Conman’s Last Hunt
Entry 1
Despite its straightforward gameplay loop and largely uninspired/sometimes incredibly frustrating combat and mission design, this is a great game in general and a must-play for fans of Spider-Man.
The cell-shaded animation has aged surprisingly well, as has the overall editing of the cutscenes and the voice acting. All of those things contribute to the “living comic book” feel Stan Lee mentions in a bonus features interview (available on the Limited Edition disc.) They took what Spider-Man 2 built and tweaked it in interesting ways, the biggest of which was definitely making Venom a playable character.
The locomotion of both Spider-Man and Venom is fluid, exciting, and true to character. Moving is what you spend most of your time doing, and this game makes sure to keep general movement as enjoyable as possible… even if some of the chase missions are pretty horrible. The entire Electro mission sucks. There’s also not a ton of meaningful content by today’s standards, at least outside of the campaign.
So it’s not a perfect game, but there was obviously love and care put into Ultimate Spider-Man. That’s why it’s still fun and stands out from most other sixth-generation games.
100% Update: The tokens are not necessarily rewarding in and of themselves as collectibles, but after getting them and completing all the combat missions and races, I feel like I’m really good at this game. The final Human Torch race was ridiculously hard, but I feel like a beast for completing it. I guess that’s a good thing, but this game would be way too hard for a kid to get all the costumes.
(This review was written in 2021. My fondness for this game has only grown since, still playing it off and on. This game has SOUL)
Entry 1
Despite its straightforward gameplay loop and largely uninspired/sometimes incredibly frustrating combat and mission design, this is a great game in general and a must-play for fans of Spider-Man.
The cell-shaded animation has aged surprisingly well, as has the overall editing of the cutscenes and the voice acting. All of those things contribute to the “living comic book” feel Stan Lee mentions in a bonus features interview (available on the Limited Edition disc.) They took what Spider-Man 2 built and tweaked it in interesting ways, the biggest of which was definitely making Venom a playable character.
The locomotion of both Spider-Man and Venom is fluid, exciting, and true to character. Moving is what you spend most of your time doing, and this game makes sure to keep general movement as enjoyable as possible… even if some of the chase missions are pretty horrible. The entire Electro mission sucks. There’s also not a ton of meaningful content by today’s standards, at least outside of the campaign.
So it’s not a perfect game, but there was obviously love and care put into Ultimate Spider-Man. That’s why it’s still fun and stands out from most other sixth-generation games.
100% Update: The tokens are not necessarily rewarding in and of themselves as collectibles, but after getting them and completing all the combat missions and races, I feel like I’m really good at this game. The final Human Torch race was ridiculously hard, but I feel like a beast for completing it. I guess that’s a good thing, but this game would be way too hard for a kid to get all the costumes.
(This review was written in 2021. My fondness for this game has only grown since, still playing it off and on. This game has SOUL)