2004 has been quite a hectic year for Spiderman – not only has the latest Spidey movie bettered the previous film and been a resounding success, but the console versions of Spiderman 2 have proven to be one of the best superhero games of this – or indeed, any – generation. Our favourite web-slinger has appeared on all of the home systems, as well as the GBA, and now he crawls his way onto the Nintendo DS for a bit of arachnid action. But enough puns for one paragraph – what you need to know is that Spiderman 2 is, rather surprisingly, one of the better DS launch titles – not because it makes great use of the new handheld's features, such as Feel the Magic XX/XY, but because as a regular, run of the mill handheld title it manages to create an enjoyable playing experience. How so, I hear you cry, without making use of the DS's innovative features? Read on comrade and find out.

 

But I'm going to be honest here – this game is essentially a GBA game with a couple of extra bells and whistles. That's not to say it's a bad game, by any means, but this has the air of a game that has been ported onto a vastly superior system. Visually, the game is adequate, but nothing more. 2D side scrolling levels make up most of the game, with identical foes and expansive, usually varied yet somehow dull environments for your little pocket Spiderman to swing through. All the action takes place on the top screen with the bottom screen allowing you to access (here it comes) combos and special moves. There's your 'amazing dual-screen gameplay' for you! While the blurb on the back of the Spiderman 2 box may be somewhat misleading in this respect, the second screen can be quite useful for accessing a large part of Spidey's repertoire of moves as when you select a move by jabbing your finger on the touch screen it is assigned to the shoulder button for easy use.

 

Aside from this, combat is fairly basic; you have your standard punch and kick attacks which can be used with the D-pad for a slightly varied combo move. The enemies in the game (including most of the bosses) are fairly unsatisfying to beat at first, but if you use your 'Spider Sense' by tapping the left shoulder button, you can slow down time into an almost Matrix-esque bullet time in which you can swiftly and stylishly take out your foes. The standard enemies you encounter become much more challenging as the game progresses, so as you continue through the levels you'll start to enjoy dealing out beatings more – not that you have a choice, as usually the game requires that you defeat most of the villains within the level in order to proceed. The game, rather annoyingly, asks you to perform very menial, repetitive tasks such as 'save all the hostages, defeat all the robots and get to the end in five minutes'. Yawn. On top of this, what it often means is that you have to search the huge levels for that one last hostage you've missed or that one bad guy you forgot to defeat. The second level is a great example of this – I spent ages desperately searching for the one foe left in the level (out of the 23 I had to defeat) so I could get the hell out of there, only to find him underneath the train station I had previously swung over twenty times (if you're going to buy this game, don't forget about that one).

 

But despite all of these complaints, there are quite a few factors that make Spiderman 2 a worthy purchase. Though the missions themselves can get repetitive, the game is a mixed bag of challenging and frustrating, addictive and obscenely difficult gameplay that will keep you coming back. This game is like a difficult younger sibling – it will annoy the hell out of you, and you'll hate it at times, but deep down you know that you love this game really. Part of the reason for this is the web-slinging itself – swinging from building to building, climbing the walls, shooting through gaps in the ceiling and flaming walls, slinging a foe over your head and into the abyss below you – it's undeniably fun. While Spidey's regular combat moves are as dull as dishwater, the web abilities make fighting much more exciting as you unlock more of them, and the freedom to fly through the levels and sneak across the ceiling past enemies only to shoot a web at their feet and knock them to the floor - it's brilliant.

So, at the end of it all, is Spiderman 2 DS a worthy purchase? Not if you're after something to show off the power of your new handheld to your mates. It's mostly 2D, it makes minimal use of the DS's unique features and there's nothing here that you haven't seen before. However, if you want a challenging 2D beat-em-up with huge levels, plenty of freedom and a man with four robotic arms, look no further.