Following up on the success that was Spider-man 2: the game, Activision decided to follow up with another Spidey game, this time based off of the Ultimate Spider-man comic books. With similar gameplay mechanics, and Brian Michael Bendis behind the helm with the story, this game was saw as a sure fire hit. Sadly, the game shares the same shortcomings as it's predecessor.

On the positive side, the cell-shaded graphics were beautiful. The artwork stays true to Mark Bagley's art in the comics. This game really felt like a playable comic book, with each level starting off with an original comic book cover, and Spider-man and Villians jumping in and out of panels. This especially leads to some pretty humorous moments.

The spirit of Spider-man really burns bright in this game. There are numerous of cameos that will have any Marvel fanboy peeing his pants. From Wolverine to Silver Sable. Ironically, J. Jonah Jameson & Aunt May, arguablly the two most important supporting characters in the comics, don't make a single appearance. That aside, the characters represented It maintains a lot of the light hearted humor found in the comics. The voice acting was strong and the story was pretty impressive.

The gameplay elements are both better and worst than Spider-man 2's. This game allows you to play as both Spider-man and Venom. Spider-man plays a lot like he did in the previous game. He's quick and agile, but web swinging is not quite as fun, or realistic, as it previous was. Venom plays a lot like Hulk from Hulk: Ultimate destruction. Upon playing as him, cops and other forces will begin to chase Venom down. His health bar also depletes so you have to continue to absorb victims. The boss battles are heavily revamped in this game. Before fighting them, you engage in a lengthy chase sequence. Upon catching them, you engage in a boss fight, which now includes minigames at certain points.

The game, like the original, suffers from lack of extras. Outside of the primary missions, there is very little to do. With the exception of Human Torch's races, no of them are really interesting. The game also has a stripped down Web Slinging Mechanic. Web slinging is no where as fun or addictive as it was in Spider-man 2. New York is also dissapointedly much smaller. Only Manhatton and parts of the Times is featured this time around. The fighting mechanics are also far more simplistic this time around.

In the end, this game fairs as well as Spider-man 2. It trades up a large area and a cool swinging mechanic for a better storyline and a more comic feel. Out of the two, I'd say this is better, because of the amount of fan service to the fans of the comics.