Reviewing 9 Spider-Man games on Nintendo DS

 Hello everyone. I recently played many of the Spider-Man games on Nintendo DS and would like to briefly review them

-1. Spider-Man 2 (2004)

This was the first Spider-Man game released on the Nintendo DS. It was developed by Vicarious Visions and published by Activision and actually set the template for future Spider-Man games on the DS in terms of gameplay.

Unlike it's console counterparts, SM2DS is a linear 2D side scroller that uses 3D graphics, models and environments.

The controls are as follows: You press B to jump and B again in the air to start web swinging. To keep web swinging, you have to time B presses as Spidey's swing animation ends and you can swing faster by holding forward, slow down by holding back and gain height by holding up. Personally, I like the way this game handles web swinging. It works for a linear 2D side scroller by being quick and easy to perform and having to time B presses in rhythm keeps it from being too mindless.

X allows you to shoot a web line. If it touches a surface, Spidey will web zip to it and there's really good range and speed with this. However, due to the small screen size, you won't see what you're web zipping into. If you zip into an enemy, great. You deal damage to them. If it's a hazard like fire, you take damage and it can be hard to react to hazards in time so you have to aim your shots beforehand which can be challenging due to the screen size and perspective. Note that you can't web enemies with this (future games let you do that though). You can shoot at a straight, 45 degree angle or 90 degree angle by using the D-Pad before pressing X.

You can wall crawl by jumping onto a surface and holding the direction corresponding to that surface (such as right for a wall or up for a ceiling). It works well enough but can be a little annoying if you didn't mean to stick to the wall.

Y is for punches and A is for kicks. You can combine them along with directions to perform different attacks. You can also make attacks in the air but it's not as robust or fun as later games' air combat. You an also perform special attacks by pressing R such as web throwing an enemy, sliding into an enemy or shooting impact web. Special attacks drain from a Special Meter that recharges over time.

Combat itself isn't very fun. Spidey lacks defensive options. You can press L at certain moments before certain attacks to enter a slow mo state which can help a bit but there's no dedicated block or dodge command like the console version or later DS Spider-Man games. Enemies also attack quite fast and get frequent invulnerability. So combat often requires quite a slow and defensive play which does conflict with the pace of the game.

The biggest issue with the game is the mission design. SM2DS loves having long and large labyrinthine mazes for levels where you have to scour every last room to find every hostage or criminal. The first level of the game exemplifies this well. You have to rescue 5 hostages from a burning building while fighting criminals. And the maze of a level makes it hard to know where to go next or where the hostages are. The only clue you get is a small audio cue of hostages crying for help when you're near them (and given that my hearing isn't the best and that my 2DS lacks stereo speakers, the help here is limited). There's no map or markers to help you and no checkpoints whatsoever. To jump ahead a bit, this feels like a late game level in a later DS Spider-Man game (and even those offer more help to the player). I remember when I played SM2DS as a kid, I had to actually draw out my own maps of the levels on paper and note all the enemies, hazards and points of interest just to help me out because it was that frustrating. And if you forget one hostage, you have to backtrack through the entire level which really kills the pace. Fortunately as an adult I didn't need to draw stuff anymore but it was annoying when it happened.

It's a shame because I like what the game is going for. Large sprawling levels where you can complete objectives in a non-linear fashion and have bonus tasks for a high end level grade is a good idea. And I'd actually like them in later DS Spider-Man games. But SM2DS makes them more annoying than fun.

The game also has missions that involve boss fights or more traditional levels. These often have touch screen minigames like tapping Mysterio Clones to web them or guiding a ball through a maze like the Operation board game. These are alright.

 

The game's story is mostly an abridged version of the movie. Albeit in the form of static textboxes and stills from the film and console game. So not the most exciting telling of the story but it gets the job done. It is kinda nostalgic seeing those grainy pics ngl.

In conclusion, SM2DS is a solid foundation for future Spider-Man games on DS. But the abundance of mazelike levels (sometimes the same level back to back) and stop and go combat and navigation kill the vibe. I stopped playing the game after getting tired of missing a single enemy in another long level.

Also, bit of an aside but as I was playing this game on my 2DS, my grandmother was watching me play and claimed "this game looks very ugly". I told her this was one of my favourite childhood games and she said "it's still ugly".

-2- Ultimate Spider-Man (2005)

Talk about a massive improvement. USMDS improves on just about all of my criticisms on SM2DS. Vicarious Visions did a great job here taking the foundation of a linear 2D Spider-Man game on DS and improving it.

Let's start with the aesthetic, like its main console counterpart, USMDS tells the same story in slightly less abridged form based on the comic book of the same name. But USMDS goes the extra mile. It seems to draw and animate its own original cutscenes based on the story. And these cutscenes look really good. They feel like a really cool motion comic at times. Like, I could watch an entire movie in this style. It doesn't feel lacking or rushed like SM2DS' cutscenes. It really does feel like USMDS got a decent budget and resources during its development here. This game oozes personality and charm.

 I also like how some of these cutscenes on the DS version manage to outdo their main console counterpart in some areas. Such as Carnage's introduction in the DS version looking and sounding more painful and scary than in the console version which just speeds through it. The final cutscene where Peter learns the truth about his parents and where Eddie finds Trask are also much better directed on the DS. There's a much better sense of pacing and using pauses, shadow and "the reader's own imagination".  Of course, while the action and fight cutscenes are always better on the main console version, I think it's high praise than in some of the story heavy sections, the DS version does the better job than the version on the platforms more powerful than it.

In addition, the cell shaded comic book aesthetic really pops on the small DS screen and looks both visible and quite nice.

Onto the gameplay now. Starting with Spider-Man himself, he has been tweaked to be more agile and fun to control. His attacks now have a wider range and can be done from more positions, his special moves are more useful. He can web throw enemies naturally. But the most important change is the addition of a dodge button. By pressing L at the correct time before an attack, Spidey will phase through the attack. And this can include bullets (which can be seen as they are fired), hazards like fire and even boss attacks (but not electricity for some reason). Honestly, it might be too good. But it significantly speeds up the pace and makes Spidey fun to control. It's so much more fun to play more aggressively, dodging and weaving through attacks and taking on bosses.

 

Attacking enemies also builds up Spidey's special meter which can be used to use certain special moves by pressing R. Some moves require different amounts of meter which drains if you do not keep attacking enemies. You can change moves by tapping the icon on the touch screen which pauses the game, lets you see the name of the move is and how much meter it costs. I like this idea as it gives more combat options but I found many of the moves a bit too situational and mostly just "do a super powerful attack". I think this is something SM2 did a little better with some moves like the slide being a special move. I feel USMDS would be better if there were more conventional moves present that would be more usable in regular combat. Like a better slide where Spidey trips up multiple enemies. Or temporarily webs multiple enemies quickly giving you more space and time. Also, a description of what the move does when you select it would help in better knowing how to use certain moves.

Levels are also more varied. The more maze-like "find all the things" levels from SM2DS are sparingly used. And even when they are, objects of interest are marked with an icon and you're given them as you progress through the level to prevent the player from getting lost with some having occasional timers to keep up the tension. Most levels now task the player with getting through the level, completing some objectives along the way which is far more fun. Oh. And there's mid level checkpoints now which makes completing levels way less frustrating.

 

The touch screen is also used a fair bit. You need to swipe repeatedly when lifting objects or tap objects to complete hacking minigames. I'm not too fond of these. I'd rather they be button based as I find switching to the touch screen in these cases to be a bit of a flow breaker.

Like its main console counterpart, Venom is also playable in certain missions and is important to the story. There are some differences between how Venom and Spidey play. Venom is designed to work with the touch screen more. You can use buttons normally but Venom's levels are designed to get players to use his unique abilities through the touch screen since some of his abilities can't be fully replicated with just buttons.

So Venom can perform claw attacks by pressing X or by tapping in front of him. These attacks are short range and deal more damage. Pressing A or tapping further in front of him will cause him to attack with his tendrils which can damage multiple enemies and have more range. Pressing Y or swiping from Venom will cause Venom to shoot out a tendril to damage certain enemies or "web zip". Pressing L will cause Venom to feed on an NPC to regain health. And you can tap and hold on the touch screen to have Venom shoot out a tendril to carry an object. In Venom's second mission, this is more useful as you can use this to carry mines, rockets, cars and people to damage other enemies or tank damage for you as shields. And like his main console counterpart, Venom slowly takes damage over time as the symbiote is feeding on Eddie Brock so he needs to feed on NPCs to regain health. Venom doesn't have any special moves or meter like Spidey.

However, as cool as Venom is, I feel he isn't as fun to play as compared to Spider-Man. I felt this when fighting certain bosses like Silver Sable and Beetle as both Spidey and Venom fight them in the story. Venom lacks good defensive options. He doesn't really have anything like Spidey's dodge so fights are far riskier. Being able to heal by feeding on NPCs isn't very useful in boss fights since Venom, the NPC and the boss are on the same plane/axis and can deal more damage to Venom while he's feeding than he gain through feeding. Add in the fact his health is constantly draining. I guess you could use an NPC as a shield but I found that awkward to control. I often found that when I played Venom's boss fights, that the best approach was just to focus on rushing down the boss as quickly as possible and try and jump to avoid attacks. It wasn't worth using more of Venom's unique arsenal. In addition, while Venom is technically better at combat than Spider-Man on paper given his long range tendril attacks, in practice, he doesn't feel better at combat than Spidey because Spidey's combat moves get the job done just fine. It's not like later levels require Spidey to take on multiple enemies quickly or something so Venom's advantages don't really feel like advantages.

I know it's unfair to compare a DS game to its main console counterpart but I think it highlights the point. In the main console versions of Ultimate Spider-Man, Spidey can't take down enemies by just beating on them. He has to beat them until they get stunned and then web them up to incapacitate them. It's not very taxing but it does take some time to do. In contrast, Venom defeats enemies by hitting them until they don't get up. And can perform moves like snapping an enemy in half, throwing vehicles at them, his tendril attacks cover a wide area and hurt groups. He can jump quite high to avoid attacks etc. So Venom feels better at combat because he can take down groups of enemies quicker and easier than Spidey can. Even feeding is more useful in 3D since Venom can get away from an enemy more easily, find cover behind a building and feed on NPCs without being at much risk.

 

Ultimate Spider-Man on DS tries its best to emulate its main console version, and it's often a good effort, but things like this make it difficult for it to replicate the feel its counterpart was going for.

I do have some suggestions for how the experience could be better. For starters, maybe Spidey could have to web enemies he knocks down. That way, Venom's ability to just take down enemies feels better. Plus,Venom could have some sort of parry or block to go with his "powerful risk/reward" playstyle.

That's not to say Venom's levels aren't fun. They are. Some of them even involve more puzzle like elements as you use the touch screen to position enemies and hit switches using his tendrils. And the added pressure of his decreasing health always keeps the tension going. It's just that, Venom doesn't feel like an upgrade over Spider-Man as much as he should in the DS version compared to the main console version.

Also, this is an odd point but one thing USMDS does is, at certain points during the story, give the player the option of which 2 missions they want to do first. With some dialogue and level changes happening based on the player's choice. For example, the first time this comes up, Shocker is robbing a bank at the same time Rhino is rampaging through Chinatown. If the player chooses the Shocker mission first, the bank has fewer traps but more of Chinatown is destroyed and more people need to be saved from Rhino. If the player chooses the Rhino mission first, then there's less destruction and people to save in Chinatown but Shocker's goons will have rigged the bank with more bombs.

This is a cool idea but given the short nature of the game and the infrequent use of the idea, it ends up being more of a novelty. Especially as you can't access the other version of missions on a single playthrough. You'd need to start a new save file.

There is one case where the system doesn't really make sense. The final instance of this mechanic is after Venom defeats Carnage/Peter. At this point in the story, Eddie has just gotten full control over the symbiote because he has absorbed Carnage. He's at his most strongest. Peter has just regained consciousness after having spent the past 24 hours drugged with tranquilizers and forced to be a host for a new symbiote he couldn't control. Both Venom and Spidey want to get to Trask now. Venom for revenge and Spidey to get information on Richard Parker. The game lets you choose if you want to play as Venom or Spidey for the next mission. If you choose Venom, Peter attempts to punch Venom, who effortlessly dodges him and knocks him out before starting a rampage through the building to get to Trask. Later, Peter wakes up and you take control of him as you follow the destruction Venom has caused. This makes sense given the story and circumstances.

But if you chose Peter, he casually knocks out Venom with a single punch while dropping quips and heading to find Trask himself. Again. Doesn't really make sense here. I think a better fix for this would have been for Peter's choice to have him trap Venom in the room. Peter then has to hurry to get to Trask before Venom finds a way out. I think this would work better because it better suits the situation and makes more sense.

 

 

Finally, there is a multiplayer component to the game. If 2 people with a copy of the game link up on DS wireless, you can engage in pvp battles using a bunch of characters from the main game. These characters include Spider-Man, Symbiote Spider-Man, Venom and Carnage. It sounds cool but it wasn't very balanced. I know I praised the life out of Spidey's moveset over Venom but Venom can use his grab from singleplayer to completely immobilize Spidey and win every time. It doesn't work on Venom or Carnage. So yeah. I guess I got that situation where Venom's combat ability was better.

So yeah, that's Ultimate Spider-Man on DS. It's a very good game and one I would recommend checking out. Especially if you're a fan of the main console game. This version tries hard to be a demake of it. And while it mostly does a decent job, there are times it outdoes its bigger version particularly in the cutscenes and direction.

-3- Spider-Man: Battle for New-York (2006):

 

An interesting note is that SMBFNY is a prequel to Ultimate Spider-Man. So I feel it's kinda cool that this is a DS game that's a prequel of a DS game that's based on the main console version that's based on a comic book. So we're quite a few layers down the obscurity chart. 

 

So there's no main console version of this game to compare to. But the best way to describe  SMBFNY is "more of Ultimate Spider-Man DS". It retains the same gameplay, graphics, controls (mostly). Has some tweaks and takes place before the events of USMDS. So you'd think I'd absolutely love and enjoy this game. Well........

The biggest change for Spidey is that some of his buttons have been moved around. Such as Y being kick instead of web (which really messed with me throughout the game. And there's no remapping option). And that web is now a finite resource. As you use web, it decreases your reserves. So you can't use it as frequently as you could in USMDS. Though, if you run out, it does recover to like 1 unit after a while. Levels sometimes give you partial refills for defeating enemies. Personally, I don't like this approach. I feel it restricts both your movement and combat opportunities since you can't be as quick with zipping around or as free with webbing and dealing with enemies.

Another complaint I have is with the UI and how special moves are handled. You can still select special moves on the touch screen and you only have 4 instead of the 5 in USMDS, but instead of giving you the name of the move, you just see an unhelpful still of Spidey doing part of move which isn't very helpful in telling you what the move is. At least SM2DS used more stylized icons letting you know what the move was. The game also doesn't pause when selecting moves so it's less useful in hectic situations. I mostly just used the web whip or adrenaline throughout the whole game. In a change, you also now only start with 1 of the 4 moves and randomly unlock the rest as you complete levels. Completing some levels also presents an upgrade screen where you can upgrade Spidey's health, damage, web hold and web reserves up to 4 times each and have 4 upgrades every time. Personally, I'm not really fond of these unlocks as they don't really add anything but don't really take away anything either. Bit of a spoiler but I feel the next games handles this concept better.

Of course, the other big part of gameplay is the Green Goblin. In the Ultimate Universe, Goblin is basically the Hulk but with fire powers. Which is kinda cool. SMBFNY seems to use his appearance USMDS as a base to make the Goblin here. But I don't feel Goblin is that fun to control or play is. If anything, he's less fun than Venom was in USMDS. Goblin's movement is quite slow and his basic attacks are quite weak and simple so he doesn't feel that powerful to play as is. I don't really feel like a monster rampaging around. His fire powers are cool and there's a variety of them but since most drain your fire reserves, they aren't used that much. Mostly to deal with flying enemies and other out of the way enemies. His levels also don't have much variety or gimmicks to keep them interesting.

Again, to compare him to Venom from USMDS, Venom at least had decently fast movement options (and even a good walking speed), wide tendril attacks, the ability to grab and move objects and NPCs throughout a level which could be used for both combat, platforming and light puzzle solving. He also could heal by feeding on NPCs, which he had to since his health was always draining. Playing as Venom did feel a bit like playing as a monster even though it could have been better. Goblin's differences generally make his levels feel more like a drag.

On the aesthetic side, SMBFNY swaps the cutscenes of USMDS in favour of a style closer to that of the Amazing Spider-Man comics. Apparently, these were drawn by actual marvel comic artists and they do look quite good. But I feel the ones in USMDS were a lot more dynamic and striking (despite literally being stills moved around). Plus, it kinda conflicts with the continuity since SMBFNY is supposed to be a prequel to and set in the Ultimate Spider-Man universe. Even the voice actors for Spidey and co are different. But in gameplay, the game uses similar models from USMDS. Even some of the prior voice actor for Spidey's voice clips are used in some places. So it does feel quite a bit jarring. I think it would have been better to stick with the Ultimate aesthetic but I wouldn't be surprised if there were licensing issues there.

Onto the story. The game follows Norman Osborn becoming the Goblin and trying to take on Spider-Man. I know it sounds like I'm summarizing but there's not much going on. I know being a prequel kinda limits what the story. But still, It's not really interesting. Goblin learns that Peter is Spider-Man and initially sets out to take him on because of how becoming the Goblin is making him go insane. But that plotline is forgotten after their first confrontation because of Goblin then taking on SHIELD and making deals with the Kingpin and making his own Goblin army. The latter 2 we don't really get to see. So it's odd when we are playing as Spidey and uncovering what Goblin is up to, but when we switch to Goblin, it doesn't feel like he's done anything. We don't get to make or control Goblin's army when playing as the Goblin so it kinda feels that Goblins levels were tacked on after the fact. Spidey also doesn't really have any larger threat or rivalry with Goblin so there's no real hype for personal stakes for him.

Again, to compare to USMDS' story, Peter feels partly responsible for Eddie becoming Venom. Venom's story where he's being ordered by Trask both move the plot forward and show why Eddie would want revenge against him. Both Peter and Eddie are independently looking into their relationships with the Symbiote. Both Peter and Eddie have a similar goal of getting to Trask, Peter wants to find him and understand his father's secrets. Eddie wants revenge. So there's more going on than just "Spider-Man needs to stop the villain and then repeat". While SMBFNY just does that.

If I could write SMBFNY's story, I would have had it where most of Peter's early story is him learning who this Goblin is. While when we play as Goblin, his missions consist of him thinking Fury is the enemy and making alliances with people like Kingpin to take Fury down as well as setting traps for Peter's friends and family to try and delay Spider-Man. There could have even been more for Spidey to do here. Perhaps have Fury refuse to help him or even hinder him in some cases so the player is sorta rooting for Goblin a bit and have Spidey feel a little miffed about having to also rescue someone kinda rude and unhelpful to him. The ending being Fury respects Spidey more. It wouldn't really be much but might be a bit more interesting.

In conclusion, SMBFNY is more of USMDS, but is lacking much of the quality in the game. Many of SMBFNY's changes either don't add much, make the game a little worse or aren't that good. I'd still say it's better than SM2DS but it's not really worth going out of your way to play.

-4- Spider-Man 3 (2007) 

 

The past 3 DS Spider-Man games had set a pretty similar template. There might have been differences in level design, tweaks to mechanics and different characters but the core controls and design was relatively consistent.

SM3DS makes the most drastic changes to the 2D DS Spider-Man game template yet.

Firstly, the controls. Past Spider-Man were mostly controlled with buttons with the touch screen occasionally being used to select certain moves or complete minigames. SM3DS binds every action aside from basic movement and web swinging to the touch screen. So all your attacks, dodging, web moves, NPC interactions, mission select now all require the use of the touch screen.

Let's start with the basic controls. You move with the d pad or buttons so you can use the touch screen despite your handedness. L or R are used to show points of interest in the level. You jump by pressing up or X.  Pressing up/X or right/left/y/a in the air will cause Spidey to start webs winging. Unlike past Spider-Man DS games, there's no rhythm to time button presses to keep swinging. You can just hold a direction while swinging to continue that direction or increase height.

Wall crawling has a new addition where double tapping up/X while climbing up will cause Spidey to jump up the wall which scales it faster.

Now onto the touch screen controls. You can swipe towards an opponent to attack them. You can chain facing swipes to do combos. Swiping away from an enemy throws them. Swiping up launches them into the air and you can follow up by swiping again. Double tapping anywhere on the touch screen will cause Spidey to shoot web in the direction corresponding to the touch (even though he's on the top screen). You  can temporarily trap certain enemies by webbing them. When webbed, swiping away causes Spidey to yank the enemy towards him and kick him. You can swipe to launch a webbed enemy from a distance. And if you web an airborne enemy, Spidey will automatically web yank him. You can swipe down to make Spidey dodge certain attacks.

You can also unlock addition moves through an in-game shop such as swiping clockwise to do area attacks and webbing an enemy in the air while Spidey is also airborne to have Spidey bring the enemy to him and beat on him while falling. Another cool move is being able rodeo and web slam webbed enemies.

 The cool part is that all of these moves can be combo-ed into each other.

I feel that this is the best iteration of combat so far in a 2D DS Spider-Man game. All the various moves flow into each other well and look and feel quite cool. The game encourages getting combo strings doing all these moves to get extra XP to unlock new moves. Some enemies are also immune to certain moves at certain points like throws, basic strikes and webs so you're encouraged to mix up attacks.

Plus, once the player gets the Symbiote, Spidey automatically changes into the black suit upon dealing a lot of damage to enemies in a short period of time. And as long as the player doesn't go too long between attacking enemies or doesn't get hit much, they maintain the Black Suit which boosts Spidey's moves and improves the flow and combo potential. Even webswinging into enemies deals damage. Black Suit Spidey can throw and combo from more places which can be quite fun and it really encourages the player to stay active and aggressive to keep the suit.

 

But even with all that praise, I do have some criticisms.

 

For one, is the fact that all this is through the touch screen. I will admit that shooting webs is technically enhanced by the touch screen as you can shoot webs in any direction now rather than just at 0, 45 and 90 degree angles like in past DS SM games so moves like Web Yank are more fun (and also more movement options with the Web Zip. But almost every other move feels a bit sluggish because of the delay caused by swiping. Doing a dodge in prior Spider-Man games was as simple as pressing L when an attack was about to hit Spidey, but now you have to draw a mostly straight line and hope the swipe ends at the perfect time to make Spidey dodge the attack. And it is possible in hectic situations to draw something you didn't mean to. I have had situations where I had Spidey do a slide attack instead of dodge because I swiped in more of a diagonal direction than straight down. Or did a launcher instead of a throw. There were even cases where when I was doing repeated combo strikes with swipes, sometimes, Spidey would stop and shoot web away from the enemies because the speed of my swipes made it appear to the game I was doing a double tap. Issues that never happened with button presses. Other moves like charge and area attacks that require a clockwise swipe always took too long to naturally initiate.

I also don't feel the control scheme couldn't be replicated with buttons. For example, have regular attacks be a  Direction + A. Have throws be a direction + X. Have Web be with Direction + Y. Have jumps be with B. More intricate moves like Area Attacks and Slams could be accomplished with a modifier button. Like L + A. Have a quick tap of Down on its own as the dodge. Now you have all of the main combat moves only now they are much more precise and reliable. You know that you will always do a specific move at a specific time every time (in fact, this is what some later DS Spider-Man games do. Showing that SM3DS has some good ideas at heart with its combat).

The only move you couldn't really replicate as precisely with buttons is webs since you are back to 0, 45 and 180 degree lines, but I feel that wouldn't be too bad. The player would just have to time their webs with falling enemies to chain web yanks now.

Another issue is that combat does start to feel repetitive after a while. There aren't too many different kinds of enemies and most can be defeated with the same kind of attacks eventually. Plus, there aren't that many upgrades or unlockables so you can eventually reach the point of not even needing to do well in combat since you've already gotten everything. The game has a lot of combat focused missions which doesn't help its case. Something like Ultimate Spider-Man DS had more set pieces and levels with different "styles" to help mix up the experience. While SM3DS is a lot more dependent on the same few tricks. Later SM games would add more to improve the combat experience.

 

I also suspect this is one reason why web swinging was changed to simply have the player hold buttons instead of timing presses. The player might already be too focused on swiping to be able to time button presses with (though, timing presses are still useful in having Spidey maintain a certain height when swinging which can help with timed challenges).

Onto another topic. Another way SM3DS is a departure from its predecessors is that it's an open world game now.

The game may be 2D, but you can explore 2D slices of various distracts of New York, stopping some crimes, looking for collectibles and starting missions. Some missions do take place in linear levels sectioned off from the open world but still, this is quite impressive from a technical perspective that the game attempts to emulate a major feature console counterparts.

But as cool as the attempt at an open world Spider-Man on DS is, there are some cracks in the attempt.

For one, the open world isn't entirely seamless. It's separated into multiple 2D distracts by loading screens that are about as "wide" as some linear levels (though they do often have slightly more verticality) You can travel between distracts by finding Blue portals in a distract or by using your map in the pause menu to fast travel between distracts.

The open world districts also don't have much to explore for. There are a few collectibles but those are also in linear levels. The crimes in progress in these districts are just straight up combat challenges. They do house missions and races at least. Traversal also isn't too interesting since there's sparse vertical areas or different "layers" per area and web swinging through levels is quite simplistic. All this means is that the open world feels more like "linear levels with extra steps" rather than an open world. Which is a shame but I can't really blame the game for it. It's a DS game. It is on a device with limited processing power and controls and is also at least somewhat grounded in reality. You can't really expect a fully featured 3D open world like the main console parts due to the limited hardware or an intricate 2D map like in a Metroidvania due to the more grounded setting. So the open world ends up being more of a novelty than a real selling point.

 

Still, at least the open world races can be quite fun and challenging with having to quickly adjust Spidey's height while web swinging to hit nodes through a level. These missions feel like they were designed around the movement system to be as challenging and fun as possible.

Finally, let's talk about the presentation and story.

SM3DS opts for a really cool style for its cutscenes. It's a similar technique to what Ultimate Spider-Man and Spider-Man Battle for New York did where they have these sorta animated motion comic panels, but instead of being comics, it's in the style of Daily Bugle Newspapers. I do think it looks quite nice. Plus, this gives the cutscenes the excuse to appear grainy and low detailed since they are supposed to resemble certain newspapers. So it's both a creative way to have an interesting aesthetic and deal with a hardware limitation. Since the characters are based on the Spider-Man 3 movie and not a prior comic book, it would probably be much harder to depict the characters in a more "realistic" style in the cutscenes so this works well.

The story itself is sadly not too interesting. In the game's defense, the source film, Spider-Man 3, isn't one that would easily lend itself to a DS game since it's a lot more slow paced than its predecessors. A lot of the film is Peter dealing with the personal consequences of the symbiote rather than Peter dealing with an external threat. But SM3DS doesn't do a good job there. The opening of the game's story does a good job in adapting the movie from Peter getting the Symbiote and fighting Sandman and Harry Osborn. But from there, seemingly has "filler" missions where Peter tackles random gang members, lizards and bombers until the last mission where the game remembers which movie it's trying to adapt and rushes Venom and Sandman together.

Like, the game's entire middle 90% feels like they'd be the side quests you'd do to take a break from the main story. As a result, much of the emotion from the story is drained. The story doesn't get a chance to bring up how Peter sees that Flint was the one who killed Uncle Ben, or how Peter ruins Eddie's life leading to him becoming Venom, or Harry coming to forgive Peter after Peter tries to ask him for help, or Peter forgiving Sandman etc.

I remember as a kid playing this game first instead of watching the movie and being really confused. Even the one beat this game tries to adapt, that being Peter becoming more reckless as a result of the Symbiote, is done in a one off cutscene rather than being a consistent part of the story and missions. Granted, once I watched the movie I got what was going on. It's a shame because I find that whenever the story of the DS version references the movie, it is at its most interesting and I wish the game followed the movie more closely and tried to replicate its beats more. From what I hear online, it is common to dislike Spider-Man 3 the movie but I always really liked it. I loved the story of Peter finally giving into his inhibitions through the Symbiote and seeing how that would make him a worse person. I loved Venom being what "Peter would have become" if he hadn't give up the Symbiote and Sandman being a "good person forced to do bad things and having to keep paying the consequences".

And some miscellaneous topics: once you beat the game, you can buy cheats using the in-game currency to give you invincibility, permanent black suit, a new background, permanent night mode and replacing all enemies with robots that have some really cute voice acting of them going "beep beep bop boop bop" that also have much greater health. These are neat and do make replaying missions to get the "symbiote only collectibles" and speedrun times easier to get.

Though, seeing as you now have permanent black suit powers, it does somewhat undermine the feeling the movie had where Peter had to learn to adapt without using the black suit. The DS game has only 1 mission after Peter loses the black suit and that's the final mission of the game which was pretty easy so you don't lose the Symbiote for too long.

In closing, SM3DS is easily the most ambitious DS Spider-Man game thus far with its open world and new combat system. But due to the hardware or development time, it never makes the most of its ambition. Often feeling less fun than some of its predecessors at times. It's a good DS game but could have been a lot better.

-5- Spider-Man: Friend or Foe (2007)

The second Spider-Man game released in 2007. The DS version of Friend or Foe was developed by Artificial Mind & Movement. And out of all the games thus far, it is the most similar to its console counterpart, for better and for worse. I have played a little of the PS2 version before but don't remember much aside from some of the early levels.

SMFOFDS is the most different thus far from its predecessors. Unlike past DS Spider-Man games which were this 2D platformer/Beat-em-up Hybrids, SMFOFDS is a 3D co-op focused beat-em-up. The pace is much slower as you slowly walk through levels (there's no real webswinging) as Spidey and a friend work together to complete objectives and beat up enemies.

In addition, the game is this odd amalgamation of the Raimi films and comic books. You have characters and designs from the Raimi films (like both New Goblin and Green Goblin existing at the same time. Or that Venom is alive and Sandman is a villain) alongside more comic-booky designs and voices for characters like Black Cat and Spider-Man. The tone and story also feels decidedly more like a comic book than the movies with a plot about these alien creatures called P.H.A.N.T.O.M.s (Perpetual Holographic Avatar Nano-Tech Offensive Monsters) that came to Earth from the same meteorite that brought the Venom Symbiote.

I'm not complaining. While I do personally prefer more serious stories in my comic book superhero games, a more cheesy comic book style story suits what SMFOFDS is going for. It's trying to be this fun team up game where Spidey works with a bunch of his supporting case, both heroic and villainous for beat-em-up action. And I remember liking that in the mainline console version. Having the banter between Spidey and Venom was quite fun. And I smiled when in the DS version, they actually justify the trope in Beat-em-up games where your character can't leave an area until all enemies are defeated. The DS version has Nick Fury tell Spidey with a straight face that these P.H.A.N.T.O.Ms create these hard light holographic prisons that will trap everyone that gets near them until they "get defeated". And if you do actually try to move ahead in an area while there are still enemies to fight, you'll see these white light ring effects when you reach the edge of the fighting area which is a nice touch.

 

Though, that charm does start to fade as the game goes on. One of the things I kinda liked about the mainline version of the game is the banter between Spidey and his allies. The DS version does a decent job replicating that with Black Cat and Nick Fury but no one else. The game often has mission briefings where Spidey talks to Nick about the upcoming objective for the next mission. For example, The mission in Paris has Fury tell Spidey his partner this time will be Blade because he knows the Paris Catacombs well. But Blade never speaks to Spidey during this. Same for Dr. Ock. Venom literally replaces Sandman as a partner and doesn't ever point out why Spidey is now wearing some Symbiote. And it's a shame because they do have some brief cutscenes where they speak to Spidey and those are pretty cool. Were the voice actors for these characters paid by the line or something?

Onto the gameplay and sadly, I was less impressed here. 

The game plays like a typical Beat em up. You jump with B, perform punches with Y, Kicks with X, Special Moves with A. You can swap to your partner in a level by pressing R and pressing L cycles through special moves. Special Moves drain your Special Meter and are typically used for ranged attacks and AOE moves.

The combat though, is quite basic. And encounters get repetitive as you spam the same few basic attacks over and over again. There's no dodge or parry or intricate combo system. No interesting enemy types. In addition, many of the additional characters often don't feel too distinct or mix up the experience. And in some cases aren't that fun to play as. Dr. Ock for example, has terrible range on his melee attacks allowing enemies to jump him easily despite the fact he has 4 long robot arms that should have great reach. Spidey, Blade and Black Cat have very similar movesets. In addition, the game has an upgrade system where coins you collect during levels can be used to purchase things like Health and Special meter upgrades for Spidey, bonus modes in the menu and extra characters for free play. But only Spidey gets the upgrades. So you end up in a situation where Spidey has a health and special meter that's double the size of his partner which ends up discouraging trying other characters, the game's main gimmick. At least Spidey's moveset is decent and later characters like Sandman and Venom get larger bars so that's something.

The levels are also often not great. Many are quite plan and basic with not much variety in set pieces or scenarios. You can explore to find additional coins to unlock stuff in the store but that's it. So the game's freeplay system with other characters doesn't feel as impactful. The early levels have a habit of asking the player the explore these large areas with buildings you can climb onto and enter from rooftops to find x number of civilians or items. And I got PTSD flashbacks to SM2DS. The game does at least have a small radar that points you to the nearest objective if you are within range. Many levels often have a gimmick in the form of a Touch Screen minigame. In Black Cat's level, you have to lockpick certain doors with a quick timed lockpick minigame only Black Cat can do. So you have to switch to her and do the Minigame. In Dr. Ock's level, you have to tap on buttons in a sequence as they light up in random order. These minigames are sometimes timed and if you make mistakes during them, they reduce your time. If you run out of time, you have to try the minigame again after fighting another wave of newly spawned enemies. This got particularly frustrating in Dr. Ock's level as the timer on his minigame is really strict and it's random when the correct numbers appear. If you're even a millisecond too late, it counts as a mistake and you lose time. There's around 5 mandatory sets of these minigames that get progressively harder with the last one requiring close to 10 attempts from me to finish. I was genuinely considering giving up on the game at that point.

The boss fights are also lacking. Many of them ask the player to repeat an action multiple times while waiting for the boss to get into position. For example, in the Dr. Ock boss fight, it's on top of a moving train. You have to get Ock in a position where you can snare him with web so an obstacle hits him while you jump over it. Seems simple enough. But the game's draw distance and camera doesn't clearly show when these obstacles are coming. So you have to have web Ock and hope you timed it right. And if you don't, it's not clear when another obstacle is coming. And if you run out of special meter, you can't web Ock until a couple obstacles later when they start spawning.

This is odd when you consider that the later Green Goblin and Sandman boss fight does this much better. Here, you need to activate an electric field when Goblin flies into it so you can knock him off his glider and then attack him. But here, the bottom screen shows you Spidey from a top down isometric angle while the top screen is locked onto Goblin from a wide angle shot. This makes it intuitive to control Spidey on the bottom screen to fight henchmen and activate the trap while using the top screen to see where Goblin is for the trap. It's a shame that the Dr. Ock boss fight didn't have a similar set up where the top screen shows what's coming up ahead so you can time webbing up Ock.

While I am not normally a huge fan of the double screen setup of the DS, I must admit this is one case where the 2 screens help accomplish something that would be difficult to replicate on a single screen handheld. Particularly one with such small character models. Like on a single screen, it would be awkward to pan the camera to see Goblin while also seeing Spidey (granted, the game doesn't have camera controls anyway so I guess that adds to the argument). Picture in picture would be awkward given how small the models already are so it would take up valuable screen space. The current setup allows for this bossfight to work.

Now, when I write these reviews on older games, I feel I often have to be more generous to these older games. Like of course a DS game from over 15 years ago isn't as refined as a 2023 game regardless of genre. But some are often still work playing or have more excusable flaws so you can still have fun with them. So I often compare these games to other similar games from around the same time to see if they're worth playing. As I played SMFOFDS, I was constantly reminded of Lego Batman 1 on the DS and how I enjoyed that way more. In many ways, Lego Batman 1 DS has similar goals to SMFOFDS but does all of them way better. It too is this more chill co-op brawler type game with Superheros and a more playful tone. But Lego Batman 1 DS is also more fun to play despite being a DS Lego game. The combat is really basic but still feels more fun with how punchy the hits feel and how you can send enemies flying and they explode into little Lego pieces. The levels often have more variety to them. Batman and Robin have a bunch of different suits the levels ask them to swap between which often allows for more interesting puzzles and set pieces and platforming. The puzzles are often much more snappy rather than tedious to do. Different characters often have drastically different abilities that interact with the environment so replays using different characters often results in finding more collectibles. Collectibles themselves often unlock more goodies for the player to mess around with. It even has more charming Lego themed cutscenes.

Like, even by the standards of simple co-op brawler games for the time, SMFOFDS is really lacking and I wouldn't recommend it.

-6- Spider-Man: Web of Shadows (2008)

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows on the DS was released in 2008 by Griptonite games. And of all of the Spider-Man games on the list, this is the one I was looking forward to the most. I really love the PS3 version of Web Shadows as I feel it has some of the best movement and combat in any open world Spider-Man game. I love the idea of a Symbiote infestation that allows the player to make Spidey make some inFAMOUS style choices and gives a unique atmosphere. And I remember enjoying the PS2/PSP version of Web of Shadows as a kid as this fun little 2D side scroller. Plus, I like many of Gryptonite's handheld games like their takes on Assassin's Creed and Aliens.

And I'm happy to say that Web of Shadows DS is arguably the best game so far. To the point where I'd say it's good enough where it could be re-released as a remake or remaster on modern platforms with some tweaks and still hold up well. WoSDS feels like it took notes from all the previous Spider-Man games on DS, from the general control scheme of Ultimate Spider-Man, the idea of maze-like levels from Spider-Man 2, the more freeform and flowing combat of Spider-Man 3, and improved on them significantly to make the Ultimate Spider-Man game on the DS (lol). Making its predecessors feel like demos.

Let's start with the basic controls. The game is controlled in 2D. You move with the D pad. Y is now your primary attack button. You can combine it with the D pad for directional attacks. X is now an "interact" button and allows you to pick up and throw objects. A is now used for shooting web if you're wearing the red suit. These can be used to stun opponents or web zip to places. In the Black Suit, A is used as a dash that can be used to slam into enemies (either on the ground or in the air) or be used to jump wide distances. B is used to jump and web swing. Webswinging now works more like in the mainline console Spider-Man games where webs attach to surfaces and are momentum based. Requiring you to time your swings like a pendulum. The web lines can even be affected if there are items in the way in a more realistic way. You can wall crawl to moving into a wall. R lets you dodge attacks (albeit with a shorter window than in Ultimate Spider-man DS but still quite usable). And L lets you swap between the Red Suit and the Black Suit.

Combat is much improved over past games. In many of the past games, combat against normal enemies wasn't very engaging after a while as normal enemies didn't have that many new tricks and there was no reason to use more of Spidey's moveset. WoSDS fixes that. For one, the normal enemies aren't regular humans with weapons but rather, all manner of Symbiotes. Ranging from mini-Venoms to flying bats, to extra thicc 12ft tall monsters, to green skinny monsters can jump 20ft high to knock you out of the air when you jump, to small burrowing guys, to blue guys that shoot energy balls that can travel through walls and 10ft long Panthers to everything in between. 

Enemies here are much more aggressive and agile. Capable of jumping up platforms to follow you, swarming you and blocking and launching counterattacks allowing them to catch you off guard for blindly attacking them. It can be quite the challenge when fighting large groups of mixed enemies as a result as it can be quite easy to lose all your health. But it often feels fair and fun (at first) due to Spidey's improved combat abilities that feel like a mix between the controls of Ultimate Spider-Man DS and the flow of Spider-Man 3 DS. You feel both powerful and vulnerable at the same time. 

For example, there are sequences where I was fighting one group of Symbiotes in front of me, using a mix of strikes and the Black Suit's dash and smash move to keep enemies away so they wouldn't counter attack. An enemy comes at me from behind. I can't stop and attack him (well, I could but then I'd be exposed on both sides and risk an attack), so I used an uppercut launcher to knock the enemy in front of me into the air where I punched him twice then jumped back off him and then web swung to perform a kick to hit all enemies below me in one single uninterrupted combo and it felt great. Like, Web of Shadows DS encourages the player to get the most out of Spidey's moveset by having it help you to survive against Symbiotes and by having such combo strings reward the player with extra EXP to unlock new moves which really help against the Symbiotes. It does make the early game feel a bit tedious since many moves, including those you started with in prior DS Spider-Man games, are now locked behind an upgrade menu. But at least there are also plenty of new useful moves priced high enough that you won't unlock them immediately.

Speaking of which, the upgrade menu has 3 kinds of upgrades, those that both suits can use (generally being more basic and all around attacks and movement options), those exclusive to the red suit (generally being more web line and speed based ones) and those exclusive to the Black Suit (being more powerful area of attack moves). I am mixed on this approach. Being able to upgrade both suits does mean the player is never punished for switching to the "other suit" but it does mean the suits don't feel as unique or differentiated. In the PS3 and even PSP/2 versions of WoS, both suits have intricate upgrade paths exclusive to them that make specializing in them feel more novel as well as story benefits for sticking with your suit of choice. The Red suit gives you more ways to stun and dodge, the black suit gives you raw power. But in the DS version, given how aggressive and agile enemies are, that the black suit was often more of a hindrance. Being able to dash and smash was useful in breaking some blocking enemies and the rare enemy that was impractical to web, but I found that I was using the Red Suit 90% of the time (even when I was making "Black Suit Choices") because being able to web enemies and web zip away and towards enemies was far more useful and safe.

The game also has an interesting way of handling lives which reminds of the Iron Man game. So in WoSDS, the player starts with 3 blue orbs that signify lives. If the player runs out of health, they use one of these orbs to play a minigame where they have to use the touch screen to drag red orbs to Spidey's body to have him recover some health. Due to the random nature of this minigame, you may not recover with a full bar of health. I kinda like this feature. It makes situations where the player loses 1 or 2 lives in a single boss fight feel more tense as you rush to get as much health as possible for your remaining lives. If you run out of these lives, you are forced to restart at the last save point.

However, as cool and improved as the combat is, I do have some gripes. The main issue is the difficulty. At first the game feels challenging but fair as enemy numbers and groups are tough but manageable. But about an hour in, there are some pretty severe spikes where the game throws 10+ enemies at once of different types at you in smaller arenas. This becomes problematic as having so many different types of enemies at once severely cuts off your options and makes it extremely easy to get overwhelmed. Like, you have to rush down the extra thicc Venoms since they can do crazy amounts of damage and have lots of health so you can't let them attack you. But if there are also small Panther Venoms with them, you can't also hurt them at the same time since their hitbox may push them out the way and allow them to pounce on you while you're attacking other enemies. If there are flying Bat Symbiotes also around, they may start swooping into attack you in between other attacks. And you don't really have the time and space to spare trying to web them when other enemies are attacking you. And if there are ranged Symbiotes around, you need to watch out for their projectiles that can pass through enemies and even walls and hit you. And if there are Green Symbiotes around, jumping is now more risky since their whole deal is countering your jumps by quickly launching into you when you jump. And if there are burrowing Symbiotes, you need to watch out as they can teleport beneath you and upper cut you. It's a lot to keep an eye out for. Oh. And even regular attacks tear off a huge chunk of your health bar while you do very little damage.

Yeah. In the 3 rooms before you meet Green Goblin, I spent over 2 hours stuck fighting enemies over and over again as I'd keep dying. I barely managed to get through on one attempt because the RNG for which types of enemy spawns managed to keep it to just Thicc Venoms and Green Symbiotes and Basic Ranged Symbiotes which I had to cheese with the red suit's web yank abilities (Note that which enemies spawn change when you enter a room. Sometimes, it might be harder groups of enemies or easier ones and you can't predict it until you're already there).

 

I fully acknowledge a skilled player might be able to get through by learning the patterns of every enemy and having perfect reflexes to use Spidey's basic dodge move perfectly. But I feel more could have been done to make these spikes less jarring and to give the player a fighting chance and allow a more gradual difficulty curve as well as reducing the tedium. Like, consider that on my 2DS, these character models are a couple millimetres tall and there can be multiple of them. It can be quite hard to read their tells in all the chaos (especially if you have bad eyesight like me). Past Spider-Man games like Ultimate Spider-Man DS had Spidey's Spider Sense appear as an orange halo effect on Spidey's head when he was about to get hit as a warning and Web of Shadows DS doesn't even have that. Something like that as a way to indicate if a player is about to get hit would help a fair bit in learning some of the dodge timings.

Spidey does eventually get better defensive and offensive options through upgrades such as multiple dodges and counterattacks as well as decent health and damage stats. But those take a while to unlock. Either you collect XP from the enemies you beat to unlock more useful moves, or you explore levels to find permanent upgrades to health, lives, defence and attack power.

Part of me feels this is intentional. That the game has this spikes to encourage the player to explore more of the levels more and get upgrades. But still, it often felt like I had accidentally selected "Hard Mode" when the game has no difficulty options. And this is still a Spider-Man game on the DS so having an easy or normal option might help with the kids that would play this.

Now onto the level design.

Remember back 20 pages ago when I talked about Spider-Man 3 DS and how a more grounded take on New York doesn't lend itself to an open world in a 2D game, either in the form of a traditional open world or as a Metroidvania? WoSDS disproves that as it's actually a Metroidvania. You have rooms connected to other rooms through pathways in the form of doors and vents. Many paths are locked behind upgrades you have to come back to later (though, many of the upgrades are rather mundane such as "Spidey being able to lift heavy dumpsters" and "Spidey being able to use his web to lift heavy dumpsters from the side" etc). The map is also divided into "biomes" such as "Residential apartments", "sewers", "Downtown" etc.

This allows for more interesting exploration than prior Spider-Man DS games and is quite engaging at first. Though, the more room based design does mean that you won't be able to web swing around as much compared to its predecessors. But I feel that is a worthwhile trade off here since web swinging in prior DS games wasn't exactly a highlight. Another aspect is that the game is more linear than expected. Closer to a Metroid Fusion than a Super Metroid, complete with waypoints and objective markers that tell you what to do. Though, there is a reason for that. Since WoSDS (tries) to retain its mainline console's feature of having Spidey make choices in the story, the game needs to direct the player to where those choices are and if they even exist. Like, if the game were structured more like Super Metroid, it would kinda be harder to make say, Red Suit Choices if you come across the option to help Green Goblin blow up Symbiotes and not know that's actually a Black Suit Choice.

However, halfway through, the game does start to present issues. The game seems to want to pad for time so there are lot more instances of the game requiring you to bracktrack through areas you completed, and locking you into a room which 10+ different enemies that keep respawning and ambushing you and requiring you to defeat them all in order to be able to leave. These encounters are really rough if you don't have enough upgrades since you'll be spending forever attacking enemies, trying to perfectly dodge attacks, all while taking so much damage from individual attacks. My conspiracy theory is that they are also designed to drain your lives and health so you'll be weaker against upcoming boss fights and spam ambushes and either die and restart from the last checkpoint, or spend time exploring to either find upgrades and/or grind up health and lives from fighting enemies. This is compounded by the way the game hides its upgrades in levels. Many upgrades are "hidden" in areas that require the use of a specific ability you get from defeating bosses. But the placement of these areas often requires a lot more additional backtracking and scouring. Meaning that as the game goes on, you might find yourself returning to the same general areas multiple times to collect any new upgrades that are now available. As an example during my playthrough, I had to return to the same area in the Residential Levels multiple times since one area had a health upgrade that could only be accessed when Spidey got the increased strength power up. Another nearby area had a damage boost upgrade that required Spidey be able to crawl on Ichor. Another nearby Life Upgrade required Spidey to have the "Wall Smash" Power Up. And another one required the "ground smash" Power Up. And repeat for similar areas in Downtown and the Sewers.

As a result, the latter half of the game started to drag and feel more repetitive. With a formula of " Revisit Older Areas -> mandatory spam ambushes that drain you -> tough boss fights (which may require you to leave and scour for upgrades in already explored areas to stand a chance) -> Get a new power up that lets you traverse through some new connecting paths and search for upgrades -> repeat".

Speaking of which, the game does have boss fights, and I'm conflicted on how the game handles them. The early bosses you fight are modified versions of "regular enemies you fight later". They are challenging at first but learning how they operate is both fun and helpful for when you fight them later as regular enemies. Like, the extra thicc Venoms are at least somewhat more manageable later on when they come in groups when you previously had to fight a powerful solo one and learn all of its possible attacks and timings. I enjoyed these kinds of boss fights. But for some of the last several ones, the game reuses a "Super Symbiote" that has the exact same moveset and animations as Spider-Man. It was surreal fighting a boss that could use the exact same dodge, web yank and web swing kick that I could and could dodge and jump around as much. These guys can even trap you in the exact same basic combo you can do as Spidey. These mirror matches are really exciting at first but the game reuses them so much in its latter half that they start to feel repetitive and tiring. The game only has 2 "unique" Bosses that don't re-appear in some form. Venom and the Symbiote Queen which were some really intense and fun fights that required you to really learn the timings of moves with decent tells (usually), and had a great back and forth with dodges, attacks and counters. It was in these fights that I started to feel like WoSDS is like "The Dark Souls of 2D Metroidvania Spider-Man games on the DS".

Also, during boss fights, as you damage the boss, you build up a meter that when full, allows you to call the help of an ally. Like, Black Cat can drop healing items for you or Green Goblin can bomb the boss taking away a huge chunk of health. These add more decision making during bosses such as deciding what help you need more of.

Finally, let's talk about the story. And sadly, it is probably the most disappointing aspect of the game. The PS3 and PSP/PS2 versions had a lot more major events happen, some of which required Spidey to make choices that felt really interesting. But the DS version's story for 90% of its runtime is "Spidey is looking for Venom and fights random Symbiote bosses along the way that do a 'your princess is in another castle'". Even the Allies and choices feel really undercooked. There's only really 2 sets of choices, do you help Nightcrawler (the Red Suit option) save lives or help Green Goblin (the Black Suit option) bomb the Symbiotes. That's it. One of the cool things about the PS3 and PSP/PS2 versions of WoS is seeing how Spidey interacts with all these characters from Marvel comics, either as himself or a corrupted version of himself thanks to the Symbiote. You don't really get that here. As a result, it makes the ending and what few beats there are feel a lot less engaging.

Like I said earlier, the game sacrifices some of its Metroidvania-esque design to accommodate the ability to make choices that affect the story, but then doesn't do that much with the choices and story. Which is a shame. Like, I feel the game would have been better if it chose a direction and stuck to it. Either commit 100% to the Metroidvania design of Spidey having to survive an open ended map on his own, or take the route the PSP/PS2 version of WoS and be a more linear side scroller type game to better facilitate the story and choices.

Once you beat the game, you get the option of a NG+ playthrough where you carry over all your upgrades but start from the beginning of the story. I might complete this at some point to see what changes and how the upgrades affect the experience. I would expect they do since you have a more capable Spidey upfront allowing for more options in combat without as much tedium.

In conclusion, I could easily see the argument for Web of Shadows DS to be the best Spider-Man game on DS. Its combat system is much more in-depth and engaging with a large assortment of useful moves and challenging and varied enemies to really test your skills. The atmosphere of a Symbiote infestation is amazing. But with the wacky difficulty spikes, the overuse of spam ambushes and repeated bosses in the latter half, and the high amount of backtracking prevent mar the experience. I would love a remaster of this game that adds in difficulty options and balances some of the enemies. But the foundation is solid enough for a full on remake that significantly improves the experience such as by improving the Metroidvania aspects and design. Because unlike all of its predecessors, WoSDS is close to being an amazing game that can stand beyond being a DS game.

-7- Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (2010)

 Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions DS was released in 2010 by Gryptonite games as something of a follow up of 2008's Web of Shadows DS. It appears to retain the same engine, the same freeflowing 2D combat, the same Web Swinging system that has webs stick to ceilings and the same sorta Metroidvania-esque design. So yeah, read my section on Web of Shadows' gameplay since most of it applies to Shattered Dimensions.

The premise of the game is that it tries to be something of a Spider-Verse game. Mysterio finds a mysterious tablet that breaks in a fight with Spidey and gets scatted to other dimensions. So the current Spider-Man (dubbed the Amazing Spider-Man) works with his counterparts, Spider-Man Noir and Spider-Man 2099 to help recover the tablet fragments to save the multiverse.

The home console version of Shattered Dimensions was a departure from its predecessors. Instead of another open world game set in New York, it was more of a linear action adventure game where the style of gameplay and aesthetic changed depending on which Spider-Man you were controlling. Amazing Spider-Man played more like a typical Spider-Man. Noir wasn't good in combat and relied more on stealth and had this really striking black and white aesthetic. Ultimate Spider-Man had the Symbiote and an art style closer to the Ultimate Spider-Man look, and more powerful combat attacks. Spider-Man 2099 took place in the distance future of 2099, had a more futuristic aesthetic and had gliding and slow mo powers.

Bit of an aside, but I really would prefer open world Spider-Man games to be based on Spideys from different universes rather than the standard "current day Manhattan". Imagine an open world Spider-Man game set in 2099 or Noir's world or London. We already got Ultimate Spider-Man so why not these others.    

 

 Anyway, the DS version continues from the design of Web of Shadows DS. Initially, the game seemed to address many of my gripes from the last game so it seems Gryptonite were aware of them. When you start up a new profile, it offers 2 different sets of difficulty options for both exploration and combat. I've never seen this in a DS game before. It's great. You can make combat easy, normal or crank it up to be as hard as Web of Shadows DS normally is. I chose Normal and it really did seem more fitting as the damage Spidey received and dealt felt more apporiote and scaled more naturally as the game progresses. Bosses were challenging enough to kill me a few times until I got the dodge and timings down. The game ditches the lives and resource management aspects of WoSDS. If you die in a challenging room, the game resets to a checkpoint in the room and automatically skips the dialogue instead of entirely rewinding your progress to the last save (in addition to placing saves right before boss rooms). This helps the pacing as you won't have repeat as much content with deaths.

 

Exploration difficulty allows you to either have everything marked for you beforehand on the map, only mark stuff once you explore it and still highlight the next objective or not mark much (not even the objective marker). This is great as it better allows the game to lean into that Metroidvania-esque design of its predecessor if you want it as the game lacks the choice based system of its predecessor. You're much more free to just wander your way through the game with no guidance and discover objectives naturally.

 So the general loop is that you explore levels as a Spider-Man to get to the next objective and boss fight. Engaging in some combat and light puzzle or traversal challenges along the way and unlocking new abilities that let you explore new areas of the map. This can include going to portals placed throughout the world to swap to a different Spider-Man.

The game also streamlines and introduces some nice quality of life features when compared to its predecessor. When you find a new ability or move, the game takes you to a specific tutorial room where it shows you a video demonstration and you can actually test it out. Or skip it altogether and move on. In Web of Shadows DS, there was only 1 tutorial room with a single static enemy that could only be activated from save rooms and didn't provide scenarios for specific moves. For example, there was no specific tutorial room for the dodge so you could get a sense of what the basic dodge timings were. But in Shattered Dimensions DS, the tutorial rooms can be accessed from anywhere. The tutorial room for the dodge move actually has an enemy that will attack you so you can practise the dodge timings. The tutorial room for the web disarm or angled web room actually has an enemy with a weapon that can be disarmed or be in an elevated place so you can practise shooting webs at an angle. It's neat and makes it much more intuitive to see how to use certain mechanics and moves. The game also damage displays numbers for all successful hits from all characters. Making it clear which moves do what damage and how useful they'd be. The game also removes the exp and shop system of Web of Shadows DS. Instead moving all of those upgrades as collectibles in the world. While this does remove some of the incentive to get a high combo count, it also means there is less of a need to grind or get in lots of combat and better allows you to try out and use more moves that you may not have purchased in Web of Shadows DS.

However, the biggest issue I feel Shattered Dimension DS has, is in the implementation of the different dimensions. In the mainline console version, each of the 4 Spider-Man had their own unique visual style and gimmick that somewhat differentiated them. But in the DS version, each of the 3 Spideys mostly play the same (for some reason, Ultimate Spider-Man isn't in this version. Which is strange since he was basically playable in the last game as Black Suit Spider-Man). Noir's levels don't consist of any stealth so you fight enemies the same way you do as Amazing or 2099.

The game also has an odd way of managing the progression of the different Spider-Man. When you first take control of a Spider-Man, they have a "unique" ability but are missing a default Spider-Man ability. For example, when you take control of Noir for the first time after playing for a while as Amazing, Noir has the unique ability to reveal hidden objects in the environment like hidden switches for certain doors by holding L. But doesn't have the ability to stick to walls. The game even tells you this and to be creative with Web Zipping and Web Swinging to compensate. When you first play as 2099, he has the unique ability to glide but can't web swing or web zip, requiring you to traverse levels by wall crawling and gliding. In order to be able to use the abilities of other Spider-Men, you need to find a dimensional conduit (think the challenge runes from Doom 2016) that puts you into a combat room. Completing this gives that Spider-Man an ability of another Spider-Man. However, this upgrade isn't synched across other Spideys. For example, when you find the first Dimensional Conduit with 2099, 2099 gains the ability to web swing and zip like the other Spider-Men but not Noir's perception ability or Amazing's ground slam. Nor does Amazing or Noir get access to 2099's glide. You need to find additional Dimensional Conduits as these other Spider-Men to have all of them get access to each other's abilities.

I don't think I've played a Metroidvania-esque game where you control 3 variations of the same character with abilities you have to work to make them all share. It's certainly .... unique. And did lead to some awkward situations as I forgot that 2099 couldn't scan the environment to open up paths yet even though I was using the scan with Amazing earlier. At the very least, the 3 characters share the collectibles and powerups you find in levels. That would have been rather rough if they didn't.

In addition, the way you swap between these characters is coming up to a portal, pressing X and then playing this odd Wario Ware-esque minigame where you need to rotate your tablet to be able to send it through the dimension while needing tap or hold enemies that try to stop you using the touch screen. It gets repetitive and annoying really soon and I groaned whenever I had to do it to swap characters.

Also, I really don't like Noir's levels in this version. In the main console version, they had a cool and stylized black and white look. But in the DS version, they just have a brown sepia filter like it's a 7th gen shooter. Aside from getting repetitive, it also sometimes made it hard to see vents and other exits of areas.

 

So it feels like Shattered Dimensions DS doesn't really want to be a Shattered Dimensions game where you control different Spider-Men with their unique tools. It feels more like it wanted to be a Metroidvania-esque game like its predecessor, but was told it had to accommodate 2 extra Spider-Men, so it segmented its world into like, 3 sets of areas and made some odd changes to progression as a result.

Part of me wonders if this game would have been better if instead of having the Spider-Men be present only in their own respective dimensions like in the main console version, all the Spider-Men were all present and playable at the same time and the player could swap between them like the Red and Black suit in Web of Shadows DS. Perhaps this could have allowed the game to be able to better differentiate the Spider-Men. For example, in the current version of the game, Noir needs to be able to play like Amazing since his levels and gameplay is already similar to Amazing's. But if Noir operated like a suit, the game could have it that if the player switches to Noir, they can no longer attack enemies but can perform stealth takedowns on certain enemies. And as soon as the enemies spot the player, the player can swap to Amazing or 2099 since they can fight enemies normally. This can even lead to more interesting boss fights and puzzles as the player needs to use the different abilities of the different Spider-Men at once. Perhaps there even could have been some interaction with their abilities. For example, Amazing could perform a web throw to get an object airbourne, then the player swaps to 2099 and uses the slow time ability to be able to use the frozen object as a platform or to web swing or something.

But anyway, after some time of playing Shattered Dimensions DS, I think I start to see what the game is going for with its odd progression system. Back in Web of Shadows DS, one of my biggest criticisms of the game was that the game started to get really repetitive, especially in its second half. It started to rely more and more on extended spam ambushes against large groups of really difficult and varied enemies. And much of the exploration or traversal of the environment wasn't very interesting. Even once you defeated a boss and gained a new ability, it didn't really change how you played the game or had new challenges to using it. You just used it on the correct coloured door.

While Shattered Dimensions DS does still kinda do this, it still tries to make the traversal and abilities a little more interesting outside of combat. While some abilities work similar to how Web of Shadows DS used them, like the ground slam and web yank break special coloured doors and don't exactly require much thought to use. There are some instances of Shattered Dimensions DS trying to do more. For example, in 2099's levels, there are some collectibles that are on top of electrified billboards. You can't just wall crawl or jump onto them as Spidey will shocked and fall off. In order to reach them, you have to find a spot a bit later on in the level, jump off and start gliding. And gliding works a bit like a 2D version of how gliding works in the Arkham games except more precise and easy to mess up. While gliding, if you hold up, Spidey will immediately straighten himself and gain a little height and end the glide. Holding down has Spidey begin to dive and gain speed. So you have to control gliding Spidey so he has enough speed and distance to get close to the billboard, then time it so you hold up so Spidey gets that last bit of height, then shoot a web line at a 45 degree angle to hit the area to the top of the billboard to zip to it and get the collectible. This one optional collectible in Shattered Dimensions DS, that took me quite a few embarrassing attempts to get, was more fun to do than any collectible in Web of Shadows DS because of how it required some small challenge using Spidey's movement abilities with timing and precision.

Another example is how later on in the story, Spidey gets an upgrade that allows him to be able to web zip and swing from electrified walls, but not stick to them since they will shock him off. And there some hidden collectibles that now require you to time some web zips through some narrow hallways to get them. Another example is that one of the final abilities Spidey gets is if he runs for long enough uninterrupted, either naturally or through conveyors placed in specific points, he enters a special dash state that allows him to run along walls if he approaches them while running (as opposed to jumping), jump large gaps and smash through certain walls. This state ends if Spidey's momentum is halted or he jumps onto a wall. At first, I thought I thought this was too situational to have much other use. But there are a few puzzles where you have to get Spidey to use a conveyor to get the dash state, then navigate Sonic Spidey through a small area and time a jump to smash through a wall that was slightly elevated over a gap. This also took an embarrassing number of tries since I'd either be too late and Spidey would "fall and land" on a lower part of the wall and exit the dash state. Or I'd jump too early and Spidey would land above the wall and exit the state. And it was quick and easy to retry the challenge so it was satisfying to eventually complete it.

In addition, while I did criticize Noir and 2099's sections earlier for still retaining most of the gameplay of Amazing's instead of being more distinct, they still at least mix up how you navigate and traverse the environments. In Noir's levels, since he can't stick to walls, you have to make use of wall jumps and web zips to walls. A feature in this game (that was also in Web of Shadows DS) is that if you web zip to a wall at a 45 degree angle, Spidey will wall run along it for a few seconds before stopping and then transitioning to a wall crawl. In Noir's levels, you end up having to play it more like a 2D Prince of Persia game as a result by needing to time your jumps and zips between walls. The areas even consist of more narrower hallways and areas to better facilitate that. In 2099's levels, the environment consists of more open areas stacked on top of each other. So it can be possible to enter one area by gliding or wall crawling from another area above or below it.

I also felt these sections also serve another purpose. To prepare players for the challenge mode. In Shattered Dimensions DS, in addition to the regular campaign, there is also a series of bonus challenge levels that test your skills in various navigation and combat challenges . You unlock these levels as you complete milestones in the main campaign and can access them from the main menu. The first challenge level asks you to navigate to the end of a series of obstacles using your web moves under a strict time limit. While you can still web crawl like normal as you are playing as Amazing Spider-Man here, the time limit is so strict that you have to make the most of your web zip and wall run skills to stand a chance. This first challenge is so hard that it took me nearly 40 minutes to barely pass it with like 0.02 seconds left. I really felt like I had to optimize my skills to the limit. My hands even started to hurt from the play. I was kinda worried on what the other challenges would be. The second challenge asks you to use your "advanced web skills" though I ended up clearing this one in a few attempts (that ended with me dying by hitting an instant kill wall) with 20 seconds left on the clock even though I didn't play that well and made some big mistakes because the time limit was more generous and the hazards weren't as tightly placed. So some weird balancing and naming there. The next challenge is a gliding level where you need to glide between 2 unclimbable walls with 2099, wall jump and repeat and gain enough height to get to the top. I managed this with around 3 seconds left and it really felt intense. The next is a gliding challenge that asks you to glide between increasingly narrow corridors lined with kill walls, then time your decent down a vertical corridor with kill walls. I cleared this with 20 seconds on the clock and multiple attempts though, this is because it's kinda because you couldn't really slow and stop rather than it being easy. There was also a challenge level that took that dash state ability from the main game and really went all out it. There are more challenge levels, including a few combat ones, but these sets of levels are really fun and challenging and really make you master the movement mechanics of this game. They really made me appreciate how fun these systems can be. The main game seldom challenges you with traversal outside of small bursts, and even then, it's often not necessary if you could wall crawl. So I didn't know I wanted these. I do feel they could be made better with a "Gold, Silver, Bronze" rating system instead of a single time limit that boots you out if you miss it.

So yeah, generally the level design is a bit more interesting and less mindless compared to Web of Shadows DS. The game also even tones down on the number of mandatory spam ambushes, saving them as either part of certain bosses and challenges or for like, some of the final rooms before the final boss. The game does also tone down some of varied enemy types from WoSDS as well. Which is a bit of a shame. The game now only really has regular humans/robots with some varients with shields and guns, and larger robots and small drones as the primary enemies you face. No more Panther Venoms or more agile Symbiotes that can match Spidey's movement. It's a bit of a shame as while SDDS is less frustrating as a result of the more sparse roster, I do feel the game could have kept some of those other enemies while still being somewhat balanced and fair as combat can start to get a bit repetitive towards the end.

The game does also improve on Boss Fights from Web of Shadows DS. Most bosses are either sorta unique enemies in how they face Spidey (such as Vulture 2099 throwing features and doing dive bomb attacks), or when they involve regular enemies also involve some kind of gimmick to mix things up (like Tinkerer requiring you to destroy some of his enemy robots so you can then destroy the generators that activate to make them). It's a huge step up from WoSDS that reused the same enemy type for 90% of its bosses. Once you beat the game, you even unlock a Boss Rush Mode that gives Spidey 999 health and all the moves and damage upgrades and asks you to defeat all the bosses. It's a fun challenge.

In fact, compared to its predecessors, Shattered Dimensions DS offers the most content and replayability. You have the main campaign that once you beat it, can either replay it in a NG+, or a time trial/speedrun mode, or with self imposed challenges to unlock in-game achievements like complete the game with x or fewer collectibles. In addition to the campaign, you have an entirely separate challenge mode that tests your movement and traversal and combat abilities.

The story isn't very interesting despite the rather cool premise. Unlike the main console version of the game, the DS version is quite sparse on cutscenes, dialogue and world building. What few interactions there are between the Spider-Men and their villains, or Amazing doing his usual quips are still engaging at least. The 3 Spider-Men don't even talk much with each other as Madam Webb acts as the intermediary so they all feel quite disconnected. In the final cutscene when Amazing thanks his other counterparts and they all reminisce on how they were all a team, it feels rather hollow. So instead of it feeling like these 3 different Spider-Men were all helping each other out, it feels more there happens to be 3 Spider-Men on 3 separate adventures that happens to sorta connect.

I feel the story would have been more interesting if it was kinda like what the console version of Edge of Time did where the Spideys were psychically linked to each other and could comment and talk to each other. Like, imagine Amazing quipping while watching Noir fight Captain Boomerang or something. Would really add to the experience. In addition, there are fewer subtitles in this game whereas Web of Shadows DS was quite good at catching throwaway lines so it's easier to miss some of the dialogue.

All in all, while I feel there are aspects of Shattered Dimensions DS that its predecessors did better, like Ultimate Spider-Man had the better story and art style. Web of Shadows had the better atmosphere, enemy types and premise. Shattered Dimensions DS is overall, thus far, the best Spider-Man game on DS as it improves on the foundation of Web of Shadows DS by smoothing out many of its rough edges. It retains mostly the same fun 2D freeflowing combat and makes it less frustrating by reducing the enemy spam (a bit too much at the cost of some of the enemy variety). It improves on the traversal and level design so there are some mini challenges and ways to explore on the way to the next boss fight. It adds so much extra challenges and bonus modes that make it very replayable. It stumbles in incorporating the Shattered Dimension concept and story, but nails almost everything else. Gryptonite made a DS Spider-Man Metroidvania game I'd recommend anyone check out with no caveats. In fact, I would even go so far as to say this could be remastered or re-released as is and still hold up well. I can't wait to play Edge of Time DS and see how Gryptonite improve their design even further.

-8- Spider-Man: Edge of Time (2011)

Spider-Man Edge of Time DS released in 2011 and like its predecessors, its something of a 2D Metroidvania-esque game. However, instead of it being the 3rd attempt by Gryptonite after the great Shattered Dimensions DS, Edge of Time DS was developed by Other Ocean Interactive. And it's apparent from as soon as you start the game. Instead of the cute 3D character models, you have 2D sprites. So the game resembles those GBA Spider-Man games. I don't mind, it does look quite charming.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Edge of Time DS is something of a sequel/follow up to Shattered Dimensions as it takes place in the same continuity (Peter Parker references this when he asks 2099 Spidey where the other Spider-Men are). The premise here is that in the year 2099, Miguel O'Hara, the Spider-Man of the year 2099, finds Walker Sloan, a scientist at Alchemax (The Amazon meets Oscorp of 2099), planning on using a time machine to travel back in time to establish Alchemax about 100 years ago so he can rebuild the company in his image and dismantle his competitors before they can pose a threat (which, honestly, feels realistic to what a large company would do if they had the ability to time travel). Miguel fails to stop Sloan, resulting in something of an altered and mixed timeline between the future and past where Alchemax exists in the past.  Miguel somehow finds a way to establish a psychic temporal link with Peter Parker in the past allowing them to communicate (the DS version glosses over this). The 2 Spider-Men then have to work together in their own time periods by exploring the Alchemax building. The big new gimmick is something called "Quantum Causality" (that Reed Richards apparently discovered) where if Peter does something in the past, it affects Miguel in the future (or technically it would be the present according to Miguel). 

The game demonstrates this at first when Peter enters Alchemax by having him open a door which causes that same door to open and close in 2099. In addition, the player can instantly switch between Peter in the past and Miguel in 2099 by pressing the Select Button with the game "remembering" the state of the worlds while pausing them. So if Miguel is fighting enemies in 2099 and the player switches to Peter, those enemies will still be there and resume fighting Miguel when the player switches back. The game even uses this in a cool way with a puzzle where Peter is stuck in a computer room and needs the password. Miguel can see what the password is by entering that same computer room in 2099.

Obviously, this approach to time travel makes absolutely no sense. But I still love it. And I feel the DS version actually has more potential with this idea compared to the main console version. The Main console version of Edge of Time is this linear brawler/beat em up with scripted set pieces. So the quantum causality aspect was generally limited to certain story beats and set pieces. But since the DS version is more of a Metroidvania-esque game, it can better incorporate this into the puzzles and traversal challenges.

But I do feel the general gameplay and controls of Edge of Time DS is a major step back from the improvements Shattered Dimensions DS made. Combat plays closer to Spider-Man 2 DS as it lacks that freeflowing nature where attacks combo into each other or dodge/parry options or longer range attacks. As a result, it's functional but way less fun. It gets especially frustrating when fighting airbourne enemies as Spidey lacks the web yank or any comparable ability. Web Swinging still operates like in Shattered Dimensions DS at least with webs sticking to ceilings and preserving Spidey's momentum. Web Zipping and navigation is back to how it was in Spider-Man 2 DS so not as engaging.

The game feels a bit rushed. Like Activision didn't give Other Ocean a lot of time to make the game. And this seems to especially affect the navigation and progression. This is the first DS Spider-Man game so far to have some major glitches and bugs that affect movement. There were times when Spidey would get stuck when climbing walls in a falling animation, taking quite a bit of effort to break out. The game's minimap is far less detailed than either Web of Shadows DS or Shattered Dimensions and you have no control over it. You can't manually zoom in or out like before. Levels are also more labyrinthine, relying more on smaller vents that are quite hard to see to connect areas. So if you want to see where the objective is if it's not on the minimap, you have to quickly pause and unpause the game as then, the minimap will pan to where the next objective is and then pan to where you are which really kills the flow. This is made worse when sometimes, the minimap "gets stuck" and doesn't update to where you actually are. Resulting in weird situations where Spidey goes out of the minimap so you have to do a combination of pausing/unpausing and backtracking to reenter the minimap so you can try to orient yourself. It also doesn't give the option to highlight obstructions or "where the other Spider-Man roughly is". This is problematic because there are times when the game wants the player to bring one Spider-Man to a point but there is an obstruction on the way that the other Spider-Man can remove. But there is enough slight variations in the time periods and the map is so minimal that can be easy to get lost along the way.

On top of that, the game does a very poor job in highlighting how one is supposed to progress through it. For example, one of the abilities Miguel can get is "Adamantine Claws" with the description "can allow him to break through certain walls". Ok, but which walls and how? The game doesn't have a tutorial or demonstration like its predecessors or even every other Metroidvania. I only figured it out because I decided to try a random ground slam on a certain floor and it worked. Nothing about the upgrade highlighted that. Some doors are locked for Peter that open with no heads up (Prior Metroids have like different coloured doors and keycards which helps with this). And once you do figure it out, the game becomes quite tedious as you have to equip and swap between items that are used passively. For example, if there is a purple door you need to break with the Adamintine Claws, you need to press R until you select the Claws. Then if there is an electric shielded door, you need to Press R until you select the Resist Electricity Ability. And if there is a Red Energy Shield, you need to press R until you select the Red Energy Shield Ability and Web to it. None of these abilities overlap or are set up in such a way that you would need to only activate one at a time. It kills the momentum and gets really annoying. The prior SM games on DS didn't require you swap around such abilities and instead kept them always activated. EoTDS treats abilities in a way closer to how the older Pokemon games treated HMs.

 

The minimap does at least highlight any nearby collectibles which is nice. But I feel more could have done here. Perhaps do what Web of Shadows DS (and also Hollow Knight years later) did and have the map name and colour the major areas of the map. So it would be more intuitive to know "oh, If I need to get to these rifts, I need to navigate through the Alchemax Portal Room, then past the testing lab and find a vent up to the skyline/Daily Bugle".

One example I feel that showcases all of these issues at once is the objective that requires Miguel to get to a rift to encounter Black Cat. The minimap at least highlights where the objective is so you know where to navigate Miguel to. Along the way, you need to perform a ground slam on a specific kind of floor (that the game doesn't tell you about). Then you eventually reach a glass wall in front of a giant robot that blocks you from progressing. There's no obvious solution here for what Miguel needs to do here to progress. The solution is to switch to Peter. Since Peter doesn't have any objectives active, the minimap remains static so it's not even clear that you need to switch to Peter here. You need to take a completly different route to where that robot and glass wall would be in the future. This route isn't intuitive because there is no hint this is the correct way. Especially given the doors to get there were locked and there was no indication they are unlocked now. The area that corresponds to the robot looks different in the past with more of a generic office theme than a sci-fi lab theme and a different layout so it doesn't look like you're in the same general area. Then you destroy a yellow rectangle with a ground slam that causes the robot in Miguel's time to fall and crush the glass door allowing Miguel to proceed.

 

If this were Shattered Dimensions DS, then at least the game would have provided some hints and better signposting that this would be the solution.

-The story

The DS version tells a compressed version of the story in the main console version. But unlike its predecessors which did a much better job in preserving some of the drama and context from their console versions, EoTDS fumbles here.

For example, in the main console version of Edge of Time, there's a section where Peter learns MJ is going to die soon. Miguel, being the pragmatic one here, tells Peter to forget about her and focus on the mission as the future is at stake. Peter snaps and angrily shouts at Miguel "I have no future without her!" and that Miguel is unworthy of being Spider-Man due to his disregard for others' safety. After an awkward silence. Miguel offers to go rescue MJ to which Peter breaths a "I owe you one". Later on, once Miguel has saved MJ, she tells him he is a worthy successor to Spider-Man which stuns Miguel.

I loved this sequence in EoT. The music and setting of the scene was amazing. Seeing Peter get so angry and respond in this way was novel given his usual demeanour. And it highlights the difference in the 2 protagonists. And it gives Miguel something of an arc as he adopts some of Peter's views.

The DS version speeds through this. When Peter learns MJ is in trouble, Miguel immediately offers to help which results in a less interesting story beat.

It's a similar case with Atrocity. The Main console version takes its time setting up Anti-Venom and how it all leads to Atrocity. The DS version skips all that and has Atrocity just show up.

I like the interactions the 2 Spider-Men have with each other and some of their more obscure villains in the boss fights, but the story itself lacks the impact the main console version has even though the material is right there and wouldn't have been impossible to implement.

Also, Black Cat is super horny in this version. Including telling Miguel she wants him to show her how he handles a cougar. Isn't the DS version rated E for everyone here lol?

To be honest, I couldn't bring myself to finish this game. The bugs made it frustrating to even do basic wall climbing as Spidey would either automatically fall off or teleport back down. The lacklustre minimap and lack of signposting made it a chore to navigate and solve puzzles. And the combat feels like a downgrade to SDDS.

It's a shame because I really liked the main console version of EoT and feel the DS version has a really cool premise for its gameplay with the ability to freely switch between the 2 Spider-Men in different time periods. Like I said, if this version was built by Gryptonite on the foundation of SDDS, it likely would have been amazing. I wish EoTDS gets a remake or inspires a future game because its premise is gold and I would love to explore a Metroidvania with the ability to time travel.

Onto the final game of this series: The Amazing Spider-Man DS. See you then.

-9- The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

At last, we're at the final game of this retrospective. The Amazing Spider-Man 1. It's poetic to send this series with a movie licensed game. Ocean is back for another "sprite + 3D environments in a sorta Metroidvania-esque" game.

I remember sorta enjoying the main console version of TASM1.  It was the first open world Spider-Man game after Web of Shadows in 2008. It was decent but it walked back a lot of what was cool about its predecessors. The Web Swinging and combat was more automated and not as deep as WoS. Stealth was passable. I remember really liking the "scale" of the game with how Spidey had to fight giant robots and cross species. It did a decent job in making the threat to New York feel severe (plus, it had a story about a disease spreading all over New York that required people to quarantine and get vaccinated....... so clearly Insomniac plagiarized this game).

I also really love TASM1 movie. Hot Take, but I feel this is the best Spider-Man Origin Movie. Even better than Raimi's SM1. Don't get me wrong. I love Raimi's version. But what I love about TASM1 is how much more it spends time on Peter developing into Spider-Man. In Raimi's version, it sorta speeds through it. Once Peter gets his powers, he's a bit of jerk to Uncle Ben, he goes and wrestles for money, Uncle Ben dies which makes Peter pursue revenge. He finds the mugger and realizes he's the guy he let go earlier which motivates Peter to become a good Spider-Man. It's done well.

But TASM1 explores this in more detail. It spent more time of Peter being a jerk with his powers. It spent more time showing how there were consequences to Peter's initial selfishness with Aunt May needing to walk home alone that Peter initially doesn't pick up on. As a result, it makes Uncle Ben's death feel more significant and tragic since you can see how he and Aunt May just wanted what was best for Peter and for him to mature and Peter was brushing them away.

In addition, even when Peter becomes Spider-Man, he doesn't instantly become a hero. He continues acting selfishly. He takes down criminals and is quite the jerk to them. Peter thinks he's doing a good job. He gets his first reality check when at dinner with Captain Stacey, Captain Stacey points out how this Spider-Man is a menace as he ruins police operations and is making things worse. It's the first time Peter starts to see the consequences of his actions from someone he respects. It's not until Peter later chooses to let the Lizard go to save people that Peter truly starts to become the Spider-Man we all know and love. That progression is what TASM1 absolutely nails. I love when an origin story really explores the motives, thought process and progression of a hero rather than brush through it.

Anyway, I can no longer stall for time here. I have to sadly go back to the main topic of this post: The Amazing Spider-Man DS game. I'll be honest with y'all, I couldn't bring myself to finish this one either. That's 2 DS Spider-Man games in a row now!

Like its main console version, it takes place after the events of the movie in this weird alternate timeline where everything is a lot more "comic-book-y". Oscorp was continuing Connor's research which results in a breach of cross species getting out into New York and spreading the disease. Alastair Smythte sends out his robots to contain them and they also target Spidey since he's a cross species. Peter is forced to break out Connors from a mental Asylum and work with him to try and fix everything.

(Quick Side Tangent. But back in Edge of Time's main console version, Anti-Venom's healing powers could "cure" Peter's powers since Peter got his powers from radiation so it's technically an illness. But Miguel was unaffected by Anti-Venom since his powers are DNA based. In TASM universe, Peter gets his powers from a genetically engineered Spider as opposed to a radioactive one. So would TASM Peter have the same immunity to Anti-Venom that Miguel has? )

The basic controls are similar to Edge of Time DS. You have the same rather clunky and rigid combat that lacks the freedom and freeflow nature of Griptonite's games. You have the same sorta worse Web Swinging and Navigation controls as EoTDS.

The way the game handles levels is both different and odd. It feels like a combination of Edge of Time DS and Spider-Man 3 DS. You now have an "off mission open/hub world" that consist of areas like the sewers, parts of Oscorp and New York Streets. These areas houses entrances to missions that play like sorta self contained areas from Edge of Time DS. The game even rates your performance on these missions by how fast you complete them and how much health you have left by the end.

The "off mission open/hub world" is kinda cool in that it connects different parts of the map together and technically is more varied than what EoTDS has. But I don't know, it inherits SM3DS' issues of the open world not really adding much and it's even more limited in side content and exploration.

The missions themselves are extremely tedious. The goal is to get through them and complete whatever the objective is. There are "branching paths" that lead to other areas that might contain collectibles. Remember when I complained the minimap in Edge of Time DS was too minimal for its own good? That version would still be an improvement to TASM1DS. When in missions, the minimap only represents areas with basic rectangles and shows pathways between them with lines. The number and position of lines gives you some idea of how many and where these pathways are at least. But you have no clue about the general layout of the area or where the objective may be. Resulting in a lot of combing around for items which really slows down the pace.

The biggest issue is that sometimes, the door to the next area is locked and you need to get a keycard by defeating the enemy that has it. But it's not clear if this room requires a keycard. If you ignore all the enemies and just get to the end you either get to move onto the next area with no issue or have to backtrack through the area and find all the enemies to defeat. If you choose to fight all the enemies upon entering, it can end up as a waste of time if there is no keycard (not helped by how lacklustre the combat is). Again, you won't know what is required until you find the door. The issue is exacerbated because you don't know which enemy has the keycard and what the general layout of the room is. It's possible the enemy with the keycard is tucked away in a random far off corner that requires you to comb the entire place. Or is a slow floating drone that requires you to awkwardly position yourself, wait, jump and begin striking and repeat the process until it gets destroyed. I can't believe TASM1DS has levels that are worse than SM2DS!

The fact there's a mission rating and replay system suggests to me the game intends for this to be something replayable? Like, the player can improve how a mission goes by the knowledge on replays and it would be more fun? But I don't know, with how tedious and unrewarding it already is, I feel that hurts the replayability.

Let's compare this to prior DS Spider-Man games. Ultimate Spider-Man DS and Spider-Man 3 DS had linear levels with no minimap that sometimes asked you to defeat specific enemies to be able to progress. But in those games, the levels were laid out in a straightforward way that didn't require you to comb every inch or fight every enemy using a lacklustre combat system to progress. In addition, they had markers highlighting important targets and had some nice set pieces to mix it up.

Web of Shadows DS and Shattered Dimensions DS had more of a Metroidvania-esque design. But kept up the pace by giving the player a minimap that at least showed the general outline of the area (with the option to highlight collectibles and objectives) which gave a better indication of what to do and not blindly explore. In addition, it actually had a much more fun combat system but rarely asked the player to fight every enemy in an area.

Even Spider-Man 2 DS at least only asked the player to just comb every inch of a level to find stuff. Yeah, it wasn't ideal because it lacked a minimap or any indication or markers. But at least there's no additional fluff or requirements for individual areas that waste your time. You don't need to fight every enemy just to open a door you didn't know about.

The sad part is that I can sorta see what TASM1DS is sorta going for and how it could have actually been something great.

Imagine an alternate version of the game where every mission just dropped you into a sorta self contained mini-metroidvania level. Remember Breath of the Wild's Eventide Island? It was a small self contained section of Breath of the Wild that reset your equipment and had you sorta start from scratch to complete a few challenges.

Imagine if TASM1DS was set up where when you enter a mission, it drops you into such a level. It gives you a rough indication of where your objective is and leaves it to you for how to find it. And there are multiple ways of reaching the objective. Maybe you can follow the most direct route but it requires you to backtrack and find keycards that open certain doors by defeating certain glowing enemies. But if you didn't want to do that, you can try and explore for a vent or something that takes you to different areas that have their own set of challenges in a more "out of the way" path. And since you unlock new abilities as you progress the game, you can return to older levels and use your new abilities to open entirely new paths that have their own challenges (kinda like what Shattered Dimensions DS does) and get an even better completion time and rating.

Even the limited minimap TASM1DS already has would fit this version of the game as now scouring every inch of the area is only one possible option for progression and the player can naturally find their own paths.

But, that is not the game we got. I do not recommend y'all play this game. Even the prior DS SM game that I couldn't finish: Edge of Time DS, at least had the novel time switching mechanic that was worth checking out at least. TASM1DS does nothing to make it worth playing over its predecessors. Ending this series on a low note.

-10- Conclusion

So yeah, how was the experience of reviewing each of these games?

I was a little surprised we never got a full on 3D Spider-Man game like the old Neversoft ones (Friend or Foe was the closest one and it was a different genre). But given the fewer buttons on the DS and the issue older 3D SM games had with the camera, that was probably a wise call. I doubt the folks making DS Spider-Man games would have been given the time to make an amazing 3D Spider-Man game.

All of the main ones were 2D side scrollers. Hearkening back to those GBA and SNES Superhero games. That's not a bad fit for Spidey. Gryptonite managed to really find an interesting niche with the formula by making the games Metroidvanias and improving the combat and navigation systems.

So with the rankings of these games, I'm going to give Shattered Dimensions DS the top spot. I recommend everyone reading this to try it out as it's a great game that executes its ideas well and offers a lot of content and replayability and accessibility. It goes above and beyond its predessors.

For second place, I'm torn between Ultimate Spider-Man DS and Web of Shadows DS. USMDS has the better story and refines the "linear side scrolling gameplay" side of DS Spider-Man games. But it's not very replayable. WoSDS begins the Metroidvania SM games and has great combat and gameplay and atmosphere but suffers from poor balancing, difficulty spikes. Plus, SDDS improves on its formula in nearly every way. 

Basically, I feel like SDDS, USMDS and WoSDS are the 3 Spider-Man games on the DS that are the most worth playing as they're pretty good overall.

This next tier is of games that, while not bad, aren't great and are only worth checking out if you're curious. I'll put Battle for New York DS and Spider-Man 3 DS here.

Honourable mention to Edge of Time DS since, while the game is unfinished and needed more polish, it does have the most unique gimmick of time travel which is novel even among recent games and even Spider-Man games.

The final tier would be games I'd advise you avoid. Either because they are flat out bad, boring, have other games that do their concept better or are a chore to play. Here comes Spider-Man 2 DS, Friend or Foe DS and The Amazing Spider-Man DS.

This was a wild ride and took me a long time to write. What are all y'all thoughts on this?

Next up for me is probably Splinter Cell Chaos Theory on the DS. See you then.