A great game that isn't quite there.

User Rating: 9.1 | Ultimate Spider-Man DS
Back to the old school beat-'em-up side scrollers, where all that stood between you and, for example, a bad-guy, was a few people to save. This game I found really enjoyable to just sit back and relax. You basically get to play as either spiderman or venom, and then go about your heroic or nefarious deeds respectively. It feels so good to eat people.
This game has brilliant graphics, with the one screen being used for fighting and the other to whip in comic-style panels as you hit enemies around. The stroy is represented in comic book style, with panels coming in from everywhere to make it so much more exciting. And the sound and music are superb. The real highlight is FULL VOICE ACTING, which is done brilliantly. You can hear all of spidey's taunts up close and personal.
Gameplay wise, it is very good. The pressure isalways on tto save people as spiderman, or bash on people followed y eating as venom. There is a wide variety of moves available to each character in terms of uppercuts, drop kicks and the like depending on what combination of buttons you press. Venom is controlled thrugh the touch screen, but the more precise control of the buttons is often needed for boss battles. Using human mea shields in one tendril as you charge a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent is just too fun to stop after the first, or fiftieth.
The stroy line is well put together, with multiple paths (although some are only minor differences) and 2 endings, depending on which path you choose at the end. The game is short, and it felt that after the battle with Electro, the designers gave up, with most bosses simple reappearing in straight out boss battles after then. It is also not very open environment-wise to go web slinging around, with a very linear level design marring its replayability somewhat. There isn't even a Hard Mode after you beat it, Perfect Dark style, where the levels and enemies change. Needless to say, after beating the game once, that is about it.
There is a multiplayer battle mode that coul've been good, but poor choise in character choice (get 2 Spidermans, Peter Parker, Venom and a pathetic Carnage), which is boring. personally, I would've had a skirmish AI to fight against, with a character choice of Spider-Man, Venom, Carnage, Silver Sable, Shocker, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Beetle, Rhino (all the games bosses) in a more street-fighter style combat mode.
Overall a good game, but the last quarter of it feels like a cop out, the multiplayer mode is bad , and the levels are too linear give it little chance of replayability. Awesome graphics, voice acting and a noce single-player gameplay more than offset this, but it could've been a classic.

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