Retro Review: Spiderman (2000)

<p><em>Spider-Man<&sol;em> has been in video games for quite some time now&comma; and somehow his games have never hit the low point in licensed gaming&period; Sure there have been some sub-par installments&comma; but nothing that rivals <em>Super-Man 64<&sol;em> or <em>Batman&colon; Dark Tomorrow<&sol;em>&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ve been reading comic books since the wee age of eight and a majority of my collection from my youth are survival horror games and licensed video games&period; When I unboxed my old PlayStation 1 games recently I was pleasantly surprised to find I had both the <em>Spider-Man<&sol;em> titles and sadly&comma; <em>Batman Beyond&colon; Return of the Joker<&sol;em>&semi; what a stinker that was&period; This game was developed by NeverSoft&comma; which at the time was in its prime&comma; they were pumping out great games back then&comma; and this one was at the top with <em>Tony Hawk Pro Skater<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The story for this game feels as if it was pulled right from the early 2000 <em>Amazing Spider-Man<&sol;em> comic books&comma; which brings back some amazing memories for me&period; The cheesiness and campiness of the comic book completely seep into the game which made me smile the whole time&period; The game begins as Peter Parker and Eddie Brock photograph Dr&period; Octavius showing off a new scientific discovery&period; Much to Parker&&num;8217&semi;s surprise Spider-Man arrives and steals what the good doctor was presenting&period; Parker realizes that he&&num;8217&semi;s being framed and must get to the bottom of it before someone gets hurt&comma; or before he gets killed by the NYPD&period; To find out who truly framed Parker you have to punch your way through some of his greatest rogue&&num;8217&semi;s gallery including Scorpion&comma; Venom and Rhino&comma; and with the help of Black Cat and Daredevil Parker finally wins the day in a spectacular fashion&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;115678" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-115678" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-115678 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;11&sol;26151208&sol;spiderman2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Spider-Man - Activision&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-115678" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Spider-Man<&sol;em>&comma; Activision&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>It surprises me that such an antiquated game has some pretty tight controls&period; As a gamer accustom to using a stick on the controller&comma; playing with the D-pad was an eye opener&semi; plus the fact that my camera controls were in the hands of the developers took some getting use to as well&period; X is jump and if you jump off a building pressing R2 will allow you to web swing from building to building&period; Once you land on a rooftop you are most likely going to be attacked by some grunts&period; Square is punch&comma; Circle is kick and if you have some web fluid you can web up a criminal with Triangle&period; As you progress in the game you will have to do some pretty precise web-slinging&period; To help you along with this Neversoft put in a First-Person mode&comma; so just hold down L2 and use the &lpar;shudder&rpar; inverted controls to land your web where you need it&period; Should you be surrounded by copious amounts of evil you can pick up crates and barrels with Square and throw them with the same&period; These controls never hindered me during gameplay&period; I did get lost a few times because it is difficult to see where you need to go in certain levels&comma; but my enjoyment was never at a loss&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Seeing as this is a PlayStation 1 game&comma; the graphics are not that pretty&period; Spider-Man&&num;8217&semi;s suit is missing the black webbing on his costume due to the low tech&comma; but he still looks like Spider-Man&comma; which is a plus&period; The levels really aren&&num;8217&semi;t too detailed and you can get pretty badly lost in some of the darker parts of the game&period; I was running around a furnace room for what seemed like hours until I realized a dark smudge on the screen was the way out&period; Neversoft did try really hard with the main villains and heroes of the game&colon; Venom looks good&comma; Black Cat looks good albeit a bit mannish&period; I never questioned which villain I was fighting or which hero was helping me out&comma; which was a nice relief&period; The icing on the cake was the fact that Stan &&num;8220&semi;Excelsior&&num;8221&semi; Lee steps in to narrate the game for us&period; This is probably one of my favorite parts of the game&comma; as every chapter you begin he gives a little update on what our hero is up to&period; I wish that I could have Stan Lee read my comic books to me&comma; I think that would be amazing&comma; seeing as his voice is perfect for narration&semi; I just won&&num;8217&semi;t have him read <em>Batman<&sol;em> or <em>Superman<&sol;em> to me&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;115699" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-115699" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-115699 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;11&sol;26222155&sol;maxresdefault5&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Spider-Man - Activision&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"359" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-115699" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Spider-Man<&sol;em>&comma; Activision&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>For all the gamers and comic book nerds that are looking forward to Insomniac&&num;8217&semi;s take on the web-slinger this would be a nice little title to play through&period; A person could beat this in one sitting if they go to the bathroom before they start to play&period; There isn&&num;8217&semi;t too much content to the game&comma; but it is worth it to take a look at Neversoft&&num;8217&semi;s version of<em> Spider-Man<&sol;em>&comma; with his own story that isn&&num;8217&semi;t linked to the movies or too hard to the comic books&period; Insomniac stated that their game has its own story and isn&&num;8217&semi;t linked at all to the upcoming <em>Spider-Man&colon; Homecoming<&sol;em>&comma; which makes me even more excited&period; Retro gamers will love the look and feel of this game and comic book aficionados will enjoy all the Easter Eggs and throwbacks to the comic books&period; It is nice to play an older licensed game and not hate myself later for it&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;ve not played this title&comma; have an itch for some web-slinging and can find it at a decent price you should&comma; it will whet your appetite for the upcoming game&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;