In what is truly the best Spider-Man videogame that has ever graced a videogame system, Marvel, Activision , and Neversoft, the masters of PlayStation programming, have succeeded where no company has ever even come close. With this game, the teams have re-created the image of The Amazing Spider-man in an engaging, charming, and stylish platform/action game that truly brings out the best traits of the long-standing comic book, resurrecting his tarnished image from the horrible live-action TV show, a few off years in the comics, and every single bad Spider-Man game that has touched a console (i.e. all of them).

I have waited for this moment since I first started playing videogames, which is saying something, because I began with the Atari 2600, and raised calluses on my hands with such classics as Asteroids and Defender in their first waves at the arcades. Neversoft didn't just hammer out an action game and slap a Spider-Man costume on it. The team has created a title that enables you to do nearly everything Spider-man can do, and it feels nearly perfect. From crawling skyscrapers to web slinging across city skies to tangling up opponents to crawling upside down in buildings, or pummeling opponents with web balls, this game makes you feel like Spider-Man.

Spider-Man is a great game, but it isn't perfect. It's too easy, oftentimes the camera angles are too complex for their own good, and the control leaves a little to be desired. But despite these little problem spots, Spider-man is more than respectable, it's a phenomenon in videogame physics and presentation. It's a big license game that plays well, and brings you into the world of Spider-Man just as if you were reading the comic book back in grade school.

Gameplay

Following a rather traditional action/platform character formula, Spider-Man is an action game that follows the adventures of Peter Parker, a.k.a. The Amazing Spider-Man. For those unfamiliar with the most popular of Marvel's comic book characters, Spider-Man is the story of a young high school student who, one day in a scientific experiment, was accidently bitten by a radioactive spider, which gifted Peter Parker with super-human, spider-like abilities.

The game assumes you know a bit about his past, and starts off with Spider-Man being framed during a public speech given by Doctor Octopus. Spider-Man is clearly set up, since Peter Parker is actually in the crowd watching as his double appears and steals Octavious' presentation right off the stage. From there, Spider-man must face a carnival of new and old villains, plus avoid the aggressive NYPD police department, which believes Spider-man is guilty of a crime he did not commit, as he plows through six large missions.

What players notice first about Spider-man is that, just like in the comics, he can swing around town on his web, and crawl on any single surface in the game. Using the evergreen Tony Hawk engine, or rather the totally revamped Apocalypse engine, Spider-Man is a piece of 3D engine genius. Players can literally do whatever a spider man can: shoot webs, create a web shield, form web cones on their hands, kick, punch, throw, sneak attack, tangle up enemies with a large shot of web, and shoot web balls. In short, it's amazing how life-like, or should I say, "comic-like" Spider-man is. It's amazing.

The level designs are interesting, too. It seems that Neversoft wanted to create a standard platform/action game that was styled and tailored to Spider-Man's specific powers. So, if you have ever played a platform game, such as Mario or Crash, for instance, you'll recognize the standard action-based puzzles, throngs of baddy attacks, and the all-too-familiar end-level bosses.

There are loads of Spider-man specific levels, too. In one scenario, Spider-Man must race across town chasing Venom. This is the standard, "Test-your-web-slinging" level, but you have to use Spider-Man's special web skills. Then there is the "Escape from the police helicopter" level, in which Spider-Man must crawl up a building's side while the police blast missiles at you, creating a path one avoid and one to follow. The pattern is so easy to follow that it's comic, while still remaining a lot of fun.

One level has Spider-Man trying to stay on the roof of a moving train, while hordes of Lizardman's henchmen attack from all sides. It's tried and true arcade gameplay fodder. Strangely, while there are lots of levels, all of them are very short. Each requires one kind of puzzle to be solved, or set of enemies to pass, or button to find. With the exception of finding Mary Jane in the Lizardman's lair, not a one of them is complex in any way.

[This next paragraph is a little bit of a spoiler, so don't read this it if you don't want to know which characters you'll meet or which bosses you'll fight.]

Activision clearly meant to reward long-time Marvel fans because it packed this game with a wide range of Marvel characters. The game brings to life a huge cast of Spider-Man's long-time associates and friends, such as J. Jonah Jameson, Mary-Jane Watson, the Black Cat, The Human Torch, Daredevil, Captain America, and the Punisher, as well as memorable enemies and bit-players, too. At the end of each level, Spider-Man has to face off with a boss, each following a classic boss formula, and each a classic Spidey enemy. Most fans won't be disappointed. You face off with Scorpion, Rhino, Venom (twice), Mysterio, Carnage, Doctor Octopus, and a new boss exclusive to the game. Each boss has a pattern that you must learn in order to beat each one, and the most original ones, not necessarily the hardest, at least in my opinion, are the second Venom, Mysterio, and Scorpion bouts.

While I enjoyed about 99% of my time with Spider-Man, I noticed a few areas in which I thought the game needed improvement. I'm no game designer, but these suggestions would have made Spider-Man perfect, in my eyes. Whether I used the Dpad or the analog controller, Spider-Man didn't always move where I wanted him to move. Spider-man doesn't move with a high level of precision, and several instances -- boss fights, long-distance web ball shooting, and some long jumps -- made succeeding an exercise in frustration.

One problem area is most noticeable in trying to line up with an enemy. I couldn't hit a Lizard henchman from a long distance with my Web Ball because Spider-man simply cannot circle around in small increments. In several other instances, the amazing camera angles that follow him in the third-person perspective are impossible to follow in tiny, enclosed areas, such as in dark vents or on thin, high poles.

The punch and kick animations aren't too refined, either. In the subway level in which Spidey must survive on the train for a period of time while facing an onslaught of henchmen, the average gamer is going to punch an enemy and the follow-through punches will walk Spidey right off the side of the train. Yeah, you're supposed to be careful, but the game should reward you for being skilled at Spider-Man's moves, not punish you for forgetting to overcompensate for his drawn-out punch, and sometimes detrimental, punch animations.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment was that 8/10s of Spider-Man is simply too easy. I played through the game on the medium difficulty level (the game includes Kid Mode, Easy, Medium, and Hard), and it was pretty much a snap. A well-honed gameplayer can beat this game in a day, two at most. The game does grow more difficult at the end, but it isn't that hard, and I was hoping that it would challenge me more. Perhaps I was hoping for more. More adventure, more precision, more control, more game time.

Graphics

One thing is for certain: NeverSoft has nailed the comic book look of the Spider-Man characters perfectly. Spider-Man doesn't look like the stupid live-action dufus from the TV show of the '80s. He's sleek, smooth, and nimble looking. He is graced with tons of classic poses from the comics, and his suit and animations are damn fine. Sometimes, the animations are a pain, but for the most part, they're spot on.

The character design is almost flawless. Everyone looks like they should. J. Jonah Jameson has the cigar, the two-tone white and gray flattop, and Venom is large, muscular, and gooey, just as his symbiotic suite should be. The Scorpion, the Rhino, Mysterio, and Carnage are such absolutely perfect comic book representations, it's hard to not just stare at them for awhile. They're beautiful. The textures and shading on all of them are excellent. And the looks of rage and disgust from the Rhino, Scorpion, and Jameson are great. They're perfect comic-book representations.

The only two characters who strangely look not only weird, but appear exactly alike are Black Cat and Mary Jane Watson. Their hair is rectangular, and so are their breasts (that's just plain weird), and they share the exact same facial textures. In fact, they share the same character model. Whoops.

As far as presentation goes, Spider-Man is a gem. It blends in-game cutscenes and FMV together in a very balanced mix of storytelling and story set-up. Actually, to be honest, the FMV is pretty good in parts, but quite bad in others areas. The FMV of Peter Parker is just off, and some scenes are simply lower quality production pieces than a game of this overall caliber would suggest. But still, you get the real feeling of the Spider-Man world, the menacing, adrenaline-pumping, chaotic nature that is Peter Parker's dual lifestyle.

Sound

Once again, in terms of presentation, Spider-Man comes up with high marks. First, the classic old '70s Spider-man song ("Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can, spins a web, any size, catches thieves, just like flies, look out here comes the Spider-Man") is reworked into a thumping, mixed genre song that sounds like it's samples the voices from the '70s animated series.

Following that, we get the wonderfully geeky, nasal New York accent of Marvel creator Stan Lee to narrate the game, and that too adds a great deal of respect and class to the game. His designated lines roll off his tongue with the same fan-centric flair as the introductory paragraphs of the comic book do.

And from there on in it's just gravy. Every single voice in the game, at least as I had always imagined them, is perfectly read, from the gutsy, gravelly accents of New York thugs, to the maniacal ventilations of Scorpion, to the primal rage of Rhino, to the seething lisp of the Lizardman. The dialog appears to have been written by Stan Lee himself or by a true fan of the series, because the classic one liners of Spider-man in battles are dead on. Even the lowest rung thugs have the right sound: Dumb, greedy, and lazy. The web sounds and Peter Parker's voice are also top-notch. It's all so good!