Spider-Man 3 (video game)

Infobox VG
title = Spider-Man 3


caption =
developer = Treyarch (PS3 & Xbox 360)
Vicarious Visions (Wii, PS2, PSP, Nintendo DS, GBA)
Treyarch, ported by Beenox (PC),
publisher = Activision
designer =
engine =
resolution = 720p
released = May 4, 2007
vgrelease|EU=May 18, 2007 (PS3)vgrelease|AUS=September 19, 2007 (PS3 "Collector's Edition") [ [http://au.playstation.com/games_media/release_schedule.jhtml: Games Release Schedule, 04/09/07] ] October 16, 2007 (PSP)
genre = Action game, sandbox
modes = Single-player
ratings = vgratings|ESRB=T|PEGI=12+
platforms = GBA, Windows, Nintendo DS, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360
media = Blu-ray Disc, DVD-DL (Xbox 360, PC, Wii & PS2), UMD (PSP) Flash card (DS), Cartridge (GBA)

"Spider-Man 3" is a video game loosely based on the "Spider-Man 3" film. It was released May 4 2007.

The scenario draws from the film, Spider-Man comics and the Marvel Universe. The game features nine villains on the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC, five villains on the GBA and DS, and eight on the Wii, PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 2, including the movie's primary villains Venom, New Goblin, and Sandman.

Plot

Peter Parker has finally started to feel secure. He is now Mary Jane Watson's boyfriend, and New York City loves Spider-Man. The problem is that Harry Osborn won't talk to him, new gangs (led by the Kingpin) arrive, Eddie Brock is threatening to take Peter's place at the Daily Bugle, and an escaped prisoner--Flint Marko--falls into a particle accelerator which changes him into the Sandman.

On a small date, Peter and MJ are talking about Harry who becomes the New Goblin. Peter fights New Goblin and takes him to a hospital.

Spider-Man sees Scorpion and the Rhino escaping and later he follows them to a place called Mechabiocon. He then frees the Scorpion after a long battle and found out that the Scorpion was being controlled by Dr. Stillwell.

Later Spider-Man meets Jean DeWolff and is asked to help stop gangs and dirty cops. Afterwards, she gets shot but is saved by Spider-Man.

Also, Spider-Man stops the Lizard who is Dr. Connors and brutally defeats him. With Spider-Man weakened, the Lizard escapes.

Afterwards, Peter is bonded with the symbiote while sleeping. Using the new Black Suit, he fights Sandman and kills him then he kills the Kingpin and his gangs.

Later, he fights Kraven the Hunter and Calypso and defeats them. The Lizard transforms into Mega Lizard and also defeats him and killing the Lizard which transformed back to Dr. Connors.

At the Daily Bugle, Peter bets that Eddie will never get the picture of Spidey as a menace. However Eddie uses a fake, so Spider-Man smacks him in the face breaking his jaw and stealing his hidden cameras. Eddie swears to get revenge on Spidey.

On a date, Peter snaps at Mary Jane and alienates her. He does so but the power of the Black Suit scares her and she breaks up with him. Peter realizes that the Black Suit is doing something to him and decides to take it off. He realizes that the black suit had killed every villain he's faced. With the sound of a church bell the symbiote comes off Peter and it bonds with Eddie.

Venom finds Sandman and asks him to team up. He turns him down and Venom uses his daughter, Penny, to blackmail him to help him.

Spider-Man fights the Rhino sided with Scorpion and defeats him. Spider-Man prevents Scorpion from killing Dr. Stillwell. Then, Scorpion escapes after the police arrive.

Then he goes back to Doc Connors and tells him that there are still lizards swarming the sewers and that Spider-Man must find an antidote to cure the lizards. Doc Connors tells Spidey where his secret lab is. Spider-Man finds the lab swarming with lizards, but he succeeds in getting the antidote and gives it to Doc Connors, who is cured. Then Doc Connors tells Spider-Man about 3 gas dispensers he has in the sewers and that Spidey must put the antidote in all 3. Spider-Man succeeds in doing the task but with difficultly as the lizards all seem intent on destroying the dispensers. Then he goes back and tells Doc Connors that he hopes this never happens again.

Then Venom and Sandman kidnap MJ and bring her to a construction site. Spider-Man arrives to save her and shortly afterwards Harry arrives to help him. Harry saves Mary Jane and defeats the oversized Sandman. Venom kills Harry and after a last fight between Spider-Man and Venom, Venom is supposedly killed.

In the last scene, Spider-Man is reunited with Mary Jane, he comes to an understanding with Sandman, and in the final swing he says that the best way to honor the people he loves is to never stop being your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

Gameplay

Many gameplay elements have been added and revised for this title in the series: [cite web|url=http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/spiderman3/review.html?sid=6170178|title=www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/spiderman3/review.html?sid=6170178 |accessdate=2007-07-06]
*Manhattan is much bigger than in "Spider-Man 2", and the game features over convert|20|mi|km of sewers and subways, although only in the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC versions of the game.
*Spider-Man has a brand new combat system that was worked from the ground up and includes more aerial moves and web attacks. The 360/PC/PS3 versions of the game feature more moves than the PS2/Wii/PSP versions of the game. For the Wii, the motion sensors are used during combat: the Wii Remote is used as Spider-Man's fists and the Nunchuk is used to dodge attacks.
*In the Wii version, the motion sensors are also used for web-slinging as well as combat. The Wii Remote and Nunchuk are used as Spidey's right and left hands respectively. It is possible to switch to a left-handed mode, so that the Wii Remote is used as Spidey's left hand, in the options menu.
*Part of the game puts the player in control of the Black-Suited Spider-Man where Spider-Man's combat system has more brutal moves and a "Rage" system that allows for more aggressive moves.
*The game features cineractives that are button sensitive. Game director Chris Archer explained that all the gameplay is playable, including what would be included as a cinematic.
*The Nintendo DS versions has a 100% touch screen combat system with only the d-pad being used for moving Spider-Man.
*Spider-Man can access his camera anytime he wants.
*The first Spider-Man movie game to include the black suited Spider-Man.
*Has 4 unlockable characters, Which are: Spider-Man, Black-Suited Spider-Man, Scorpion (mini game), New Goblin (final battle and gameplay in the Collector's Edition), Peter Parker

Development

Video game magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly was slated to have a worldwide exclusive story on the game for its October 2006 issue, going so far as to promote the exclusive in the previous issue. The issue instead shipped with a Guitar Hero II lead story, and a note from the Editor-in-Chief Dan Hsu stating that readers should "blame director Sam Raimi" for the change in content. A similar story was instead featured in the April 2007 issue of Game Informer.

Spider-Man 3 has been released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Wii, PlayStation 2, Playstation Portable, Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance. Treyarch developed the PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360 version of the game, and Beenox ported this version of the game to PC. The remaining versions of the game were developed by Vicarious Visions.

Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Treyarch developed the game for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The PC version is the direct port of the Xbox 360 version developed by Beenox. These versions differ from those developed by Vicarious Visions because players cannot change into the Black Suit at will. Instead, you'll change into the Black Suit at a certain point in the storyline. Players can switch in and out of the Black Suit once they complete the game. Activision also released Spider-Man 3: Collector's Edition for the PS3, which includes webisodes, an interview with the movie's producer, a Lenticular card, and the exclusive ability to play as the New Goblin outside of a brief sequence at the end of game. The PC has the exclusive availability to be modified as many other PC games are, although very few mods have been released by anyone as of yet aside from a modded Black Suit Costume found on Marvelmods.com. Scorpion, Rhino, and Kingpin are exclusive villains to this version. Also this version is noticeably more violent than the last-gen consoles and Wii version. This is because of more violent moves by Spider Man and noticeable blood from the Lizard in the sewers. Also the PS3 Collector's Edition features New Goblin as a playable character, though he became downloadable on the PlayStation Network in early July 2007 and downloadable on the Xbox Live Marketplace on October 2007 and is shortly playable on the PC version. These versions received better reviews than the other versions and featured a much better combat system, a better looking city and a larger story line. Players are also able to swing freely and enter the Bugle for assignments like in Spider-Man 2 the Game. However, there are only 5 photo missions (minus the first Lizard storyline, which is a photo mission):
*The player must swing to destinations and take photos of daily activities: You must swing to the police station to take photos of cops in front of the police station, cabbies in front of the UN, and a tourist in Times Square.
*You swing to an Arsenic Candy Beauty Contest and take photos of the competitors and the winner, but soon, the losers claimed the finale was rigged and starts a riot with the others. You change back into Spidey and defeat them.
*You find out there was a couple of combat suits stolen and takes a photo of the first one, you see the second one flying away across the sea and takes a photo before it does.
*Robbie reveals that the gang responsible for the heist was the Order Of The Dragon Tail and you go to the other island to take a 240 point photo and defeats the henchmen and disables the suits.
*Robbie excitedly tells you about rumors of UFO sightings in Manhattan and, thinking Mysterio is back, Spidey swings to the latest sight and takes photos of the UFO difficultly.
* After Spider-Man gets the black suit, he has a mission to stop Eddie from getting a picture of him punching Eddie in the jaw.There are nine villains and they are: Kraven, Calypso, New Goblin, Sandman, Venom, Scorpion, Lizard, Rhino, and the Kingpin.

PlayStation 2, PSP, Wii

Vicarious Visions developed the game for the Wii, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. The game follows the movie but has different side missions when compared to the Treyarch versions. Vicarious Visions allows players to switch between the red and black suit at will, although using the black suit has negative consequences. To get the black suit off you have to use motion/button sequences. These versions include two exclusive villains: Morbius, the Living Vampire, and Shriek. GameStop/EB Games exclusively carry Spider-Man 3: Special Edition for the PS2 which includes: a bonus DVD featuring "Spider-Man 3: The Story Behind the Web", an exclusive interview with Stan Lee, the Spider-Man 3 movie trailers, and a collectible lenticular card with an image from the movie. Otherwise, the PS2 and Wii versions are largely the same, although the Wii version does utilize the Wii Remote's motion sensor controls for swinging and combat. The PlayStation Portable version is a full port of the PlayStation 2 version of the game by Vicarious Visions and is confirmed to feature a free-roaming city, Morbius and Shriek, plus the black suit . It is unlike "Spider-Man 2" on PlayStation Portable, which was restricted to small areas, similar to the original "Spider-Man". The PSP version has been released in the USA on November 1, 2007 alongside the "Spider-Man 3" home video on Blu-ray release. The game was released on October 26, 2007 in the UK. The game has received generally poor reviews since its release.

Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS

Spider-Man 3 was developed for the Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance. Vicarious Visions developed these versions of the game. Both versions are similar to previous Spider-Man games on their respective platforms but are loosely based on the third movie and feature the black suit. Electro is an exclusive villain in these versions.

Reception

"Spider-Man 3" had above average reviews on the Xbox 360, PC, Wii, PS2 and PS3 according to Metacritic. On Game Rankings, these versions average between 53% and 67%. The key criticism for these versions is the game's similarity to its predecessor. The PC version has been additionally criticized for its high minimum system requirements and 30 frame/s framerate cap but received better reviews than the PS2, and Wii versions due to it being similar to the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game. The Wii and PS2 versions has been criticized for a short story mode and disappointing graphics. The Wii version has however been praised for the use of the Remote and Nunchuk in its gameplay, which is considered to be the Wii version's strongest point. The Xbox 360, PC and PS3 versions, despite receiving only average reviews, have been universally better received than the PS2 and Wii versions. The Wii version was given a "D" grade by [http://www.thewiire.com/review/159/1/SpiderMan_3 The Wiire] . X-Play gave the Wii version a 1 out of 5 (the first Wii game to get a 1 out of 5) and the PS3 version a 3 out of 5. The game was also criticized for not being the same version on each system. Some criticism has surfaced due to having New Goblin only fully playable in the PS3 Collector's Edition. It was also criticized for having a lot of glitches.

References

External links

* [http://sm3thegame.com/ Official Website] from the developers of the game with IM icons, wallpapers and news about the game.
* [http://www.activision.com/ Activision Official Website]
* [http://wii.nintendo.com/site/spiderman3/ The official Wii version site]
*
*moby game|id=/spider-man-3|name="Spider-Man 3"
*moby game|id=/spider-man-3-special-edition|name="Spider-Man 3 (Special Edition)"