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The webslinger makes his way to the GBA. Like Spider-Man 3 on other platforms, the GBA version doesn’t break new ground but it does let you swing around Manhattan, take out enemies with your various web attacks, and put on the new black suit.
Spider-Man 3 loosely follows the movie’s plot. Like the other games, though, the GBA game uses the movie as a launching pad and adds new story elements in order to flesh out the story. In Spider-Man 3, the game, you’ll be able to relive the movie and classic action sequences against Sandman, Green Goblin and Venom but Vicarious Visions also added plotlines based on comic book characters like Kingpin. All in all, there are 16 missions to be played. The objectives usually involve rescuing some people, diffusing some bombs, or searching for hidden keys.
Although Spider-Man 3 doesn’t break new ground, it doesn’t hesitate to give you an excuse to bust out Spider-Man’s moves and abilities. This is classic portable Spidey that Vicarious Visions now has down to a science. Most of your time will be spent jumping, attacking, shooting webs and of course, swinging around as you solve puzzles and take out enemies. Spider-Man gains new moves and more health as he defeats bosses. Eventually, you’ll also gain access to the black suit. When this is unlocked, attacking enemies will fill up a rage meter, that once full, will transform you into the black suit and make Spider-Man stronger and faster. You lose the suit when you take damage but it’s fairly easy to get it back.
The graphics in the game are pretty good for a late-generation GBA game but nothing extraordinary. Spider-Man’s sprite-based character model looks pretty good. The animation is solid and all of his moves come across well. The enemy models don’t share the same level of detail but look pretty good too. The backgrounds are okay, though a bit too repetitive. Still there is a good amount of stuff to break in the game.
The music in the game seems to be original yet fitting to the game nonetheless. The sound effects consist of the typical combat sounds and accompanying groans that fit the action game well. There isn’t voice acting in the game but the story comes across very well through the stylized, written narration sequences.
Spider-Man 3 doesn’t break new ground but should still please fans of the character or previous GBA Spider-Man games. As usual, the NDS version is the far superior portable version but the GBA game is nonetheless a good choice who have yet to make the move to Nintendo’s dual screen handheld. -- Jake Wilson, PGNx Media
---- May 15, 2007
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