Spiderman has always been my favorite hero, since I was 10 the cartoon the comics I used to love it all. I always remember getting spiderman 1 and 2 on the Ps 1 and playing it to death, then the next generation came. So did the movies Spiderman 1 was a massive box office hit, and the game that followed was the begging of the new look for spidy adding free roam. We would never look back to the platforming on the ps 1 until now, spiderman shattered dimensions brings it back to the PS1 spidy.
The part that makes this more obvious (spoilers) is the opening narrated by none other that Stan lee himself; witch is almost identical to the original spidy game on the ps1. The game begins with this tablet called the tablet of order and chaos, being stolen by Mystirio and then being shattered by spiderman. This then starts Spidys journey to get all the pieces back, not on his own with help from 3 other spidys Ultimate, Noir and 2099.
Lets start with amazing spidy, the basic controls are the same through out with all the different spidys, with a few differences in animation. Amazing spiderman is all about web-based combat tearing up the ground with his web and hitting the enemy with the ruble. The graphic design is perfect each level feels like it was taken from the comic itself.
Noir spidy (my least favorite one) Noir is abit of a mood kill for me the pacing is really fast in all the other dimensions, but in Noir its all about stealth I played through the game on hard and 9 times out of 10 if you get caught you will die. This doesn’t annoy me as its my fault I got caught, but the problem is if you go to attack the guy is cant be hit every attack is blocked making it near to impossible to retaliate so the only option is retreat then come back and try again. The one thing I will say though is if Noir were given its own game like Arkum asylum it would have been a lot better.
Ultimate spidy (my favorite one) Ultimate is action packed with witty dialog that I love form spiderman. The style is very similar to amazing, but with the added power of the black suit witch gives spiderman rage mode witch is built up over time by dishing out combos. Ultimate has a good feel and the writing for this one stands out the most.
No on to the last spidy 2099 the flow of 2099 is speed from the free fall moment to the combat, it’s so fast that the developer put a slow down time button. The bright lights of the future is and the visuals are intense this is the only one where I wish I could go explore this awesome looking city whilst weaving in and out of hover cars.
The games main features are the different universes the art styles are different and so is the combat in each one. The let downs of the game is the fact there isn’t a realistic swing mechanic and that Noir levels slow the pace of the game down a lot. One of the best things about the game is the combat the dodging looks cool and the combat is exiting and feels good when you pull of a awesome combo. For a game that is for the most part linier, there are a lot of things to do every level has a set amount of challenges to do completing them will earn you points witch you can spend on upgrades like more health or better combos and even costumes.
All together this is a nicely made game with a few flaws I loved the idea of Noir its just a shame that it fell a little flat if it had its own game I think it would of done a lot better. The swinging mechanic is a little lame but forgivable the web zipping makes up for it 10 fold though. The camera is annoying sometimes but this has been a regular theme for spiderman games when you can walk on walls go upside down its pretty hard to stay in focus. This game is worth renting but you should definitely buy it if you are a spidy fan the boss fights are awesome and I will gladly play some of the levels again and again.
