Okay today I spent a lot more time with the game. The first 4 levels of the game were all okay to "meh" though the boss battles have all been very good. It can just be a paiin to get there. However, after what I've seen of the second levels for each of the Spider-Men the game drastically improves. Amazing Spider-Man's fight with Sandman is an epic experience from start to finish. And nice job of the writer's of the game too. They've done a hell of a job of really capturing the personality of the characters. The main story isn't so good but all the dialogue and interaction is fantastic. Really keeps you wanting to play.
Review of the First Levels for each character:
Amazing Spider-Man vs. Kraven: The level takes place in jungle and is pretty straight forward. Nothing particuarly impressive, though nothing offensively bad either. You just swing from point A to point B until you have to fight a few henchmen. Eventually you make it to "Thunderdome" for the first half of the boss fight. Nothing special but not too bad. Final battle was a little disappointing here though as Kraven's "enhanced power" wasn't more than just extra speed.
Ultimate Spider-Man vs. Elektro: This was a cool level. You're in a powerplant in the middle of the mountain and there's a good combination of fighting, rescuing civilians, and battles with Elektro. Ultimate isn't real different from Amazing though aside from his "rage" power which doesn't really do more than extra damage.
Spider-Man 2099 vs. Hobgoblin: 2099 was a cool setting but the flying portions of the level seem like they should be better. It could be a graphic limitation that the Wii is stuck with and could be better on an HD system. Hobgoblin is a hard final battle though and actually requires a great deal of finesse as opposed to just brawling and getting lucky which kind of works for other boss fights. As a bonus, Spidey 2099's voice is done by the guy who did the Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends Saturday morning cartoon.
Spider-Man Noir vs. Hammerhead: This one tosses away the webslinging (though there's little bit here and there). You pretty much climb walls, stick to the shadows and ambush the henchmen. Good final battle with Hammerhead too. Overall it feels too simple though, like a C-rated stealth game. Fortunately most of that does get corrected in the second Noir level.
I just finished the final two episodes of Spiderman the 1994 series.
The Beyonder brought all the spidermans from different dimensions together to beat Carnage + Evil spiderman. It was awesome. 
And now in Act II game gets good. Real good. The jump in quality is amazing. It goes from being an okay/average with some good things sprinkled it to being just plain good with moments of excellence.
Amazing Spider-Man vs. Sandman: This is an example in how to make a good tight level and fill it with good battles the whole way through. You have numerous encounters with Sandman before one epic battle. They tried the same thing with Electro but this worked much better, plus Sandman actually had some character development during the course of the level. The final encounter is epic as you're in the middle of a sandstorm/cyclone that he's created and you have to jump from one side to the other on barrels and other flying debris.
Ultimate Spider-Man vs. Deadpool: This is another great example of how to do level design. It takes place on an oil rig and you get to explore every inch of it thanks to Spider-Man's powers. Deadpool's comments are hilarious througout the whole thing. The concept of why they're fighting is ludicrious but its funny enough that they pull it off. The missions you have to go through to get to the final battle get a little tiresome after a while but never to the point of boredom.
Spider-Man Noir vs. Vulture: Big improvement over the first Noir level. There's a little more combat here and you spend time rescuing civilians so the stealth combat doesn't get as old. Plus the final part of the level ups that idea by putting you in the middle of a burning building.
Spider-Man 2099 vs. The Scorpion: This level was cool just because it felt so different than eveything else in the game. At times it almost feels like a cheesy futuristic sci-fi movie (meant in a good way). The Scorpion is more slimey monster than typical powered-up super villian and it changes the environment and even the battles a bit.
I'm not into spider man etc... but I thought the different themes would add a lot to the usual SM game -- I'm still looking forward to it -- maybe it will turn me into a SM follower, just as Arkham has for Batman.
Whenever I see this thread I can only think of Silent Hill. 
aspro said:I'm not into spider man etc... but I thought the different themes would add a lot to the usual SM game -- I'm still looking forward to it -- maybe it will turn me into a SM follower, just as Arkham has for Batman.
I doubt this game will do much to turn you into a fan of Spider-Man. At the end of the day it's really just a showcase for Spider-Man and his very wide number of villain. Lots of character interaction but overall its' very light on story.
So are the levels like linear and separated from each other?
Yes they are separate. The game is divided into acts and in each act there are four segments that you can play in any order that you like, one for each of the Spider-Men (each segment lasting around 45 minutes to 1 hour). You beat one, then go back to the menu to chose another. Most levels are pretty linear though there's a few like the Ultimate Spider-Man vs. Deadpool level have more of a sandbox layout.
Nice thread, I really want to play this.
robio said:Yes they are separate. The game is divided into acts and in each act there are four segments that you can play in any order that you like, one for each of the Spider-Men (each segment lasting around 45 minutes to 1 hour). You beat one, then go back to the menu to chose another. Most levels are pretty linear though there's a few like the Ultimate Spider-Man vs. Deadpool level have more of a sandbox layout.
So is there an overlying plot that covers all the levels and ties them in?
P.S I never heard of Deadpool until I saw the craptacular Wolverine Origins, how and where did this character originate?
It's a good game to rent. Shaping up to be around 12 to 15 hours worth of gameplay if you play it straight through. You can replay previously beaten levels to get extra acheivements, more unlockables, and a higher rating on the level completion. I don't see myself doing that though. Most of the acheivements are things you'll accomplish just by playing through the game.
Also worth nothing, if you have the option to play this on a different console than the Wii go for it simply for the controls. They put in just a few waggle controls that don't work real well that it can kind of be a pain at times. It doesn't ruin the experience since most of the time it doesn't happen, but there's a weird dodging motion you have to do during boss fights that just never seems to work right.
gamingeek said:robio said:Yes they are separate. The game is divided into acts and in each act there are four segments that you can play in any order that you like, one for each of the Spider-Men (each segment lasting around 45 minutes to 1 hour). You beat one, then go back to the menu to chose another. Most levels are pretty linear though there's a few like the Ultimate Spider-Man vs. Deadpool level have more of a sandbox layout.
So is there an overlying plot that covers all the levels and ties them in?
P.S I never heard of Deadpool until I saw the craptacular Wolverine Origins, how and where did this character originate?
The overlying plot is weak. Basically there's a tablet that controls reality or something that gets broke in a fight with Mysterio and Spider-Men from several dimensions have to team up to collect the pieces. There's a little more to it, but not much. ALso Spider-Man Noir and 2099 both have some sub-plots of there own that are goiing on.
As far as Deadpool, he's been around for almost 20 years but he's just recently gotten ridiculously popular. He's currently got 2 of his own books, usually a mini-series going on, and guest stars in everyone else's comics. He's been very overexposed and over the next year his popularity will die down but for now he's the big thing. His backstory is that he was an assasin/mercenary who got cancer and then enrolled in the Weapon X program for a cure. He was given a super healing factor (stronger than Wolverine's) that beat the cancer, but also deformed him in the process. When he's unmasked it looks like he's covered in tumors and just looks nasty.
He's also batshit insane. He has a running dialog in his head with 2 other voices and it's usually pretty funny. He also breaks the forth wall a lot to talk to the readers and narrator of his book. When his books are handled by a good writer they're just about the funniest things out there. In fact, one of my favorite recen comic books was an issue of Spider-Man where the two of them fight and the end of it, it turns into one big "yo momma" joke fest.
robio said:
As far as Deadpool, he's been around for almost 20 years but he's just recently gotten ridiculously popular.
Huh he's popular again? I remember computer coloring that book when it was out in the 90's. Pretty funny until the writer moved on. They always had good talent to launch new comics and then the B team would come on and wreck them.
angrymonkey said:Huh he's popular again? I remember computer coloring that book when it was out in the 90's. Pretty funny until the writer moved on. They always had good talent to launch new comics and then the B team would come on and wreck them.
He's more popular than ever. He literally pops up in EVERY comic now. He's being treated the way Wolverine was treated a few years ago. Hell he was about to get his own movie until Ryan Reynolds opted to go be Green Lantern instead. Not sure how long the momentum can keep up before the character gets burned out but time will tell.
BTW what did you mean by computer coloring the book? Were you a colorist for Marvel or something?
Thanks for that Robio. 
The plot being bad in a Spider-Man game?! What are the odds?
robio said:He's more popular than ever. He literally pops up in EVERY comic now. He's being treated the way Wolverine was treated a few years ago. Hell he was about to get his own movie until Ryan Reynolds opted to go be Green Lantern instead. Not sure how long the momentum can keep up before the character gets burned out but time will tell.
BTW what did you mean by computer coloring the book? Were you a colorist for Marvel or something?
Not exactly - I worked for a company in Canada. We received the color guides from the colorist and did the coloring and effects on computer. The company would get credit as computer coloring or fx or something like that. It took a long time for some of the traditional colorists (markers, pencil crayons, watercolors) to get up to speed with computers and do the whole process themselves. And of course by that time a lot of the computer coloring people became full fledged colorists themselves(getting to actually choose all of the colors!). Did a bunch of marvel, dc, odd stuff. Lot of fun. Thanks to computers and fed-ex artists, colorists, writers and editors for comics were spread all across the globe.
Nobody stops the Juggernaut. . . excep the amazing team of Spider-Man and El Robio the Manpretty!!! Act 3's first level starts off with Amazing Spider-Man vs. Juggernaut and it's a good fight. As a comic geek I didn't like that Juggernaut was portrayed as way too weak (Spidey should never be able to go toe to toe with him), but it was a fun level. Traditional linear chase kind of level, but it had a neat twist to it in that you aren't the only person who is trying to take him down. Tonight we'll find out who Ultimate Spider-man's last challenge will be.
I rented Shattered Dimensions and so far I'm pleased, though I'll admit the game is probably more appreciated by a comic fan rather than a gamer. The game starts out with a quick training level where you play each of the four Spider-men to learn the basic game elements and then you get into the game. The first level is regular Spider-Man and you're going after Kraven. The gameplay and level design were nothing real impressive. I wouldn't go to the extremes that Agnates did but it's definitely last gen in its design. Reminds me of the Hulk game from last gen. The boss battle with Kraven is fun but lord knows it'd be better if the game's camera wasn't so bad. You'd think that's something devs could get right at this point. Way too early to write it off though. Most reviews said the regular Spider-man levels were the least impressive so I expect the next ones will be better.
What I really appreciate about this game is more of the small things its getting right. Spidey's moves look great. It's how he fights in the comics. Stan Lee does the narration. The voice acting is all very good, and they even got the guy who did Spider-Man's voice from the old "Spider-man and His Amazing Friends" to do the voice for Spider-Man 2099. They're using obscure characters from the Spider-Man universe and all of them seem to be very true to their character. The few liberties they've taken are logical ones that fit in fine.
Not sure if that's going to make anyone but a Spider-Man fan play the game, but for fans its a must. More impressions will be put in a Gaming Forum thread as I play more.