Ultimate Spider-Man is an example of a great presentation. Right from the moment you turn the game on, it feels like a comic book and the music is even reminiscent of classic comic book games from systems like the Megadrive and Super Nintendo, but revamped for the current consoles. The graphics, menus, cut-scenes... they all scream comic book and each character is brilliantly inked, coloured and animated to 2D cel-shaded perfection. And then you start playing... when you realise that something just doesn't seem right. Could it be that Ultimate Spider-Man isn't that ultimate at all? Could this actually be a watered down Spider-Man 2 hidden underneath a shiny coat of cel-shaded graphics?

First off, let's get one thing straight. If you're a casual fan of Spider-Man and pick up this game then you're in for a few surprises. The word ultimate isn't just in the title to sound cool, it is in fact based on one of the many Spider-Man spin-off comics, Ultimate Spider-Man, which debuted in 2000 and has since become one of Marvel's best selling ongoing books, so much that other series have followed suit and branched off into their own "Ultimate" series, such as Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four.

Basically, the Ultimate books retell the original storylines from years ago, all retouched and adapted for a modern audience and world, taking place in a completely alternate universe to the main storylines that Marvel uses. Ultimate Spider-Man follows the adventures of a 15-year-old Peter Parker, who struggles to balance being a superhero with being a student. All of the major events from the classic Spider-Man story hold true, except specific details have been altered, such as the Eddie Brock character, who is now a childhood friend of Peter's and has a father that was very close to Pete's, Mary-Jane Watson knows all too well that Peter and Spider-Man are one and the same (as do many other characters, unlike the normal Marvel continuity storyline where very few know) and Parker himself is not a photographer for the Daily Bugle but instead a web designer for the Bugle's website. Aunt May is the strong-willed backbone of Peter, however apparently she is now a big fan of the Internet and enjoys Googling her favourite recipes.

You'll notice these changes are consistent throughout Ultimate Spider-Man the game and if you aren't familiar with the "Ultimate" side-universe of Spider-Man, then you'll probably be taken off guard by many things, most notably the enemies. Rhino is a small, bald person inside of a huge mech with a horn, Kraven the Hunter hosts his own reality TV series, Green Goblin is actually a large green creature instead of someone in a costume and the Shocker looks nowhere near as cool as he once did in his unmistakable yellow outfit. The villain you'll see the most of is easily the famous Venom, however, especially since you'll be playing as him here and there. For the most part he looks as you would expect him to, except a lot more... purple.

When you begin there isn't much of an established storyline, other than just being Spider-Man and trying to cope with your new powers. The opening movie takes only a short minute to get you up to speed with Parker, how he became Spider-Man, as well as how he and his friend Eddie Brock discovered their late father's experiment that transforms Brock into Venom. The storyline sticks extremely close to the comic book roots, however there isn't much to it and it lasts a very short amount of time. As you play, the game intertwines between good and evil - Spider-Man and Venom - and the plot attempts to thicken as more and more characters, mainly villains, start to show up and you'll feel like Marvel is trying to squeeze as many characters as they can in. You'll run across supporting characters from other stories, such as Johnny Storm of the Ultimate Fantastic Four and Wolverine from you-know-where.

Developers Treyarch hit something great, revolutionary maybe, with the Spider-Man 2 movie game. Putting Spider-Man in the city and letting the player just swing around was a brilliant move that has since been used, and perfected, by The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. When people heard about the next Spider-Man they weren't surprised - not at first anyway. Treyarch revealed a different approach: a game where everything was in an advanced cel-shaded style and looked like it was ripped right out of a comic book. Indeed they have mastered that aspect; you can't possibly find a game that feels more like a comic book than this (except maybe Comix Zone!)

However, Treyarch are still relying on the novelty of swinging around at your leisure and beating up bullies to carry the entire weight of the game and unfortunately neither activity is particularly compelling. Swinging around the city was amazing in Spider-Man 2; perhaps that's why I just don't feel the same here. It doesn't capture quite as well and it's hard to pinpoint exactly why. The sense of speed is minimal, the camera jerks around so much that it makes it frustrating when trying to get someone specific and the cityscape looks so downright awful that there isn't a feeling of excitement, height, or depth to it. The swinging animations are also incredibly repetitive and while the flips Spidey does whilst not swinging are cool, seeing the same old swing over and over wears thin fast. It's difficult to figure out why Treyarch simplified the swinging but it hurts the experience in a big way. Gone are the days when you could shoot multiple webs, hang in mid air by holding a web in each hand and use multiple webs to gain enormous momentum. Now you get one single web shot and a zip line. That's it. The experience is almost completely ruined and is just a mere shadow of what it once was.

An even bigger gripe is the fact that Treyarch did little improve the enormous complaints about the random crimes that happen within the city (which is smaller than the previous version of New York). They simply removed the dull ones, so now there is an even smaller number of possible crimes and almost all of them involve beating up an enemy, which is simply not much fun, and for awhile is a strictly button-mashing affair with little depth or excitement.

Throughout the city - other than the random crimes - are side quests such as races and crime tours, where your goal is to beat up a large amount of enemies. Neither of these can be described as fun and although they seem to be optional at first, you'll quickly find out how painfully wrong you are. To unlock the next story mission you are required to complete these side missions and random crimes, so you end up playing those a heck of a lot more than the actual story missions. To make it worse, sometimes you don't even unlock the next story mission but just a cutscene and then you have to do more boring races and gang beat downs. You'll quickly feel ripped off as you discover that there is so little story content that these 'side-quests' had to be made mandatory to stretch out the life of the game, which is a shame, because the cut-scenes and story sequences truly are awesome and done with awe-inspiring style.

The actual missions fare a lot better, offering some unique challenges and battles, however if you're like me you'll be so sick of the combat from the constant city missions that the thought of more fighting is just unappealing and ultimately starts to ruin the experience early on. The chase missions from Spider-Man 2 return once again and they're far more frequent than they need to be. Perhaps the only saving grace is the periodic missions where you play as Venom...

Possibly the biggest selling point of this game is the ability to play as the fan-favourite villain (something you could do on the Megadrive title Maximum Carnage) and for the most part fans will be happy with the results. He's a powerful character, with the ability to throw vehicles (which is always scripted, as Venom throws a vehicle just as soon as you pick it up) and leap incredible distances. This would all be fine and well if it weren't for a big green guy that goes by the name of Hulk, who did this just recently in a game of his own. I hate to say it, but playing as Venom just feels dull when you compare him to the Hulk of Ultimate Destruction. Venom can leap huge distances instead of web-swing, similar to how Hulk can, but it lacks the impact and excitement; he at least does feel and move in contrast to Spider-Man, however, which is worth something.

Though it must be said that the characters do look amazing (especially Venom, who has some absolutely stunning lighting effects), the actual city itself doesn't look half as good. You'd expect better, since it is after all smaller than Spider-Man 2's, but you'll be shocked when you see the horrendous draw-distance problems; and just wait until you look at the view from way up on the highest building. It is not a pretty sight! The buildings are all just giant rectangle shapes of one single colour in the distance - there's no fog to cover it up or anything, they're all just stacked out there and look downright embarrassing. Perhaps they're meant to emulate the comic book style, where objects in the distance lack details and are of a single colour... it works wonders in comics, but somehow just doesn't translate into a video game. Once again there are also no weather effects and from great heights you see absolutely no cars below, where before you'd see rows and rows of them, like you should in New York. The city doesn't feel alive any more. When standing near buildings, sure, they look good - until you get really close to them, at which point you'll see the same pattern go up an entire building... over and over and over. The characters look great, the cinematics have a style that is truly cool and the menus are a great achievement in user interfaces, but the rest of the graphics are simply awful.

Unlike Spider-Man 2, this title features no major celebrities to do the voiceovers, which isn't really a problem. They found a decent young actor to portray what Tobey Maguire may have sounded like at 15 and he does a good job in capturing the signature Peter Parker wit. The downfall of the voice and music isn't the actual voices and compositions, but how they're used. You hear the same lines constantly and the music, as good as it actually is, seems to come in and out at random times that make little sense, enhancing the game at all the wrong times. All the other signature Spider-Man sounds, like the thwaps, baps and shabaps, are here in full force and done well, yet the game seriously lacks city ambience, something which really would have helped.

Ultimate Spider-Man may look very stylish and visually capture the essence of a comic perfectly, but the gameplay feels like a swing backwards in almost every department. The swinging is all context sensitive now and you can only use webbing when the game allows you to, meaning you'll constantly be hitting the buttons to no avail until you get in the perfect position. The fighting is so lacklustre that you'll wonder where all those cool moves from the last game went and why you can't go buy them right away, easily making the game feel tiring and almost like a chore very early on. Forcing the side-missions on the player is a horrible move, as none of them are much fun, and while playing as Venom is a nice switch, he doesn't show up nearly as much as the game leads you to think he will and his sections aren't that much better than Spider-Man's. The game may let you go where you want, but it is not open-ended in any way, leaving little worth doing once you complete it, which mercifully shouldn't take long. Only pick this one up if you truly are a Spider-Man nut and if you've played The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction... well, let's just say that you'll feel spoiled rotten by Hulk if you take a look at this.

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).