It's been nearly five decades since comic book fans were first introduced to the wall-crawling adventures of Marvel Comics' favorite web-slinging superhero, Peter Parker, a.k.a. "The Amazing Spider-Man". Since debuting in Amazing Fantasy #15 back in 1962, Spider-Man has had to tackle all manner of bad guys, armed only with his web shooters, his spider-sense, and a razor sharp wit. Swinging out of the comic books and into video games is nothing new to Spider-Man. While Spidey has never had a shortage of "amazing friends" to call on for the occasional team-up, in Activision's latest game, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, he learns that sometimes the best person a superhero can count on is himself ... even if it happens to be a version of himself from one of many alternate universes.

Shattered Dimensions opens up with Spider-Man thwarting a museum heist by longtime foe, Mysterio. During the fight, a relic known as the Tablet of Chaos and Order is accidentally shattered, and its pieces are scattered throughout various alternate dimensions of the Marvel Universe. Knowing the damage these fragments can cause to the fabric of reality, the clairvoyant psychic Madame Web calls on Spider-Man to recover the tablet pieces and restore balance to the universe. Joining our friendly neighborhood hero this time around are the Spider-Men of three distinct Marvel worlds: the 1930s Spider-Man from Marvel's Noir universe, the futuristic Spider-Man from the year 2099, and the Ultimate version of Spider-Man from an alternate present who finds himself bonded to a powerful symbiotic lifeform. These four Spider-Men, each with their own distinct methods and abilities, must face off against some of their greatest foes and recover the tablet fragments before taking on Mysterio in one final, massive showdown.

It would have been easy for Shattered Dimensions developer Beenox to simply follow the formula of previous Spider-Man games and stick the wall-crawler in a massive New York sandbox environment, while giving him a bunch of meaningless side quests to occupy his (and the player's) time. Instead, Beenox put together a linear experience with straightforward objectives advancing towards a clear goal. Instead of time-wasting side missions, Shattered Dimensions gives players secondary objectives they can shoot for to earn extra experience points during their first run of a stage or during a later replay.

Gameplay in Shattered Dimensions is pretty diverse. In each level, the player steps into the spandex of one of the four different versions of Spider-Man, each of which having its own unique experience. Amazing Spider-Man levels consist of the beat 'em up style of gameplay fans are familiar with in a Spider-Man game, while the Ultimate Spider-Man levels feature a similar style of play, but enhanced with all the cool abilities that come with wearing a living suit that feeds off rage. Over in the Spider-Man 2099 neighborhood, the Spider-Man of Tomorrow takes on goons in rail-like freefall battles from nosebleed inducing heights, while the Spider-Man: Noir of days past skulks around the darkness to strike at his enemies from the safety of the shadows. Any one of these styles of play would be a blast to play on its own, but throw them all together and it's like you're getting four great games for the price of one.

As good as Shattered Dimensions is, there are still a few tangles in its web. The game's camera struggles to keep up with the fast paced action in many places. Even worse, sometimes it seems like it was designed that way. For example, in the first stage there's a point where Kraven the Hunter is taking potshots at our hero with a sniper rifle. Sure, it might be an interesting twist to see the battle through Kraven's scope, but it also makes it extremely difficult to fight effectively. There are also plenty of times the bad guys will seemingly come out of nowhere to pound on you, when actually they were standing just offscreen the whole time.

Despite the occasional technical bugs (no pun intended), Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is a lot of fun to play. Ditching the sandbox in favor of some variety in gameplay makes the game feel fresh from start to finish. If you're a comic book fan and you're looking to live out your wall-crawling fantasies, Shattered Dimensions will leave you ready to slap on some web shooters and do whatever a spider can.

Final Score: B