It seems like only yesterday that fresh-faced Toby Maguire was pulling on his skintight bodysuit and covering naughty thugs with his sticky fluid, but Hollywood has already rebooted the Spider-Man franchise.
The new movie may tinker with Peter Parker's origin storyline, but this Gameloft-developed tie-in sticks to tried-and-tested methods of interactive entertainment.
It's a direct clone of the Spider-Man games that garnered so much praise back in the days of the PlayStation 2, and while you could argue that this kind of imitation is typical of Gameloft the result is surprisingly engaging and enjoyable.
Friendly neighbourhood Spider-ManThe city Spider-Man inhabits is completely open. Story missions push the game forward, but you have the freedom to explore and take part in optional side-quests.
Spider-Man is able to swing his way around the metropolis using his web shooters, and the act of gliding through the air before performing a balletic swallow dive onto the heads of goons is genuinely exhilarating.
Combat is similarly graceful, with Spidey being able to execute punishing combos, counter attacks, and special, context-sensitive offensive manoeuvres.
The control issues that blighted The Amazing Spider-Man on iPhone are all but eradicated thanks to the Xperia Play's physical interface - it's now possible to mix up several moves without having to curse the frustratingly imprecise touchscreen buttons.
My spider sense is tinglingThe only drawback is that while the controls have improved, the overall performance has taken a bit of a nosedive. The Xperia Play's aging single-core CPU struggles to keep the frame-rate consistent, and at times the game pauses altogether before lurching suddenly back into action.
It's a real shame, but it's an unavoidable consequence of the rapid march of mobile technology.
Still, with plenty of missions, a surprisingly deep upgrade system, and a typically impressive level of polish - something of a trademark for Gameloft titles - The Amazing Spider-Man on Xperia Play remains a fine piece of software, even when you take the occasional jerkiness into account.
The Amazing Spider-Man
Armed with the Xperia Play’s physical gaming interface, Spider-Man controls a lot better than he did in the iOS version, but the phone’s lack of graphical muscle can lead to some annoying performance dips. Even so, this is top-notch stuff from Gameloft, and a must for action lovers
Damien McFerran
Damien's mum hoped he would grow out of playing silly video games and gain respectable employment. Perhaps become a teacher or a scientist, that kind of thing. Needless to say she now weeps openly whenever anyone asks how her son's getting on these days.