Great graphics, good voice acting, an original new way to play beat em' ups, this game simply put is 'Ultimate'.
The graphics in this game are SLICK. It uses 3D in a 2D environment al'a Viewtiful Joe. It also takes takes a similar cartoon style, although it's not really cel-shading. The city levels have signs and neon, and fires even put the black dots from comic book pages when you run into them. Nice touch. Unfortunatley, the prison level is HIGHLY repetitive graphics wise. Also, the enemies seem a little dinky, like cardboard cutouts. The cinemas, on the other hand, are amazing. Using the dual screen set-up of the DS, it tells the story through comic inspired stills, those are nice and they even signify actions during gameplay. The real hook of the cut-scenes are the voice acting. This game proves the DS can handle voice acting and a great presentation too. I applaud the developers for working so hard especially when they could have used text like almost every other DS game out there. There are strangley, when you save a citizen, clips from 2004's console Spider Man 2. It's not out of place, but a little too familar. Spider Man seems a little sarcastic and wise, but it seems his character, strangley. The music isn't terrible, but dosen't quite reach the quailty of the voice acting in the game, sadly.
Another cool feature that was VERY WELL implented was Venom. They could have pasted a boring side mission with him, but they used him as the template as the driving force behind the game. Venom controls the tendrils with touch screen, and dragging a screaming civilian into Venom's grasp slowly seems to never wear off. This feels integrated and not tacked on like many other games that just add a extra feature (think NFSU 2 DS) and make it feel crummy. The Venom missions are well thought up as well. One mission you could be throwing rockets back at a Helicopter and the next you could be evading cameras and lights, while absorbing victims energy (Venom is a powerhouse, but often he needs to feed. His meter drops even when you are just running, but it never feels like a nuisance.)
The one complaint I have with Venom is that he NEVER gets a more than decent boss battle. Spider Man gets ALL of the good bosses and the more interesting side characters. With Venom, it's just Venom. All of the characters (except one female hunter) are nothing to him.
Overall, Ultimate Spider Man is what Spider Man 2 DS should have been and then some. Controls are responsive, story decent (while fairly short), slick production values, and an overall great package.*
*Note: I have not had a chance to play multiplayer mode and regretfully, I have omitted it from my review.*