The funny thing is that movie games have a pretty terrible reputation in the gaming world. Most are quickly put together knock-offs of what could be considered a full game that depend upon riding on the fame of the established franchise. But back in 2004, Spider-Man 2 based off the Sami Rami take on the franchise changed all that.

Without reliance upon the movie, Spider-Man 2 as a game was just good. It was a great movie game, a great super hero game and most importantly a great Spider-Man game (considered the best of the character up to this point). But ten years later, the game and movie franchises have both gotten a reboot and that’s not always a good thing.

The Long…

First let’s talk about the story of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. While I applaud the writers trying to separate themselves from the movie slightly be adding in a whole new subplot connecting the scenes between the movie as previous games often do, the beats in this one just feel off. The early beat that introduces the game’s main antagonist also directly messes with the whole Uncle Ben story and what happens to Ben’s killer. It feels about as accurate to the character as Superman killing in Man of Steel.

Since The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is headed to theaters in spring of 2014, it isn’t much of a shock that its gaming counterpart will be coming out around the same time as well. From what we’ve heard so far from the folks at Beenox and Activision who revealed the trailer at New York Comic Con is that it will release for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, XBox One, XBox 360, PC, Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.

As you’ll see in the press release attached below, there isn’t mention on a split development between the current gen and next gen systems which leads one to believe that the PlayStation 4 and XBox One versions may be just slightly better graphics but with no real change in the gameplay.

In the trailer, you’ll also notice a new villain that doesn’t match up to any characters yet announced in the movie. Half way through, you’ll see a very light skinned character, similar to that of a gang member. with tattoos on his body and his face wrapped in a scarf of some sort.

You then see a second similar gang member attack another character who is holding a kukri style machete. These may be just some gangs that Spider-Man encounters in the game, or this scarved character may be one of The Amazing Spider-Man movie style analogs of an existing character like Carrion.

Activision announced today that The Amazing Spider-Man would be making its way today to the digital storefronts for XBox Live, the PlayStation Network and Steam for digital release. The XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game will be sold for $59.99, while the PC version will be going for $49.99. As much as we loved the game (check out our review here), at this point it may be smarter to bargain hunt as many stores have likely reduced the price on the boxed copies of the game.

What does excite us though more than the announcement of these games going to digital release (because let’s face it, every game that is worth anything does it eventually) is the announcement of four DLC packs for The Amazing Spiderman that go live today too. There are going to be four separate DLC packs going up today for roughly $3.00 each as well as a bundle of all four at a discounted $10.00 price.

Most exciting about these Packs (all detailed below) is that they aren’t just new missions for Spider-Man. They instead give new characters to play as in addition to new methods of gameplay. In the Rhino Challenge Pack, players will be running through Manhattan breaking everything in sight. The Oscorp Search & Destroy Pack allows players to play smart phone games resembling classic titles like Space Invaders.

After Batman: Arkham City last year (which was up for Game of the Year here on the Flickcast) set the bar so high for super hero video games, it took a special kind of hero to get us pumped for the next big thing in super hero gaming. And while the movie-tie in (another stigma this game was forced to overcome) doesn’t set new bars for comic book games, it does bring back some of the best things in Spider-Man gaming of the past ten years to give players the Spider-Man experience they have grown to love and crave.

Gameplay

How many times can you swing through a digital New York as everyone’s favorite webslinger before it starts to get old? Last time we checked The Amazing Spider-Man was the fifth time a full virtual Manhattan was available to players to traverse over the course of a Spider-Man game and yet somehow Beenox has managed to find a way to not only keep it engaging but also has added elements to make it even more exciting. In The Amazing Spider–Man, there is an element of speed in the way that Spider-Man travels from one location to the other both in the visual design choices and in the addition of the “Web Rush” feature.

With The Flickcast’s review copy of The Amazing Spider-Man in transit, we can’t wait to get our hands on it. Early reports mention that the team at Beenox has captured the magic of web swinging through NYC that was missing from Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions and Spider-Man: Edge of Time. Throw in the new costume designs, a Stan Lee preorder bonus and new takes on some of Spidey’s classic villains and you have the makings of a movie tie-in title that bucks the trend and actually delivers. If Spider-Man 2 was able to do it, why can’t this rebooted Amazing Spider-Man do the same?

In the trailer below, we get a big peek at the villains and encounters surrounding them. Black Cat’s story looks to be more of an antagonistic one although there is a brief flirtation seen if you look closely enough. The Rhino appears to be the barreling powerhouse we expect, just like the Scorpion gets quickly dispatched as he often is in the comics. We even catch a glimpse of the nature of the relationship between Spider-Man and the Lizard. In the trailer you can see Spider-Man trying to poke the Lizard with some sort of injection, presumably some kind of cure based on the history of the two characters (including their current story arc in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man).

Take a look after the jump and stick to The Flickcast next week for a full review of The Amazing Spider-Man, out now on XBox 360 and PlayStation 3.

A man who’s shown his love for both the geek world and Spider-Man is Bruce Campbell. From cameos during the Sam Raimi trilogy to his narrative roles on previous Spider-Man video games, Bruce is probably the second most logical choice for a voice actor to appear in The Amazing Spider-Man game other than Stan Lee himself.

In the Amazing Spider-Man, Bruce voices the Extreme Reporter. The Extreme Reporter serves two roles in the game. First, it gives Spider-Man a friendly antagonist. Unlike Rhino, Puma or Iguana, the Extreme Reporter isn’t looking to killer the friendly wall crawler. He is however looking to capitalize on the newfound fame of the rookie hero.

Secondly, the Extreme Report gives a somewhat logical reason for the existence of the game’s various challenges. While most events in games are story driven, various super hero games have random and often unexplained time trials, races or various other “gamey” occurrences that players just accept. Now, there is a reason behind these random challenges as well as someone players they feel they can gloat to when they defeat them.

Check out the full behind the scenes interview with Bruce Campbell as he talks about the Extreme Reporter, Spider-Man and Stan Lee. The Amazing Spider-Man hits shelves tomorrow for the XBox 360 and PlayStation 3. Stick to The Flickcast for a review too coming soon!

I know. I’m sorry. I had to. Usually puns are the worst but with Stan Lee involved, I feel like there is a little leeway. And don’t judge too much. After watching this trailer, you’ll be making spider puns all the way to your preorder for The Amazing Spider-Man too.

As we all know, the film with possibly the most pressure on it this summer because it falls between The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises is The Amazing Spider-Man. Luckily for Spidey though, there is nowhere nearly as much pressure on the movie tie-in game. Why?

Because Beenox has produced two high quality Spider-Man games over the last two years and they are going back to the formula that revolutionized super hero gameplay by bringing Spidey back to an open New York City. But Spidey isn’t coming by himself.

When pre-orders began for The Amazing Spider-Man, fans of Spider-Man and comics in general were granted an experience like they had never been given the opportunity to before… to play as Stan “The Man” Lee. And luckily, Stan has gotten a drastic upgrade to his physical capabilities.

After a two game hiatus since Beenox took control of the Spider-Man franchise, the webcrawler is returning to New York City with the tie-in release of The Amazing Spider-Man. It’s what fans of the series have wanted. As much as a linear experience has helped with the storytelling of the previous two Beenox games, it prevented them from capturing the true feel of the best games of the character’s past. Swinging through an epic metropolis at breakneck speeds is what being Spider-Man is all about.

In the developer diary after the jump, The Amazing-Spider-Man’s executive producer Brent Nicholas walks us through some gameplay footage that shows just how exciting Beenox’s take on swinging through the city is. One thing they point out is how the camera draws in closer to Spidey during his swings and drops as a way to show how fast the player is falling. Hopefully this won’t affect the ease of swinging through because of the limited view.

This trailer also gives more perspective on the Web Rush.  Using the web rush ability, players are able to more accurately travel through NYC by deciding where their lines will actually be shot instead of just depending on the game to choose for them.

With the Amazing Spider-Man hitting theaters very soon, things are ramping up fast for the movie tie-in game as well. The Amazing Spider-Man game though doesn’t look to tie in closely to the story of the movie as we are yet to see any images of the Lizard, Captain Stacey or Gwen Stacey. Instead, the game exists in the same world as the film, most likely after it’s events and not concurrently like other Spider-Man film games have done in the past.

This will most likely lead to a more impressive narrative rather than the shoehorned one often given when games try to fit too tightly to the movie’s major plot points. This trailer for the Amazing Spider-Man gives us three new character reveals. The first seen is Vermin. Unlike his comic counterpart, this version of Vermin appears much more rat-like including a tail. Our main hint that this is Vermin in the game is the hordes of rats seen running around on-screen during his encounter with Spider-Man.

Thus far, Beenox has proven their love of working on the Spider-Man franchise between Spider-Man: Edge of Time and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Between the alternate versions of Spider-Man and the original takes on some of his villains, Beenox has shown a deep understanding and respect for the character. Now, they face a new challenge with the tie-in to the Amazing Spider-Man movie. While some major points of their story are often dictated by the events of the movie, Beenox has chosen to open the world up to players much like the previous developer Treyarch had done but has taken steps to improve on their much beloved formula.

In previous titles when a player shot their web, players were forced to let the game instinctually choose an appropriate target for them to sling off of. This was also the case in combat where the foe most often closely centered in the screen became the default target for Spidey to aim at. Now, Beenox has decided to give this control to the player instead with the feature they call the Web Rush for the Amazing Spider-Man game.

Using the Web Rush, time slows down for players, presumably to represent Spider-Man’s hyper-fast reflexes like it was seen in Sam Rami’s Spider-Man film where Peter Parker dodged the bullying of Flash Thompson. During this slow down, players are given all possible targets on screen where they can aim themselves. This can be a great resource for strategically setting themselves into different combat situations.

When Activision and Beenox announced the Rhino would be one of Spider-Man’s foes in The Amazing Spider-Man, it didn’t really shock or surprise anyone. It was almost a no brainer. The Rhino has been around since Spider-Man’s earliest days and has appeared in thirteen separate Spider-Man games. The Iguana on the other hand. That choice is a whole other story.

The Iguana is at best a footnote in the Spider-Man lore. Only ever appearing in Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #32 back in July of 1979, the Iguana was an experiment gone wrong by Doctor Curt Connors (a.k.a. The Lizard and the main antagonist of the upcoming summer blockbuster film which this game ties in to). The Iguana would only make a singular appearance in comics before returning to his original, non-super powered iguana form.

Though incredibly obscure, the character choice does actually make sense. There are few, if any, characters with a more direct tie to the Lizard in Spider-Man’s rogue gallery. Instead of shoehorning in other purely “evil” villains, the concept behind the Iguana is one that makes sense for him to be intertwined in the events of the movie game.

One thing Spider-Man has always had going for him is an iconic rogues gallery rivaled only by that of DC Comic’s Batman. Though some started out with simple or silly premises like an evil doctor with extra appendages or an old bald man who liked to fly around town, years of phenomenal writers have given these characters unexpected levels of depth and personality. One such character is the Rhino. One such character is The Rhino.

Starting off as a common thug, the Rhino, especially in recent years, has become an incredibly interesting character. Having tried to rid his life of his crime ridden past, Aleksei Sytsevich was pulled back in unexpectedly after the tragic death of his wife Oksana was killed during the recent “Gauntlet” story arc by a new criminal trying to don the mantle of the Rhino. Most recently, the Rhino was found as a part of Doctor Octopus’s latest incarnation of the Sinister Six.

It looks like now Rhino will be making his way to the Spider-Man video game based on the newly relaunched Amazing Spider-Man movie franchise. Unrestricted because of the comic’s longstanding continuity, the team at Beenox was able to create their own mythos behind Aleksei and how he came into this Spider-Man’s world.

Check out the reveal trailer full bio, interview about this new Rhino and screen shots after the break for the Rhino coming to the Amazing Spider-Man for XBox 360 and PlayStation 3.