(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Note: The clips that are all shown are from Doug's Twitch streams of himself playing the game)
Doug (vo): It's Spider-Man 2, I mean, Spider-Man: The DLC, I mean, Spider-Man 1.5, I mean...let's just call it what it is, Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Yeah, this is one of those games I feel like everybody had a hard time explaining what it was, but we all still kind of knew what it was. It's a game in-between another game. Like, you got Spider-Man and you know Spider-Man 2 is coming, and this is just a little game in-between it. But it's bigger than just the average little game, but it's smaller than a proper sequel. And as...those kind of games go, it's pretty fun. Is it as epic and grand as the original game? No, but they do add enough that it does give you your money's worth, you have a great time, it's an interesting story, and...it's the perfect amount to tide you over until the next one.
Story[]
Doug (vo): Miles Morales is trying to figure out how to hone his spider powers with the help of, of course, Peter Parker. While taking out some baddies, though, Peter Parker is taken out of the equation, so Miles has to pick up the slack for him. People are kind of getting used to him being the new Spider-Man as, yeah, he himself is getting used to being the new Spider-Man, but his personal life and his hero life start to cross a lot more than he thought. Not in that they're hard to juggle, though, they are, but some of the people in his personal life start to show up a lot more in his hero life. Will he be able to balance his personal life and his hero life while also trying to figure out this evil conspiracy that's going on while also making it home in time for Christmas dinner? If you've ever seen any modern day comic book story, you know that the answer is ultimately no, but ultimately yes.
Review[]
Doug (vo): Yeah, you know these kind of stories, all about sacrifice and just getting along with the people you love and doing things for the people you love, but how much of yourself do you give up for the people you love, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's all done well enough, even though it is a little predictable. That is to say, yeah, the first Spider-Man game, some things I could figure out very easily, but other things were kind of a surprise, and not in that they were a twist or anything, but I legit didn't see it coming, and it had an emotional reaction. Most things in this, you can see coming, and, yeah, it's not usually a problem, it just kind of feels a little safe. But what they do with it that I do enjoy is that they speed it up a little bit.
(Footage focusing on the villain, the Tinkerer, is shown)
Doug (vo): Like, there's this villain called the Tinkerer, which is maybe the cheesiest name for a villain. I'm not gonna lie, every time they said it or I had to say it, I just would immediately start snickering. It's not a cool name. But what I like is, when I started to guess who the Tinkerer was, they reveal it just around the time I started guessing. I like that. They don't wait the whole entire game and pretend it's, like, a big twist or a big reveal, they kind of get it out of the way, and they let it play into the storytelling and the character building. With that said, because it does kind of feel like a smaller game, it probably goes without saying, the story isn't going to be quite as huge or dramatic, but it's still decent. I wanted to know what was going to happen, even if I could kind of predict most of it.
(Footage focusing on Spider-Man swinging around New York City is shown)
Doug (vo): It's kind of cool being back in New York again and swinging around and doing all the cool Spider-Man stuff, but particularly because it's during Christmas time. And you know me, I love anything Christmas-related, so it was pretty cool swinging around New York seeing all the Christmas trees and snow and families getting together, putting up Christmas lights. I love all this stuff, I just absolutely adore this was a Christmas game. It's just a little touch to make it a little different from the previous. It doesn't take much, but it does leave an impact. I don't know, maybe I'm just too obsessed with Christmas. I also really like that the movement of Miles is both smoother and sloppier at the same time. When he needs to transition into a different move or get a new web or something like that, he does it a little clumsily, which makes sense, he's still learning how to do all this stuff. But at the same time, the movement of how clumsily he does it is much smoother than the original game. I like that if you gave Miles Morales and Peter Parker the exact same Spider-Man outfits and saw them both swinging, you could tell which was which.
(Footage focusing on Spider-Man fighting bad guys is shown)
Doug (vo): The combat is also really fun, and they give you a lot of baddies to fight in this. Yes, you can do the side missions and everything, but if you're just sticking to the plain mission to stop the big, bad villains and stuff like that, there are so many henchmen, so many beat 'em ups, and so many great scenarios that are just so much fun to fight in. They have this addition of him having these electric powers, which I guess was part of the character, I didn't know that. But I don't know if they played into it more here or less here, 'cause, again, I'm not very familiar with the character in the comics, but it was a nice add-on. It felt good to use these really electrified punches, and if just one particular henchman is really giving you a hard time and you want to break down his defenses, it feels so good to do that Donkey Kong punch like you get in Smash Bros.. It's just so satisfying.
(Footage focusing on Spider-Man's different suits and gadgets is shown, along with footage of Spider-Man in stealth mode)
Doug (vo): Like in the other game, they're good at giving a variety of different costumes and moves that you can customize, and it allows you to lean more into the type of combat you're comfortable with. If you want to go more stealth mode to take somebody out, you can do that. But if you want to say, "Screw it, I just want to take on everybody", you can do that, too. But, yeah, it probably goes without saying it is going to be a lot harder, but it still allows you to make a choice. I personally hate stealth, it's boring, I don't have the patience for it. I really hate the idea that there's all these bad guys here and I just can't get them, I have to sneak around the whole time. And if I do it wrong, I'd go all the way back to the beginning. But I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a little bit of appreciation after you get rid of the last one, there is a sense of accomplishment. Now keep in mind, when I say stealth, that isn't code for Mary Jane level or...I guess you're already Miles Morales, but just some other character that's not the main character. Anytime you have to snoop around, you're still Miles Morales, and that is kind of nice.
(Footage focusing on the side missions is shown)
Doug (vo): I actually didn't mind the other levels in the first game where you have to do something a little different. Again, it's kind of like a pallet cleanser, I didn't mind it too much. And this game is pretty good at mixing it up and giving you some puzzles and other activities to do in between all the big fights, even though, sometimes, they're not the most clear to me. I don't know, sometimes, when they say, like, "Go this direction" or "Something is here", you just have to move, like, in a precise way, like right down to the pixel in order for it to read or register. That could get annoying.
(Footage focusing on the action sequences is shown)
Doug (vo): In terms of the action and the adrenaline, there isn't anything that new. There was one moment where this bridge is falling apart, and I do remember my heart really pumping on that one, like, you really, really get into it. All the others, it is just kind of fighting bad guys or fighting bosses and getting the pattern down, there was nothing, like, really that new or groundbreaking about it.
Final thought[]
Doug (vo): But again, I'm not really expecting that out of a game like this. If it was Spider-Man 2, then, yeah, I probably would, but again, I feel like people have an understanding of what this is. It's a good time. If you just like swinging around in a slightly different way or punching out bad guys in a slightly different way, but still carries a lot from the previous game, you're going to get your fill. And it probably goes without saying, if you're looking for the ultimate follow-up, like, just the game that's going to take what the first one did and perfect it and add so many more new elements, it's not that, but I don't know anyone that thinks it is that. Still, I think it's fair to make it clear what it is, even though most people seem to have caught on to it. It's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and it's a good time.
(One of the game's final scenes, showing Miles Morales and Peter Parker swinging around the city together, is shown)