Spider-Man 3

Spider-Man 3 for the Wii launches alongside the cinematic debut of the film. With fans everywhere hoping to get some of that spidey action at home, where better than the Wii? A sensible assumption one might presume, but sooner rather than later it becomes apparent that it's all a little underwhelming.

Jumping straight into the game you will be presented with a short tutorial on the controls, whilst actually taking part in the very first mission at the same time. Within thirty minutes you will have the strange desire to switch the console off, that much is guaranteed. Yes, the controls and the camera actually are that frustrating. Whilst you will get used to the controls after around an hour's learning curve, they will always be problematic, especially when the camera is expected to be even slightly reasonable.

 

To describe the controls in more detail, picture you are in the game for a moment. The nun chucks pad's stick is to move around, the Z button is to jump and the C button is to align the camera (or attempt to look around, and fail). The Wiimote's A button is for a large slow attack where the B button is for web attacks. To attack normally you wave the Wiimote back and forth, to dodge you wave the nun chuck down and up, still with me? Okay good, that's the basics covered then. With all that out of the way we can begin by web slinging through the city by simply pressing Z, swinging the nunchuck forward, pressing Z again for the left hand (B for the right hand), A to increase your swing, let go of Z at the peak, swing the nunchuck forward and press Z on the decent. Oh and please don't forget that you need to guide spidey with the analogue stick or you will be eating brick. Phew, that was quite a mouthful.

It may actually be possible to stomach the controls if it wasn't for the unbelievably poor camera, which somehow manages to make even the simplest situations a huge challenge and frustration. Whenever the camera comes into contact with another object it could be anyone's guess what happens next, often you will find Spider-Man decides to leap in the opposite direction you were heading.

 

Without making the situation look too bleak, it's time to move onto the graphics. Maybe we will see a huge improvement in the game so far? Unfortunately that is not the case, whilst it is common knowledge that the Wii has never attempted to be a powerful machine, there is simply no reason that any of its titles should look this bleak, providing graphics that would make even the Gamecube blush. Not only is the city poorly detailed with jaggies galore streaming on every item in view, but everything from lighting to texturing is just as poor. The worst aspect of the game by far is the unbelievably poor draw distance, which you will find has the city's many buildings magically appearing in-front of Spider-Man as he swings towards them, often texture-less. The most extreme example of this comes from swinging above the town, where every building in view will likely have no textures what-so-ever; leaving an environment that looks more like a bar chart than a bustling cityscape.

The game follows the typical "GTA style" that has become common in previous Spider-Man games, this type of style works fantastic with the Spider-Man universe. The actual storyline however is a strange mix of events that attempt to blend the movie's storyline into a mix of other plots that have no relevance. The overall design of the game may have been welcomed if it wasn't for the fact that the majority of the missions are simply moving from point A to B, whilst beating up a few easy enemies in-between or defusing the odd bomb. Boss encounters aren't much of an improvement, leaving new and interesting scripted events ruined by dull simple timed actions, such as "move Wiimote left" within a few seconds to progresss in the battle.

 

Thankfully there's not many negative points that can be said about the audio, not because the audio is good (far from it), simply because there is not much of it to comment on. You will find that the majority of your time in the cityscape won't be even remotely realistic, as often there will be silence filling the streets. Not only are the sound effects horrendous, but the voice acting is poor, with even the stars from the movie leaving cheesy dialogue lines poorly spoken.

Worry not; one of the good features of Spider-Man 3 (depending on how you look at it) is that you won't have to endure it for too long, as the game is relatively short, easily be completed in around 6-8hours. The main storyline has been shortened in comparison to the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions. The game does however feature a good deal of bonus material to enjoy, if you enjoy completing all aspects of a game then this will no doubt add many hours of gameplay.

Overall I would not recommend this title to any gamer out there. If you must own a Spider-Man title then I would sway you to another version from one of the many other consoles providing a better experience (with the exception of PS2, which is very similar to the Wii title).