Spider-Man 2 (the game), is based largely on the Spider-Man 2 movie, and has 20 levels of game play, including a training level. The training itself is broken into several parts, each providing lessons in various things that good ole' Spidey can do, like combat combos, webslinging and webcrawling. The completion of each level allows you to save your game and to 'purchase', amongst other things, new skills (more on this later).

Snaring, disarming baddies with webshooting, webslinging around skyscrapers, the constant sound of "thwip thwip", upside down wallscaling, almost everything that you want to do as Spider-Man, you can do in Spider-Man 2. On top of that, Spider-Man 2 is a spectacular audio visual experience for the PSP.

The characters are highly detailed, and make good use of lighting to deliver a visual feast. The voice acting is good (which is not surprising given the actual cast of the movie is providing the voices). While the background music is on a loop, it isn't too bad and does set the appropriate mood for the game.

Spider-Man 2 has a purchasing system where Spidey can purchase powerups for his skills/health/abilities. The purchasing system is based on points which Spidey earns during each level via combat combos, secrets, and time to complete challenges amongst other things. This system seems a bit trite, as the points required to buy useful powerups are quite easily earned and some of the things that can be purchased are not required to complete the game. And while discussing things not required, Spidey has many combat combos but constantly pressing the punch or kick button only (plus a bit of webshooting) is sadly all that is required to complete the game.

It can be argued that there are actually 20 loading/save points in the game rather than actual levels, as the game plays as one long level. For instance, in one 'level' you have to defeat Rhino but at the end of this stage he escapes into another room where Shocker can be found. At this point you can save and the 'new' level is loaded, and you have to defeat both Rhino and Shocker. Now, we wouldn't really consider this a new level but rather a continuation of the last… kind of 'webbed' together into one experience

We also find it annoying that when fighting the bosses, most of the time Spidey cannot use his usual punches and kicks like he can on the standard thugs. He must first weaken them, a sometimes puzzling challenge, so it is definitely worth paying attention to the hints offered at loading before fighting the bosses. Fortunately though, you can save before each boss. The bosses themselves are well known Spidey enemies – Mysterio, Vulture, Rhino, Shocker and, of course, Doc Ock. There is also the usual horde of thugs and crims who need to feel the web.

The attention to detail, and in particular the desire to remain faithful to the characters and style of the movies makes this game a real boon for fans of the series. The style of gameplay and the visuals is like playing the movie.