'MLB SlugFest Loaded'
This is the first teen-rated game bearing Major League Baseball approval, and they might as well next produce "Bench-Clearing Brawl 2005." Or " 'Roid Rage 2006."
Pitchers throw bean balls, then the hit batsmen storm the mound and beat up pitchers while infielders hide their eyes. Infielders punch base-runners. Base-runners punch infielders so they'll drop the ball. And this originally was slated for an all-ages rating?
Sorry, but senseless, gratuitous violence isn't merely over the top for a baseball video game such as "MLB SlugFest Loaded" (Midway; PS2, Xbox, Xbox Live and PS2 Online; $39.99). It's deep into foul territory. Parents should beware the brutality. (And we're plenty worried after our middle-schooler pronounced, "But that's what I love about this game.") Football and hockey are contact sports, but not this one. For crying out loud, there are no flying fists in baseball.
And to think the Pirates were beating the Yankees by 20-0 after three innings in our game -- talk about gross misconduct.
On the plus side, the game has a good look and a decent sound, like when fans go "oomph" when a foul ball strays into the stands. It contains a realistic, MLB Classic style -- as opposed to the Slugfest, turbo-charged, violent alternative -- "for the serious baseball fan." Even that includes taunting and gesticulating and comical pitching and mediocre controls.
Go ahead, if you want, play brawl. But baseball is one sport that doesn't need to be cartoonish and mean.
-- By Chuck Finder, Post-Gazette Staff Writer, cfinder@post-gazette.com.
'Spider-Man 2'
So just how many times have you been back to the theater this summer to blow a couple of hours with Peter Parker and Mary Jane? So just how much time have you devoted to dangling high above New York, searching for Doc Ock or other baddies to wrap up and put away?
Forget about the movie house for a while and spend an afternoon slinging webs across your video screen with "Spider-Man 2" (Activision; GameCube; PlayStation2; Xbox; PC; $49.99; Rated Teen), a companion to the blockbuster film that would be darn near perfect if it wasn't too darn short.
"Spider-Man 2" provides plenty of thrills by getting the most important thing right -- the ability to make Spidey swing, somersault and dive through the air in a fashion that, at times, will make your stomach drop.
"SM2" brings Spidey to life as he negotiates the city in death-defying flips and twists, giving his body and limbs the appearance of real weight as he moves and allowing him to "hang" in the air for just a second before gravity pulls him back into a downward arc. It's an exhilarating effect that quickly pulls you through the third wall of your screen to immerse yourself in the game experience.
Adding to the illusion that you've dropped into the film are the credits-style opening segment, excellent voice acting by the film's principal stars, Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and Alfred Molina, and a script that uses cut scenes to adapt and abridge the film's plot. Those cut scenes also serve to move you along through the game's chapters, or levels, which also feature appearances by other Marvel comics villains.
A short useful narrative is crisply narrated by B-movie actor Bruce Campbell, who played the haughty theater usher in the film and who we generally find to be someone else's acquired taste. But here, he's relatively restrained, providing helpful hints that will enable you to quickly graduate from easy to standard web-slinging mode, to perfect jumps and fighting moves and to acquire swing upgrades.
It's worth the time and trouble to hear him out once you experience the euphoria of pulling off a double somersault high in the sky above the Manhattan skyline. Go get 'em, tiger, indeed!
Characters in cut scenes are carefully re-created to look like their real-life inspirations, while game-sequence graphics are bright, crisp and done in comic-book style. For a while, it will be enough just to slip into the persona of Spidey, perfect your swinging skills and then set off to make the sprawling city your own.
But, unfortunately, once you move on to actually fighting villains or seeking to meet the objectives of each chapter, we suspect you, too, will be wishing for more stuff to do. Maybe we were spoiled by the game's great points. But unlike Peter Parker, we were anything but eager to cast off Spidey's suit in favor of ordinary life once the adventures ended.
-- By Cindi Lash, Post-Gazette Staff Writer, clash@post-gazette.com
First Published: July 30, 2004, 4:00 a.m.
