 Dreamcast
owners finally get the chance to play one of 2000's best action games,
courtesy of Treyarch. The developers of the Dreamcast version of
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 have ported last year's PlayStation and
Nintendo 64 game to the venerable Sega Dreamcast. Better late
than never, I guess. The good news is that the game retains all
of the qualities that made it such a fun game on those older
systems. The bad news is that those frustrating camera problems
have also been faithfully translated as well.
Spider-Man
puts the player in the role of everyone's favorite wall-crawling
superhero. As the game begins, a Spider-Man imposter makes off
with one of Doctor Octavius' new inventions that's being showcased at
an exhibit. In an effort to keep his name clear, Spider-Man must
act quickly. For some reason, many of Spider-Man's enemies have
chosen this particular day to be active, including the Rhino,
Scorpion, and Venom. Some of Spidey's friends make cameos too,
like DareDevil, Black Cat and the Human Torch. The
game's levels are all broken down into different sections, usually one
that involves some swinging from building to building, then some
fighting or pursuing, and then a boss battle. There's just
enough variety in each level to keep things from getting dull or
repetitive. The odd puzzle element is thrown in from time to
time, but these are the exception to the rule and most of them are not
terribly difficult. Keeping the player's frustration level to a
minimum seems to have been a goal of the game's programmers. Spider-Man
includes Hard, Normal, Easy and Kid difficulty selections and that
makes the game an excellent choice for gamers of all skill levels.  Since
Spider-Man is a port from the PlayStation version, the graphics
do not take advantage of the Dreamcast's capabilities. That's
not to say the game doesn't look better on the Dreamcast, because it
does; it just doesn't look like a late generation Dreamcast
game. Only the textures have really been improved, with a nice,
solid 30 fps framerate giving the game a fluidity it lacked on the
PlayStation. Still, one wonders what a true Dreamcast specific
version of the game could have accomplished. Oh, well. I
guess I should be happy the game made it to the Dreamcast at all.
In
the sound department, Spider-Man shines thanks to top-notch voice work
and music. Stan Lee, the mind behind the Marvel Universe, is his
usual, enthusiastic self as he narrates the action. The voices
of the individual characters are all first-rate as well. Some of
the dialogue is classic, especially that of Venom. Sound
effects, such as punching and kicking noises, fit right into the comic
book world that's been created here. The music is also quite
good, with the opening theme taking a cue from the old cartoon series
theme. The background music is unobtrusive and appropriate. Controlling
the game isn't hard at all. Spider-Man can climb, swing, shoot
various types of webs, punch, kick and pull off a few fighting moves
with relative ease. The only real problem with control involves
the game's camera, which sometimes makes it difficult to figure out
either a) where Spidey is or b) where he's going. Since
Spider-Man can climb walls and ceilings, the camera appears to get
disoriented and this belies the game's "frustration-free"
nature. It's not a fatal flaw, but a glaring one
nonetheless. If this could have been fixed for the Dreamcast
version, I might have even accepted the game with the same graphics as
the PlayStation version.  Overall,
Spider-Man is a great action game with enough variety to
guarantee it should find a prime spot in your Dreamcast library.
However, if you've already played through the PlayStation or Nintendo
64 version of the game, it's really not different enough to warrant
another purchase. If you've yet to experience it, and you've got
a Dreamcast, this version is the one to buy. Don't let the
camera flaws dissuade you. As superhero games go, Spider-Man
is at the top of the heap.
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