Frustrating level design and unbalanced goals make this game hard to enjoy. The good moments are few and far between.
The play control is up there in terms of quality. Spidey runs at a brisk pace, and has a variety of 3-hit combos depending on the sequence of punches and kicks you execute in succession. His web-swing and web zip-line become second nature very quickly, and actually just exploring the city is a breeze and pretty enjoyable. Tapping the touch screen to "equip" unlockable special attacks offers no difficulties. Spidey Sense appears automatically, and a quick push of the L button will allow Spiderman to utilize this and slow down the environment around him.
Great play control, however, isn't worth much when the framework you apply it to is as loopy and frustrating as it is in Spiderman 2 for the DS: the level design, the combat, and the objectives have basically put these great mechanics to waste.
The combat is actually not terrible, but it could be done better. Enemies seem to have a slightly unfair priority over your moves. You have to be ultra quick to land the first blow on an unsuspecting enemy, and even then your attack range looks to be a bit shorter than the visual representation would imply. Spidey sense comes in handy here, so long as you remember just how short your range is. I've caught myself activating Spidey Sense, walking a few steps, and swinging at nothing but air. You really need to get right into the enemy's grill. The saving grace is the variety of moves and combos you can pull off, thanks to the "Buffet of Moves' Vicarious Visions has put onto the touch screen. The only problem is that you might not be patient enough with the level design to ever experience these moves.
The level design and the goals go hand in hand to make this title mind-numbing and baffling. To start, the levels are designed with the new 3D engine in mind. This means you're actually able to turn corners instead of continuing horizontally on a flat X-axis. This is usually fine for action games that go from A to B on a linear path. But there's a fair amount of interconnection between rooms in several of the indoor stages, thus giving the game a scavenger hunt feel. Because it's in faux 3D -- not actually allowing you to control your perspective on the surroundings -- it becomes frustrating to navigate between rooms and remember which way leads to what, since you're only able to travel in two perceivable directions.
The outdoor stages in the city don't fare much better. Although they don't have this "room" problem, there are so many vertical planes of horizontal platforms that hide your goals, which are typically "Find this many hostages, and kill this many baddies, within this amount of time". In order to unlock special moves, your goals are made more challenging: "Do all of that while maintaining this percentage of your health bar, and do it all in this too-short-amount-of-time." It'll take perfect memorization of hostage, enemy, and obstacle placement to actually achieve your advanced goals and unlock special moves or health / web meter upgrades, and precision combat skills. Searching every single room, floor, ledge, or whatever, to find hostages and enemies placed in such loopy and tedious arrangements, in such an unforgiving amount of time doesn't make the game challenging -- it makes it annoying. The incentive to replay levels to unlock everything wore off on me, not too quickly but more so than I would have liked.
Not content to simply use the Touch Screen for the "Buffet of Moves", Vicarious Visions thought it innovative to include little mini-games within boss battles and stages. Sometimes you'll use the touch screen to deactivate electric panels and bombs simply by using your stylus, dragging a fixture across a set path, while avoiding hazards such as electric shocks. During boss fights, you'll often be shooting debris or other projectiles out of the air, light-gun style. While the in-stage mini-games are neither good nor bad, the boss mini-games break up what is otherwise an intense battle. At first you might think that you could use that breather, but the fact that those mini-games are such an uninspired design begs the question, "Why bother?"
Despite its warts, there are some good things about Spiderman 2 DS. Throwaway minigames aside, the boss battles are otherwise intense and truly challenging -- not due to bad design. It's all pattern based like old school brawlers, but they get the job done, and it takes some nice skill to pull off a win. The opportunity to use your Buffet to its fullest is much appreciated, and victory really does feel like an accomplishment to be proud of.
The aesthetics aren't bad at all, either. In fact, the graphics are quite nice to look at. Moving at a consistent 60 frames a second, the city zips by you at a smooth and detailed pace. Spidey animates particularly well, even if the enemies don't, and if it weren't for the repetitive level design, this would be the best-looking DS game at launch. The sound isn't half bad either; the music is repetitive and pretty much not memorable, but voice samples are used liberally throughout the gameplay. Making use of the DS's two speakers, all effects are heard in wonderfully dizzying stereo sound.
Even with this and the slim pickings of the DS launch in mind, there's no real need to add this game to your library. Spiderman 2 for the DS has some merit to it, that being technological showmanship, tight controls and some entertaining boss battles. But in the end, that's not enough, and a rental is simply the best recommendation for this launch title.