If you have any doubt that the Wii’s graphics are at best a marginal increment over those of the last generation of systems, spending some time with Spider-Man 3 should remove that doubt. Compared to Spider-Man 3 on the PS3 and Xbox 360, Spider-Man 3 on the Wii is dark, blocky, and almost downright ugly. The Wii version is also missing a lot of the content found in the other next-gen versions. About the only thing that it has over its other next-gen brethren is its support for Wii’s motion-sensing controls, being the only version that lets you cast a web by flicking your wrists, Spidey-style. However, this is not a cross-system comparison article; it’s a review of Spider-Man 3 for the Wii, so let’s take a look at the game as if it were the only version out there.

The game opens with a tutorial sequence set in a corporate office tower besieged by bomb-wielding criminals. This sequence will get you familiar with the combat in the game, as well as serve as your introduction to the problems with the combat in the game. The game features a combo-based fight system that is based on the standard heavy and light attacks. These attacks are initiated by shaking the remote while facing an enemy. However, facing an enemy can be problematic. First the game’s camera has trouble keeping the action in view as it is slow to align itself behind Spider-Man, leaving you to fight off-screen enemies a good portion of the time. The next issue is that you need to control your facing with the nunchuck’s stick, but your dodge move is tied to flicking the nunchuck to the side. It’s a constant struggle in the game to realign yourself to face an enemy after dodging, and it’s tough to make it through the game if you never dodge.

The highlight of the game should be controlling Spider-Man as he swings his way down the streets of New York, but the controls are far too touchy to make this anything but an exercise in frustration. You’ll need to press a button while flicking one of the controllers to cast a webstring and swing on it, but the timing of the button press and the flick must be pretty precise or you won’t cast your webbing. It doesn’t help matters that the buttons needed to cast the webbing are mapped to other functions, so when on the ground you may find yourself simply hopping up and down or you may inadvertently switch to wall-crawling while in the air. These problems are simply annoying when trying to get from Point A to Point B, but they make the timed race sequences incredibly frustrating as well as some of the missions. Missions that require you to follow an enemy vehicle without being spotted are difficult to complete as you’ll constantly accidentally drop to the street or go whipping around the wrong building. Crawling along the side of a building to diffuse bombs is incredibly frustrating as Spider-Man will insist on jumping off of the building at least half of the times you try to cast a web.

Even without the control issues it would be questionable as to whether or not the game would be that much fun. The problem lies in the mission design which has you moving from one brawl to another and facing hordes of interchangeable thugs. There’s not enough variety here to keep anyone but the most ardent Spider-Man fans going all the way to the end of the game.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 55%. It’s probably easier to be the real Spider-Man than it is to try and control him in this game.