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| The console vesrions might suck, but I'm psyched for the upcoming DS version! by Mischief Makers 08/26/2010, 11:27am PDT | ||||
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| After playing Devil May Cry 4 and seeing the Bayonetta trailers, I began to despair that there were no developers left, not even Capcom, who understood what made Devil May Cry 3 so awesome. Turns out I was wrong when I stumbled across shovelware developer Griptonite Games and the best kept secret of the DS library, Spiderman: Web of Shadows DS:
So yeah, apparently the console versions of this title sucked, but the DS version is awesome. It's a side scrolling 2.5D Metroidvania with DMC-style combat mechanics, complete with a combo bar that requires you to constantly switch up your moves. You can switch between the fast and mobile Red suit and the slow but powerful symbiote suit on the fly mid-combo. You're playing Spiderman and have incredible mobility from the get go, so the Metroidvania aspect is brought in by the city being covered in various sorts of symbiote slime covering walls and ceilings and doorways and you need to defeat bosses to get ahold of powerups to be able to climb on them, break them, etc. Like DMC, downed enemies drop experience orbs you can spend on new moves at the plentiful save spots, and the higher your combo bar when you defeat the enemies the more orbs they drop. This is one aspect I think Griptonite improved over Capcom's original, because in DMC you start out with the flashy million slash moves but have to pay top dollar for the utilitarian moves like the double jump. In here it's the opposite, you've start with tons of utilitarian moves to juggle and avoid enemies and have to save up for the flashy punch flurry combos. As an additional plus, the higher your combo meter, the more damage your attacks do, up to 150% which can be essential in later parts of the game when you're fighting enemies and bosses with humongous lifebars. I almost think this Devil May Cry-style gameplay works better in 2D. While 3D has superior immersion factor, suppose someone made a mod of Serious Sam that played the exact same levels in an overhead robotron fashion? The once-near-impossible challenges would become trivial thanks to the tighter controls and greater situational awareness. Same here. You never struggle with shitty camera angles, never have to "lock on" to a specific enemy, and you can handle way more enemies in a much bigger variety all at the same time. While DMC3 had a wallrunning mechanic that you never ever used, in this 2D game you're constantly flitting from wall to wall and using the environment to your advantage. As for downsides, while the game has neat combat animations and a satisfying sense of impact, the graphics are ass, a detail not helped by the fact that more than half the game is spent in the sewers and the docs. When you die you have to play a shitty stylus minigame where you drag health orbs back to spiderman to refill his lifebar, which I suppose is the best way to shoehorn a shitty touchscreen mechanic into a DS game; as a punishment. You can see the worst problem of the game at 1:51 of the video. At the end you face the ultimate form enemy symbiotes with their full arsenal of moves all at the same time. An awesome time to put your fully-unlocked moveset to the ultimate test right? Wrong. The ultimate symbiotes are the SAME COLOR AS THE BACKGROUNDS. What should have been the funnest part of the game turned into a battle of attrition slog because I'm fighting enemies I can barely see. This is not a game to play on the go with your backlight turned low. So I'm really REALLY hoping Griptonite games makes Shattered Dimensions DS is more of the same with the color issue improved and a third moveset to play with. In the meantime, if you happen across web of shadows in a bargain bin I give this game my highest recommendation. |
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