Spider-Man video games
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Numerous electronic games featuring the popular Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man have been released. To date, Spider-Man has made appearances on over 15 gaming platforms, which also includes mobile games on cellphones.
Spiderman is one of the most popular and common video-game heroes becasue of his lack of invinciblily and his relative lack of extroadinary power. A videogame in which the player is invicible presents no challenge and is therfore not as enjoyable. Many popular superhero characters such as Superman, Wolverine and the Incredible Hulk enjoy relative invincibility. However Spiderman, still easily killed by bullets and other trauma, makes a good videogame character as he can be hurt and will force the player to seek out health, fulfilling a major part of the game.
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[edit] Pre-1990s
The Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962).
By the late 1970s, Spider-Man had become a successful franchise. At this time the fictional character had already featured in two animated series (Spider-Man and Spidey Super Stories (1974) and a live-action series The Amazing Spider-Man (1978). As a result of the success, Marvel Comics licensed the character into a stream of electronic games.
In 1978, D. Gottlieb & Co. released The Amazing Spider-Man pinball machine, designed by Ed Krinski as part of their Star Series 80 line. The first came off the assembly line in March 1978 and the line continued well into the early 1980s.[citation needed]
In 1982, Parker Brothers published a game for the Atari 2600 (and released on the clone Sears Video Game System)[citation needed] titled Spider-Man. The action game involves climbing a sky scraper, rescuing hostages and defusing bombs set by the Green Goblin. It supports two players.
In 1984, Scott Adams released the second in the Questprobe series of text adventure games. The second in the series was titled Questprobe 2, featuring Spider-Man, and involved Spider-Man trying to track down the Incredible Hulk. The game was ported to the Commodore 64[1], Commodore 16[2],Atari 8-bit family[3], ZX Spectrum[4], PC and the Apple II.
In 1987 Sega released Shinobi in the arcades as a coin operated game, in which a character that looks very similar to Spider-Man (and another character that looks like Batman) appear as bosses at the end of a stage.
In 1989, Spider-Man and Captain America in Doctor Doom's Revenge was released for PC-DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64[5]. The game was written by Paragon Software Corporation, and published by Medallist (a subsidiary of MicroProse). The story of the game is told in a series of comic panels, with the game play similar to that of Street Fighter: The player, as either Captain America or Spider-Man, battles villains one-on-one until facing Doctor Doom.
In December 1989, Revenge of Shinobi was released on the Sega Mega Drive. The game's boss battles feature comic book characters including Spider-Man and Batman. Initially Spider-Man was included without consentment from Marvel, but when the game was released for the Sega CD does give credit to Marvel and edited the Batman charcter so as to avoid a possible lawsuit.
[edit] 1990s
In the 1990s, comics enjoyed a boom, and the early 1990s saw a myriad of video games based on high-profile comic story lines and the 1994 Spider-Man animated series.
The first game of the decade released was The Amazing Spider-Man, a puzzle oriented action game developed by Oxford Digital Enterprises and released in 1990 for the Amiga, then later ported to PC:DOS, Commodore 64, and Atari ST. The title was published by Paragon Software Corporation and features over 250 screens.
The next game released was a trilogy for the newly introduced Nintendo Game Boy. The first developed was released in 1991 by Rare titled The Amazing Spider-Man. The game was published by LJN (A Subsidiary of Acclaim), the first of a series of games published based on licensed Marvel characters. The game play involves running across New York chasing supervillains to locate Mary Jane Watson.
The second Game Boy game, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was released the following year and was developed by B.I.T.S.. The game is a side-scrolling beat-'em up. Spider-Man attempts to clear his name after he is accused of a crime committed by the Hobgoblin. In 1993, B.I.T.S. released the third in the series titled, The Amazing Spider-Man 3: Invasion of the Spider-Slayers.
In 1990, Spider-Man was released for the first time on the Sega family of consoles. The game, The Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin, premiered on the Master System and was later ported to the Genesis in 1991, the Sega Game Gear in 1992, and the Sega Mega-CD in 1993. Fundamentally, the game is the same on each platform with each iteration including new levels, enhanced graphics and a few incremental improvements to the game play. The story involves Spider-Man trying to collect six keys from six villains to defuse a bomb in New York planted by the Kingpin. Spider-Man has a finite supply of webfluid and the only way to replenish is to take photos, most profitably of the supervillains, to sell to the Daily Bugle.
In 1991, Spider-Man: The Video Game was released for coin-operated arcades. Developed by Sega on the Sega System 32 hardware, the game is a four-player, platform beat-'em-up similar to Data East's Captain America and the Avengers released earlier that year. The player plays as Spider-Man, Black Cat, Namor the Sub-Mariner, or Hawkeye, with the game divided into four acts.
Australian company Beam Software's 1991 game The Punisher: The Ultimate Payback for the Game Boy features Spider-Man, although the character's involvement is negligible. The game is much like Operation Wolf, with the Punisher shooting villains while protecting the innocent. Spider-Man appears between the action to offer advice on how to beat upcoming levels and swings in to rescue hostages once their captors have been shot.
The Nintendo Entertainment System had already been the platform for several video games featuring Marvel super heroes. However, it wasn’t until 1992 that Spider-Man was among them. The game, Spider-Man: The Return of the Sinister Six developed by B.I.T.S., (responsible for the previous Nintendo Game Boy titles) was an action platform game that involved Spider-Man swinging across various levels to defeat each one of the Sinister Six; Electro, Sandman, Mysterio, Hobgoblin, Vulture and Doctor Octopus. The game in 1993 was ported to Game Gear and sported enhanced graphics and sound.
Spider-Man and the X-Men: Arcade's Revenge the first Spider-Man cross platform game released on both Nintendo’s and Sega's hardware. Despite the title, it isn't an arcade title - as that was merely the name of the game's villain. It was first developed for Super NES in 1992 by Software Creations (who went on to produce several games for Marvel) and published by LJN. The game was later ported to the Genesis in 1993. The game involves rescuing four of the mutant superhero X-Men (Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Gambit) from an assassin named Arcade. The player must navigate Spider-Man in search of the captured heroes (who join Spider-Man when found), fighting a variety of super villains. Software Creations later adapted the game to the Game Boy in 1993 and to Game Gear in 1994.
During the mid 1990s, Marvel had two major comic book story lines adapted to a video game by Software Creations the first being, Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage released on Super Nintendo and Genesis in 1994 and the second, Spider-Man & Venom: Separation Anxiety for Super Nintendo, Genesis and PC the following year. Maximum Carnage was released to much hype with the Super Nintendo and Genesis cartridges sporting a blood red color and achieved a high level of critical and commercial success. The sequel was released to less fanfare but still managed to succeed to a certain degree. Both games were side scrolling beat-'em up action games where you played as either Spider-Man or Venom fighting various villains from the comic book plotlines.
Over the years Tiger has released several LCD Spiderman games.
Spider-Man: Lethal Foes was released for the Super Nintendo only in Japan, very loosely based off of the mini-series Lethal Foes of Spider-Man.
1994 saw the beginning of a range of software incorporating elements form the critically acclaimed Spider-Man: The Animated Series with a video game developed by Western Technologies and published by Acclaim titled, Spider-Man. The game was released for both the Super Nintendo and the Genesis. The game play was similar to most titles of this decade, with side scrolling beat-'em up action being the focus. The game features the six settings: a Laboratory, Construction sight, Brooklyn Bridge, Coney Island, a showdown in a Penthouse, and Ravencroft Asylum. The game features twenty enemies: Owl, Mysterio, Beetle, Jack O'Lantern, Shocker, Chameleon, Venom, Vulture, Rhino, the Lizard, Alien Spiderslayer, Tri-Spider Slayer, Alistair Smythe, Scorpion, Hammerhead, Doctor Octopus, Hydro Man, the Tinkerer, and the Green Goblin. The game also features the Fantastic Four.
In 1995, Knowledge Adventure released Spider-Man Cartoon Maker a software package that allowed the user to create films by utilising an archive of backdrops, animations and props from Spider-Man: The Animated Series. The game featured the voice of Christopher Daniel Barnes who played Spider-Man in the series.
That same year Marvel attempted to release classic comic books onto CD-ROM. Only four were every produced, based on Spider-Man, the X-Men, Iron Man and the Fantastic Four. The Spider-Man one titled, Marvel CD-ROM Comics featuring Spider-Man included animation from the series, trivia games, and four complete issues of the comic na by Christopher Daniel Barnes.
In 1995, Capcom began developing an arcade game based on Marvel comic book characters titled, Marvel Super Heroes: War of the Gems which was later ported to the SNES. The game involved utilising each of the Marvel superheroes through each of their levels to collect one of the Gems needed to complete the game. The game featured Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Wolverine and Spider-Man.
As a result of the success of Capcom's fighting game X-Men: Children of the Atom, Capcom developed Marvel Super Heroes for the arcade in 1995 and later ported to Sega Saturn and PlayStation. This began a partnership between Marvel and Capcom combining the two universes into a series of Marvel vs. Capcom series. Spider-Man would appear as a playable character in Marvel Super Heroes, as well as Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter in 1997, Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes in 1998 and their last Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes in 2000. Venom also appeared as a playable character in the latter two games.
Spider-Man: Web of Fire was developed by BlueSky Software in 1996 and more notably published by Sega for the Sega 32X, as one the final titles for the add-on. This game marks the first console game not published by Acclaim, possibly representing a fallout between Marvel and Acclaim as no later product were published by them. The game is a platform action game similar to the previous Sega title, Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin but this time teams up with Daredevil to prevent the invading forces of HYDRA from taking over New York City. The game is broken into six levels with featuring bosses; Dragonman, Thermite, Blitz, The Vanisher, Eel, Tangle, and the Super-adaptoid. Even though the game itself can be regarded as flawed - due to excessive difficulty, poor controls, and bland visuals - it nonetheless usually reaches well over U$100 on eBay, for being one of the rarest 32X titles.
Developer Brooklyn Multimedia used the Spider-Man license in an atypical genre of video game, namely an adventure game titled, Spider Man: The Sinister Six. The game was released in 1996 and published by Byron Preiss Multimedia. The game allowed the user to choose their own path the narrative to go and allowed the user to interact with characters as Peter Parker, collect items, and included various puzzles and a range of boss battles in the form of mini games. The game was considered easy, unless understood it was targeted for young children.
Marvel Creativity Center released in 1997 for both PC and Apple Mac by Cloud 9 Interactive teaches the user how to create comics, the 'Marvel Way' with Stan Lee and Spider-Man acting as guides. The "story" involves Marvel studios being infiltrated by a mystery villain whose broken contact with all the regular Marvel artists and writers so it’s up to the user to plot, script, illustrate and letter a comic.
[edit] 2000s
Throughout the late 1990s Marvel Comics suffered an industry slump with Marvel filing for bankruptcy, which explains the lack of Spider-Man games towards the end of the late 1990s. However by 2000, Marvel was profitable again and was gearing up to drop the Comics Code Authority and established its own rating system and began seriously licensing its characters for major feature film adaptations (with the commercially successful X-Men film premiering on July 14, 2000). By the late 2000s new Spider-Man games were in the works all being published by Activision to this day.
As a symbolic gesture of Marvel's return they announced the development of three separate Spider-Man titles for Sony PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color. Neversoft's PlayStation iteration was so successful, an enhanced version by other developers was ported to PC and Dreamcast in 2001. A sequel to the PlayStation version Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro and the Game Boy Color version Spider-Man: The Sinister Six (not related to the NES game of the same name) was released in 2001, and developed by Vicarious Visions.
The PlayStation Spider-Man utilized the same engine as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (released September 2000) which was also published by Activision. As an easter egg, developer Neversoft Entertainment included the ability to play as Spider-Man if the player achieved a high level of success in 'career mode'. Furthermore, the method to unlock him in the GBA version of the game doubles as an inclusion of the Konami Code.
When the Game Boy Advance launched one of the earliest titles released was Spider-Man: Mysterio's Menace developed and published by Activision in 2001.
In September 2001, Spider-Man made a small appearance as one of the fighters in the fighting game by Paradox Development, X-Men: Mutant Academy 2 for Sony PlayStation.
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As the Spider-Man movie was released in 2002, a game developed by Treyarch titled, Spider-Man: The Movie was developed for PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Nintendo GameCube with a separate title developed by Digital Eclipse Software for Game Boy Advance. The game play was similar to that of Neversoft's previous Spider-Man game, except it featured for the first time aerial combat, and to an extent allowed the user to 'web sling' over New York openly, although not being able to land on the ground below. The game sported the voice of the actors from the film, including Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe and cult icon Bruce Campbell.
After the critical success of both the first Spider-Man film and the video game releases, Marvel ordered a wider selection of titles to coincide with the release of Spider-Man 2. The flagship titles being Treyarch's Spider-Man 2: The Game for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube, which extended the open environment concept started by their previous title (pioneered by the Grand Theft Auto series). Unlike the previous generation of games based on the film, Treyarch's game was not released for the PC, and in its stead was an original game developed by Fizz Factor. The reasons for this remain unclear, and Fizz Factors game did not include the open environment game play as seen in Treyarch's game and appeared to be targeted towards a younger audience, despite the game being marketed the same as the console release. Later, in 2005, another version of Spider-Man 2, this time for Sony's new handheld, the PlayStation Portable; which debuted in the first quarter of the year along with the system, was released.
A game was also released along side the Fizz Factor PC game titled, Spider-Man 2 Activity Center, featuring puzzles and mini games clearly targeted at young children.
Sony Pictures Mobile released a Spider-Man game for wireless phone in 2003. The game was such a success that a number of titles were planned to be released along side with the Spider-Man 2 film. Some titles were delayed and are slowly being released. Current titles include; Spider-Man vs. Doc Ock (May 2004) (a multi-level action-adventure game where Spider-Man battles Doc Ock), Spider-Man 2 Pinball (May 2004) (virtual pinball game, themed with Spider-Man & Doc Ock characters), Spider-Man 2 3D: NY Subway (April 2005) (The player acts as Spider-Man as he leaps, swings and soars through the city, defeating thugs and ultimately facing off with Doc Ock. The 3D games feature superior graphics and sound and showcase the advanced capabilities of new mobile handsets.) and Spider-Man 2 Text Messaging Games (Players must show their knowledge of Spider-Man trivia and navigate through a mission-based text game). Other hand handheld versions developed appeared on the Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance by Vicarious Visions and Nokia N-Gage by Backbone Entertainment.
In November 2004, in time for Christmas JakksTVGames released an all inclusive controller that includes an ATV input jack, to operate as a console plugged straight into a TV. It was titled Spider-Man Controller with 5 TV Games, and as the name suggests includes five original video games each with a different goal; Streets of the City, Doc Ock Horror, Green Goblin's Escape, Venom's Vindication and Rogues Gallery.
Additionally Micro Games of America towards the end of 2004 released a portable LCD game, titled Spider-Man 2. Sony Pictures has also released, their own LCD game, titled Spider-Man 2 Hand Held Game and a virtual reality head set portable game titled, Spider-Man 2 VR 3D.
As 2005 began Activision released Spider-Man & Friends for PC, developed by their internal company, Activision Value targeted towards young children featuring action game based game play with various puzzles used as a learning tool. In March, Activision Value released their second title based on the Spider-Man franchise, Spider-Man Print Studio. The software allows the user to print various calendars, posters, bookmarks, flyers, door hangers, and masks from a library of pre-existing Spider-Man themed art, with Spider-Man as a guide to show the user the software.
Ultimate Spider-Man based on the Marvel Comics' Ultimate Spider-Man was released on September 22, 2005 for GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, PC, Mobile Phones, and Game Boy Advance. In this game, players get to play both hero Spider-Man and fan-favorite villain Venom in their own storylines. The game also introduces the new Comic Inking Animation technology, cel shading that makes the entire game appear as if it were a living comic-book. The writing and art design for Ultimate Spider-Man were done by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley, respectively, who both have worked on the comic book series of the same name since it was launched. The game's plot line also supposedly fits into the USM chronology, with issues 86 - 88 being advertised dealing with the aftermath of the events of the game. However, the issues did not deal with the game, and infact had several continuity errors with the game (E.g. Silver Sable not knowing who Spider-Man is) and until Venom shows up again, it is open to interpretation where the game takes place.
Also in September 2005, Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects was released, which includes both Spider-Man and Venom as playable characters. The game was released for Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS.
Spider-Man is a featured playable character in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, which was released in the Fall 2006 for all current and next gen consoles. He was also playable character for the DS and GBA exlcusive video game Spider-Man: Battle for New York, which will also have the Green Goblin as a playable character
Games featuring Spider-Man that are due for release in 2007 include Spider-Man 3 which is scheduled for release at the same time as the film. Also scheduled for release at the end of 2007 are Spider-Man Trilogy - althogh it is not known if this is a boxset containing all 3 movie tie-in games or a brand new game that features all of the main characters from the films - and a sequel to Marvel Nemesis is also scheduled for release, but as of March 2007, is unknown if Spider-Man will be in the game.[6]
[edit] References
| Spider-Man | ||
|---|---|---|
| Publications | Main continuity: Amazing Fantasy • The Amazing Spider-Man The Sensational Spider-Man (vol. 2) • Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man • Astonishing Spider-Man • Spider-Man Family Other continuities: Ultimate Spider-Man • Marvel Adventures Spider-Man • Spider-Girl • Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Spider-Man: Reign |
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| Television | Spider-Man (1967) • Spidey Super Stories (1974, live action) • Amazing Spider-Man (1978, live action) • Supaidāman (1978 - Japanese) • Spider-Man (1981) •Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981) • Spider-Man (1994) •Spider-Man Unlimited (1999) • Spider-Man: The New Animated Series (2003) • The Amazing Spider-Man (2008) | |
| Films | Spider-Man (2002) • Spider-Man 2 (2004) • Spider-Man 3 (2007) | |
| Other topics | ||
| Fictional history of Spider-Man • Spider-Man supporting characters • Spider-Man villains • Spider-Man's powers and equipment • Video games • Alternate versions of Spider-Man • Spider-Man in other media |
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