How about a quick virtual show of hands? How many of you are planning on rushing out to see the new Spider-Man movie? Ah, just about all of you. Just as I expected.

Now, how many of you had plans to go and pick up the video game?

Wow, look at those hands drop.

Really, that is not an unexpected reaction. Not all of us are “gamers” in any sense of the word. Even those of us who are have enough experience with video games based on both comics and movies to know that 90% of the time, they are simply abysmal. Five minutes with any Superman game should tell you almost all you need to know about the average comic book video game – stay away.

This is not to say that there hasn’t been a few gems out there – but the complete package is a rare thing indeed. The best “comic” games are typically those that focus on one aspect of the comic world, and do so in the simplest manner possible. Fighting games usually – your Marvel vs. Capcom and X-Men: Next Dimension, for example. These games typically do a great job with the combat aspect of comic characters, but the leveling of the playing field (Gambit standing toe-to-toe with Juggernaut?) does have a tendency at times to make a hard-core comic fan wince. And the lack of overall character “experience” and story usually leave these games somewhat lacking in the end.

Some comic games focus more on the story than the combat aspects of a character, instead trying to make the game have the feel of reading a comic book. The Danger Girl game for the Playstation is a good example of this. The downside to games like this is that in the end, the creators of the game focus too much on getting the details of the characters and stories right, and in the end make a poor video game. Once you get over the “cool” factor of playing as the Danger Girls in a game, you realize that the game is really little more than a poor shooter.

It is a tough formula to master, the comic book video game, and up to this point I haven’t really seen a game that could capture the concept quite right. I recently got the opportunity to sample the upcoming release of the Spider-Man 2: The Game, and I have to say that my perceptions of what a comic book game should be about has radically changed.

This game, rather than focusing primarily on the movie plot (I could write a whole column about the faults of video games based upon movies), the designers of this game instead take the approach of creating a game where you actually get to experience what it is like to be Spider-Man. Based upon my short experience with the game, I have to say that they succeeded wildly.

Environment

The first key aspect of this game that separates it from other games in the past is the world that they have put Spider-Man into. The creators of this game painstakingly recreated Manhattan – Spider-Man’s playground. From north to south, top to bottom, the whole city has been set up to be an extremely close approximation of the real thing. Even on the street, there are working traffic lights, and pedestrian and car traffic which actually obeys the signals, and flows much like a normal city would. You could spend hours just swinging through the city exploring – already that is a huge plus for the game.

Now you might think that load-time would be an issue here, but it isn’t. You can roam the entire city in any direction and have no transitional load time whatsoever upon entering other areas of the city. Even with the buildings that you can enter from the outside, you simply walk in without that annoying load-time pause. A real bonus there.

The web slinging is perhaps one of the biggest steps forward here. Many of you may remember old Spider-Man games, where areas where swinging through buildings was not quite as real as it might be. Usually the environment consisted of the tops of buildings, spread apart a bit more than a normal building would, and extending down only so far. Here, Spider-Man can venture to the very top of the Empire State Building, all the way down to the street itself without “dying” because he left the map area. However, a plummet from the top of a really tall building will cause Spidey to go SPLAT, if you don’t throw out a web-line before it is too late.

The mechanics of web-slinging are also greatly improved. Rather than simply shooting out a web-line and swinging, in this game, there actually has to be something there for the other end of the line to attach to. The designers of this game have also incorporated a pendulum motion to the web-swing, actually getting the physics of the act right for a change. If you swing, and the ground happens to hit before the pendulum reaches its trough, the swing ends and you are on the ground. If you are swinging at an angle or around a corner and happen into a building, you can run along the edge, jump off, shoot out another line, and continue your trip with incredible smoothness. I can’t speak highly enough about this new mechanic – and I was not kidding when I said that you could literally swing through the city for hours doing little else, and still have a blast. The mechanics are simple enough to pick up very quickly, and versatile enough to keep you busy for weeks learning all of the tricks and acrobatic flourishes that will make your web-slinging truly spectacular. Just about anything you can imagine Spider-Man doing in this case can be done – and that by itself makes this game one heck of a fun experience.

Missions

There are three basic types of missions – Random, Solicited, and Story missions.

Your Random missions come into play as you swing through the city “on patrol.” You will occasionally hear a cry for help, and just as Spider-Man would, it is up to you to save the day. A purse-snatching? A robbery? Even a small child losing a balloon – no task is too small for your friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man. These missions add just one more touch to the Spider-Man experience – and though these missions are not required, you can earn points through them to use to purchase upgrades like moves and other little character advancements.

Solicited missions are those that you seek out and agree to complete. Be they photography assignments from the Bugle, or random tasks you agree to complete by talking to a shop owner, these missions will send Spidey out into the city often in search of something or someone. Much like the Random missions, these are not necessarily required to complete the game, but you can earn valuable points for upgrades and other goodies.

Story missions are required to advance the game, but can often be put off until you are ready to attempt them. At some point during the game, you will “realize” that you have an appointment to keep, or that there is someone you must go and see, and an indicator will appear on the screen telling you where you need to go. These missions typically tie into the plot from the movie itself – hence “The Movie Game.” These are not all missions that tie into the film – there are several characters that appear in the game from the comics themselves, including Rhino, Shocker, and the Black Cat. Little touches like that make this far more than a simple movie game, and should appeal to the comic fans.

Resources

One thing about past Spider-Man games that I found annoying was the use of “webbing” as a resource. Not that it wasn’t a valid aspect – as the comic Spider-Man did have a limited supply of webbing, but I found that you often had far less than you would think Spider-Man would carry along with him. Those who can’t really stand the fact that the movie Spider-Man has “organic webbing” might appreciate that fact in this game, as webbing no longer is a resource. So web-sling to your heart’s content – you will still have more then enough webbing left over for that huge fight.

In its place, you now have a new resource – Spider-sense. Tap a button at any time during a fight and you enter Spider-sense mode, where you speed up, and your opponents slow to a crawl. This makes dodging their attacks a great deal easier. Bullets even travel more slowly, allowing for spectacular evades. You also get a visual indication when an enemy is about to strike you, preventing you from getting nailed by a surprise attack, if you are quick enough. Of course, the fact that this is a resource means that you can only stay in spider-sense mode for a limited amount of time – though your meter does regenerate on its own after a while.

Touches

Of course, I do have to mention that the voice-overs for the major characters are done by the actors from the movie – with Bruce Campbell returning to serve as the voice of your “trainer.” There are several icons throughout the city which you can run over, and Bruce’s voice will pipe-up, telling you about a particular ability that you should learn. Pretty helpful, especially when you first start playing the game. I have always been a big fan of “in-game” training, and there is a wealth of it here.

In a nice touch of realism, your webbing remains in place for a short time after you have used it. If you do a lot of swinging in a small area, you can look up and find your lines dangling in the wind. Not sure how long they remain in place, but one can only assume that the web-fluid “dissolves” over time.

The map is also a nice feature – when you activate the map, the camera zooms back, giving you a bird’s-eye view of the city. Key locations are marked throughout the city, letting you know the places you need to go to get and accomplish missions and purchase upgrades. A big help – especially if you find that you have gotten lost, are trying to reach a particular landmark, or just want to get to the tallest part of the city for some really exciting web-slinging. The map interface is fairly simple – accessing the map requires nothing more than a simple press of a button. Plus there is a zoom in/out feature, allowing you to find both local and widespread objectives with relative ease.

Bottom Line

I am both a comic book fan and an avid video game fan, and this game sure satisfies both in me. As a comic fan, Spider-Man’s abilities in the game are about as close as you can get to the web-slinger himself, and that is extremely satisfying. And as a “comic” video game, this one succeeds where so many others have failed before it – actually making it a fun game to play on its own, even setting aside the comic book aspects.

Spider-Man 2: The Game is set to be released in stores on June 29th, for all three major platforms and the PC (I think the PC version is coming out at the same time, but I may be mistaken). This is going to be one seriously fun game that I have to recommend to all of you – I can promise that you won’t be disappointed by this one like we all have with so many comic games in the past.

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