3 Pulses

Genre: Action

With the release of the highly anticipated Spider-Man 3 in theatres, Activision is finally bringing everyone’s favorite web-slinger to next-gen consoles.

Spider-Man 3 brings the action of the new movie straight to gamers’ hands with the ability to play as both the red and blue Spider-Man or the all new black Spider-Man. If you’re a fan of Spider-Man 2 or Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Man 3 is much of the same except there are now button-pressing events that occur and you’ll have to be quick to execute. If you miss a button or press the wrong one, a load screen pops up and then a cut-scene, which you can’t skip, where you get to hear Tobey Maguire sleep-talk and you have to watch this every time you screw up.

Probably the worst part of this game are the disgusting next-gen graphics, if you can even call them next-gen graphics. You would think with his jump to next-gen consoles, Spider-Man 3 would look great, but the game looks just like Spider-Man 2. I’m not saying the game looks bad, but for a next-gen game I’m just disappointed. They could have gotten everything else in this game wrong, but with the power of the Xbox 360, how could they not make Spider-Man 3 as beautiful as, say, Gears of War?

All of the game is not that bad. Some of the fun parts of past Spider-Man games are here, and I’m mostly referring to swinging all over the city just for the fun of it. Most of the city is great looking, but it seems plain and noninteractive. And if you’re looking forward to smashing up things around the city, you’re only left with newspaper vending machines to terrorize, nothing else.

Spider-Man 3 is nothing more than Spider-Man 2, just with a different story. I know there are a lot of Spidey fans out there, but I think they should wait for Activision’s next try at Spider-Man on next-gen. Just like how the movie was so highly anticipated, the game was too and in the end it’s just an average action game with a very popular character.