You couldn’t be blamed for writing off Vita version of The Amazing Spider-Man at first glance. We’ve seen ports of console games fare pretty poorly on Sony’s handheld so far. If PS2 hits like Jak and Daxter have suffered then what chance does an open-world blockbuster action game have?
As it turns out, quite a good one. This latest version of Beenox’s movie tie-in doesn’t translate to handheld unscathed, but certainly fares far better than you’d expect.
Much of The Amazing Spider-Man remains the same. The story still takes place just after the events of last summer’s movie, you still get the whole of New York City to swing around in, and anyone that played the game on a console will feel right at home with the Vita’s controls.
The combat is just borrowed from recent Batman games
Developer Beenox has made remarkably few cutbacks to the game’s presentation. There’s an obvious downgrade in visuals ‘ while Spider-Man looks identical to PS3 and 360, his supporting cast have lost much of the detail and texture to their models. The city is also a little blander, with lower-resolution textures, and the framerate can slow down often while you freely swing from A to B, but nothing is as unsightly as you’d think it might be. It’s reassuring to finally play a Vita port that doesn’t feel second rate in these areas.
The big sacrifice seems to be with audio, which, even with a decent pair of headphones, sounds like it’s coming from a GameBoy speaker. Sound effects are underwhelming and weakly crackle in the background as you throw punches and shoot webs. It’s a little jarring to hear this kind of quality from a game that isn’t trying to be an 8-bit retro throwback. Still, if you’re going to make cutbacks then better here than in the gameplay, which, for better and for worse, is identical to the console version.
Web-swinging around New York is still the reason to play The Amazing Spider-Man. Simply switching the game on and spending half an hour ducking and diving between buildings as you jump from web to web gives you an immediate, breath-taking thrill and sense of satisfaction. Not since the PS2’s Ultimate Spider-Man has a game captured this unique feel so well, although its swinging system still doesn’t measure up to that game or Spider-Man 2, the one that introduced it all.
Only a few visual setbacks have been made
Elsewhere the game cherry-picks its components from other, more daring titles. The combat system is a carbon copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum, asking you to carefully time strikes and counters for a perfect combo. It’s far from the first game to borrow the system, and it works well here, but it deprives the game of any identity. Spider-Man is a hero with a fighting style unlike any others ‘ he shouldn’t be standing with enemies circling around him, waiting for them to come to him. It’s time Beenox ramped up the combat into an entirely new beast that makes use of his agility. No one’s ever cracked the code of Spider-Man combat, but the answer isn’t in imitation. Still, it’s a satisfying system that fits better than the last few attempts.
A few missed opportunities also spring to mind in this Vita version. The game’s web-rush feature, a great little addition that lets you instantly zip to where Spider-Man is looking, would greatly benefit from intuitive gyroscope aiming using the Vita’s tilt sensors, but it’s nowhere to be found. It is included in the camera mini games, making its absence here all the more puzzling. That said, the system uses touchscreen controls to great effect, allowing you to quickly pinpoint your destination.
The swinging is still the reason to play The Amazing Spider-Man
Frustratingly, Beenox has done right by Spider-Man before, but being grounded in the movie universe holds the studio back. Its last two games, Shattered Dimensions and Edge of Time, were fantastically imaginative with their stories, visuals and villains, but the same can’t be said here. The duller colour palette of the movie-inspired graphics don’t carry the same charm, and most of the baddies are reimagined as squealing, brainless science experiments that set up lairs in sewers and warehouses. At least the studio opted for a more interesting tale set after the events of the film instead of awkwardly adapting its story. It’s Beenox’s ability to try a think outside the box for like this that makes The Amazing Spider-Man worthwhile, and a solid effort overall.
Ultimately the Vita version of The Amazing Spider-Man is an impressive port of a serviceable action game. Rather than making a statement about the genre or the source material, it says something about the system’s hardware. With other ports like Borderlands 2 soon to hit Sony’s handheld, it’s reassuring to get a game that feels up to par with its console brethren in the areas that count. As for the game itself, it remains proof that Spider-Man is in good hands with Beenox. Let’s hope that those hands can mould something much more amazing with the sequel.
