Activision brings to life a PlayStation rendition of Spider-Man. If you're as a big fan of Spider-Man as I am, you probably have your fingers crossed - hoping against hope that more than just the 'Spider-Man' name made it into the game. Well, fear not true believers! Neversoft simply breathes life into your friendly neighborhood webslinger in Spider-Man for the PlayStation. The character animations are very good, and although some of the polygon counts are a bit low, the texture designers deserve a bonus.

Overall, the graphics are excellent in Spider-Man. The entire game has a bit of a 'Marvel cartoon' feel and the FMVs (which have a bit better detail) look great! The production is excellent, with a strong 'Marvel' feel. One great detail is narration at several points by none other than Stan Lee!

Spider-Man is a third person adventure, Spidey-style! You can shoot webbing, climb up walls, walk on the ceiling, and of course - there's you're ever helpful 'spidey-sense' - an audible warning when danger is near. Throw in a wide selection of 'familiar baddies,' a few costumes, and some variations on the standard third person gameplay, and you get an extremely entertaining game. There are some levels that have what you would expect of a third person game, a free-roaming 3D area - while other levels involve moving up and down through different floors while attacking a 'boss' or even racing through the twisting halls of an exploding research facility with the scariest looking villain (you never could imagine) hot on your heels.

Spider-Man is not an excruciatingly difficult game. (Not counting the 'race' level near the end... ARGH!!) It is sufficiently long and challenging to keep it interesting and fun. In addition, there are four difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, and Difficult - plus a 'Kid Mode.' Kid Mode is very easy, and plays more like an interactive cartoon than a video game. You still have to do everything, but the A.I. is VERY forgiving, and it's fairly easy to progress. In the more difficult levels, you actually have to use some stealth to avoid getting hostages killed. Those of you who did well at Metal Gear Solid can take your wall crawling to greater heights and now sneak around and above your enemies.

This game works. If you don't like Spider-Man the comic, then you probably wouldn't consider picking up this game. If you are a fan, however, Spider-Man for the PlayStation is a delight. This game offers a whole lot of familiar characters from the comics, a new villain who makes his appearance in THIS game (and he's a nightmare!!!), great 3rd person 3D action with a really cool 'see-thru-from-above' method of showing Spider-Man when he's climbing on ceilings, and narration from Stan Lee himself! The controls get a bit awkward occasionally when Spider-Man is on the ceiling. This is typically due to camera movement lag. If you find Spidey hard to control on the ceiling, give it a second and let the camera stop moving. It gets easier when you get a bit more used to it. Altogether, Spider-Man for the PlayStation is not only entertaining, but is refreshingly true to the Spider-Man license.