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Before we dive head first into Todd McFarlane’s vision of hell, here are a few updates on some games ComicAttack.net can’t wait to get their hands on!

The details of the Batman Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition have been confirmed. The new set will include the Nocturnal Hunter and Totally Insane map packs, and Arkham Asylum is jumping on the 3D Bat-Wagon and will include a pair of 3D glasses for more dimensional depth inside the walls of Arkham Asylum. As if being hunted by Killer Croc wasn’t scary enough, now he’ll be actually coming out of the TV at us. AWESOME!

Arkham Asylum also recently beat out games like Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Modern Warfare 2 to win the British Academy of Film and Television Arts award for best video game.

The following are some new screen shots for Kick-Ass (hitting the iPhone and PlayStation Network near the release of the movie), Iron Man 2, Transformers: War for Cybertron, and DC Universe Online featuring Power Girl. Try not to drool on your keyboard.

There have been Spawn games in the past, but none of them have captured the hardcore kick-ass-don’t-care-about-names attitude of the character. Published in 2003 by Namco, developer Point of View tries their hardest to do justice to hell’s greatest mistake. Spawn: Armageddon is at its core a Devil May Cry wannabe. This isn’t so bad, because this is the style of gameplay that is tailored for a guy like Spawn. Needless to say, the action and gore is poured on by the truckload, but sadly the fun turns to frustration, and the gore becomes a bore.

You would think that with over 100 issues of great stories to pull from for a new Spawn game, the developers could meld awesome action with interesting plot that would have Satan himself cheering on the late Al Simmons, but that’s not the case. A group of rogue angels have built a massive weapon and have fired it right into the depths of Hell. This ends up doing more harm than good, because now Hell’s minions have an easier path up to the living realm. Enter our Hot Topic hero, complete with chains, guns, and battle axe. Spawn has to put the smackdown on the surfacing lake of fire.

This actually isn’t a bad hook for a Spawn epic, but the game only touches on the story with a few bad in-engine cut scenes, making the story all but useless. But who needs story when there is so much demon ass to kick, right?

Spawn is equipped with the aforementioned chains, guns, and battle axe. There is also “hell power” which is basically the game’s answer to magic attacks. The gun’s ammo and hell power are limited, so you’ll mostly be using the axe. Though sufficient at cutting through enemies, the axe only has one three-slash combo that becomes extremely repetitive.

Each of the 20-or-so levels gives you a brief description of what you need to do for that level, which usually just involves getting from point A to point B, or destroying X amount of assholes. There are some platforming elements where you’ll have to use your double jump to get from one rooftop to another, or up the side of a building. Some of these parts of the game are very glitchy and broken. It took me a good million tries just to jump on top of a dumpster to a fire escape.

In some levels you’ll find new weapons like a shotgun or duel pistols, and unlockables like comic cover art, production art, and all that kind of stuff that’s really only nice to look at once.

The enemy AI is pretty poor. Demons will appear and only attack mildly, or just move around and wait for you to obliterate them. Enemies also have an oddly small amount of health, and even boss villains aren’t much of a challenge.

If you have a choice, pick this one up for the Xbox. The frame rate is a bit faster at about 60 frames per second, and all the textures and sets look a lot smoother. This isn’t to say that the GameCube and PS2 versions look bad, just not as good. As a whole, the game’s graphics are decent; buckets of blood splash against concrete beautifully, and there are some nice touches, like blood dripping off of Spawn’s axe after he’s maimed something.

The sound design is actually pretty top notch. The sound of flesh tearing, explosions, and glass breaking are all very realistic and sharp. The music consists of very moody generic metal tracks, with even a Marilyn Manson song thrown in.

I don’t think Spawn: Armageddon really accomplished what it set out to do (unless it was setting out to be a Devil May Cry rip off), and it’s pretty disappointing since Spawn is perfect for the action video game scene. So unless you’re a hardcore fan of the series, you probably have a better way of spending five hours. Spawn: Armageddon spills a 3/5.

Maybe with comics getting more and more popular in film and video games we’ll finally get the Spawn game we always wanted.

Andrew Hurst
andrewhurst@comicattack.net