Spider-Man 2 Hands-On Impressions

Activision’s Spider-Man 2 is one of the most hotly anticipated N-Gage titles yet announced, so we were more than pleased to receive an exclusive first look at Nokia’s N-Gage booth at E3. We had an opportunity to take a "spin" through the first playable level, wherein Spidey must cross downtown Manhattan within a certain time limit via webslinging to catch up to Doc Ock.

Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man automatically shoots webbing from building to building, bobbing up and down as he swings his way along. You navigate between avenues by referring to a red arrow at the top of the screen that swivels to indicate the correct direction, like in GTA3. Spidey has to cross each new checkpoint (cleverly delineated by huge spiderwebs that bridge spans between buildings) before the timer for that leg of the trip runs out, or it’s curtains.

The graphics and gameplay in the early build we played were clearly incomplete, but we were impressed nevertheless. Spidey’s webslinging animation is extremely fluid and very reminiscent of the movie’s CGA sequences. It’s pretty easy to maneuver him around, too; you can gain altitude by shooting a fresh webline with the 5 key and reverse direction with a nifty flip maneuver using 7.

Spider-Man 2 is due to hit the market later this summer.