SPIDERMAN (PSX)
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Quiet - my spider-sense is tingling...

By JAMES ANTHONY

It's been a long time since opening any Spiderman comics, but an afternoon's play on the Playstation game has fired up a bit of a hankering to relive childhood reading habits.

If you don't know Spiderman, he's really Peter Parker who was bitten by a radioactive spider and turned into a superhero who can crawl up walls, trap people with a spiderweb spray, or swing between skyscrapers holding on to his ultra strong web ropes.

His task is to complete a number of adventures that involve matching skills and wits with some bad dudes who, like him, have often been transformed into warped superhumans.

Spiderman has an amazing array of moves he can perform and this pretty much lets him go anywhere. Okay, you die a few times usually diving off a building and then forgetting to hit the X button twice (enabling the spiderweb swings) but in general working the chap around is no real drama. Some missions just require you to beat all the enemy henchmen, others need a bit of brain power to work out how to deal with a problem. Powerups, additional armour and extra spider threads can be picked up as you progress through each level and you need to remember to check air-conditioning ducts as they often contain special bonuses.

Also along the way are things you can unlock - characters, movies, real comic covers - as well as storyboards showing the design art for the movies in the game. There are four levels - easy, normal and hard, plus a kids' mode. This lets the littlies have a fun time operating Spiderman with pretty basic controls.

The graphics are nothing special but are, generally, acceptable in the run-up to Playstation 2. Spiderman, which is also available on GameBoy Colour, is a fun, relaxing way for gamers to spend a bit of time in front of the TV.

ORIGINALITY 75%
SOUND/GRAPHICS 75%
PLAYABILITY 80%
ADDICTION 75%
ENJOYMENT 75%