It’s a quirky little Spider-man game, but it has a great deal of character. Don’t worry though, because Venom can feed on just about anyone and drain health out of them. In addition, Venom gets around via jumping and climbing rather than the use of web-shooters, and his health constantly depletes slowly due to the suit feeding upon its host. Spider-man is faster and does less damager per shot, whereas Venom is a lot more powerful but is also slower. The Ultimate incarnation of the fan-favourite symbiote has a different backstory (being an experiment rather than an alien) but that aside the story is interesting, and the game plays very differently depending on which of the two characters you are playing. That’s right, you get to play Venom, and that includes open free-roam after you beat the game. In Ultimate Spider-man your time is split between Peter/Spider-Man, and Eddie Brock/Venom. The thing that is most likely to sell a Spider-man fan on this game however, is the fact that you aren’t just playing Peter Parker and fighting villains.

This aesthetic does come off as a little silly at times (the ridiculous size of the spider that bites Peter to give him his powers comes to mind), but overall it’s very well done. It makes no attempt at all to look realistic, and the finished product is all the better for it. The first thing that sets it apart from most other Spider-man games, is it’s deliberately comic-book feel, with its cell shaded characters and environments. I played this on the Xbox when it came out back in 2005, and to this day it remains one of my all-time favourite Spider-man games.

I have often felt this one didn’t receive as much love as it deserved.

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