Unlike most recent Spider-Man games, Web of Shadows is not based on a movie. It follows an original story that involves New York being invaded by the alien symbiote, resulting in the city being covered in said symbiote (read: black slime) and everyone being turned into a Venom clone. Enter your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man to save the day! But wait! This is not your average Spider-Man story! In Web of Shadows, Spider-Man interacts with other Marvel characters such as Black Cat, Nightcrawler (who most people will know from the film X-Men 2), and Green Goblin, as they work together to save the city. However, Spider-Man can call on the power of the black suit, and make certain morality choices that will decide whether New York is saved… or destroyed!

The cut scenes have a great art style.

The first thing you notice about Web of Shadows are the excellent graphics and animations. The characters may look pretty simplistic, but their cartoony, larger-than-life visual style is more reflective of the tone of this game, which is more light-hearted and whimsical than the recent films. As far as animations go, Spider-Man himself looks amazing (pun fully intended) as he swings across the stage, ditto when he’s pummelling villains. The environments look great too (especially the slime covered ones), conveying a visual style that appears to be inspired more by comic books and cartoons than the realistic style of the films. Building on this visual style are the cut scenes, which are told in 2D still frames that look spectacular and hammer home that comic book inspiration.

The sound is very good as well, with good sound effects and full voice-acting. The voice actor who plays Spider-Man is cocky, sarcastic, and full of terrible one-liners- in other words, the Spider-Man we all know and love best. The voice acting for all the other characters is of a similarly high quality, which really adds to the experience. The music is not really noticeable (except for the fighting track) and acts more like an ambience track, but in a way, it helps to convey some kind of bleak, empty atmosphere that suits the setting well.

Sneaking into the girl's locker room, just like a spider can.

So, the presentation is great, but we all know that means nothing if the gameplay isn’t up to scratch. Fortunately, the central game design is such a great idea I’m surprised it wasn’t done before. Let me spell it out for you: Castlevania (or Metroid if you want to be really technical), but with Spider-Man. Sounds great, no? Well, it plays great too! For those not familiar with the concept, it basically means that the game world consists of one giant maze-like stage, with areas that are initially blocked off. As you progress through the game, you unlock new abilities that are used to unlock new areas, which in turn allows you to unlock new abilities and so on. It’s an extremely fun concept and it fits the Spider-Man universe like a glove. On a side-note, Spider-Man now needs objects to attach his webs to and will no longer swing across empty sky, which is not only a great addition to the gameplay, it also allows for some new tricks such as covering a ceiling with black slime (which webs won’t stick to at first) to make an area inaccessible until later.

Unfortunately, the Castlevania/Metroid inspiration does not mean you get stages that are as detailed and intricately plotted as in those games. What it does mean though is that you have a big, open world with multiple paths and varied environments to explore, which is a nice change from the ‘left to right’ setup that most other Spider-Man games follow. The overall design of the game world is merely ‘solid’ as opposed to ‘pure genius’, and a lot of the rooms and areas within the game are fairly empty areas that merely provide a place to fight enemies in.

SHORYUKEN!!!

Unfortunately, the Castlevania/Metroid inspiration does not mean you get stages that are as detailed and intricately plotted as in those games. What it does mean though is that you have a big, open world with multiple paths and varied environments to explore, which is a nice change from the ‘left to right’ setup that most other Spider-Man games follow. The overall design of the game world is merely ‘solid’ as opposed to ‘pure genius’, and a lot of the rooms and areas within the game are fairly empty areas that merely provide a place to fight enemies in.

This is not a bad thing, because the fighting engine in this game is simply awesome. Like a 2D version of Devil May Cry, this game allows absolute freedom to execute moves in any order you wish and create custom combos on the fly. The amount of options you have in combat are huge, and the ability to switch between red and black suits at will is a great feature that allows for heaps of strategy when fighting and choosing upgrades. This is a good thing, because most of the game is spent fighting, and if that aspect was not fun the whole game would fail.

The reviewers who say this is one of the best Spider-Man games of recent years are not kidding. The DS version of Web of Shadows is an extremely high quality 2D platformer, with slick presentation, addictive gameplay, and one of the best fighting systems of any 2D platformer ever created. Some reviewers say it’s not a very long game, but you’ll have so much fun while it lasts that you probably won’t even notice. Plus, it stars Spider-Man, Venom, and Nightcrawler all in the one game! What more could you ask for?

By Mr_M

Graphics: A-

Great graphics with spectacular animations.

Sound: A-

The in-game sound is fairly standard, but the voice acting elevates the game to new heights.

Gameplay: A-

The Castlevania/Metroid format suits Spider-Man perfectly, and the fighting engine is fantastic!

Overall: A-

Finally! A 2D game that truly makes you feel like Spider-Man!