I think for a lot of older games, people's memory is often obscured by nostalgia. A lot of games I hear praise about I've went and tried and not enjoyed. Ultimate Spider-Man is not one of these, surprisingly. I remember playing it a lot when I was 9 or 10 and just enjoying the swinging alone.

Of course now we've all been spoiled by Insomniac's Spider-Man games but I think this is still worth revisiting. Especially as it's quite bite sized when in comparison to modern games.

The art style and the way that story is presented in cutscenes is fantastic. This is a game that is more inspired by comics than any other. Even now the look of the game holds up quite well.

Gameplay is fine, it can be quite janky at times to do anything really but once you fully understand what to do it's mostly fun, especially web swinging. Combat is also just fine, you can only punch or kick and there's a webbing mechanic that can only be used on grunts to keep them down but it's pretty satisfying anyway.

Sadly though, there isn't much to actually do in the world. There are lots of collectibles but the only activity types are races and "combat tours" which just task you fighting one group of enemies after another.

My main criticism is with bossfights. Bosses are too tanky and seem to deal way too much damage. Venom's fights balance this somewhat by providing grunts to feed on. But with Peter you have to be extra extra careful. The late game bosses in particular are pretty frustrating and become monotonous.

Overall though, I still think this is as good as people remember it.