Ultimate Spider-Man for GameCube Reviews by Gamers

In Ultimate Spider-Man you still do whatever a spider can, but only half as effectively as you could in Spider-Man 2. Sure, it looks great and has some awesome presentation with the same free-roaming Spidey action and swinging mechanics that made SM2 great, but it still has serious flaws.

As far as controls go, they're nearly the same as in SM2, but you can't wall sprint, do aerial acrobatics, charge your jumps or attacks, and your combat options are severely limited in comparison. I really missed the ability to dodge attacks. Just jumping away when your Spider-sense goes off is a joke.

There's no upgrading, either, so you're stuck with the same attacks at the end of the game that you had at the beginning.

I loved being able to play as Venom, but I would've wanted to have been able to destroy more than just cars and the (surprisingly) few people in NYC. I want to be able to rip up anything from the street and take chunks out of buildings like in Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. To put it short, just like Spidey's half was done better in another game, So was Venom's.

The worst part: I beat the story in 4 and a half hours. Afterwards, the free-roaming (since I was finally able to roam without feeling hurried along to the next part of the story) felt shallow and uninteresting. Since I really didn't want to take the time to do aaalll those nerve-shattering races and beating up the same smattering of thugs and running around looking for tokens (in essence: 100% completion) just to unlock the black symbiote suit, I put it down really quickly after the 4 1/2-hour story was done.

Rent if you're a Spider-man enthusiast, but don't expect it to top its predecessor.