A lot of the times there's a movie or TV Series being translated into a video game most of the time said game sucks hard (and not in a good way). And, yes, 2009 will not be an exception to the rule what with game adaptations already planned for such movies as the second Transformers movie, GI Joe: Rise of Cobra (starring if I remember right the soon to be 11th Doctor Who) (Oh, Joe is already slated for 3 movies BTW), as well as no doubt games for movies like X-Men Origins: Wolverine for starters. This is one of those rare little exceptions you run into sometimes, the occasional movie game that is actually worth being hyped about (and telling everyone about).

Truth be told I am still playing this game so I have lots yet to uncover in this pleasantly enjoyable movie to game port. This game features Doc Octopus of course, and features the likes of The Rhino and Mysterio for starters (though I heard there's more in this game to find villain wise). Also this game features the people from the movie (including absent from Spider-Man 3 Kristen Dunst and everyone's favorite narrator Bruce Campbell). Oh, and while Spider-Man 3 had the gimmick of the black costume/Venom this game's gimmick is getting to spend "quality" time playing chase and catch Black Cat (which is a far better bonus chasing the hot shapely female Black Cat over the not so better bonus of the black costume in S-M 3).

The controls on the Xbox are easy enough to pick up (I am still assimilating myself to reviewing Xbox (original) games after being so long a reviewer of Nintendo and

Sony titles), and the game is easy to learn though at times I am still having a wee bit of a time with the buttons set up (though more from my own lack of experience with Microsoft premiere game system and controller over any technical issues). Otherwise out of the box the game is easy to pick up, learn, and enjoy. Just like the PS2 version of the game (though I think the Xbox's stupid have to buy something in order to watch movies on the Xbox is stupid in comparison to the out of the box throw in a DVD and watch ease of the PS2).

You have abit more freeform gameplay than Spider-Man 3, though you do have to go out of your way to find a store that sells upgrades (unlike Spider-Man 3 where you just go to your menu system to buy upgrades)... hmm... actually having to go out of your way to buy your upgrades was abit fun, gave me something more to do in this world so no complaints from me. Otherwise you do whatever it is a guy in a suit with a Spider theme does. You swing about the city either going to the main story mode missions, or stopping whenever one of the many cloned citizens wave you down and help them out (no crime watches but more than enough opportunity to do crime fighting all the same). The missions are only so much, and often repeat, but that's not so bad (except the pulling the hanging victim off the side of a building as it takes awhile for you to get the hang of saving said person in such a

short period of time). Oh, did I mention that failure means you actually lose hero points? Something to remember if you are feeling tired and don't think you can pull off a hero mission without failing. Also when it comes to fighting it is quick to pick up, and once you learn the basics you can easily mix it up and start to put in some flair into your fighting without much problem.

What can you do in the city? Lots. The city is not just loaded with people looking for help, you can also find challenges to test out your growing skills on (just like Spider-Man 3), as well as a city full of hint markers that provide points for upgrades when you click them on (compelling you to listen to every last hint in the city for the points, or just because you can't get enough of listening to Bruce Campbell's voice). Oh, and in this game you deliver pizza to hungry people, not fruit pies (Spider-Man 3). There, that's a far more dignified thing to do instead of the whole fruit pie thing isn't it... and you even have a place to report for duty to do the pizza delivery (though in the movie I don't remember the pizza place being located so close to the water).

Of course the game could have used more things to do, Incredible Hulk : Ultimate Destruction amount of things to do, but we can't all be perfect games can't we.

I'm still working my way through the game, so there's lots more for me to play through... but so far I do like the game so far (no boredom burnout yet for

me).

Voice acting is good, as it pulls from the movie cast for it's voices INCLUDING the absent in Spider-Man 3 Kristen Dunst. Why she's here but not in Spider-Man 3 isn't all that clear (everyone else returned for 3, so why not I don't know). Also did I mention that Bruce Campbell pulls voice acting duty as the narrator of the game again? He does. Only now you can hear his voice anytime you want (as I mentioned above). That has to be cool as he once again provides for some golden comedy moments throughout the game. Beautiful job once again, Mr. Campbell, well done.

So with all that and more that I have yet to get to? This seperates the exceptional gaming experience from the average. And no glitches so far either, unlike Spider-Man 3 which began to glitch several hours into the game (and kept glitching from that point forward). Maybe it's just the Xbox version which is glitch free (who knows, maybe if I play the PS2 version I might have the same problem as in Spider-Man 3) but I have a feeling it's the game and not the system to blame (since I played both the PS2 and Wii versions of Spider-Man 3 and both were glitchy in exactly the same way).

So what does that mean for this game? You take the good, you take the bad, you take it all and then you have... a good game. 4 lickably soft Black Cats (here kitty kitty kitty) out of 5... And yes, that was creepy of me to say that.

Suddenly I want a pizza to eat after bringing up this game. Me hungry.