Spider-Man Games Retrospective pt 4

Ultimate Spider-Man (2005)
Up to this point these games have only gotten better. But with this one I'm hesitant to say that it was better than the previous one. I also won't say that it was worse.
I was surprised to find out that Treyarch released this only a year after the previous game. The main gameplay mechanics are very similar but the style of the game is in such a different direction. The previous two games had realism from the movies, but this game goes back to the comic books using animated comic panels and cel-shading that simulates an 'inking' feel.
For clarity's sake, The Ultimate Spider-Man is not the regular Spider-Man that everyone's familiar with; it's is a modernized re-imagining of the hero as 15 year old high school student. [spoilers] ...who is currently deceased in the books and Miles Morales now wears the Spider-tights. (UGH, I dislike the idea of multiple Spider-Men)
The guys who made the Ultimate Spider-Man comics, Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley, also headed this game. In the eyes of many comic fans, these guys can do no wrong. So it's cool that this game is made by people with passion for the Marvel characters and stories. The story kind of fits into the Ultimate comics, but most people won't notice the inconsistencies.
Manhattan is again the playground for Spidey, but this time we also have access to Queens where the buildings are much shorter.
Many gamers that aren't big Spider-Fans are turned off by the style and look of the game. I didn't try this game when it came out for that same reason. But now that I've given it a shot I regret that decision. Once you get passed the childish look and simplified controls (web swinging is no longer as intricate as the previous game) this is still fun to play, especially from a fans perspective because you can play as Venom, which is awesome and vicious (back-break move and eating people!). After playing for a few hours the style grew on me and I became impressed with how comic-book-y the cel shading looks. I'm surprised there aren't more superhero games using this technique. It'd make a sweet Deadpool game. Also the animated comic book panels were pretty cool, and they would sometimes show up during gameplay to kinda zoom in on something important, which is a cool way to show your player something they should know (instead of just putting a twinkle on it, via Resident Evil). One downside to this style is that much of the text is over enthusiastic. All the hints are really important! They definitely don’t overuse exclamation points!
Side missions are still repetitive, but they're less annoying because there are no longer kids crying about their lost balloons. However, the resulting increase in reliance on the minimap takes away focus from the action in the middle of the screen. A couple of times the minimap even blocked the Spider-Sense so I couldn't tell that I was about to get smacked around.
The game started off recapping the black suite in order to introduce Venom. I want to play as black suite Spider-Man because he’s much more powerful. But I can see why they wouldn’t want to give the player powers and then take them away for the rest of the game. Then the first thing you do when you start playing is face off against Venom, which is very intimidating if you are familiar to what’s going on here. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though.
It’s Nerd Rage time: there’s a part in this game where Peter Parker is kickin around in his civvies, and nobody questions why he’s leaping 50 feet in the air in front of pedestrians, or doing other very Spider-Man-esque things. Also, racing the Human Torch? Not only extremely frustrating for the player, but why would any sensible grounded person race someone WHO CAN FLY?
My favorite part of this game was [spoilers] …the fight of Wolverine vs Venom, controlled by the player.  For some unfathomable reason I’ve never pondered this battle before. It’s really a great matchup: Venom is nearly impervious to Wolverine’s attacks, and Wolverine can heal just about anything Venom can dish out. To my knowledge this hadn't been done before up to this point (or at least done well).
Voice acting for Spider-Man in this game and the last two are bad. He sounds like a whiny little kid. I mean, he IS a kid, but he’s also a hero with the selfless determination and responsibilities, so in that way he’s more mature than most adults I know. The voice acting just doesn’t reflect that. Spider-Man is much more than funny quips now and again.
Most unlockables aren’t worth mentioning, but this game had character sheets which I really appreciated as a game developer myself.