Spidey's début adventure on the GBA may be the definite handheld title for the web slinger!!
Now "Spider-Man: Mysterio's Menace" is one of the launch games for the GBA library and it's the first GBA Spidey game released back in 2001. So has this game aged well? Well, on with the review!!!
The Story is when Peter Parker is out and about trying to get Mary Jane a fishbowl for her new fish. Suddenly alot of crimes are happening in Manhattan, the Docks and the Factory. So Peter takes on the role of Spider-Man and journeys on a long night to find out what is connecting the incidents together!
The controls are straitforward. You use the control pad to move Spidey, press A to jump (Press A in mid air to web swing) , B to attack and use the shoulder buttons to web enemies. The L button will attack and the R button will tie thugs up. See, simple to grasp controls.
Even guys and girls who care more about graphics than anything else won't deny that the graphics outstanding for GBA standards!! Spidey looks rich, vibrant and he animates beautifully! The backgrounds look nice giving the game a comic book feel to it. The lowly thugs and main enemies look nice with vibrant colours and such. Overall, the graphics are fantastic and make use of the hardware's 32 bit technology to it's full potential!!
The Gameplay is sastifying and fun though a touch difficult! You control Spider-Man through 7 levels of old school trickery levels. Spider-Man comes equipped with all of his powers including his arachnid like agility, super speed and wall crawling abilities. There are levels where Spidey has to get to the end quickly, solve puzzles, rescue hostages etc. In fact, this game has got some variety in it which is what I want, and if you've read my "Aria of Sorrow" Review, you'll know what I'm talking about!! There are a lot of powerups in this game as well which alot of games don't have nowadays. There is the Armour suit which gives you more health, a temporary armour suit and a symbiote suit which basically makes Spidey suffer less abuse, do more damage and be alot more agile. There is also a invincibility power up that just makes Spidey invunerable to harm for a little while and makes the fighting less bothersome. The Powerups in the game are an excellent touch that gives a lot of fan service as well! The fighting in the game is okay. I mean, that it's fun seeing Spidey pounding the crap out of people but for the most part, there isn't much to fighting. Just mash the attack button and that's it. The Boss fights are fun and can prove to be quite a challenge like Mysterio, Electro, Scorpion and Rhino but Hammerhead is an exception because he's a total cakewalk to fight against (e.g: Web him again and again, tie him up and punch till he's down). Overall the gameplay is slick, nice and captures Spider-Man perfectly!!
The Sound is not memorable but it definitely suits Spidey very well. The Sound effects are nice and the voice acting is a bit hilarious! (Like the euuurgh!!! when you K.O thugs!)
The Downsides I found were: Password save? Really!!? I mean come on! Would've killed the developers to make a proper save system!! Also the game is really short! It's not as short as say "Super Mario Land" but for the most part, you can beat it in 2 hours if you know what you are doing. Anyway, onto verdict!
Spider-Man: Mysterio's Menace is a essential title to your GBA library!! It's a great action game which is very replayable!!! Let's overview the facts shall we?
The Good: Excellent Graphics, top notch gameplay, captures Spidey and his abilities very well, smooth animation, great challenge, old school Spidey at his finest, boss fights are fun, music is fun to listen to, simple to learn controls, funny SFX and Eurrrgh!!!
The Bad: The game can be beaten in 2 hours, password system is an annoyance, Hammerhead is a cakewalk to fight against.
The Ugly: No Ugly points here!!
Title: EPIC!!!