Like Spider-Man 2 the game, I also played Ultimate Spider-Man 11 years ago. Where my opinions on the former has changed and I enjoy it much more now. The latter however is a game that makes two steps forward and two steps back. I still enjoy it but Spidey 2 just felt more cohesive and consistent experience which is crazy for me to say that considering that was a movie licensed game where this one is an original story? Or is it?
This transitions me over to story. Ultimate Spider-Man's story is esstentially a filler arc, an original movie, OVA or original content not in the source material that anime adaptations of manga would do for the longest time. It's such a strange approach for a game story which is makes this game's existence as a whole questionable in the long run. It takes place after the Venom story arc during the Ultimate Spider-Man comic run which was issues 33-39. There's already red flags since in order to understand what is going on this story, you'd need to read the Ultimate Comics. Since the dynamics between Peter and MJ and later the former and Nick Fury are going to be harder to understand. Some might even think the woman with Nick could be Black Widow but it's Ultimate Sharon Carter. They also name drop the "Ultimates" in one cutscene which is the Ultimate Universe's Avengers, this was before the 2012 MCU movie would come out so hats off if you spotted that in 2005 or before the 2012 MCU movie came out.
Then this leads to other issues like how Bolivar Trask is one of the key villains of this game yet there is never one mention of the X-Men.
If you did read the comics, it's not like your homework is even rewarded since there is a chase and boss fight with Ultimate Green Goblin and Peter has no idea who he even is. If you already didn't think the former was The Hulk with fire powers. Gwen Stacy was also a promnient character during that aforementioned Venom arc of the Ultimate comics, she's no where to be mentioned or found here. It's not like this all matters considering like the original material in anime adaptations, this is all non canon and have no bearing on anything, status quo is god by the end like in those anime original content stories.
This already an aspect Spider-Man 2 does better since it just takes the themes of the movie and by extension the Spider-Man mythos and repurposes it into an open world game plot. All that baggage you don't need to deal with.
What does carry the story and prevent it from outright bad is the beautifully rendered comic book panel cutscenes and the solid voice acting. It may not be a very well written or even interesting story when it isn't piggy backing off your knowledge of the Ultimate comics, it's sort of like just watching a movie it's nice to look at even when the writing isn't landing. The cel shading still holds up now is quite presentable today and is one thing it does do better than Spider-Man 2 the game.
Gameplay fares better but it is held back by a short length and an uneven story campaign. The Spider-Man city traversal is just as great as ever with major improvments. The double jump makes movement more fluid and flashy since you can jump over large buildings with it. There's also the wip zip which combined with double jumping can make you dart around the city like a living springboard. Web swinging while being more realistic doesn't detract the traversal since web zip and double jump can be used in conjuction to keep you in the air longer. It becomes a fun self imposed challenge of how long you can keep Spidey in the air before touching the ground. The only big issue is that swing boosting doesn't have the feedback it once did without the swoosh effect when doing it in Spidey 2 making me not want to engage with it as much since holding the boost button looks the same as regular swinging.
Combat as Spidey is the definition of just "there". It's not anywhere nearly as prevelant as 2's movie game. You just need to beat up thugs in the combat tours and city events but just by punching, Spidey darting along walls and webbing up enemies will get you by as for as ones to unlock main story missions.
Much of the story campaign is bosses and chases. The latter being noticeably harder due to retrying a few times figuring out the AI pathfinding since you don't have line of sight on them and the chase arrow is just moving back and forth before it can go back to going straight again during that a good amount of distance is created and a few seconds is enough get a game over. This is where much of the game's challenge can come from. That and those obnoxious trigger mashing mini games to open doors whether it's be lifting cars as Spidey or opening doors as Venom. These almost feel like a game of luck, I wished there was God of War's mashing circle instead.
Bosses as Peter are little hard at first but the key to them is jumping out of the way when the spidey sense indicator and then hit them with air attacks.
Spidey also shares this game with Venom. As a whole, I'd find him to be decent even if it's hard not to unfavourbly compare him to the Hulk in his game that came out in 2005 with Ultimate Destruction. Venom can leap large distances and can also run up buildings much like Hulk in UD, he has a small web zip too. Mook combat as him is a little dull since it's just eating innocents to replienish health and spamming that 3 hit tendrill attack combo. Bosses fare better since they can also get back health and you have to deal with other factors around venom like the billboards with Electro, the doors with Carnage, and dealing with enclosed space with no one to feed on and laser pits when fighting Beetle.
Overall, since it's short and has 19 missions with a two character split, you could play Spider-Man 2 if you want to play as just Spidey with no Ultimate comics knowledge to get what's going on and if you want a to play as a large and bulky character that can make large leaps and wreck havoc play Hulk Ultimate Destruction. The biggest problem with Ultimate Spider-Man is how everything down to it's story and gameplay feels directionless and confused. The visuals being the one major thing that stands out the most. It is worth playing just to experience how confused it is.
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