Slip into red-and-blue tights, charge up the web shooter and fight evildoers in Spider-Man ($40), a PlayStation game that enables you to become the agile Marvel comic book superhero. As Spider-Man, you move with quickness and grace — web-swinging between skyscrapers, zipping upside down through New York’s labyrinthine sewers and scampering across the roof of a moving train, chased by tough guys.
Flawlessly designed with the comic’s style, the game brings to life Spider-man’s loathsome enemies, including Scorpion, Venom, Rhino and Doctor Octopus, along with longtime friends, such as the Black Cat, The Human Torch and Captain America. Solid voice-acting adds to the game’s cartoon realism. Rhino emits a primal rage. Spider-Man delivers whimsical one-liners with a cocky tone — though he talks too much. The soundtrack also incorporates the classic ’70s Spider-Man theme song and features Stan Lee — Spider-Man’s creator — as narrator.
Though imprecise controls and inadequate camera angles sometimes make combat problematic, the game replicates Spider-Man’s physical dynamism and induces a sense of vertiginous euphoria.
Overall: 3; game play: 3; graphics: 3.5; sound: 4
– Star Trek: Invasion: Another better-than-average, franchise-based game, Invasion (PlayStation, $40) immerses you in the Trek universe with a soundtrack that features the commanding acting talents of both Patrick Stewart as Capt. Picard and Michael Dorn as Lt. Cmdr. Worf. Mission briefings, subspace communications and computer voices perfectly replicate their TV/movie counterparts, while Trek-style music and the familiar sound of photon torpedoes firing and phasers blasting complete the illusion.
As a young Federation fighter pilot, you fly a spacecraft that zips through dark galaxies, beautifully illuminated by nebulae and speckled with floating debris and shooting asteroids.
Emphasizing explosions rather than exploration, you constantly battle familiar and ruthless enemies — the Cardassians, the Romulans and the dreaded Borg. Invasion amounts to a repetitive and difficult combat shooter with little sense of boldly discovering new alien worlds.
Overall: 3; game play: 2.5; graphics: 3.5; sound: 3.5
