Spider-Man 2 Classic Review

Spider-Man 2 (PS2, GameCube, Xbox)

Classic Review

Back in 2004 Sam Rami’s Spider-Man 2 debuted in box offices to rave reviews. It was praised as being even better than the first movie and set the standard for superhero movies. A standard that was finger gunned into oblivion by Spider-Man 3, but I digress. Alongside the stellar Spider-Man 2 came a tie-in video game that stood out, not only as an amazing Spider-Man game but one of the best-licensed movie video games of all time. A giant open world, fast and fun traversal, and fun villains to fight all came together for a web-slinging adventure that still mostly holds up after all these years.

       The video game industry in the 2000’s produced a slew of licensed games that were branded as “Movie Tie-Ins.” Some of the more popular brands included, South Park, Simpsons, Lord of the Rings, and Iron Man later on in 2008. Most of these games (except for Return of the King) barely passed for games. This is often due to the fact that these games were pushed to meet a deadline that lines up within days of the movie’s release. Even games that didn't line up with a movie released still suffered due to a lack of funding by the license holder company. It was early corporate greed at its finest. This led to an unending stream of unfinished, bad games that were specifically targeted at small children who did not know any better. Little Timmy would go into an EB Games, see Iron Man or Bart Simpson on the cover of a game, and beg mom for it. Only when Timmy got home, the game barely held together, leading to a rage only a young gamer can produce. Nowadays, this fad has died down considerably. There are plenty of licensed games, mind you. Batman stands out as a juggernaut of this genre as do the unending number of LEGO games. Seriously, LEGO has a game for everything now.

       However, among the brown-stained mist, one game shone apart from the others. No, it wasn’t Simpson’s Hit and Run, it was Spider-Man 2. This game uses the term “Tie-In” as loosely as possible, though, in order to make a revolutionary Spider-Man game. Developed by Treyarch studios of Call Of Duty game, you play Spider-Man set in the universe developed by Sam Rami. Spidey is struggling to balance his life as Peter Parker with fighting crime as Spider-Man, just like the movie. Along the way, he meets poorly rendered versions of all the characters from the movie, including Doctor Octavius who later turns into Doctor Octopus. Scenes from the movie are animated with most of the original cast present. Missions are thrown in after cutscenes in order to make the scene more interactive, and interactive is about as liberal as I can be. The sections pulled from the movie only take up about 25% of the overall game, though so it's easy to overlook. If you have seen the movie, you can easily skip these cutscenes, they will just make you angry.
      The rest of the game is what really matters. Spidey can explore a massive (by 2004 standards) New York city, and encounter villains such as Black Cat, Rhino, Mysterio, and Shocker. These boss fights are honestly a bit broken most of the time, and where the age of the game shows itself. Doctor Octopus also has his own series of boss fights, but they are pushed to more or less the end of the game and are easily the worst designed of them all. As in the all other Spider-Man media, the quirky personality of his Rouge's Gallery is what makes up for pretty middling boss fights. Treyarch’s take on the characters who don’t show up in the movie is a delight, though, with a really fun, obscure boss cameo after you beat the game. There are also random events you can complete that pop up around the city. These range from stopping robberies, to delivering pizzas, to grabbing a little kid’s balloon in the air and returning it. Needless to say, I let many balloons burn up in the atmosphere, those things are impossible to grab.

           Combat is similar to a bare-bones Batman: Arkham Asylum. You button mash to punch and can deliver certain combos to certain enemies to harm them. Spidey-Sence allows you to dodge and counter incoming attacks but does not allow you to dodge gunfire. The game really wants you to try to avoid gunfire, but go with your instincts and don't, you'll be happier for it. There are plenty of upgrades and combos to unlock, but the combat is so rudimentary I hardly used any of them.
          Tutorials narrated by Bruce Campell are funny but don’t really teach you anything other than basic traversal and fighting techniques. You have to go find tutorial markers throughout the city in order to figure out some of the finer points of the game, and sometimes these markers are Campell saying something like “I needed to tell you something, but I forgot.” These were funny the first few times, but I stopped clicking on them after a while and just stuck to the simple fighting mechanics I already knew.

          The graphics have not aged well over 14 years. I remember as a kid thinking graphics have reached their peak, only to see now that the citizens of New York City are just blurry block people, and the game world is a cardboard representation of New York. However getting around the city is where all the fun is. Swinging on webs is still a blast, if not a little rough around the edges. Spider-Man has to be able to attach his web to something or he can’t swing at all, and you are able to unlock tricks and speed upgrades that get you around the city in seconds. The building blocks of this years Spider-Man by Insomniac are clearly visible here, and this game is a perfect experience to whet your appetite for what is to come in less than a month.
           Spider-Man 2, despite its age, still stands up as a milestone in games. Not only did it stand out among the crappy movie tie-ins, but it changed the face of licensed superhero video games forever. From Batman to Insomniac’s Spider-Man, you can see inspiration in many different places in modern games today. The world is still huge and lively, the villains are cheesy and broken, and I still find myself laughing out loud at some of the ridiculous moments in this game. Next month comes the next stage in this revolutionary game type, and I honestly can’t wait. Can we start a petition for Bruce Campell to narrate every video game from now on, though? It’s not his fault his dulcet tones were wasted on empty tutorial jokes.

Spider-Man 2 Vs. Spider-Man 2018