﻿Hi, I’m Moose,
and on the last episode of ‘Playing with Powers,’ we explored Spider-Man’s final gasps of the 16-bit era,
the awesome animated series,
and the 3D game that showered us in fanservice and free unlockable costumes,
a tradition that, yes, the new game from Insomniac will indeed continue.
This week, we’re looking at Spidey’s cinematic tie-ins,
and the games inspired by the new wave of Spider-Mania.
So, step into the squared circle,
strut like you’ve got a symbiote,
and deliver us from evil,
because this is
Part 3: The Movie Games
Sam Raimi’s ‘Spider-Man’ perfectly captured Peter Parker’s plight,
the conflict at the heart of his character,
and the corniness that makes Spider-Man so endearing.
Cheese!
I would have liked to see him crack a few more jokes,
but considering this was 2002,
I was just thankful Spidey wasn’t swinging around in a black leather jumpsuit.
The movie shattered box office records,
and outside of the theaters,
Spider-fans were showered with a huge wave of movie tie-ins.
While I’d love to do a whole video just about the toy webshooters,
we’re here to talk about games.
Specifically,
'Spider-Man: The Movie: The Game'
‘Spider-Man: The Movie’ was built off the bones of the 2000 Neversoft title,
and the core gameplay loop is extremely similar.
You alternate between webslinging sky chases,
and awkward interior levels with frustrating stealth sections and a crappy camera.
The sixth-gen graphics are technically a step up,
but it’s a little dull compared to the comic book colors of the 2000 game,
and the unenthusiastic voice acting from the movie's star doesn't help.
I should be able to get back out the same way I got in. And only a couple zillion heavily armed androids between me and it. No prob.
Tobey Maguire was never the most dynamic Spider-Man,
but he sounds like he's on valium throughout the whole game.
Scorpion? Disappeared. I feel bad for him but I--
Willem Dafoe does a decent job,
Meeting you today is an unexpected bonus!
but Kirsten Dunst and James Franco didn’t even bother to show up,
and neither did Macho Man Randy Savage.
BONESAW IS READY!!!
The only standout is Raimi mainstay Bruce Campbell,
who steals the show as the smarmy narrator in all three movie adaptations.
Well, I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. If you press the left trigger while crawling on a wall, you'll web zip in the direction you're crawling.
Eh? Who's your daddy?
The game itself is nothing to write home about,
but it’s always interesting to see movie-universe versions of characters that never made it to the screen.
Long before ‘Homecoming,’ we got to battle the Shocker, the Vulture, the Scorpion,
and, if you had an XBox,
Kraven the Hunter.
There was also a cool bonus mode where you could replay the game from the POV of Harry Osborn as a good guy Green Goblin,
and unlockable skins based on Alex Ross’s unused concept art.
It was decent for the time, but today, the game has largely been forgotten,
thanks to the shining success of
‘Spider-Man 2’
Raimi’s filmic follow-up improved on its predecessor in nearly every way,
unless you prefer Chad Kroeger and Josey Scott to Dashboard Confessional.
For me, it's Dashboard... Hands Down.
And similarly, developer Treyarch’s second ‘Spider-Man’ game blew the first out of the water.
Three years after ‘GTA 3’ ignited the open world revolution,
‘Spider-Man 2’ introduced superpowers to the wide-open sandbox.
Instead of individual levels,
the game gave you a massive map of New York City to explore with the all-new webslinging engine created by Jamie Fristrom.
In earlier games, you just shot webs up into the sky.
They never attached to anything or affected the way you swung,
you might as well be flying.
But for ‘Spidey 2,’ Fristrom developed a system that shot invisible lines out of Spider-Man every time he fired off a web.
The rays scanned all the physical objects in the environment around them,
kinda like how a bat uses echolocation,
and selected the optimal point for the most cinematic swing.
Top that off with an awesome arsenal of moves and in-air tricks,
especially the classic web catapult,
and you have a game that’s an utter joy to navigate,
with inertia, physics, and raw speed that give a real sense of urgency to moving across the city,
even if you’re just delivering a pizza.
Unfortunately, the rest of the game hasn’t aged as well as the webslinging.
Yeah, uh. Well...
The open world feels pretty empty compared to the heavily-populated sandboxes of the modern age,
and it forced you to complete repetitive sidequests in order to rack up the hero points you need to continue the story,
most of which boiled down to chasing a car,
beating up bad guys,
chasing a car and THEN beating up bad guys,
or rescuing balloons for hundreds upon hundreds of crying children.
I LOST MY BALLOON!!!
Speaking of the story, it sticks fairly close to the plot of the film,
but we do get a few more non-movie cameos,
like Black Cat, Rhino, and my favorite,
a subplot involving Mysterio,
who engineers an alien invasion of the Statue of Liberty,
and gets taken out with one punch despite his hilariously long life bar.
I will destroy you utterly! You will bear witness to the majesty and glory of my power!
Woah! That was sick, dude!
For all the game’s faults, Spider-Man 2’s webswinging has never been matched,
not even by the spiritual sequel ‘Energy Hook’ made by Fristrom himself.
Future Spidey games would simplify the mechanic,
since its complexity could be a barrier to pressing start and immediately feeling like the
'Ultimate Spider-Man'
Released a year after ‘Spidey 2,’
‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ was an interesting experiment in adaptation.
Instead of being based on a comic book storyline,
this game tried to add to the canon of the alternate universe Ultimate series.
This is how it all began. Which, of course, leads to nonsense like this.
It opens up with an awesome flashback reliving Peter’s football field battle again Venom,
who you later get to control,
with a moveset that lets you fling cars and eat innocent people to recharge your power.
And, if Venom’s not evil enough for you,
you can play as the Green Goblin himself in ‘Battle for New York,’ a sequel to the DS version of the game.
On consoles, when you’re in Spidey’s shoes,
you web around the city in a simplified take on ‘Spider-Man 2,’
but it’s dragged down by a baffling mechanic that makes you climb the web mid-swing to gain height.
Still, the cel-shaded graphics are a stylistic improvement over ‘Spidey 2,’
the gameplay is solid enough,
and the story oozes with love for the Ultimate universe.
Ya don't say?
'Ultimate Spidey' creators Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley were heavily involved in the production,
and the game was intended to be a canonical entry in their legendary run.
It would take place somewhere between issues 71 and 72,
and explain how Eddie Brock gained control over the Venom suit and incorporated the cool white logo.
The stuff that we're doing in this is going to be carried on. He's going to make sure the stuff
that's happening in the comics is at least tangentially related to what's going on in the game.
Unfortunately, the realities of monthly comic book production meant that the story evolved beyond compatibility with the game,
and future issues would ignore developments like Silver Sable’s knowledge of Spidey’s secret identity,
and Peter Parker’s transformation into Carnage.
YOU! PARKER!
The plot was very loosely adapted as the ‘War of the Symbiotes’ storyline two years later,
leaving the ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ game as a intriguing, but ultimately failed experiment.
Speaking of failures,
let’s talk about
'Spider-Man 3'
Well, first I should mention Spidey’s appearance in ‘Ultimate Alliance,’
although we’ll probably save that for an ‘Avengers’ series down the road.
This video is already pretty packed,
and when it comes to 'Spider-Man 3,'
there’s nowhere near enough time to air all my grievances about this movie here,
Llet’s just say I had way less of a problem with scene-kid Peter dancing,
than I did with the Sandman murdering Uncle Ben.
What are you doing?!
NOO!!!
Instead, I’m just going to hate on the game,
although there’s not really a whole lot to say about it.
I bought it for the my 360 thinking it would be a stunning, next-gen successor to ‘Spider-Man 2,’
but the game disappointed me almost as much as the movie.
Superficially, it’s similar to the previous entry,
with the same wide-open world and webslinging,
but bugs and glitches turned the silky smooth aerial acrobatics of ‘2’ into a janky, awkward mess.
The mission variety is a little better,
especially with the new symbiote suit,
but the story is just as lame as the movie,
even with the addition of Rhino, the Kingpin, and the Lizard,
paying off the setup the movies never would.
Parker? You got something to add?
No, sir.
This was also the first Spider-Man game to incorporate quick-time events,
because nothing makes you feel more powerful than pressing a button and watching the game play itself.
Could he have survived that fall? Welp, I'm done here either way!
There were actually three different versions of this game,
the main one for seventh-gen consoles,
a 2D portable game,
and a downgraded port with different gameplay for PS2,
with some obligatory waggle controls thrown in for the Wii.
Yeehaw! Git along, little dogie!
But honestly?
You’d be better off playing ‘Spider-Man Friend or Foe’ instead of any of these.
It was a stylized, kid-friendly take on the movieverse,
with colorful graphics,
awesome co-op,
and appearances from heroes like Blade and Iron Fist in a globetrotting adventure that’s a nice change of pace from New York.
Aesthetically, it almost feels like Kingdom Hearts set in the Raimiverse,
and it was a breath of fresh air compared to the slog that was ‘Spidey 3.’
After the lackluster reception to the movie, Raimi was burnt out,
and Sony cancelled his ‘Spider-Man 4’ in favor of a short-lived reboot.
The Mark Webb movies got a couple games too,
but not before we got our first glimpse into a much larger Spiderverse.
On the next ‘Playing with Powers,’
How did ‘Shattered Dimensions’ set us up for the Spiderverse?
Did the less-than ‘Amazing’ reboot at least have a good game to redeem it?
And how will Insomniac’s ‘Spider-Man’ live up to the legacy that came before?