2002 was an epic year for cinema. I had an amazing childhood going to see great movies such as “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” “Mr. Deeds,” “Austin Powers in Goldmember” & “Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams. One movie in particular I had a blast watching is one of my favorite movies of the year is Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man.” I already covered history on Sony’s biggest flick of 2002. So, don’t forget to check it out.
Activision and its subsidiary Treyarch worked on a tie-in video game based on the aforementioned movie for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube. Developers worked their butts off formulating levels, brainstorming plot elements featuring Spider-Man’s villains as bosses besides Green Goblin. All I know is they never got a chance to view scenes from the movie due to time constraints.
The game eventually released on April 16th. A month before the movie premiered on May 3rd. It received positive reviews from critics, fans and gamers alike. Spider-Man became one of biggest money makers of the year next to “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City,” “Super Mario Sunshine” & “Kingdom Hearts.” Activision and Treyarch went on to develop two Spider-Man games based on the sequels. The second game is my all-time favorite. Third game isn’t as good as the previous ones.
First time I heard about the tie-in game, was a review on Cartoon Network’s block Toonami with Tom talking about the pros and cons. On my 9th birthday, I got a PS2 along with “Star Wars: Starfighter,” its sequel “Jedi Starfighter,” “007: Agent Under Fire” and of course, Spider-Man.
Anyway, Sony’s upcoming movies set in a cinematic universe with Spider-Man characters including “Venom: The Last Dance” & “Kraven the Hunter” will be released on October 25, 2024 and December 13, 2024. Before the aforementioned entries come out, I wanna share my thoughts on Spider-Man on sixth generation consoles.
Good & Evil Aspects
Good: Tobey Maguire & Willem Dafoe reprise their roles. They both did an excellent job for their respective performances.
Sam Raimi’s bestie, Bruce Campbell provides narration helping the player learn the ropes. No pun intended.
Graphics look decent for a sixth-generation console.
Spidey has some snarky one-liners. He sarcastically calls Shocker “The Cushion.” Even the bad guys have unforgettable lines. “Looks like the freak wants to play!” “Circus in town?”
Gameplay/Mechanics
- Presented as a third-person action-adventure beat ’em up, the game borrows elements from Activison’s former subsidiary now-defunct Neversoft’s Spider-Man on the PS1 and Nintendo 64. You wall crawl, web swing, lift objects, follow directions using a spider compass, fight thugs and save bystanders.
- Hide in the shadows makes you invisible from the bad guys or in this case, wear sunglasses like Julian from “Big Daddy” who thinks he becomes invisible wearing ’em.
- Health bar’s red, web meter means blue. Obtain a red spider to replenish your health and blue spider to restore your web.
- Combat System features some legit combo moves. If you find a gold spider, you get a new combo.
- Boss Battles are tough yet fun. When I was nine, it took me a few days to figure out how to dodge Shocker’s shockwave blasts. Back in the early 2000s, my parents had dial-up internet provided by AOL. Because of Shocker’s annoyance, I had to ask my mom and dad permission to use their computer, overhear a random classmate at elementary school during lunch time taking notes on a piece of paper, or save my allowance on a game guide. Today, I can look up any walkthrough on YouTube. Look how far we came ’90s babies.
- Besides Green Goblin, Uncle Ben’s killer, Shocker, (duh) Scorpion & Vulture serve as bosses.
- Look up cheat codes. Type in the code to unlock outfits like Alex Ross’ prototype design for Tobey’s costume. Typing another code unlocks a character with different powers and abilities Spider-Man doesn’t have.
- After you beat a few levels, you unlock concept art and photos from the movie.
- There’s some fun stuff like bowling. Except you swing towards bad guys webbed up as pins. You can also fight waves of enemies in a wresting ring. Then, you fight Bonesaw.
Besides Spider-Man, spiders were a trend back in 2002. here’s a proof from other works.
- Star Wars: Attack of the Clones – A droid spider appears during the Battle of Geonosis.
- Eight Legged Freaks – Toxic Waste causes spiders to become giant.
- Crocodile Hunter: Collison Course – A tarantula was shown briefly during a chase scene.
- Aqua Teen Hunger Force – A giant spider wearing a diaper (not kidding) poses as a rapper named, MC Pee Pants.
- Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams – A literal spider monkey hybrid. Top half has the body of a monkey and the bottom has spider legs.
- Trapped – Kevin Bacon’s character has a web tattoo.
- Harry Poter and the Chamber of Secrets – Giant spiders reside in the forbidden forest.
Evil: You can only fight Kraven the Hunter on Xbox. What a bummer. I never owned an Xbox growing up. I only got the PS2 version. I admit, I never played any game on the GameCube.
Main Story can be completed in less than four hours.
The Final Verdict: B, FOR bENEVOLENT!
Activision & Treyarch’s Spider-Man is a great tie-in game. A nostalgic game for ’90s Babies like me who grew watching Marvel cartoons on Fox Kids. If you wanna relive the good ‘ol days, go ahead,
Nickthemoviecritic.com 