Welcome to the BURN CENTER!

Hey folks, Jonny Napalm here welcoming you to my charred little corner of the sky. Here I will be sharing views on all the things I love and adore and loathe with the burning passion of a thousand suns. Be aware.. my views tend to the nerdtastic, so... you are warned.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Taking advantage of Elseworlds...

Ah, the alternate dimension trope.  A classic of all science fiction, fantasy and comics, with quite a few video games besides.  It's one of the primary elements in a new gaming experience, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.  I've always been a fan of the webheaded wonder, and knew that this would be a game I'd like trying,  I DIDN'T figure on how varied the folks who put it together really would make it.  Each of the variants on Spidey feel very distinctive and fun...yet retain the wise-cracking mania that's such an essential part of his charm.  The control scheme they developed is slick and quick to learn, but with a lot of room to play with to build combos and change up your play style.  The most likely negative comment folks are going to see about this game are the similarities they made to another archetypal hero, who also got his game on last year.  I am of course referring to the fantastic Batman: Arkham Asylum.  Where Bats had his "detective" vision to aid him, Web-head has his spider sense.. which functions in a similar way, pointing out villains, weak spots in the environment, and pick ups for each level.  Speaking of levels, talk about a visual feast... these are some seriously vibrant and fun environments the player gets to speed through, each with it's own villains, challenges and a couple secrets... Though there's no grand city to web your way through aiding civilians in sandbox style like we've seen in the earlier generations of Spider-Man games, Shattered Dimensions has something those games could often use... direction.  Oh... and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the fun voice acting throughout...props to Neil Patrick Harris, Dan Gilvezan, Josh Keaton, and Christopher Daniel Barnes for playing the Friendly Neighborhood Wall-crawler well. 

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