Spider-Man 2 3D: NY Subway
Spider sense is tingling! Avoid. this . crappy. game!
When VCAST first debuted on Verizon back in February, we downloaded the entire suite of games to great disappointment. The 3D revolution on handsets was a mixed bag of the first degree with a couple games making use of the tech while the other treated polygons as a cheap gimmick. Spider-Man 2 3D: NY Rooftops unfortunately fell into the latter category, but that didn’t stop Sony Pictures Digital Mobile from going through with the second chapter of the planned trilogy, Spider-Man 2: NY Subway.
Maybe if you all agree to not download it, we can stop Sony before it kills again.
Spider-Man 2: NY Subway is a bad game. There’s just no way around it. The 3D action game spawns five mini-games — none of which are fun. The game starts out with Spidey sitting on top of a subway car, webbing guns out of the hands of criminals as they speed by on an opposite train. The game simplistic and dull. The next game has you dodging Doc Ock’s tentacles on the same train, occasionally splashing him in the face with some webbing. You must watch Spider Sense icons on the bottom of the screen to see where his tentacle will strike next and dodge it by pressing the thumbpad in different directions. Zzz.
The third game is perhaps the worst of them all. You must swing after a runaway car by timing button presses with dot on a meter in the top corner of the screen. There may be some cool 3D action happening on the main part of the screen, but because you cannot look away from the meter, you can’t enjoy it. The fourth game has Spider-Man running across the top of a subway car, jumping over and ducking under steel girders. And finally, the fifth game, «Special Attack,» is a retread of the number key button masher from the first game that wasn’t fun then and sure as hell isn’t fun now.
The game features some decent 3D (but not as good as the first game), but refuses to use it in an engaging way. It’s 3D because it can be, it does not enhance the game play whatsoever. But, really, what can enhance some un-fun mini-games? Spider-Man 2: NY Subway does VCAST no favors, nor the Spider-Man license.
Verdict
Wowza, this is a bad game. Spider-Man 2: NY Subway should not be downloaded not only to save your gaming dollars for better wares, but to send a message to all developers that D-grade licensed games will not be rewarded. If you want a good Spider-Man experience on your phone, download one of the 2D games released a while back if they are still on the deck. Otherwise, fight the temptation and spend elsewhere. This game is far from heroic.
Spider-Man 2 3D: NY Rooftops
Review: Spidey swings into acton, but after a few frustrating games, you may swing away.
Sony Pictures Mobile knows what an incredible ace they have with the «Spider-Man» license. It’s instantly recognizable, and thanks to some great flicks and video games, the brand is associated with quality. Which is one of the reasons Spider-Man 2 3D: NY Rooftops is something of a disappointment. Like New York City itself, it has some spectacular views, but the underbelly can be real ugly.
Spider-Man 2 3D: NY Rooftops is comprised of a handful of multi-level mini-games that require rhythm and skill to complete. These mini-games, though, are an absolute mixed bag, as some are fun and other numbingly frustrating to no end. But it must be said that no matter the caliber of the mini-game, everything is given the star treatment with good visuals and a great respect for the license itself.
One of the mini-game has you climbing the side of a building as Doctor Octopus unfurls his tentacles toward you. You have three Spider Sense indicators at the top of the screen that light up when a tentacle is about to drop down that third of the route. You then have a split-second to get out of the way. This is deceptively easy at first, but by the time you score high enough to play the third level, the tentacles come down almost too fast and in the frenzy of dodging, you can lose track of which of the three columns you are standing in. The fact that the camera is located to the side of the building, not behind you, doesn’t help — but it does provide a 3D view.
On top of the building, you must confront a series of thugs. Using the number pad, you must play a game of Dance Dance Revolution hitting number sequences as they pass through a sensor at the top of the screen. Miss a number and the thug gets the drop on you. Hit them all, and then nail the «OK» key when the Spider symbol crosses the mark and you’ll pull of a web-slinging move to finish them off without being attacked at all. Do yourself a favor a turn the music off during this mini-game, as the numbers do not move in the rhythm of the music. The game is much easier when you can just concentrate on the numbers.
The next game has you crawling back down the building, avoiding more tentacles. The fourth sequence shows you swinging between rows of skyscrapers, filling a meter on the top of the screen to make the next successful swing. This game is good fun, and probably the best of the bunch since it’s not only the fun kind of challenging, but the camera is your friend, too. Finally, you confront Doc Ock directly, throwing webbing into his tentacles to stop his advancing attacks. This is a feverish mini-game, and also far more entertaining than the first two challenges.
Spider-Man 2 3D: NY Rooftops is a looker, no doubt. The Spider-Man model looks good, complete with an accurate costume. But it’s the animations that are truly the crowd-pleaser. When you are fighting bad guys on the rooftops, Spidey will wind them up in his web and then fling them to the ground triumphantly. And smoothly. The in-game music is solid, too.
Verdict
Spider-Man 2 3D: NY Rooftops isn’t a home run, but it’s a solid double. The visuals are more pleasing than the game itself, which is an assemblage of mini-games of varying success. Some of them are simple, some are fun, some are maddening — and not in that «gotta keep tryin'» maddening way, either. More in the «I’m going to throw this $300 phone» kind of maddening. And, well, I certainly don’t want you to do that. Then you can’t watch «Daily Show» clips.
Spider-Man 2 3D: NY Rooftops Review
From start to finish, Spider-Man 3D: NY Rooftops feels like a soulless tech demo.
By Avery Score on February 9, 2005 at 12:13PM PST
At this stage in mobile gaming, three-dimensional graphics are often a gimmick, and many times they are included at the expense of decent gameplay. Spider-Man 2 3D: NY Rooftops is a good example of this phenomenon, but it is by no means a good game.
Spider-Man 2 3D isn’t a cohesive experience; instead, it’s a collection of frustrating timing-based minigames. These snippets of gameplay are loosely connected by a poorly translated plot involving Doctor Octopus. In the first scene, you’ll have to dodge his mechanized tentacles as you ascend a building. This involves having to rapidly switch between three different paths up the building in order to avoid his incoming arms. Occasionally, all three arms will descend at once, which leaves you with no way to dodge them. This is tremendously aggravating, and it seems like a design flaw. The next game is a fighting sequence in which you must use rhythm action-style timed presses to complete devastating combos. In practice, this means you’ll input a bunch of commands and watch Spidey kick butt. This isn’t terribly engaging or rewarding. Yet another minigame involves pressing a button to «ready» Spider-Man to strike in various directions and then commanding him to do so when the time is right.
All of these games are difficult to beat, but not for the right reasons. This may be the game that causes you to break your fancy new phone out of frustration. Watching—powerless—as Spider-Man is beaten to a bloody pulp is downright demoralizing. There’s not very much content here, but the game’s oppressive difficulty means it will take you at least one to two hours to beat. Simply put, this game doesn’t even provide lasting anguish.
Spider-Man 2 3D’s strong suit is right there in the title: its three-dimensional graphics. While the game’s models are fairly impressive and bear a decent likeness to actual human beings, there’s never a tremendous amount of them displayed onscreen at any given time. In the climbing levels, you’ll see the texture of the building as Spidey attempts to move upward. In the beat-’em-up game, Spidey costars with one thug at a time or with Doc Oc. Unsurprisingly, Spider-Man 2 3D runs at a decent frame rate, although not as fast as other 3D titles on Verizon’s new flagship handset, like Asphalt: Urban GT.
Considering the game is on a phone capable of playing MP3 audio, Spider-Man 2 3D’s sound is pretty poor. A single repetitive loop plays unyieldingly throughout this entire train wreck of a game. You’ll want to disable the audio pretty quickly.
From start to finish, Spider-Man 3D: NY Rooftops feels like a soulless tech demo. It’s got some graphical chops, sure, but no gameplay to back it up. Chalk this one up to mobile growing pains.