PS2 Week: Spider-Man 2

A big greetings and welcome back to Day 2 of PS2 Week. We are slamming into high gear with a fast paced story arc enthused Marvel Comics character that many of us know. After the success of its predecessor Spider-man, a few complaints went out on the game's handling and lack of Spidey like capabilities and the folks of Sony heard their cries. A loosely based adaptation of the film Spider-Man 2 was called into production and the cast of the film voice cast the lot. Activision went to work creating a single-player action adventure to the likes the wall-crawler fans had not seen. This is Spider-Man 2.

Concrete can chafe a butt folks,  just an FYI from Spidey.

Made for PC and platform consoles such as: Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, N-Gage, Mac, Nintendo DS and PSP (Playstation Portable) this game got standing reviews and love as it had the option to continue on the storyline after the tutorial (voiced by that Bruce Campbell fellow of Evil Dead and Burn Notice) or allowing you to do side quests fending off thugs and baddies in true red and blue Spidey fashion. With street scum armed with SMGs, pistols, crowbars and bare knuckles you can easily dispatch them with a few punches and puns. Peter Parker a.k.a. Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire of Deconstructing Harry, Pleasantville, Wonderboys, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Labor Day and Pawn Sacrifice) of has been in the spandex for two years cutting down on NYC's crime rate all the while trying to balance school, work and being with his family and friends when he has to thwart a museum art heist, the muscle bound Rhino starts tearing up downtown Manhattan and you guessed it, a certain superhero has to put the kibosh on that. No, not Superman. Spider-Man. Sheesh, get with it.

Hehe just mooned Trump.

Following the unfortunate creation of Doctor Octopus (Voiced by Alfred Molina of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Species, Chocolat, and An Education) in the film, the blame for all his failures, foibles and the loss of his wife is clearly Spider-Man's fault so why not start some crime? According to the Spider-Man universe, science just equals bad. Unlike its predecessor, this game lets Spidey go all over Manhattan, Roosevelt Island, Ellis Island and even Liberty Island to help and aid folks calling out his name, giving him hero points to put to skill sets and upgrading his performance over all. A bit like steroids without all that abuse. The 3D aspect of web slinging is like nothing else of its time. Given the typical jumping and static swinging, we finally explore Spidey's full range capabilities of swinging and their cause and effect as you are on the move. We are also reintroduced to villains such as: The Shocker and Mysterio distracting our hero with their tomfoolery and general bs but our boy can still put the hurt on them and give them to the cops. Black Cat makes a lengthy appearance voiced by Holly Fields (Brimstone, Wishmaster 2, Fishes, Hip, Edgy, Sexy, Cool, JAG, Shrek 2 Video Game, The Still Life and Superman Returns Video Game)

Interesting little side note here is the console game and the PC game differ quite a bit. In the PC game, Doc Ock is already who he is, the tutorial on managing powers and skills is once again narrated by Bruce Campbell and Rhino busts out of prison after a riot. It's the little things that make the difference from time to time. With the PS2's freestyle web slinging, baddie bopping and in general freedom that is allowed you swear you just stepped into the comic book.

Rhino may not be MENSA material.