Spider-Man (2002 video game)

Spider-Man: The Movie
Developer(s)	Treyarch (consoles) Digital Eclipse Software (Game Boy Advance)
Publisher(s)	Activision
Designer(s)	Tomo Moriwaki (creative dir.), Akihiro Akaike (lead designer)
Engine	Treyarch proprietary
Platform(s)	Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, PC, PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance
Release date(s)	April 15, 2002
Genre(s)	Action game, Beat 'em up
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone (E)

Spider-Man is an action game based upon the Marvel Comics character, Spider-Man, and is directly based on the first feature film starring the character. It was developed by Treyarch and released in 2002 for PC and several video game consoles. The game has many scenes and villains that did not appear in the film.

Plot

Peter Parker develops super-spider powers after being bitten by a genetically altered spider. Peter's uncle Ben is killed by the leader of the Skulls gang. Peter uses his new powers to track down and kill the murderer. Peter vows to use his powers for good and put an end to evil in Manhattan. Meanwhile, Norman Osborn and OsCorp are investigating the appearance of this new hero. Osborn orders the capture of Spider-Man, deploying hunter-killer robots for this purpose. Spider-Man fights these robots and emerges victorious. Meanwhile, the Shocker has just robbed a bank, and is driving away with his thugs as Spidey lands, only to be hit by Vulture. Spider-Man goes after Shocker first. His battle with Shocker leads him through the sewers and to a subway station, where Spider-Man defeats him in a climactic battle. Afterwards, Shocker tells Spider-Man about Vulture's lair: an old clocktower on the Lower East Side of town. Spider-Man defeats Vulture atop the Chrysler building.

Osborn's scientists tell him that now two individuals with arachnid DNA are at large in Manhattan, and Osborn orders the capture of both. Spider-shaped robots pursue a desperate Scorpion through the sewers. Peter goes down to the subways to take pictures of his battle site with Shocker, when he runs into Scorpion. After Spider-Man helps Scorpion defeat the machines, the apparently paranoid and unhinged Scorpion turns on Spidey, and they fight. Spider-Man wins, but the Scorpion escapes. Meanwhile, Norman Osborn is fired from OsCorp and takes his gas-bath to become the forever-feared Green Goblin. Spider-Man defeats the Goblin at the yearly OsCorp Unity Day Festival. Later, Goblin confronts Spider-Man again and is defeated, but tells Spider-Man of bombs planted downtown. Spidey races against time to defuse the bombs, and is attacked again by Green Goblin, this time with deadly small devices called razor bats.

After studying a wing of a felled razor bat and determining that it was manufactured by OsCorp, Spider-Man goes to OsCorp to research its connection with the Goblin. He discovers that the company is producing chemical weapons, and shuts down the operation. After finding out about the Goblin's plot to capture and kill Mary Jane, Spider-Man chases him down to a bridge. Here, Spider-Man has his final battle with the Green Goblin, who is impaled by his own glider. Spider-Man unmasks the Goblin to reveal Norman Osborn's face. Osborn's last words are, "Tell Harry, I'm sorry." Spider-Man replies, "I'm sorry, too." Mary Jane and Spider-Man are reunited, they kiss, and the game ends.

Gameplay

Spider-Man is a level based action game, with you playing as Spider-Man. Most levels are indoors, but some levels require you to web-sling from building to building. Levels are in "sections" with a different enemy for each, each section lasting about 3 levels. Each level, except for the last two, has a bonus screen after it. Generally, there are the bonuses "Time" (clear level in a set time), "Perfect" (Not take damage/detected) and "Style" (use as many combos as possible). Other level-specific ones are "Secrets" (Uncover a secret area), "Combat" (Defeat all enemies). Players can gain, depending on difficulty, points on completing these tasks. On Easy mode, each bonus is 500 points, Normal is 700, and Super-Hero is 1000 each.

The basic abilities are swinging, zipping, punching and kicking, web, camera lock, and the Web Mode in Enhanced Mode. Depending on how you combine different buttons, it makes different effects. Wall-crawling is automatic, and players are also able to lift up heavy and light objects. There are 21 different combat combos which Gold Spiders are used to gain these combos, with 4 web controls, each having a type of "upgrade" to each. There is also "stealth mode", where Spider-Man is in shadow, and therefore is undetectable by enemies. This is necessary to gain extra points in the game.

Enemies

• BoneSaw (In the training mode "Basic Combat") Voiced by Jay Gordon
• Dennis "Spike" Carradine Voiced by Michael Papajohn
• Herman Shultz/Shocker Voiced by Michael Beattie
• Adrian Toomes/Vulture Voiced by Dwight Schultz
• Mac Gargan/Scorpion Voiced by Mike McColl
• Sergei Kravinoff/Kraven The Hunter (Xbox and Game Boy Advance versions Only) Unknown voice actor
• Norman Osborn/Green Goblin Voiced by Willem Dafoe
• OsCorp Lite Mechs
• OsCorp Super Soldiers
• OsCorp Guards
• Skull Gang Thugs
• Shocker's Thugs

Reception

The critical reviews were good, with many critics at the time considering it the best Spider-Man game yet.^[1] However, criticism fell on the indoor levels,^[2] Tobey Maguire's voice acting^[3] and bad camera.As well as the fact that it was to short and could be completed in 3 hours^[4] Even for these flaws, this game was good enough to get an 8.4 from IGN, a 9.3 from gamepro, 80/100 from gamespy and a 9 worldwide.

High sales (two million copies of the PlayStation 2 version^[5] and over 400,000 on the GameCube and Xbox^[6]) were sold in North America alone, allowing the game to enter the "Best-Sellers" of each console (PS2's Greatest Hits, GameCube's Player's Choice and Xbox's Platinum Hits). (Recently promoted to " Best of Platinum Hits " on the Xbox.

Differences from the film

• In the game, the man who killed Uncle Ben is a member of a gang of thugs known as the Skulls gang. In the movie, he appeared to operate alone, although Spider-Man 3 revealed he was in league with Flint Marko. In the game, he is referred to by gang members only as Spike, and in the game's artwork galleries as Butch. Spider-Man 3 refers to him as Dennis 'Spike' Carradine.

• In the game, Spider-Man was voiced by Josh Keaton and Tobey Maguire. In the movie, he was played by Tobey Maguire.

• In the game, Norman sees Spider-Man as the key to completing the company's Human-Performance Enhancers, and sends Hunter Killer Drones to capture him. In the movie, this does not happen, and they both get their powers at around the same time.
• In the game, the board fires Norman after he tests the Oz Serum on himself, after which he takes the serum. In the movie, Norman became the Green Goblin when he tested the Oz Serum on himself after he is fired from the board when the board decides to sell the company.

• In the game, Spider-Man must rescue Mary Jane from a balloon at the World Unity Day Festival (there seems to be nothing wrong because MJ is just standing on the balloon). In the film, she's trapped on a crumbling balcony of the Oscorp building. Also, it is night in the game, although the cinematic that introduces the level takes place during the day, which is the time the festival took place in the movie.

• In the game, Norman never finds out who Spider-Man is, and kidnaps Mary Jane because one of his robots took a picture of her kissing Spider-Man. In the movie, Norman finds out Peter is Spider-Man when he sees the cut on his arm from the razor bat, and kidnaps Mary Jane after Harry tells him that Peter is in love with her.
• In the game, Spider-Man was pursued by razor bats while swinging above the city. In the movie, he faces them in a burning building after being tricked by the Green Goblin.

• Oscorp plays a bigger role in the game than it does in the film, as Spider-Man must investigate the company itself after discovering a connection between it and the Green Goblin.

• At the end of the game, the Green Goblin is killed on the Queensboro Bridge by being run over at a fast speed by his glider. In the movie, he and Spider-Man fight first on the bridge, and then go to an abandoned building where the Green Goblin is impaled by the glider. The Roosevelt Island cable cars in the movie are also absent in the game. As he dies in the game, Norman tells Spider-Man to "Tell Harry I'm sorry". This is in stark contrast to the movie, in which Norman's last words are "Peter, Don't tell Harry".

• The GBA version of the game is a little more controversial: The final battle has Goblin being decked by Spider-Man first (in the playable boss level). Then the cutscene shows the Goblin get up and try to flee just as the glider swoops in and knocks him off the bridge, apparently killing him. But when Spider-Man and MJ hug at the end, MJ says that "Goblin and his cronies are in jail", implying that Goblin was recovered and arrested.

References to comic books

• If one webswings low to the streets in City levels, people on the ground will see him and note his presence. One of these people will say "Look! It's The Spider-Man!", and Spider-Man will say "It's just Spider-Man, there's no The," an apparent reference to the line in the 1960s Spider-Man theme song "Look out, Here comes The Spider-Man!" Also, two men again reference the theme by going "Whoa, it's Spider-Man!" "Spider-Man? Is he strong?" "'Strong?' Listen bud, I heard he's got radioactive blood!"

• Additionally, a civilian may say "Look, look up there, it's...Spider-Man" then Spider-Man says "Just stay away from that bird and plane metaphors, that's that other guy." in reference to the phrase commonly associated with Superman, "Look up in the sky. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Superman!"

• In the Xbox version, Spider-Man complains about people setting things on fire to get his attention and muses that he should "get a Spider-Signal". This is a reference to both Batman and the classic piece of equipment Spider-Man uses in the comics.

See also

• Spider-Man 2 (video game)
• Spider-Man 3 (video game)

References

External links

• Official website
• Spider-Man at GameSpot
• Spider-Man games on Marvel.com
• Spider-Man at the Internet Movie Database
• Spider-Man: The Movie at MobyGames
• Game reviews at Game Rankings

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