Grave Gamer News & Views — the amazing spider-man

If you find yourself roped into a conversation about Spider-Man and video gaming, you won’t go long before someone feels obligated to mention Treyarch’s 2004 Spider-Man 2 movie tie-in.  It’s as if a blood vessel will burst in their head if they’re unable to remind you how much they loved Spider-Man 2.  Before Rocksteady’s Arkham series showed us another plateau of potential, SM2 was widely considered the best superhero game of all time.  Why?  Simple.  Despite being Raimi’s organically webbed, Average Joe interpretation of Spider-Man, and despite having the cruel restrictions of a billion dollar movie license and a very limited amount of time to craft the title, the game managed the unthinkable: it got Spider-Man right.

The Amazing Spider-Man (3DS/DS/PC/PS3/Wii/X360 - June 26th)

Beenox’s new Spider-Man foray came out of E3 with positive endorsements from those that got to demo it.  Some even went as far as to liken the game’s counter-based combat to Rocksteady’s Batman games.  The comparisons will have to end there until we actually get to take a spin in the red n’ blues ourselves.

It’s disheartening to hear that not a single member of Mark Webb’s principal cast has anything to do with the game, but the presence of Bruce Campbell makes up for their absence entirely.  His casting also serves as a bridge in gamers’ minds to the open world Spidey games that have been unfairly benched for the last couple of years, which Campbell narrated in.

Because if you hear Bruce, you’ve either died a warrior’s death at his hands or are playing a free roam Spider-Man game.  Both are joyous.

Let’s see if your Spider-Sense tingles correctly.  Which Amazing Spider-Man preorder bonus is more amazing?  Gamestop’s preorder bonus that has you go toe-to-fist with the Rhino or Amazon’s preorder bonus that has you swinging around the city as Stan “The Man” Lee?

The Amazing Spider-Man (PC/PS3/360 - June 26th)

I’ll admit it: Beenox’s design for bottom barrel villian, the Iguana, is seven times more badass than the mutli-million budgeted film’s Lizard.  The Lizard looks he came from the pages of a rejected X-Files script but I digress.

You’ll notice in the shots that “does whatever a spider can” entails wearing a utility belt.  I suppose you can’t expect the pocketless Spidey to swing along the New York skyline and not have an adequate place to put his chapstick.  A utility belt is a realistic choice.  And in superhero terms, “realistic choice” means “anything Batman would do.”

The Amazing Spider-Man Game Gets a New Date and a New Dub

Spider-Dub?  I feel like we just had a conversation about this.  I guess game marketing teams figure we must think that if there isn’t dub-step, it’s probably not a trailer.  They’re conditioning us.  There will be a point where the consumer won’t even look up for an ad until they hear a wub wub.  Ech, staying current made me say wub.

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