Why Spider-Man 2 Mattered

To preface (because there are way too many games named “Spider-Man 2”), this article is about the videogame based on the second Spider-Man movie, directed by Sam Raimi.

Today is the 20th anniversary of what many consider the best Spider-Man game to ever exist and as a major fan of the character (outside of the mainline comics because, holy crap, why can’t Peter be happy?) I just wanted to talk about the first game ever to…

Urgh…

Make you feel like Spider-Man. (I think I just gagged in my throat)

"This is my gift, my curse. Who am I? I'm Spider-Man."

Overplayed as that phrase is, it is true. All previous efforts have only made you play as Spider-Man in a variety of genres, from beat-em-ups to fighting games, but never before have they allowed you to swing through the streets of New York, stopping crime, helping people with their problems, or just helping Peter pay the bills through the Daily Bugle or Pizza Delivery. There’s more to being a hero than stopping the bad guys; sometimes, being a hero is as simple as getting a kid’s balloon.

What I found most interesting was the game’s story. Sure, it tried to incorporate the plot of the film, but since most people want to spend most of their time as Spider-Man and not Peter Parker, the story had to change. Instead of Peter quitting being Spider-Man, the game has Spider-Man thinking about giving up as Peter Parker entirely. It’s a really interesting twist to the “Spider-Man No More” storyline, and it makes sure the game is fun first. And hey, it does a decent job not spoiling the events of the film. See The Amazing Spider-Man game and how it spoiled the film’s ending in the first 10 minutes over a week before it came out.

"Spins a web, any size, catches thieves just like flies!"

The most praised part of the game, and the mechanic that has left the biggest impact throughout the years, is the web-slinging. In the previous movie game, web-slinging was more like flying, where a single press of the trigger will get you anywhere. That was the feeling of the developers, Treyarch, so the system was overhauled. It became physics-based and has Spider-Man act as a pendulum. Knowing when to release your web and fire off another one is key, and if there isn’t a building to web onto, Spidey goes splat. Getting good at it will allow you to go through the city either as stylishly as possible or go from one end to the other in only a few minutes. It was fun, and most players would fire up the game just to swing around. The crazy part was that this feature nearly didn’t get into the game. It’s why there’s an easy mode for it because the higher-ups thought kids wouldn’t be able to understand it. Thankfully, kids are much smarter than they thought or else it wouldn’t have become so beloved by Spider-Man fans.

There’s a reason why every Spider-Man game has been following in this game’s footsteps, with practically every major release since then being an open-world action game. It was the perfect genre for a superhero game where the world was quite literally their playground, and let’s not forget all the other fun things featured here, such as Mysterio’s final boss fight, Black Cat, and Bruce Campbell and his helpful collectibles. Who remembers piledriving a helpless thug off the Empire State Building?

"Look out, here comes the Spider-Man."

That said, it’s not a perfect game by any means. Although they did get a few of the actors to reprise their roles, they don’t sound… great. Let’s be honest here, Tobey sounds kind of bored or dead. I actually liked his performance more in Spider-Man: The Movie than in Spider-Man 2. It’s not the prettiest game to look at either, given the short development time and the complex mechanics at play. The final stretch is really bad, too, due to the need to grind out Hero Points to unlock the final mission. The final mission itself is really hard, and if you screw up, you have to start all over again.

I do think there are better Spider-Man games that have since been released like Ultimate Spider-Man and Marvel's Spider-Man has definitely dethroned it as the definitive Spider-Man experience, but you can never deny that Spider-Man 2 is the standard for many Spider-Man games and will continue to be until the character fades into irrelevance in a couple thousand years.