Spider-Man: Battle For New York (Video Game)

Spider-Man: Battle for New York is a Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS game loosely based within the Ultimate Spider-Man universe. It features Spider-Man and the Green Goblin as the main characters. The Green Goblin is a playable character, like Venom is in another Spider-Man game, Ultimate Spider-Man. The cutscenes in this game are drawn by Marvel Comics artist Ron Lim.

Plot
After finding out Spider-Man’s true identity and how he gained his super powers, Norman Osborn tries to recreate the process on himself, thinking that his superior knowledge and access to his ‘Oz Formula’ would get a better result. He then turns himself into the Green Goblin (with a few side effects). Thinking his experiment to be a success, he then starts to use his formula on other people, creating a goblin army. It’s now up to Spider-Man to figure out what’s going on and put a stop to the Goblin’s plans before he can take over New York City.

Gameplay
Peter Parker/Spider-Man: The eponymous protagonist. Spidey’s game play is almost identical to what it was in Ultimate Spider-Man, whereby he has to go around and save any civilians that are in trouble, beating up the bad guys and (in the Nintendo DS version) taking part within 3 touch screen mini-games: The stroke game, the web draw and the arm/disarm games.

Noman Osborn/Green Goblin: The main antagonist and a playable character. Green Goblin's game play is slightly different. Unlike Venom who could be controlled via the touch screen, the Goblin is controlled with the d-pad and face buttons only. His game play involves destroying objects and beating up security guards & S.H.I.E.L.D.agents. The Goblin does not take part in any touch screen mini-games.

Both characters: Exclusive to the DS version, both Spider-Man & Goblin have access to 4 special moves which appear on the bottom screen, landing hits on opponents increases a special meter that, once full, will allow you to use one of the 4 moves available.

The player will also have to keep an eye out for the Threat Assessment Meter (or TAM for short), when it appears, it will point towards where Spidey & Goblin have to go next and also tells you how much time left they have to solve the problem. If they fail to sort out the problem when the TAM meter runs out, it’ll be game over.

Music
Original music for the game was composed by Finn Robertson.

Reception
Reviews of the game range from mixed to negative. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 66.38% and 68 out of 100 for the DS version, and 45.50% and 41 out of 100 for the Game Boy Advance version.