Platform	Wii
	Genre	Action / Adventure
	Publisher	Activision
	Rating	4 / 10

Review

My spidey senses are tingling…but wait a minute, doesn’t that mean something bad is about to happen? Well if you go by the new Spiderman 3 movie then NO because Spiderman is completely lacking spidey senses for some reason. Bad movie direction aside, my spidey senses are tingling and for the right reason.

Generally movie tie-in games are a sad representation of the movie and as games, are extremely poor. Spiderman 1 followed this cliché to the letter and was not well received. However, Spiderman 2 was completely different in game style and in the way it was received. Spiderman 2 broke the movie tie-in mould and was actually a really good game. Spiderman 2 took on a Grand Theft Auto style open world and made being Spiderman fun. Being able to do whatever missions you choose instead of following a completely linear storyline gave the user the complete freedom to whatever he/she desired. With this being the main reason for Spiderman 2’s success it’s no surprise that this style of play has been pushed into the Spiderman 3 game. The open world, or New York City in this case it the setting for the new Spiderman 3 game and gives you complete control of your spidey story.

When a new technology, such as the Wii, comes into public use, then there are so many good ideas that crop up on how to use it. This is ever so evident with the ideas for Spiderman 3; however when a good idea is poorly put into action then the result you get does not carry that glimmer that the original idea produced. The designers of Spiderman 3 on the Wii came up with the idea to use the controller and nunchuk as your left and right hand. Genius! This would really make you feel like Spiderman as you web-sling your way around the big apple. But what the designers failed to realise is that when you are not web-slinging you also need to be able to control the character. Flying around New York is a great feeling; flicking your hands in the direction you want to swing is a buzz, but as soon as you his a solid surface, be it wall, floor or ceiling then Spiderman’s elegance and nimbleness is completely thrown out the window. The controls have clearly not been thought out and have been made extremely complicated. You sometimes get the feeling that this game would have been more fun if the classic controller was used as the Wii technology has over complicated the game. But is this Nintendo’s fault or Vicarious Vision? I say a bad workman blames his tools and VV should have thought the controls over more before making the game.

Overall, Spiderman 3 is not a very impressive title. The controls are a nightmare and the graphics are somewhat poor with plenty of pop-up and generic textures for the buildings. The fighting is also complicated due to the poor controls and makes doing even the simplest of missions difficult.

On other formats Spiderman 3 works really well, but the developers failed to adjust the game for the Nintendo Wii technology. The game feels really rushed and can be really frustrating to play.

Screenshots courtesy of tothegame.com