Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Child of Light arrive on Xbox One and 360

By Paul Acevedo
published

No new retail games hit the Xbox consoles last week, although Defense Technica and Dustforce did quietly slip onto XBLA. But this week we have a major retail release and a highly-anticipated downloadable title, each hitting both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One simultaneously!

The big disc game is The Amazing Spider-Man 2 from Activision. Well, you can buy it on disc for 360. The Xbox One version is download-only because the retail release hit a last-minute delay. And on the purely downloadable front, Ubisoft has just published a beautiful platformer-RPG known as Child of Light. Read on for more details and our exclusive Amazing Spider-man 2 gameplay video!

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Not to be confused with Gameloft’s upcoming adaptation of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, this is a completely separate game from Beenox and Activision. Both games share broadly similar gameplay, though.

If you played the previous Amazing Spider-Man game based on the movie of the same name, you have a good idea of what to expect from the sequel. The console game develops a unique story in which Peter Parker continues to search for his uncle Ben’s killer. His trail will lead to multiple classic villains including the Kingpin of crime, a character not seen in the films.

Amazing Spider-Man 2 is an open-world game. Spidey can swing all over the city, just like the first Windows Phone game. But now players have control of each arm during web swinging, providing a lot of control over Spidey’s movements and momentum.

The combat is fast and intuitive. You can punch and dodge or mix things up by shooting web balls, zipping towards the enemy, or pulling the bad guy towards you. Impressive combos pop out with ease. Beating bad guys earns experience for the various suits Spidey can wear, providing a fun sense of progression and customization.

The Xbox One version is a relatively small download of 10 GBs. Not surprisingly, it doesn’t look all that much better than the 360 game. But Spidey himself has a very detailed character model, at least. If you’re rocking an Xbox One and don’t mind the plain-ish graphics and lengthy load times, you’ll probably have a good time. Stay tuned for our full review!

Child of Light

This unique role-playing game from the creators of Far Cry 3 tells the story of a princess named Aurora who falls asleep one night and awakens in the mystical land of Lemuria. Child of Light’s fairy tale-inspired story comes to life via beautiful illustrations and poetic rhyming dialogue. Word on the street is the actual narrative is uninspired, but at least the developers put a lot of effort into its presentation.

Child of Light’s gameplay takes place entirely in jaw-droppingly gorgeous 2D, much like the recent Rayman games. Aurora will explore a vast world filled with distinct regions. The cool part of the exploration is that the heroine can fly around at will.

Whenever Aurora and her NPC partners encounter enemies, JRPG-style battles commence. Heroes and enemies take turns dealing physical damage or performing magical attacks, not unlike the Final Fantasy games. A timing meter at the bottom helps keep track of everyone’s turns, and you can even stun enemies to set them back on the meter. The combat is actually super deep and has received widespread praise from critics so far.

The Xbox One is quickly building an impressive library of downloadable games like Child of Light. And fortunately for previous gen gamers, this one made it to the Xbox 360 too.

Paul Acevedo
Paul Acevedo

Paul Acevedo is the Games Editor at Windows Central. A lifelong gamer, he has written about videogames for over 15 years and reviewed over 350 games for our site. Follow him on Twitter @PaulRAcevedo. Don’t hate. Appreciate!

27 Comments
  • Damn, I thought it was spidey for wp
  • I doubt if this Spiderman 2 will be any good. The internet hype is very low.
  • Hype for most movie games is low. Especially for this one because nobody knew it was coming out for X1
  • I can't wait to shoot my webbing in Gwen Stacey's face!
  • Your future children will hate u for wasting their potential brothers and sisters
  • Child of Light looks beautiful
  • Heard it's good.....don't know how cuz I see it too childish
  • No rpg is too childish.
  • It might look childish but it is an AMAZING game. I've preordered it on PSN and have had a blast since yesterday!!
  • @Ken How did you arrive at that conclusion without playing the game? Don't answer that, it's a rhetorical question. I'm actually looking forward to playing it myself. You shouldn't let an art style or name dictate the content of a game, you'll miss out on a lot of good ones that way. :-)
  • He can see art style without playing the game :3
  • Oh, I know that's what he did but it's thoroughly possible to have a game with artsy fartsy fantasy graphics and a plot that is adult enough. I was half-teasing him. :-)
  • Yea I thought it finally came also, was supposed to a while ago. Where's the WP version!?!?! Even IGN says it was release already!!
  • Have they ever told us what the real story behind the delay for Spiderman was? Is it out in stores in Friday in the UK then?
  • No they have not, but everybody assumes it was some disc production issue.
  • Amazing Spiderman 2 game looks visually awful...
  • I say again, where is the WP version!!
  • Waiting for the WP version!
  • Can't wait to get that game.
  • Child of light is very good. Oh, and it's not childish.
  • Child of Light is AMAZING.
  • Pretty sure in the opening cinematic, they say Aurora dies instead of sleeping, but I could be wrong. From the little I played, it seemed to have good gameplay. It's visually beautiful, and while it's available on the PC, it definitely belongs on a bigger screen than your average monitor, it's also funny in the way it seems to look better when played than when watched a video of. I got the Deluxe edition for PS, not sure if one is available for XBox, but I'll recommend it for those who like game artworks.
  • The Child of Light gameplay video reminded me of Braid.
  • Does this shit matter Windowsphone fans? No , we have windowsphone that's why we headed to WPC.
  • You already know we cover other Microsoft platforms here as well. Don't make such useless comments again.
  • Sorry but now it's getting 50 - 50 so yeah!
  • Anyone says, no. Child of Light isn't a childish game. I played through the game and it was awesome! I recommend to everyone who like RPGs.