excellent swinging.

Shattered Dimensions is creative and constantly expressing its unique style, but it simply doesn't have enough substance to pass from "good" into "great". It's fun to see it as a precursor to the Spider-Verse comic (and the movie that followed), but as a standalone game, it doesn't leave much replay value or much to do once you're done. Definitely check it out if you're interested, but don't expect it to fully live up to the premise.