EXCLUSIVES

In 1962, Peter Parker and his story of how he became Spider-Man appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 from Marvel Comics. After his arrival, he soon became one of the most beloved super-heroes in the world of comics. Now he has come to be Mac by way of Aspyr's Spider-Man, which is destined to become one of the most beloved games to arrive on the Mac.

In the game, Spidey has been framed for taking a piece of technology from former arch-villain Dr. Otto Octavius. Spidey has to find out why he has been framed while fighting some of his classic super-villains, including my favorite two, Venom and Carnage.

Spider-Man is a ported from the original PlayStation game from Activision. It's built on the Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 engine, and the third-person 3D action becomes quite addictive. The graphics are fantastic, crisp and clear, and the camera moves smoothly. It worked great on my iMac DV SE 500MHz with 1G of RAM.

The Story

Peter Parker, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, is at a speech where the criminally reformed Dr. Otto Octavius is demonstrating a piece of wondrous technology that will benefit humankind. But wait! Someone dressed as Spider-Man steals this technology, and Peter Parker has to solve who actually did it and why.

Now, the police, J. Jonah Jameson, and all the villains are all after our fave superhero - what's a Spider-Man to do? Well, start an adventure of thirty-four tough levels, culminating with an all-out battle with major Spidey villains. Spider-Man first has to go to the Bank. To go there, Spidey has to slings webs across the rooftops of Manhattan skyscrapers. While at the bank, you have to solve some not-so-challenging puzzles, all the while fighting bad guys and rescuing hostages.

Next, The Scorpion is taking out revenge on the man who made the Scorpion who he is, J. Jonah Jameson, the Editor of The Daily Bugle. Scorpion wants to kill JJ, but Spidey has other plans. Once again, you have to web across the skyscrapers of Manhattan. At the Bugle, Spidey has to beat Scorpion and save J. Jonah to win the level.

The next few levels in Spider-Man are perhaps the most challenging and rewarding. Once again, Spidey finds himself at the top of skyscrapers, this time avoiding the NYPD as they send men and air support to catch him. You have to fight the police on top of the buildings, as well as avoid machine-gun fire and missiles fired at you. These levels take some practice and are very challenging.

After completing the challenging rooftop police chase, Spidey finds himself in a fight with Rhino. Rhino wants to buck Spider-Man, but this level is easy to complete. Once you finish off Rhino, Spidey finds out that Venom has kidnapped Mrs. Spider-Man, Mary Jane Parker. Spider-Man has to follow Venom through a series of rooftop challenges and underground tunnels and then battle to save Mary Jane from imminent death.

After this level, Spidey teams up with Venom. You has to back to the Bugle and look up some info on Dr. Octopus. Once there, you will run into the squishy, slimy parasitic lifeforms known as Symbiotes. Spider-Man battles his way throughout the Daily Bugle and finds that Symbiotes are all over New York. Then, in the climatic battle... well, you have to find that one out yourself.

Spidey has the all the super powers he needs to fight his arch-villains. He can jump like a spider, he can use his webbing to swing from building to building, zip-line from side to side of a hallway or floor-to-ceiling, and he can spray his enemies with webbing to snare them with stickiness. He also can use his webbing to create a sharp paw to hit his enemies with a more powerful punch, or he can make a dome of webbing to protect him from his enemies for a short time. Spider-Man has a powerful punch and kick and can jump far distances. He can use his "Spidey-Sense" to find out when danger is coming and where enemies are. The screen lights up when Spider-Man's Spidey-Sense is alerted.

Game play is simplistic straight-ahead fighting with puzzles along the way for Spidey to figure out. Its takes awhile to figure out how to sling around using the web and to use the 3D for fighting, so there are training games for each of Spidey's super powers.

Once you get to the story, the three-dimensional world is fun and authentic to the comic book. It's fun to explore, and fun to fight and pretend you are a super-hero. One great thing is that you can have four different skill levels. This will help those young game players who can't play with the older players. The different skill levels are Kid, Easy, Normal, and Hard.

Spider-Man himself is greatly detailed, as are all the arch villains, Dr. Octopus, Scorpion, Mysterio, Venom, and Carnage. You can find hidden power-ups that let you get different costumes for Spidey. You also can find a cheat that lets you play in ten different Spider-Man costumes, including Symbiote Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2099.

The backgrounds in Spider-Man are simple compared with games like Giants: Citizen Kabuto, but they seem to fit in with the game. The buildings around Manhattan are simplistic in design, but they are in the comics as well. The movies in between levels are too plain, and they have no mouth movement to match the speech. Some movies can be skipped, but not all, which was irritating.

Of course, this was a game that was original for the PlayStation, so this game is made for a game pad. I recommend getting one, because using the keyboard can get quite tiring. Once you get the hang of kicking, punching and spinning webs, the game controlling is fun.

In conclusion, Spider-Man is a fun, addictive game for both young and old. It makes you feel like a super-hero yourself.

http://www.aspyr.com/mini-sites/spider/
Aspyr, $39.99

Mac OS 8.6 or later-OSX compatible, G3 266 or faster, 64 MB memory, OpenGL 1.1.2, CarbonLib 1.0.4 or greater, ATI Rage Pro with 6 MB video memory, Quicktime 4.1.2 or later