


The game looks great and sounds even better, although the Noir segments are artificially more difficult because of the fuzzy aesthetic. Spider-Man 2099 offers the most visual panache, with a futuristic New York, vibrant colors, and interesting skydiving sequences that break up the brawling. Spider-Man Noir is set in 1930s New York, with everything is black and white, and he's much more stealth-oriented than the other three. Amazing traverses the world outside of New York City, while Ultimate is largely confined to it and is more focused on web-swinging to get around. Even the level design is constantly changing. So the game is a Spider-Man fanboy's dream, no doubt. Bad guys are usually voiced by their cartoon counterparts as well I distinctly recall Kraven's voice as Kraven in the '90s cartoon.

All of the Spider-Men are voiced by different actors (who had all assumed the role of Spidey in various cartoon series), of which Neil Patrick Harris may be the most familiar. You'll face plenty of interesting foes, including Amazing's Kraven the Hunter, Ultimate's Carnage, 2099's Hobgoblin, and Noir's Vulture, among many others. This involves tracking down each Spidey's rogues gallery, who all conveniently found the tablets before Spider-Man. To make a short story even shorter, the Spider-Men of the multiverse must track down stone tablets in order to avoid universal extermination. The paper-thin story merely sets up an excuse for players to inhabit the bodies and worlds of the four different Spider-Men. Does the rest of the game make up for these irritations? Read on and find out. I never felt completely in control during combat, which itself is a big part of the game. This level-based game is very fun overall, but it suffers considerably because of the Wii-specific combat intricacies. Many players might have never heard of those last two, but I'm very happy to see them represented on screen for more people to experience. What excited me, and still excites me, about Shattered Dimensions is that you get to play as four distinct Spider-Men: Amazing, Ultimate (in the black suit), Noir, and 2099. I love my Spider-Man comics and cartoons, and even the first two movies. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited about this game.
