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Sony Playstation:
Spider-Man

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About This Game
Coolest Characters
History
Voice Talent



About This Game:  Rating: E for Everyone.  Publisher: Activision.  Year: 2000.

    This game is based on the Spider-Man comic books and especially the FOX-TV cartoon series (1994-1998).  I think the designers did a wonderful job of bringing the Spider-Man superhero saga to life for all audiences.  It's a straight-out action/adventure game and the first Spidey game ever that allows you to perform so many functions.  As Spider-Man, you can crawl on walls and ceilings in all directions, do many different things with webs, and fight bad guys with multiple moves.  In other words, this game goes beyond the limited punch/kick/jump functions of previous Spider-Man games.

    I don't usually think 3-D is suitable for superhero video games.  Spider-Man is one instance where it works.  The only way you can really do everything the Spider-Man character is known to do is in a 3-D format.  It's amazing how one can really be drawn into the game, and pretend he/she is Spider-Man.  Another thing that helps pull you into Spider-Man's reality is the wonderful use of voices and animated sequences.  A tip of my hat goes to everyone who produced some very cool voicework for these larger-than-life characters.

    The premise of the game is very simple to grasp.  Spider-Man goes on one adventure after another, fighting bad guys, until he wins.  A nice story ties it all together.  We learn that Doctor Octopus is the leader of a supervillain gang consisting of Carnage, his "second-in-command", and Mysterio, Rhino, and Scorpion.  Also involved is the Jade Syndicate, a group of thugs that attempts a bank robbery early in the game.  To make a long story short, Doctor Octopus and Carnage plan to make an army of symbiote creatures (like Carnage).  They set up Spider-Man as a thief to, essentially, keep him from stopping them.

    Venom gets involved because he thinks Spider-Man is in on the mad plot.  When he learns that Spider-Man is innocent, he teams up with the webslinger to take down the mad gang.  The Lizard was kidnapped by Venom, and his lizard men used against Spider-Man.  He, also, had nothing to do with the criminal scheme.

    The game boasts many cameo appearances from Marvel characters, including:  Black Cat, Captain America, Daredevil, Human Torch, Mary Jane Watson-Parker, and Punisher (with sidekick Microchip).

Supervillain #1: Scorpion
Supervillain #2: Rhino
Supervillain #3: The Lizard
Supervillain #4: Venom
Supervillain #5: Mysterio
Supervillain #6: Carnage
Supervillain #7: Doctor Octopus
Supervillain #8: Monster Ock

History:  This game was developed by Neversoft, using the "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater" (1999) engine.  It was originally released for the Sony Playstation and the Nintendo 64 consoles in 2000.  It was later released on the Sega Dreamcast console, and as a PC game, both in 2001.  An alternate game, still called "Spider-Man", was released on the Nintendo Game Boy Color handheld unit in 2000, only a week after the Playstation game debuted.

    This video game of "Spider-Man" was based on the cartoon series of the same name that aired on FOX-TV from 1994-1998.  The game was not released until April of 2000, which probably means it was in development while the show was still on.  "Spider-Man" takes a lot of elements from the TV cartoon and the comics published by Marvel.  This particular game was a huge success in sales, and was followed-up by "Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro" in 2001.  An interesting fact to note is that Spider-Man's most popular villain, Green Goblin, does not appear in either game.

Voice Talent:

Rino Romano as Spider-Man/Bank Thug #1.  He's done a ton of voicework in video games and cartoons.  At the time this game was released, he was the voice of Spider-Man in the cartoon series, "Spider-Man Unlimited" (1999-2001).  More recently and perhaps most popularly, he was the voice of Batman in the cartoon series, "The Batman" (2004-2008).

Jennifer Hale as Black Cat/Mary Jane Watson-Parker.  She's done a TON of voicework in video games and cartoons, and has had some live-action roles as well.  She was the voice of Black Cat in the "Spider-Man" cartoon (1994-1998) and was also doing work in the cartoon "Spider-Man Unlimited" (1999-2001) at the time of this game's release.  Currently, she is the voice of Jean Grey in the cartoon series, "Wolverine and the X-Men" (began 2008).  She certainly has one of the sexiest voices around!

Stan Lee as Narrator.

Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Dr. Octopus.  This man is a very popular actor who is probably best known for his work on the TV series "77 Sunset Strip".  He also voiced Dr. Octopus in the "Spider-Man" cartoon series (1994-1998).

Dee Bradley Baker as Carnage/Rhino/J. Jonah Jameson/Daredevil/The Lizard.  A very good and capable voice actor who has many popular video game and animated series to his credit.

Daran Norris as Venom/Mysterio/Scorpion/Punisher/Human Torch/Captain America.  Another great voice actor.  I just love how his Venom calls our hero, "Spider-Wuss".

Christopher Corey Smith as Microchip/Hostage/Police Pilot/Sniper/Workout Trainer.

Laurence Fishburne as Uatu, The Watcher.  The very popular actor of TV and film is the voice of Marvel's mysterious Watcher!  An odd, cosmic character that debuted in the "Fantastic Four" comics in 1963, and is popularly known as the narrator of the "What If?" comics.  An interesting fact is that Fishburne became the voice of Silver Surfer, another Fantastic Four character, in the live-action film, "Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer" (2007).  Uatu appears only in the What If? mode of this video game.