Instead of putting you in the shoes of four Spidermen like last year's Shattered Dimensions, Edge of Time seamlessly transitions between a past and future Spider-Man. Unfortunately, the focus on style puts all gameplay in the backseat.
Comic books can have some pretty strange plotlines but Edge of Time takes a new left turn for Spider-Man. Communicating through their mutated DNA strands, the Spider-Man in the past must work with the Spider-Man in the future to solve puzzles and right what has been wronged. And when I say solve puzzles, I mean go on key hunts in limiting indoor environments.
Each portion of each stage is essentially walk in, fight a bunch of dudes using a simple and sometimes game breaking combo system, find the key, open the door, repeat. And for added replay value, some doors even require more than one key – ooh, sweet! Why Spider-Man spends most of his time looking for keys instead of webslinging, fighting overpowering villains, wall crawling up tall buildings or performing fast acrobatics just doesn't really make sense. In short, Spider-Man doesn't really fit the role of this game.
Not that scripted gameplay is necessarily a negative bullet point, just Edge of Time takes it to the extreme. Linear levels with no room for exploration are uneventful especially given the fact that the webslinging ability, Spider-Man's main mode of travel, is almost non-existent. Taking down baddies and growing stronger through experience points is your standard way to keep gameplay interesting, but when there are no unique bosses or situations in which you use some of these cool powers, the usual button-mashing combos become the only boring tool that is needed.
Even though the gameplay is not as hoped, the production values are somewhat of a saving grace. Transitioning from one Spider-Man to the next is uniquely smooth and each Spidey constantly spits out entertaining one liners but it is just too bad that the indoor environments are limiting to the player's abilities and lack significant variety.
Not As Good As: other Spider-Man games
Also Try: Spider-Man and X-Men: Arcade's Revenge (SNES)
Wait For It: next year's inevitable Spider-Man title
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