Spider-Man (N64 review)

Developer: Edge of Reality
Publisher: Activision
Released: 2000

Spider-Man is an action-adventure game that was only released in North America.

Someone has stolen Dr. Otto Octavius' new technology and framed Spider-Man, and it's up to you to hunt down the culprits. You can web sling between buildings, and while combat generally includes punches and kicks, limited web cartridges allow you to trap enemies or shoot out a ball of webbing. The controls ruin a huge portion of the fun, as without a second analog stick you're stuck with an in-game camera that auto-swivels in the direction that Spidey is facing; this causes huge issues with combat, as it doesn't rotate fast enough meaning you basically have to jump around flailing your arms and legs like an idiot. Also, Spider-Man has a habit of climbing onto objects when you're trying to navigate the environment; this is infuriating during battle, as you clumsily have to stop moving and press the A button to reach the ground, leaving you wide open to projectile attacks. Finally, when you're actually trying to grab onto objects the controls will randomly reverse themselves, so again, you have to stop pressing everything and wait until they reset themselves. It's a shame, as the majority of the levels are enjoyable and offer a ton of variety. Highlights include navigating a bank to disarm a bomb, and web-slinging through the city while police helicopters chase you down. There are some clunkers though, especially in the last half of the game where neat outdoor web-slinging is replaced by endless cramped corridors and enemies that take forever to defeat. The bosses are a mixed bag, but I do like the battle against Rhino where you need to lure him into electric barrels, and the multi-part tussle against Mysterio.

Spider-Man is a good superhero adventure with some impressive set-pieces and excellent variety in its level design. It's unfortunate then that it's totally hampered by the N64 controller's lack of a second analog stick, as without it you're constantly fighting the camera and all elements of combat quickly turn into a rather clumsy affair.

Random trivia: The game was also released on the Game Boy Color, Microsoft Windows, Sega Dreamcast and Sony PlayStation.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (N64 review)

Developer: Edge of Reality, Neversoft
Publisher: Activision
Released: 2001

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 is an extreme sports game that was first released on the Sony PlayStation in 2000.

The levels have been increased in this sequel from six to ten and include locations such as New York City, Venice Beach and a Bullring in Mexico. The objectives have also been raised to ten per level with much more variety and trick-specific goals. The main control innovation is the introduction of manuals; these are performed by quickly pressing Up then Down on the d-pad and they allow you to link tricks together for much bigger scores. This seemingly minor addition opens up gameplay possibilities as it connects the levels and trick objects together in a way that felt much more isolated in the first game. Using the C buttons to activate tricks is a little uncomfortable, as you need to grip the N64 controller at an awkward angle when using the d-pad; however, once you adjust the gameplay is just as enticing as ever and landing tricks with precision is never an issue. The smooth, consistent frame-rate (apart from in the Bullring level) is also partly responsible for this. The levels are solidly designed and figuring out how to access hidden areas or Secret Tapes is a real joy that never gets old. The biggest reason to play this port is that load times are almost non-existent. However, although the music has always played a huge part in the THPS experience, here it's very low in the mix and many of the tracks either lack vocals or are heavily edited. Likewise, this port is missing many of the skater videos that Dreamcast and PS1 owners enjoyed when completing the game with certain characters. The draw distance isn't the best too which leads to pop-in that makes it harder to locate some items.

From a gameplay perspective, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 successfully captures the magic of the PS1 original and it's held up remarkably well. Saying that, this does feel like a slightly neutered port and although it's still a fantastic game you'd be doing yourself a great disservice by playing this cartridge version due to its various omissions.

Random trivia: Another sequel called Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 was released on the Nintendo 64 in 2002.