A first look at Ultimate Spider-Man on the Gamecube, one of the first thoughts to go through my head was "This is the best looking Spider-Man game to date." With its "living comic" feel, a living city in much need of saving and a living alien evil, Ultimate Spider-Man is looking to deliver the true ultimate Spidey experience.

Ultimate Spider-Man's developers Treyarch, have done an amazing job to give the game a true comic feel. They have implemented a system called "3D Comic Inking Technology", which is a much more advanced Cel-Shading technique. Full motion comic panels are dispersed within the game, showing the action from different vantage points. This is ingenuity at its finest, and truly gives the game a "living comic" feel.

This isn't Treyarch's first attempt at a Spider-Man title; they are responsible for the movie based game Spider-Man 2. Spider-Man 2 envisioned Spidey as most of us see him, allowing him the freedom to travel from building to building in a free roaming environment. Treyarch will be implementing a smaller environment, but it's still nice not to be restricted to the sidewalk.

When playing a game that's based on characters already deep within a storyline, fans of the character want to see certain storylines portrayed. At least having a faithful representation of the character would be nice. Treyarch treated Spidey a bit differently in this game, as the big screen Spider-Man is much more different than his comic paneled counterpart. In order to keep continuity in line, Treyarch had the game's story written by Ultimate Spider-Man scribe Brian Michael Bendis, whose Venom storyline is one of the most popular Ultimate Spider-Man stories to date.

Venom receives a guest starring role in Ultimate Spider-Man and is a playable character. There is a special dynamic between playing game as Spider-Man or Venom. Spider-Man being the smaller stature that he is has more acrobatic attacks and combos. Venom is all about brute force, so expect a lot of bashing and his suit to do plenty of work.

Venom's suit is an integral part of the Venom game play. Since Eddie Brock's relationship with the alien suit is symbiotic, the suit will actually feed off Eddie's life. To prevent yourself from falling into oblivion, you can use the suit the consume bystanders and use their life force for yours. Eeesh. This, and the combat, is just a small taste of what the Venom suit is capable of. Initially you can only use Venom is certain missions, but once you finish story mode you can replay the game as Venom.

Ultimate Spider-Man shows off an amazing graphic engine which portrays a very faithful comic feel. Playing as Venom and getting to interact with the suit looks absolutely amazing. With a free roaming environment full of side missions, Ultimate Spider-Man seems to be replay value friendly. Stay tuned for more.

Features:

• Play as Spider-Man AND a super-villain in an original storyline. For the first time in a Spider-Man game, gamers get to play both sides as they triumph over evil as Spider-Man AND assume the role of the super villain Venom, rampaging through Manhattan as they destroy everything in their path.
• The two distinct combat systems allow players to defeat enemies differently, using Spider-Man’s fluid, acrobatic moves or the super villain’s brute force.
• Experience a living comic book with the innovative 3D comic inking technology TM Unique animated comic book panels move the story along.
• Move through a detailed environment and sense danger from multiple perspectives. Prepare for an all-new, feature-packed adventure with classic comic book elements.
• Deepest Spider-Man game ever. Expanded free-roaming environment including the addition of Queens.
• Enhanced combat system lets players use the environment to pull off exciting new moves.
• More Spider-Man universe characters than ever before.
• The most authentic Spider-Man experience to date.
• Story and illustration by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley, the force behind the Ultimate Spider-Man comic book series.
• All-new Spider-Man story is revealed as the game picks up where the comic book left off.