Spider-Man on PS4 Review

Review by Ben Pierson. # Spider-man; Spider-man; Hisbestgamewas thesecondGameCube Spider-man #

It’s true. None can deny it. Spider-man 2 on the GameCube was the best modern day Spider-man game, I can’t say of all time because I can’t quite recall the old 16 bit games but I think we’re safe in saying they probably didn’t hold much of a candle to it. Every time a new Spider-man game comes out, I feel that as a collective gamers and Spider-man fans hold our breath slightly. We know it’s probably not going to be great, the physics won’t quite hit the spot ‘2 did, the story may not have a satisfying conclusion because the game came out before the movie it was based on so they had to somehow finish it but at the same time leave it open because they didn’t have all the details of the movie it was based on and didn’t know if there was going to be a sequel. Will we be forced to deliver pizza? Are we able to save the balloons of crying children?

It’s a hard time when a new Spidey game hits the shelves.

Spider-man for the Playstation 4 focuses on an older Spider-man so we’re spared the origin story. You know it. I know it. Everyone knows it. Even the MCU made a joke about everyone knowing it in Civil War. No longer a 15 year old Highschool student, we’ve got a twenty something webslinger who’s got a firm grip on his super powers. His alias Peter Parker, however, is having to confront new obstacles in his relatively new adult life. Bills and breakfast and all that. The game begins with PP being woken by the news that Kingpin’s men are being dicks and blowing stuff up, showing off the fairly decent graphics of the game while also acting as a fun and good jumping off point for learning the basics of the game as you work your way across NYC and fight your way up a thug infested building. The combat, a la Arkham, gives it more of a Spider-man like fighting style than previous games but still quite jumpy, kicky, button mashy until you get your eye in.

Or maybe that’s just my playing style.

We have a little combo counter in the corner of our screen, the more you hit people, the more it fills with ‘Focus’. Focus can used to heal the Webhead when his health drops, or you can fill it up and use a knockout move on an enemy to incapacitate them in one go. Stealth also plays a part in the combat, the Vent Takedown pulls up an enemy from below and silently(?) sticks him to the ceiling inside the vent... Do you ever think Spidey does that and every so often forgets about them until the next day? Imagine that call to the NYPD…  I digress.

You really get immersed in the game play be it from Spideys perfect one liners or the QTE where you have to mash square to lift the thing, I genuinely felt awesome and cried out "SPIDERMAAAAAN!" before realising that the windows were open and I just scared the neighbours cat. Spider Sense is akin to the ‘Eagle Vision’ pulse thingy from Assassins Creed: Origins and (speaking of Ass Creed) Spiderman parkour, is a thing I didn’t know I needed until now. That brings us nicely onto the movement.

I’m going to say something that I was honestly not expecting to say here. It’s as good as Spider-man 2. It’s not as physics based but it’s smoother. It’s fast, it’s seamless. It’s fun.

That’s the main thing that I want from a Spider-man game, hell, ANY superhero game. A solid plot is amazing, graphics, the prettier the better but none of that means a single thing if you don’t enjoy playing it. I think this may have done it.

I think this may be the first game for the wall crawler that matches up to Spider-man 2. If you don’t agree, that’s cool. If you do, that’s great, let’s hope to get some more games like this out there. 

Stop reading this, now.

Go play Spider-man.

Nintendo Switch Review

Review by Ben Pierson. Today was a good day. Today was the day I brought a new gaming console. Today, I brought a Nintendo Switch.

A little late to the game, I know. The Switch came out in March 2017, well over a year ago and has had several critically acclaimed titles released such as the visually stunning Breath of The Wild. I can’t deny that I’ve been tempted by the prospect of owning one for a while but it was after watching the Nintendostage at 2018’s E3 that showed the upcoming titles: Let’s Go Pikachu, Let’s Go Eevee, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate and with rumours of a brand new Pokémon game in the works, I finally pulled my finger out.

I was immediately surprised with how small the console itself was, seeming less than half the size of my Playstation 4. The Joycons have a plastic controller that they can sit in if you want to use them as a traditional style controller but I found the real fun was when you put that bit aside. The Joycons can not only be used as a traditional controller without the restriction of their holster, something I felt much more comfortable doing, but if you want to play with a friend, you simply turn the Joycons on their side and BOOM, two controllers. Each bringing to mind the old NES and SNES controls but with a joystick in place of a D-Pad, they also perfectly keep their motion sensors active for use in games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. The shoulder buttons when using the ‘Cons like this take a tiny bit of getting used to but you’ll soon be drifting round corners, grabbing coins and swearing mercilessly at whoever launched that Blue Shell your way.

The fact that each Joycon can be used as an independent controller really comes in useful considering the fact that you can also attach the Joycons to the console itself and take it down the pub.

I know, right?

This feature is obviously well known by now but I still think that it’s really undervalued. You can take your high def console anywhere you like in your bag and at a moments notice, whip it out, pop it up using it’s little kickstand and you’re away playing multiplayer. Even if you’re feeling anti-social or just don’t have any friends, leave the Joycons attached and you can use your Switch as a handheld. While, as I said the console itself is relatively small, it’s almost all screen so you don’t have to be huddled with your nose pressed against it when playing it out and about. That would probably interfere with the touchscreen if that were the case.

Did I not mention that it’s touchscreen? No? Well it is. Do I know why it’s touchscreen? No, I don’t. And I don’t care in the slightest, it’s awesome.

All in all, I love my Switch. It doesn’t do Netflix. It doesn’t have access to iPlayer or All4or any way to get onto nudey sites but that’s why I love it. It’s a Games Console and I think it does that brilliantly.