It's that time of year when people love to watch (and rank) their favorite Christmas movies, spanning from the classic ("It's a Wonderful Life") to the hilarious ("Elf") to the action-packed ("Die Hard," "Lethal Weapon").
Personally, I like "Gremlins," but the best part of the Christmas-movie tradition is that there are dozens and dozens of great choices for annual viewing.
But when it comes to video games, there are just not that many sporting a Yuletide theme. Piggybacking off the release of the newest Spider-Man movie, it seemed like a great time to look at 2020's "Spider-Man: Miles Morales," which takes place in New York and is chock-full of that wonderful holiday element, with snow, decorations across the city and J. Jonah Jameson in a Santa outfit.
The Morales household sports a Christmas tree, and in one mission, he even sits down to Christmas dinner with the family. Using the holiday season as a background helps the game stand out from its predecessor, "Marvel's Spider-Man," which focused on the adventures of Peter Parker but also introduced players to Miles Morales.
"Spider-Man: Miles Morales" focuses on Miles, set about a year after the first game, but also sees him team up with Parker. The Morales family have moved to Harlem and are trying to adjust to their first Christmas without Miles' father, who died during the events of the earlier game.
"Spider-Man: Miles Morales" puts a strong emphasis on family, friends and community with lots of heartfelt moments that create a perfect holiday message. The narrative style and extended cut-scenes often make the game seem like a playable movie, whether it's walking through Miles' house, which is strung up with Christmas lights while his mother finishes making dinner, or when he's on top of a speeding car, apprehending bad guys while dodging bullets.
So the setting is great, the messaging is on point. The game-play and graphics? Also exceptional.
The sensational swinging mechanics return, but animations are of course updated for new hero Miles, who even while swinging through the city comes across as a decidedly less-polished Spidey, capable of making mistakes. He is, after all, just a teenager under the mask, and the game is good at making sure you don't forget that he doesn't have it all figured out yet.
Miles Morales is competently voice-acted in his first solo video game outing by Nadji Jeter, who also voiced that role in the prequel, in "Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3" and Disney's animated show "Spider-Man," which ran from 2017 to 2020. Jeter is cast in the forthcoming "Spider-Man 2" video game, coming in 2023, which will continue the story of Miles and Peter Parker.
"Spider-Man: Miles Morales" is available for the PS4 and PS5, but of course will look more spectacular on the newest hardware, with its ray-tracing capability, controller haptic feedback and 60 frames-per-second 4K option. That 2023 sequel? Only for the PS5, so plan accordingly.
[Video not showing up above? Click here to watch » arkansasonline.com/1220spidey/]
So how does the Morales version of Spider-Man differ from the prequel? It's a smaller game overall, but there's nothing wrong with trimming the fat. The prequel took 17 to 30 hours to complete, depending on how much of a completionist you are, while Miles' adventure takes 8 to 18 hours. There's also some replayability, with a New Game+ option to keep your skills and abilities and replay the campaign, along with multiple difficulty levels.
There are quite a few games these days, especially mobile games — the kind that have season passes or are free but sell cosmetic items — that offer Christmas-related themes or items for a limited time, and that's great, but actually setting a game around the theme of Christmas? It sets "Spider-Man: Miles Morales" apart, making it a perfect choice for starting a tradition of revisiting great holiday video games.
‘Spider-Man: Miles Morales’
Platform: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
Cost: $49.99
Rating: Teen for blood, language, violence, drug references
Score: 9 out of 10