Published by: Activision Developed by: Treyarch ESRB Rating: E for Violence Learning curve: 10-15 minutes (depending on if you\'ve read the instruction manual and played the tutorials, both of which are suggested by yours truly.) Version reviewed: GameCube

Bitten by a genetically engineered spider, high school student Peter Parker is suddenly empowered with supernatural powers, including Spider-Sense, web-slinging, and wall-crawling. Assume the role of Parker as he adapts to his new powers and becomes Spider-Man. But beware--the city\'s villains won\'t be pleased to see a new hero on the scene.* And Parker learns an important lesson: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility. I just bought my Gamecube on September 9th, 2002, and had a hard time deciding between Spider-Man and Agent Under Fire. I know I would have been happy with both games, but this is the game that I think that I would have liked more. Now, before you get all hurt that I\'ve been telling lies about games, wait. First, GameCube is the system I am most familiar with. One of my friends has it, and he helped me with several GCN reviews. I\'ve been reviewing games that I have personally played. That\'s what the reviews have been.

Graphics

You start the game on a manhunt, after some really beautiful cutscenes that match the likes of Tobey MacGuire exactly. You can see time was taken with this game, and that care was taken with realism. Initially, you swing around the city, high in the air, looking for baddies to beat up, and question for the death of your Uncle Ben. In this level, there is a woman whose purse has been stolen. You need to retrieve it to gain extra points. Then, proceed with the mission. The fact that you can swing around the city is cool. The fact that you can see the cars in the streets below you is amazing. The fact that the sun casts an accurate reflection on the water, depending what time of day it is is astonishing. These all mount up to incredible graphics, both in play and out.

Sound

Willem Dafoe and Tobey MacGuire add their voices to the game, and MacGuire quips insults at the baddies during fights, while Dafoe adds that certain I-don\'t-know-what factor to the game. This adds the element of top-notch voice acting to the game, and the actual gameplay adds to that. Subtle sounds that are made like breathing and feet walking are only adding to the experience. The one problem is that the in-game dialogue gets repetitive. I usually would not complain, but when you have 20 thugs on you at once, and they all say, \'Circus in town?\', you\'ve got a problem. I mean, they could at least add more than 4 lines to the baddies dialogue. This is just a minor complaint, and it is easy to overcome. The cut scene dialogue is spoken very well, and the graphics add to that. MacGire does sound more mellow in the game than in the movie, but the voice is all Spidey. You go up against several unique villains, all from the Spider-Man comic series, and all of them sound like you would expect them to. The sound all adds up to an excellent sounding game, which is not the worst that could happen.

Gameplay

This game revolutionizes the action/adventure genre by introducing a new feature: airborne combat. Basically, this involves \'grappling\' (jumping on) your opponent, and punching the living daylights out of them. It actually is very fun to do. The opponents also destroy things that you need to fix, while fighting the bad guy. Awesome concept, awesome gameplay. Ground-based fighting is a little lackluster. The basic idea is to take out opponents, one by one. So, you do just that, while trying to execute some very cool looking moves by pressing the right buttons. My favorite?Elbow Slam (X, B, B). These moves add to your combat Style, while making for some very frenzied action. The problem, however, is that with some camera problems, it feels like you\'re fighting in a claustrophobic corridor, complete with thugs with guns. So, you use weapons to your advantage. And those fall flat. It ends up being a crazy circle with you in the middle.

Appropriateness

The game has no cussing, no blood, and no gore. In about three levels, however, there are guards using \'God\' as a complaint, saying their feet are hurting. That\'s about it. And then you have Spidey beating thugs and villains up, which at times is a very hard task. There are also some deaths that happen to you that are not so pleasant. Overall, a pretty clean game, with the objections of violence, and, of course, that guard thing.