Spider-Man Homecoming VR experience: 5 minutes of something that needs to be a full game now.

Spider-Man: Homecoming finally lands in theaters this Friday. For whatever reason Sony decided to enlist Create VR to build a short but enjoyable Virtual Reality experience that lets you become Spider-Man… if Spider-Man could only move his upper body. We finally got around to going through all the trouble of putting together the PlayStation VR to try it out.

Note: This is not a formal review as Spider-Man Homecoming VR is a free promotional piece of software available to download for owners of PSVR, VIVE, or Oculus Rift from their respective digital marketplaces. It’s also playable in select theaters across the country.

You open on a Queens rooftop and a Stark tech briefcase reveals Tom Holland’s Spidey suit. Much like you did with Batman Arkham VR, using the motion controllers to represent your hands you grab the mask and put it on, viola you go from normal to superhero. The game gives you an assortment of webbing to try out in practice activities such as destroying bottles and web throwing posters off the walls.

The synergy picks up when the Vulture appears to taunt you and destroy stuff. As any good Spider-Man would you’ll need to stop a crane from falling to the street below. Then you web swing off after virtual Michael Keaton. That’s it.

Homecoming VR only takes up about five minutes of your life and I’m being generous there, in fact you may end up spending more time getting your headset to focus than actually playing. However, it’s definitely more fun than the 360 video stuff or walking simulators that pass for promotional VR for films like Ghostbusters or Mr.Robot. While there’s definitely a lot of corners cut with audio, as it seemed Spidey can only hear things that happen less than a foot in front of him, there’s also tons of potential here. Web tossing barrels or heavy objects across buildings is a physics-defying joy. The aiming and use of spidey’s web shooters is on-point and razor sharp. For what it is, Homecoming VR is great. A modern interactive commercial for the film.

There’s an underlining potential here for Sony to create a full Arkham VR sized game for Spidey. I would mind a 2-3 hr thrill ride of web swinging, catching falling civilians, and doing all the things a spider can in VR. While Insomniac is creating a masterpiece of their own exclusively for PlayStation 4, hopefully, Sony will do what they did with Batman and give owners of PSVR something just as special after their Spider-Man game launches.