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.