Every now and then in Spider-man 3, there are real signs that the game is close to clicking. Swinging through the streets of New York, for instance, is a bit of a hoot, and zipping around the various side missions does occasionally lead you to think "They might be onto something here." But sadly, it's like the kid at school who always tries really, really hard, but you know in your heart of hearts will never quite make it into the first team.

With the game of Spider-man 3 you're left wondering if any ideas were edited out, such is the vast selection that did make the final cut. Using a simple map to pinpoint challenges, you as Spidey must play your way through a series of missions which test a good range of your gaming skills. There are mild moments of puzzling, a lot of fighting, bomb diffusing, tasks against the clock, boss fights and a good variety of other things to take on. These tasks vary in quality as you'd expect, with perhaps the most fun - and the most frustration - coming during the fighting segments.

Here, you're initially armed with a small selection of moves and you unlock more as you progress through the game. However, while some elements of the combat control system are strong - certainly wrapping someone up in a spider's web and swinging them round and round is near the top of our to-do list - other parts are less so.

For instance, when battling in tight corners, the game sometimes has trouble picking up what you want to do, particularly when you hit a button that has a dual function depending on its context. So, where we wanted to fire out a spider's web, we'd find ourselves leaping onto and gripping the wall, giving the marauding mob of people who wanted our blood a helpful target to savage.

There's also, surprisingly, a bit of a last-generation feel to things. Visually, you'd be forgiven for thinking this was a tarted-up PS2 or original Xbox game, and when the hilarious cut scenes come in you can't help wondering if Tobey Maguire needs another agent.

There's a generous quantity of gaming and entertainment to be had with Spider-man 3, to be fair, and we were genuinely impressed by just how much had been shoehorned in. But never does the game feel like a superhero outing, not helped by an Xbox 360 title - Crackdown - that earlier this year pretty much nailed the feeling we'd want from a Spider-man game.

By all means give Spidey a rental, but much like the film it's based on, the end result here falls below the level of its many ingredients.

Verdict
An ambitious, enjoyable film tie-in, but only a moderately entertaining video game. There are other, better games of a similar ilk on the market.

Company: Activision

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