I saw the new Spider-Man movie and I liked it quite a bit. When I heard there was an iOS game out that was actually pretty fun and let you free-roam (or free-swing?) around New York City I had to check it out. It’s a bit pricey at $6.99, but after buying it and playing it all week I can say that if your’e a Spider-Man fan, it’s worth it.

I’ve been a fan of Spider-Man video games as long as I’ve played. I remember loving Maximum Carnage on my Genesis and being obsessed with the first Spider-Man game on Playstation. They’ve gotten a bit repetitive over the years, but swinging around town as Spidey is still one of my favorite things to do in video games.

The Amazing Spider-Man by Gameloft is a pretty nice Spider-Man game considering it’s for mobile devices. It sure beats the hell out of the old Game Gear game I use to play. The graphics obviously aren’t as great as you’d find on Xbox or a Playstation 3, but they’re on par with Wii graphics.

You’re given a surprisingly large area of New York to explore (which is probably why the game is almost 700 MB), and various missions and challenges to keep you busy. There’s a level system to upgrade your moves, and some fun mini-games where you can snap photos (like the one above).

The mechanics are simplified for the touch-based game, with one button swinging and a pretty easy combat system. It makes for a really fun game to keep you busy whenever you have a few spare moments to kill. On my old, spazzy iPhone 4 the game is a bit laggy, but I imagine it works just fine on newer or not-so-jacked-up devices.

My four-year old newphew loved it too. He kept yelling “I killed the bad guys!”

You can buy the game for $6.99 on iTunes.

Modern superhero movies are officially old enough to be rebooted now. That thought makes me feel old. I was a sophomore in High School when the first Spider-Man movie came out, and I loved it. I was an awkward geek, like Peter Parker but minus the academic abilities, and even though I thought Tobey Maguire looked way older than me, I connected with him. Looking back through the lens of more recent superhero movies though, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films seem a little silly. Spider-Man 2 is still a great film, and I never saw the third movie, but when I heard that Sony was planning to reboot the franchise, I understood. I was ready for a new take on Spider-Man.

And boy is it dividing fans. I saw it on opening day at my local IMAX theater, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot, trying to figure out what I thought. Rather than writing an in-depth review, I thought I would just round up my likes and dislikes and see if we could get a discussion going.
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It’s a good week to be a Marvel fan. A few hours ago the new trailer for Marc Webb’s reboot of Spider-Man debuted and it is pretty amazing indeed. I loved the first Spider-Man movie when it came out, but then again I was a sophomore in High School and I haven’t really watched them since that time. The Amazing Spider-Man looks like a Spider-Man movie I can get behind.

Andrew Garfield looks great as Peter Parker, and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacey will be a welcome break from whats-her-face playing MJ. The tone of the film looks great. Spidey cracks jokes and displays some impressive acrobatics, and the costume and tech look awesome. All in all, this is one of the top four movies I’m most excited about in 2012, along with…
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It’s official, the Spider-Man reboot is going to be called The Amazing Spider-Man. Marvel announced the title along with a brand new image of the costume, this time complete with the mask. I think it looks great, and I hope the film can match the lighting and mood these photos have had. This costume and the thought of Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker is making me very excited to see what this movie has to offer.

Here’s the full press release:
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