Lawrence.com

Three and a half hours is a very long length of time for something like a movie. I'd have no trouble putting $5.75 down at Southwind 12 for over three hours of entertainment. Now, if it was $50 for a game that lasted just as long, and doesn't necessarily qualify as "entertainment" ... then there might be a problem.

Yes, Spider-Man 2 for PSP really is that short. I was used to beating games in one sitting back in the NES days, but I was shocked that it happened with Spider-Man. The console versions of Spider-Man 2 were great games, featuring a huge virtual New York for you to swing around. You could drop down to street level, go into malls, or propel yourself off the Empire State Building. Exploring the city was truly the best part of the game.

Now, that brings us to the PSP version. After the first couple preliminary missions, I assumed they would finally set me loose in NY. I figured they had a few training-type missions so the player could get used to the controls, and then send you off. It was around the seventh or eighth of these linear missions that it dawned on me: There is no free-roaming. At all.

The majority of the missions are inside generic, uninspired locations. Way too many of them take place in the same warehouse-looking levels. Your mission objectives are generally "get to this door," "beat up these guys" or (most often) "rescue these people." If I were basing my real-life knowledge off this game, I'd assume New Yorkers were the most helpless people on earth. This game's civilians are pretty much all crouched with their head between their legs, screaming for Spidey to come save them.

In all honesty, this doesn't even seem like a watered-down version of the console Spider-Man 2. It seems like a watered-down version of the first one. The second one made the web-slinging very realistic, making you actually connect the web to a building in order to swing. The PSP version goes back to how the first one was, in which you magically attach webs to the sky to traverse around. You won't notice this too much, considering you're almost never outside in the game. The few times you are, you're pretty much on a set path, chasing after various enemies. These enemies are apparently obsessed with making large signs precariously hang off the edge of buildings, forcing you to stop them from falling. Almost one whole mission consists of you doing this - making sure signs don't fall on the street. It's as fun as it sounds.

Activision really jumps all over the place with the story. At the beginning, it seems as if it's just going to be a videogame version of the second movie. For a couple of missions this rings true, but it takes some very weird detours. One level finds you in a castle (complete with an inane "unlock the door" puzzle), and others will find you battling Rhino, Mysterio, Shocker and Vulture. Another has you dodging rocket launchers so you can play a "Simon Says" minigame with a bomb.

The boss fights are the worst part of the game. Almost every one of them is extremely annoying and vague. It takes forever to figure out how to hurt them, and is generally just a giant pain. I went to a message board about the game, and it was filled with topics like "How do I hurt Mysterio?!?!" or "This fight with Vulture sucks". The final boss fight is perhaps the most annoying of all and made me want to throw my PSP out the window.

I expected controlling Spider-Man to be difficult, as the PSP has several fewer buttons than the console versions. Fortunately, that isn't the case, and you'll find it fairly easy to swing around and engage in combat. The R button is used for web slinging, while the face buttons are used for combat and jumping. The only problem really is with camera control, as you can't move and manage the camera at the same time due to the lack of two analog sticks.

For all I know, Activision could have copied and pasted the same crappy generic techno beat over every single one of the levels (except the Castle). It's truly annoying, and you'll find yourself wanting to turn it down immediately.

It's very clear that Bruce Campbell is not back as the voice of the goofy "tutorial guy." I always found his voice-over to be one of the best characteristics of the console versions, but it's gone now. Instead, it seems as if Activision hired some guy and told him to "sound like Bruce Campbell." It's obvious that the new guy is trying to sound like him, but he fails miserably. Luckily, you won't have to hear him for long.

If you're still in awe of the PSP's amazing graphical ability, Spider-Man 2 shouldn't let you down. It looks almost virtually identical to the PlayStation 2 version and features some very sharp-looking CG cutscenes.

One thing should be kept in mind if you're asking yourself if you should play this game - It is not a port of the console versions by any means. Just because you truly enjoyed the PS2 or Xbox incarnations of Spider-Man 2 (as I did), that doesn't mean you're going to like this one. It's 19 missions long, most of them are extremely unentertaining, and you can beat it in one sitting. With that in mind, I can't think of a single reason to recommend this game for purchase. A rental, maybe, but only if you're an extremely hardcore Spider-Man fan.

Graphics: B+

Sound: C+

First Play: B

Last Play: D

Gameplay: D+

Overall: 68% D+