Ultimate Spider-Man

Moby ID: 22927
PlayStation 2 Specs
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When 15-year-old Peter Parker was bitten by a genetically altered spider he became faster, stronger, more agile and gained the spider-like ability to cling to walls. Add web shooters and a costume and Peter becomes Spider-Man. Eddie Brock, Jr. is Peter’s childhood friend. In search of his scientist father’s legacy, Eddie came in contact with a symbiotic suit which transformed him into the monstrous Venom. Ultimate Spider-Man follows both their Brian Michael Bendis-scripted adventures, as Spidey attempts to prevent Venom from killing innocents while Venom seeks to avoid S.H.I.E.L.D.’s machinations.

The Ultimate version of the Spider-Man mythos revamps the franchise, bringing in edgier (and often younger) versions of famous superheroes and supervillains. The Human Torch, Wolverine, Electro, and Green Goblin are some of the Ultimate characters who make appearances. Ultimate Spider-Man features a fully rendered, cel-shaded Manhattan open to exploration.

With few exceptions, Spider-Man and Venom can explore Manhattan and Queens, climbing, jumping, and web swinging away. Story missions show up as hot spots on the map as do other in-game objectives. When the player is done patrolling (or destroying) the city, they can hit these hot spots to advance the story. Between story missions, Spider-Man and Venom can follow race paths, go on combat tours, discover and collect hidden icons, and help (or hurt) the citizens of New York.

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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

588 People (406 developers, 182 thanks) · View all

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 77% (based on 59 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 57 ratings with 2 reviews)

A great spider-man game that should go in your PS2 library

The Good
Gameplay- The combat in this is fast and slick and easy to do with a lot of fighting, you should to some serious damage. The web-swinging is also fast and you freedom to climb up your web or jump off as well as web zipping all over the city.and playing as venom is BADASS. Graphics- This game takes the whole comic-book feel seriously with mark bagley artwork all over the game. it's really cool. Sound/Music- The music is a mix of a hero, techno, villainy score that fits the game really well. Voice Acting in this is great from Spider-man sounding like a 15-year-old to venom being really scary. it's great listening to.

The Bad
Story- The story is to follow the ultimate spiderman comic series, mostly after issue #39 but if you have never read it does not explained much to you and it can be a bit confusing. it is better than spiderman 2's story. Too short- The game is way too short and you can complete it in 3-4 hours which is sad. Heavy patting- The game forces you to do race's, city goals (Fighting crime) and combat tours which makes the game a chore to do

The Bottom Line
The game is worthy to play to all people who want the ultimate spin.

PlayStation 2 · by Jordan Quinn (3) · 2016

With great cel-shaded graphics there must also come -- great... repetitiveness?

The Good
Ultimate Spider-Man has three major selling points - comic book visual style, Venom, and introducing the Ultimate line of comics to the world of video games. And all of these definitely work - the cel-shaded graphics combined with 3D environments look great, getting to play as the man-eating symbiote - though not for the first time ever - can be really satisfying, and it's nice to get a glimpse of a whole new universe so different from the classic Amazing Spider-Man comics.

But possibly the strongest point of the game lies in its web-swinging mechanics. Moving around New York's skyline feels (relatively) realistic and extremely fun at the same time. Combined with a large open world, it allows you to get genuinely immersed in the Spider-Man experience.

The Bad
However, the game seems to rely too heavily on the open world and the very act of moving around it as Spider-Man. A majority of the missions, both story-related ones and generic semi-optional quests, centers around either a simple beat 'em up in an open area or some form of race or chase scene. While fun at first, these get excruciatingly repetitive over the game's relatively short runtime, especially with some of the story-related chase sequences being unusually unforgiving without really presenting a new challenge.

The boss fights can be mixed bag as well, with some of them having a great flow or really interesting gimmicks, others feeling rather unintuitive or heavily overstaying their welcome.

Ultimate Spider-Man is a bit messy when it comes to storytelling too, as there's generally no link between the main storyline centered around the Venom suit and other elements. And while it's understandable how an isolated Shocker or Rhino fight might just happen to your friendly neighbourhood superhero at any time, there's also a Beetle/Green Goblin subplot that seems like it's a part of a larger arc, but doesn't actually lead anywhere (at least not within the game).

The Bottom Line
Ultimately (get it?), the game looks great and has some really strong points which make it a fun experience overall, but fails to really utilize them. Relying too heavily on simplified open-world exploration and web-related mechanics, it fails to provide any focused and creative level design and ends up being rather repetitive. 6/10

Windows · by Pegarange (282) · 2023

Discussion

Subject By Date
Screenshot captions greenseeker Nov 4, 2022

Trivia

Awards

  • GameSpy
    • 2005 – Best Use of License of the Year (PC)

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Terrence Bosky.

GameCube, Windows, Xbox added by Sciere.

Additional contributors: Sciere, Patrick Bregger.

Game added July 5, 2006. Last modified December 17, 2023.