Ultimate Spider-Man for the Nintendo DS

Developer Diary

Hi readers,

My name is Mike Chrzanowski and I am a designer on Ultimate Spider-Man for the Nintendo DS.  USM is a hybrid 2-D/3-D action game, set in the Ultimate Spider-Man universe, where the player gets to play as both the hero and villain of the story.  The back-story of our game begins when Peter Parker reunites with his childhood friend Eddie Brock.  Eddie and Peter’s fathers were scientists who worked together on a cure for cancer.  They developed this black liquid that would enhance the natural abilities and healing potential of any organism exposed to the liquid.  Unfortunately, those who funded the research had plans to turn their benevolent invention into a weapon so Brock and Parker destroyed their research to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.  Years later, Young Eddie discovered a vial of the black liquid that his father kept hidden.  Eddie showed this vial to Peter and claimed, “This is our legacy!”  Peter stole a sample of the liquid and exposed himself to it.  He was overwhelmed with enhanced super-abilities, and soon found he could not control himself.  The liquid was consuming him.  Peter was able to rid himself of the liquid and regain control, but when Eddie learned of this, he was furious and exposed himself to the liquid.  Eddie was consumed and lost all self control, becoming the super villain, Venom.  Venom is a destructive force that is driven to feed on innocent people to prevent the liquid from consuming him.  With Venom on the loose, Peter Parker, as Spider-Man, fights to bring Venom under control.

In USM, players get to play as both Spider-Man and the powerful villain Venom.  Playing as Spider-Man, players can use their webs to tie up enemies, operate switches and buttons, and web-zip to walls and ceilings.  Most of Spider-Man’s controls are performed using the control pad and the buttons, but there are situations where he must lift a car off a civilian or pry open a door.  These actions are performed by stroking the touch screen in the appropriate direction until Spider-Man completes his task.  My favorite move as Spider-Man is the web-yank.  This is easy to do, just hold the Y button to web tie an enemy, then while still holding Y, press up and he will yank the enemy right off his feet.  Try it a few times and you will be hooked, it’s very satisfying.  Spider-Man can of course also punch, kick, jump, and dodge by using the buttons on the DS.

Playing as Venom presents a whole new experience for the player by using the touch screen to control the action.  Moving Venom around is performed with the control pad, while using the stylus to touch an enemy will cause Venom to grab him with his tendrils.  Players can then move the stylus and watch Venom move his prey around the screen.  If the player moves the enemy close to Venom, then Venom will consume the enemy and replenish his health, which is always depleting due to the effect of the black liquid.  If the player strokes the stylus quickly toward the ground, then Venom will slam his entangled enemy against the ground and injure him.  My favorite action with Venom is throwing enemies.  Doing this is easy and a lot of fun.  You touch an enemy with the stylus and Venom will grab him with a tendril.  You then quickly move the stylus in a direction away from Venom, then release the stylus and Venom will toss the enemy into the air. Other fun things to try as Venom are, throwing enemies off of buildings, smashing vehicles on enemies, catching grenades and missiles and throwing them back at your attacker, and grabbing an enemy and throwing them near fire or electricity.  My advice to touch screen aficionados playing as Venom is this.  Play with your food, its fun and you will discover many amusing game moments.

Ultimate Spider-man for the Nintendo DS is nearing completion and will be available this fall.  It has a great story written by Marvel’s Brian Michael Bendis, beautiful cut scenes driven by interactive moving panels (like a comic book), and innovative touch screen gameplay.  Look for the next installment of this developer diary for details on how we made the game!

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