Spider-Man, the only superhero franchise to get good games ever. The first time through, Activision provided an amazing game which was almost perfect except for some bad camera angles and a few other small problems. When I first heard Activision wasn't developing the sequel I was almost positive it would make a bad game. Lucky for us all they didn't, in fact they made a great game - best of all the Spider-Man games.

The storyline is also one of the great aspects of these games. The story is the same as the upcoming movie, so don't play this game unless you don't care if the movie is spoiled. Either way, the story is great and even comes with its own twists and turns. And amazingly enough, there are two, count 'em two, different storylines. One path is the main one in which you play as Spider-Man and it follows the movie. You are a young man, voiced by Toby MacGuire, bitten by a radioactive spider and now you have spider powers. So you become a wrestler and fight with your powers beating everybody. After certain circumstances arise you have found yourself to be a more responsible person and decide to defend the weak. When certain things happen later on you get involved and that is how the story starts. The other storyline involves you playing as the son of Spidey’s arch nemesis in the game after he has been beaten. You take on the suit of your dad to find out what really happened to him. You earn this mode after beating the game with Spidey on the hard mode "Hero." While there are no FMV movies for this mode and the levels are basically the same, it is amazing they included this at all and the storyline is still very interesting.

The gameplay has been very good since the very first game, and Treyarch has managed to one-up its predecessor. The same gameplay elements have been kept intact and they have added some great additions. The basic commands that have been there for a while are simple. Swing from web, zipline web, shoot web(4 different versions), punch, kick, jump, double jump, target, and even some more. The new game has included these commands with updates, including steering while swinging, abilty to zip to other places besides the ceiling, many more punching kicking combos, and a few other techniques that are great for enhancing your Spidey skills. The only problem with the gameplay is the AI is a little too simplistic. While there are different guys with different difficulty levels, they all have the same basic attack pattern and it is easy to beat them by using the same simple attack techniques. The boss AI is a great improvement, though, no longer can you take advantage of the boss as though he were a normal enemy by wrapping him up - it actually takes skill to take them out. That is a great improvement. Another amazing thing about this is that in the other story, you get to be the Green Goblin with all those cool features of his glider and his suit. The controls are very simple but very different from Spidey which is amazing because they are just as easy to use.

As for how these affect the replay value, it is amazing. In the first game there was a lot of replay value because of what seemed to be the amazing amount of things you could earn. In this game, there are even more! There are so many things to earn from extra FMVs to new costumes to Spidey Bowling. Along with that, the gameplay is just plain fun. Swinging around downtown can have its limitless fun possibilities.

The graphics are amazing as well and obviously surpasses its predecessors. They are amazingly exact with the details of the city and of Spiderman. The city is gorgeous and all the buildings are amazing and whenever you swing near one you can even see your reflection in the windows. The graphics on Spider-Man are also amazing. The details on his costume are exact and all his movements are as fluid as can be. There is a little slowdown in the early levels, but that becomes unnoticeable later on as you enjoy the game.

Overall, Spider-Man is THE greatest superhero game ever, which isn’t really saying much. Still it is great and stands up with some of the greatest action/adventure games ever. I recommend this game to everyone and even if you are skeptical you should at least try renting it. Tt is definitely worth the $10 you might spend to rent it. This is an especially high recommendation if you haven’t played any of the other Spider-Man games.

Overall Score: 9.0 out of 10