Hi guys, I recently did some comic reviews on the Fanboy Factor website on these following comics:
Justice League of America issue 9:
Predator Vs Judge Dredd Vs Aliens issue 2 :
Bloodshot Reborn issue 16:
XO Manowar issue 49:
Now that that is over with, there is something that brought my attention. I was simply going through my newsfeed when I saw IGN and Machinima post a small short video. The short video said Happy Anniversary, on this day 8/ 30/00 Spider-Man for PlayStation 1, Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast Platforms was released. I stopped and realized, "how could I forget that this game came out on this day?!" And then I realized "wait, I still own this game". I still play this game on my PS2.
Ah, it had me reflecting. This game came out during a time when video games were bought as one whole package and not a monthly DLC sort of thing. It wasn't like you were paying rent for a video game. You had the entire game, made in its entirety for you to play it in its entirety.
Before the Arkham Franchise, before Spider-Man 2 the movie game (2004)
and Ultimate Spider-Man (2005)
Spider-Man (2000) was and still is one of the best superhero games of all time and it is most definitely one of the best Spider-Man video games of all time. I mean it's so much of a classic that YouTuber KaptainKristian did a video essay for IGN called Spider-Man- The Lessons of Heroism. You can watch the video here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fO1sY_Dg-M . ( Just copy and past the link in the web browser so you can view it). Within that video Kaptain Kristian goes in detail about the essence of the character, uses quotes from Stan Lee, clips from the 90's cartoon and from the first 2 Raimi films to boot. But he mentions the challenges and what makes a character interesting when dealing with adversity to a point where he uses the PS1 game saying
".. Money problems could interfere with him being able to repair his web shooters or even make the webbing, which could give him a major disadvantage in battle. If you remember in Spider-Man how much tougher that game became when you were low on webbing.."
Mind you, there were other Spider-Man games made prior to the Activision and Neversoft Spider-Man (2000) game, but this was the first 3D Spider-Man game that introduced such great concepts that would carry over into the other games that would show up in the other game platforms that came after.
I still own this game, and still play it every now and then.
I mean The amount of Easter eggs, the costumes, unlockables were the kind of stuff I didn't often see until later on in the games previously mentioned. I mean, there were moments you would go to school, or be on the school bus talking with friends about how hard it was to get past the helicopter chase level, or facing off with Scorpion, or even trying to figure out where to place the ticking bomb after saving the hostages in the bank heist level. Mind you, I didn't realize that I had to throw the bomb in the safe (I was 6 years old at the time). We would talk about the cheat codes, like EEL NATS which was Stan Lee's name backwards, which unlocked everything in the game. There are other things where if you put curse words in the cheat menu, Spider-Man literally comes from the bottom of the screen and punches the words into a more polite word.
It's humorous that you can revisit the game and still find the kind of Easter eggs within the game that you probably never realized that was included within the game. I remember being obsessed with trying to find all the comic book covers in the game so I could unlock costumes or read about the comic book cover that was found which gave bits and pieces of spider-man history. The first costume I ever unlocked in the game was the Scarlet Spider costume, which was awesome for me since I was a big spider-man fan (still am). I remember as a kid how much awe I had over the amount of costumes that players could use like the Ben Reilly clone outfit, the Spider-Man Unlimited costume, the Captain Universe costume, the Symbiote Suit, The Spidey Armor among a few costumes. No spider-man game prior to that ever had costume options as such.
There were tons of cameos from characters within the Marvel Universe. You would meet characters such as Black Cat, Daredevil, Human Torch, Captain America, The Punisher, (and if you enter The cheat code for "What If" mode you get to see Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider, and a few other characters). Also, I must mention that no SPider-Man game was complete without a narration from none other than Stan "the Man" Lee. Every time a new level was starting out, Stan would narrate and it would feel like you were playing out scenes from the old Spider-Man comics that STan used to write in the 60's and 70's. When I was a kid, I would go to the Character Viewer section in the Gallery section and would take the time to listen to Stan Lee narrate a bit of history about the characters both hero and villain alike. You didn't get that kind of stuff again for a long while.
Even more cool was the fact that players and comic book fans get treated with awesome fully 3D versions of Spider-Man's villains such as Scorpion, Rhino, Venom, The Lizard (you don't fight him, but you do come across him), Mysterio, Carnage & Doc Ock. What was so great about fighting these villains and the plot of the game was that it's shrouded by mystery, and even creates a villain exclusively for the game. They would do the same thing for its sequel Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro (2001), but that game while it was cool, wasn't as exciting or as cool in terms of story, levels and characters within Spider-Man. The 2002 Spider-Man movie game carries over some of the game play mechanics of the PS1 games and would then evolve the game play mechanics to the point where free roam and doing web slinging tricks within the Spider-Man 2 movie game. But none of that wouldn't happen without the creation of Spider-Man (2000) game.
It was the first Spider-Man game, and the first superhero game that made players actually feel like Spider-Man, let alone feel like a superhero. Spider-Man 2 would enhance the formula and aspects of playing as Spider-Man in a free roam environment, Ultimate Spider-Man would enhance the over all comic book aesthetic and feel, and the Batman Arkham games would solidify what it felt like to play as a superhero. But before those notable games, Spider-Man (2000) would literally usher in that aspect of being in the world of Spider-Man. It was the first notable Three Dimensional entry into the world of a beloved character.
There were tons of spider-man games that came after, along with a bunch of other superhero games, But not a lot of them had that fun factor or the kind of success like this game. I still want to see this version of spider-man in a movie, a well adjusted , older , married spider-man who had the same kind of sense of humor as the voice actor Rino Romano injected within the PS1 fame. Hell it would be cool to see a updated version or continuation of this era of spidey.
It was a Spider-Man game that had an original story which made it exciting for players to want to know what was gonna happen next. One of the biggest games of the new Millennium at the time among the Crash Bandicoot's , the Spyro's and other games of its time. Although I beat that Monster Ock board, it took me a few years to get the courage to do that. When I was 6 years old, I could not get past that part until I was like 13. Now at the age of 22 I could beat that level like as if it was no problem but it still gives me goosebumps . Tommy Tallarico does one hell of a job with the music in this game. The fact they had a lot of voice actors from the 90's Spider-Man cartoon and the Spider-Man Unlimited series made it even better for all of the comic book fans and spider-man fans who grew up in that era of the 90's ,late 90's and early 2000's. Although Insomniac games has the Spider-Man license now and are creating the new Spider-man game for the PS4, it may just carry the spiritual elements that made the PS1 game a classic in terms of original story, content and characters. One thing for sure is that without this game, superhero games probably wouldn't have gotten to certain heights of success had it not been for the existence and success of this game. Spider- Man 2 (2004) , Ultimate Spider-Man (2005), and the Batman Arkham franchise would have never existed without this game, and although the game is a bit dated, it still has replayability and to it's credit, is still a fun game.
