Spider-Man 2 (video game)

Infobox VG
title = Spider-Man 2: The Video Game


developer = Treyarch (consoles), The Fizz Factor (PC/Mac), Vicarious Visions (Nintendo DS and PSP), Digital Eclipse (GBA), Backbone Entertainment (N-Gage), Aspyr Media (MAC port)
publisher = Activision, MacPlay
designer = Tomo Moriwaki (creative dir.), Akihiro Akaike (lead designer)
engine = Treyarch proprietary
PC version using Unreal Engine 2.0
released = GameCube/PC/PS2/Xbox
^NA June 28, 2004
^PAL July 9, 2004
Game Boy Advance
June 29, 2004
N-Gage
July 6, 2004
Mac OS X
August, 2004
DS
^NA November 16, 2004
^JP January 6, 2005
^AU February 24, 2005
^EU March 11, 2005
PSP
^NA March 15, 2005
^PAL September 1, 2005
^JP October 26, 2006
genre = Action game
Sandbox
modes = Single player
ratings = ESRB: T
ESRB: E (PC)
CERO: A
PEGI: 12+
PEGI: 7+(DS)
PEGI: 3+(GBA)
OFLC: M
OFLC: PG (GBA/DS)
platforms = Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, N-Gage, Mac OS X
media =
requirements = PC System Requirements
Windows XP/2000/Me/98
600 MHz Pentium III or Athlon processor or faster
128 MB RAM
DirectX 9.0b plus DirectX compatible 16 MB video card
1227 MB hard disk space
4x CD-ROM drive
input = Mouse and Keyboard (PC), Controller (Console versions)

"Spider-Man 2" is the name of several computer and video games based on the Spider-Man universe and particularly the "Spider-Man 2" movie. It is a follow up to the game . These games were published by Activision for different systems in 2004.

Overview

These games are the official game adaptations of the movie "Spider-Man 2". The home console (PS2, GC, Xbox) versions of this game have the feature of allowing the player to swing around Manhattan, Roosevelt, Ellis, and Liberty Islands for a more realistic Spider-Man experience. This free play experience is similar to that found in the Grand Theft Auto series of games, while not featuring the strong violence also seen these games. The other versions of the game feature more linear side-scrolling and platform sections with less emphasis on the free play experience of the home console versions. The PC version is also particularly noted to be aimed towards a much younger audience than the other versions. [http://pc.ign.com/objects/664/664391.html]

This game's roster of Spider-Man villains includes the Shocker, Rhino, Mysterio, and Doctor Octopus along with various street thugs who commit random street crimes at any time. While street thugs only have handguns, machine guns, crowbars and their fists to protect them, the 'super-villains' and their minions have their various unique powers and weapons that they use to either steal, cause terror or defeat Spider-Man. At the end of the game, it becomes possible to unlock a warehouse in which the player can again fight villains such as Shocker, Rhino, Doctor Octopus, and an additional boss, Calypso, who is not found elsewhere in the game.

NOTE: The following overview is mainly concerned with the free-roaming console versions of the game.

Description

The player has the ability to choose either to go on with the storyline or swing around the city. The player can explore Manhattan, Roosevelt Island, Ellis Island, Liberty Island, and a mysterious label on the map over the water claiming "Governors Island" with many sidequests for the player to complete. The player can do random tasks to earn "hero points," which must be accumulated to continue with the plot and are spent on upgrading Spidey's skills.

Following the tradition of the first game, "Spider-Man 2" features some of the voices of the original actors in the movie, Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man and Peter Parker, Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson, and Alfred Molina as Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus.

In addition to the film's villain, Doctor Octopus, several characters from the Marvel comics appear in the game, including Black Cat & Mysterio.

Plot

It is two years following the events of the first game. Spider-Man is trying to balance his civilian and superhero life, frequently late or absent for school, work, and leisure time with his friends. Following dinner with Mary Jane Watson and Harry Osborn, Peter thwarts an armed looting of a museum, and tracks down an escaped robber, the Black Cat. Soon after this, he thwarts an attack in the streets of Manhattan by The Rhino. Meanwhile, Doctor Otto Octavious attempts to recreate Nuclear fusion of that seen in the sun to provide an energy source for Manhattan. To control this fusion, he creates four metal arms which he can mentally control. His fusion creates a strong magnetic field, destroying the lab, killing his wife Rose, and grafting his metal arms to his spine and giving his arms control over him. He blames Spider-Man for the incident.

Octavius, now known as Dr. Octopus, kidnaps Aunt May, but she is saved by Spider-Man. In the time following, special effects artist Quentin Beck tries to prove that Spider-Man is a fraud by challenging Peter in a series of "games". Spider-Man emerges successful. Consequently, Beck tries to kill Spider-Man, but is thwarted. The embarrassment causes Beck to assume the identity of Mysterio, attacking journalists attending his press conference, and commands his "UFOs" to "invade" the Statue of Liberty. Both of these attacks are thwarted by Spider-Man's efforts, with no casualties. Spider-Man eventually teams up with Black Cat, who leads him to the Shocker, who escaped during Beck's initial competition with Spider-Man. Shocker is apprehended in a warehouse after attempting to use an experimental propulsion system to enhance his powers, while Mysterio is knocked out with one punch from Spider-Man while trying to rob a Speedy Mart. Black Cat then leads Spider-Man to an illegal weapons trade, where she tries to convince him to permanently become Spider-Man, but he rejects the idea, saying that he cannot stop being either Spider-Man or who he is.

Dr. Octopus kidnaps Mary Jane Watson and steals Tritium from Harry Osborn to repower his nuclear fusion in exchange for Spider-Man. A long battle on top of a bridge leads to Peter being delivered to Harry. Peter reveals his identity to Harry, and sets off to defeat Dr. Octopus a final time. The fusion reactor is shut down, and Dr. Octopus regains control over his mind and his sanity back, and sacrifices his life to permanently destroy his fusion reactor.

The next day, Peter gets a surprise visit from Mary Jane, who tells Peter that she cannot live without him, and wants to offer her full support to his life as Spider-Man. With his confidence renewed, Spider-Man continues to defend the city from evil.

Gameplay

Players can now perform many moves and use many skills as seen in the film, including:
*Wall Sprint: Spidey can run along vertical walls and even straight up the side of a building. If this skill has been upgraded, the wall running speed will be increased
*Spider Reflexes: Spidey can use his Spider reflexes during times of danger. When his Spidey reflexes are activated, the rest of the game world slows down, granting Spidey more speed and agility to dodge and attack, his attacks become much stronger and varied, and enemy attacks are easier to spot.
*Charged Jumps: Spider-Man can jump higher than before. To activate, the player holds down the jump button to charge and releases it to jump. Jumps can be charged to different levels.The zoom map provides a top-down view of the city centered on Spider-Man, but if Spider-Man reaches a high enough elevation and the zoom map is brought up, it will flip upside down to display the sky.

Critical reception

The home console game was released to generally positive reviews. The most popular aspect of the game was the web-swinging mechanic, where Spider-Man had to shoot webbing at an actual building, unlike previous games where he shot webbing up into the sky. However, parts of the game were highly criticized, such as the dullness of the side missions and the linearity of the story objectives (which many saw to be contrary to the developer's idea of creating a free-form game). There was also some disappointment at the lack of unlockable content in the game, leaving players who completed all objectives with nothing to show for it.

The other versions of the game also received generally positive reviews with the exception of the PC/Mac version, which was "dumbed down" for a young audience and thus featured more simplistic and less challenging gameplay. Many reviewers argued that the PC version should have received a port of the console versions instead. Some critics even thought the GBA version was better than the PC version. Fact|date=March 2008.

The PSP version received moderate reviews. Gameplay and graphics were praised, while the bad camera angle and the length of the game were criticized.However, overall, reviewers were impressed as many Movie-Tie-In games are received poorly, and it stood out as one of the best movie tie-ins of 2004

Characters/Cast

*Peter Parker/Spider-Man (voiced by Tobey Maguire)
*Dr. Otto Octavius/Dr. Octopus, or simply Doc Ock (voiced by Alfred Molina)
*Black Cat (voiced by Holly Fields)
*Rhino (voiced by John DiMaggio)
*Shocker/Herman Schultz (voiced by Michael Beattie)
*Mysterio/Quentin Beck (voiced by James Arnold Taylor)
*Calypso (voiced by Angela V. Shelton)
*Mary Jane Watson (voiced by Kirsten Dunst)
*Harry Osborn (voiced by Josh Keaton)
*J. Jonah Jameson (voiced by Jay Gordon)
*Aunt May (voiced by Mindy Sterling)
*Betty Brant (voiced by Bethany Rhoades)
*Robbie Robertson (voiced by Jeff Coopwood)
*Dr. Curt Connors (voiced by Joe Alaskey)
* Puma (Exclusive to the PC and GBA version of the game, voiced by Dee Bradley Baker)
*Also features the voice of Bruce Campbell as the Tour Guide.

Differences from the movie

* In the movie, the pizza shop where Peter works is Joe's Pizza, a real pizza shop formerly located on Bleecker Street, which closed in 2004 due to rent increases.cite book | last = Sanderson | first = Peter | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = The Marvel Comics Guide to New York City | publisher = Pocket Books | date = 2007 | location = New York City | pages = 28 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 1-14653-141-6] In the game, the shop is called Hans' Pizzeria and is on the harbor, where the film has it inland.
*In the movie, Spider-Man stops the subway car by shooting multiple weblines from the front of the car at buildings on both sides of the track. He then holds on tight to these lines and the car pushes against him and the lines like a rubber band. This slows the car to a stop just in time before the end of the track. In the game, however, Spider-Man stops the subway car by shooting two weblines from behind and holding on tight as he is dragged along the track. The friction caused by him being dragged causes the car to stop. Even though there is no given reason why Spider-Man has to stop the train, after fighting Doc Ock on the train he quotes, "I have to stop this train, everyone on board will be killed."
*In the movie, Peter meets Harry and Mary Jane at Aunt May's house to celebrate his birthday. In the game he meets them, without Aunt May, at a restaurant.
*In the movie, Peter begins to lose his powers (due to his lack of self-confidence) and eventually quits being Spider-Man. This never happens in the game although Spider-Man does mention giving up being Spider-Man as an option.
*Doctor Octopus does not have the inhibitor chip in the game or so, it is never mentioned.
*In the movie, Doctor Connors never sees Doctor Octopus on camera, while in the game he gets attacked by Otto.
*In the movie, Doctor Octopus is killed by dragging the Tritium experiment down into the river. In the game, Doc Ock just jumps to the ground and destroys the support beams causing the building to collapse on him and drown him in the river.
*Harry never says anything about Norman loving Peter like a son in the movie when he unmasks Peter.
*In the movie, there were two train tracks which had the train Spidey dodged, but in the game however, it has only one track.
*In the game, Doc Ock captures Aunt May from the bank and leaves her on the train tracks, leaving Spider-Man to save her while he escapes. This never happens in the film.
*At the end of the movie, when Mary Jane visits Peter, she is wearing her wedding dress, yet at the end of the game, Mary Jane is wearing casual clothes when she visits Peter.
*In the movie, Doc Ock worked alone when he robbed the bank. In the game, he had two thugs with grenade launchers help him.
*The game features an end narration by Peter about comfortable he now feels with his responsibilities as Spider-Man with Mary Jane by his side. The movie did not have an end narration.

Trivia

*Punk band The Distillers contributed their song "Beat Your Heart Out" to the game. They also covered the classic theme from the 1960s cartoon. Both songs play during the credits.
*One hint marker in the city tells the player something strange about Black Cat; a mysterious number code 38-24-36. This is not actually as mysterious as it may seem, as the numbers are merely her body measurements (B38 W24 H36).
*The popular industrial band KMFDM did the game's entire musical score.
* As in real life Manhattan, there are two sets of spotlights in the FC area of the game, marking the area where the Twin Towers once stood. At night, these spotlights light up and two beams similar to the Tribute in Light can be seen.
*Many things in the virtual Manhattan are changed, such as the distance of water between it and the rest of New York and the absence of several bridges. This also changes the height of several famous skyscrapers in the game, such as the Empire State Building which is actually around 100 feet higher than its real life counterpart.
*The little boy who loses his balloon in a recurring goal in this game reappears in "Ultimate Spider-Man". He's the first person the player devours when using Venom. This is a reference to this game where the task of returning the boy's balloon was considered extremely annoying.
*Reading many billboards will bring up strange messages. Some refer to the older game. The signs show that the favorite drink is "Ram Cola: The Drink with Byte". Another billboard shows "Injured, visit the downtown hospital." A billboard in Peter's apartment reads "Sometimes you plant seeds for trees you never sit under". One billboard in the Gamecube version reads "Toby Toy Kingdom", a reference to Tobey Maguire, who portrays Peter/Spider-Man in the movies. Many others include made up brand names.
*Places in Manhattan, though smaller, are roughly accurate. The United Nations Building can be seen, as well as the Stock Building, several hotels, Battery Park and Inwood Hill Park.
*Shocker returns from the previous game. Rhino & Calypso reappear in the game based on Spider-Man 3.
*This is one of only two Spider-Man video games to feature Aunt May, the other being the unrelated . Although she is mentioned in other games, she doesn't actually appear.
*During the opening credits sequence, it is possible to briefly see the Black Cat standing atop the Chrysler Building, foreshadowing her appearance later on in the game.
*Doc Ock's warehouse sinks at the end of story mode, but afterwards, his warehouse is still on the surface of the river.
*If you go to the building where you fought Vulture in the first game you can see some green feathers on the floor, a reference to the battle you had with him.
*During one mission, you can clearly see "The Distillers" spray painted onto a wall beside what appears to be a beer factory. It is assumed to be a reference to the actual band, and how they got their name.
*The old 7 World Trade Center seems to be in the game, directly North of the light monument, it also looks to have its 47 floors.
*During the Mysterio fight, when the building is on fire, he says the words "Klaatu Verada Nicto," the code words from The Day the Earth Stood Still. The words are also featured in director Sam Raimi's 1992 film "Army of Darkness", which starred Bruce Campbell, who narrates the game and also appears in all three of the "Spider-Man" films in cameo roles.
*Black Cat makes a reference to Batman's origin. Spider-Man says "You don't know why I do this." and she replies "What, parents got killed by a mugger?"

ee also

* ""
* "Spider-Man 2"
* "Spider-Man 3 (video game)"
* Spider-Man (games)

References

External links

* [http://www.activision.com/microsite/spider-man Official "Spider-Man 2" website]
* [http://marvel.com/videogames/Spider-Man_Games.Spider-Man_2 "Spider-Man 2"] at Marvel.com
* [http://www.mobygames.com/game/spider-man-2 "Spider-Man 2"] at MobyGames
* [http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/914916.asp "Spider-Man 2"] at Game Rankings