Excellent game that left me wanting more.

A real breath of fresh air following the decade and a half of NSMB art style. It feels like the theme of Wonder is how wonderful it is to be weird. Strange little critters and moments wait around every corner but this conceit becomes the reason why the game stalls out in the final act/post game.

Late game levels and Special worlds in Mario games are moments to throw out the playbook and make something crazy. Remember the seemingly simple yet truly masterful design of the earlier levels that taught you systems and mechanics? Enough learning; it's time to perform. You could make a passable case for Wonder following that same structure but in action... it never feels like it gets there. When you make a game about the unexpected being everywhere, the unexpected becomes commonplace unless you continue to ramp up how you iterate on that theme. Wonder bites off more than it can chew in this regard.

All that said, I want games to do that. Swing for the fences. I'd rather a game flounder in the attempt at greatness than give me the exact same tired "winning" formula. The actual problem with Wonder is its multiplayer.

Wonder largely copies prior 2D Mario titles for its multiplayer "rules" but it makes a few simple tweaks. Not all of them are terrible: the addition of 3 characters (give or take palette swaps) that offer varying levels of interactivity and difficulty is neat! Not revolutionary but a welcome change.

Wonder really fumbles when it comes to the seemingly minor pieces of what makes a multiplayer game function. Namely, there's no persistent player 1. I'm sure there's some veiled reason as to who the "leader" is but it seems to jump between which player has lived the longest, finished the most recent level the fastest, or even just hit A first to select the newest stage. Now, this wouldn't matter except that a too-tight camera solely follows this arbitrarily chosen player 1. Fall out of that Miyamoto-ordained player's field of play and you're a ghost. Which would be fine except that starts a measly 5-second timer to reach either the living player(s) or an online multiplayer standee to return to life or drain a life. It feels designed to facilitate super tight synchronous play or to pit players against each other--not to encourage varied skill levels or playstyles. I played this game with adults who all like games and it was like herding cats. Imagine being a parent playing with your kids. Not ideal.

A good Mario game which makes it a great video game but it could have been an all-timer.

As I clean up the final few side objectives in Insomniac’s most recent take on Spider-Man, I can’t help but feel like I’ve missed something. Or that something is missing.

When compared to the component parts of prior entries in the series, Spider-Man 2 is better in every measurable way.

Movement feels Amazing—possibly the best I’ve experienced in an open world brawler. The addition of (spoiler) web wings and a couple minor swinging “get out of jail free” buttons make getting around virtual New York feel the best it ever has in a game.

The combat has been thoughtfully retooled and expanded. The simple loop of, “spam attacks until you have to dodge,” is subverted somewhat with the addition of an extremely forgiving parry mechanic, and there are enough new abilities and gadgets that you’ll be using something new constantly throughout the game’s 20ish-hour runtime.

Stealth sections (while not near the quality of a certain series of Batman games) don’t overstay their welcome and give you quite a bit of freedom with the addition of new traversal gadgets. I could take or leave these but they’re largely inoffensive.

Set pieces are the big upgrade here. Spider-Man’s rogues gallery is on full display here and each villain is given time and space to be a significant threat. This game is the Ultimate showcase of the PS5’s power. From gigantic city-spanning boss fights to the most impressive fast travel system ever to grace a game of this kind, Spider-Man 2 is staggering as a technological achievement more so than one for gaming.

All of these things are positive. This game is a marvel. What am I missing here? What makes it a great game rather than an Amazing experience?
I keep coming back to how I felt playing the first one. Insomniac’s first entry in the franchise was pivotal. Everything about it was not only Sensational but also unique as an entry in the Spider-Man canon. As a game, it felt like a culmination of every one of the studio’s games before it. The story planted its flag as a unique take on a classic character—equal parts homage to and novel take on the characters involved. Everything was honored but nothing was sacred. Spider-Man: Miles Morales took that ethos and applied it to its namesake during the height of the “Into the Spider-Verse” zeitgeist while trimming the fat of the base game making something thoughtful and jampacked with great vibes, characters, and development.

Spider-Man 2 isn’t a bad game—not in the slightest. But it falls just short of extraordinary in part because of the other places the short series has already gone and its failure to reach those same heights.

A great game that leaves me feeling conflicted and wishing we got a Sunset Overdrive 2, Spider-Man 2 is better than anything that came before it and brings little new to the table. Clean, clinical excellence but certainly not lightning in a bottle.

But who could fault a studio for making something excellent instead of something Spectacular?