5) Spider-Man: The Movie (2002)
A beautiful game by Treyarch, featuring the voices of Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe, this was the game that everyone had to get in 2002. Everything about this game felt cool and refined. The combo system, the web shooting, the wall-crawling, the stealth. It let you play out emotional scenes from the movie like the showdown with the burglar who killed Uncle Ben, and it also set up incredible setpieces like the Shocker bank robbery and the Vulture chase. The tutorial was fun (featuring a slick narrator) and the New Game+ mode let you play as the Green Goblin! This game was the pinnacle of cool and felt like a totally refined ultimate Spider-Man experience.
4) Ultimate Spider-Man (2005)
Not only did this game tie into the Brian Michael Bendis series, it actually was a part of that series. Seriously. It’s written by Bendis, and considered canon. He later adapted the game’s story directly into a comics story. But does it play? Hoo yeah. By simplifying the controls and creating a cartoony version of New York, Ultimate Spider-Man was a fun, focused game. We’re talking lean and mean. There’s no bloat to be found. The web-swinging challenges, the extra character (Venom!), the boss fights, the chases, everything was made to order, and everything was fun. One of the best Spider-Man games of all time.
3) Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (2010)
Years before Spider-Verse would try the same premise, Shattered Dimensions united four Spider-Men in a game that celebrated the different iterations of our favorite wall-crawler. The masterstroke of the game? Every Spider-Man played slightly differently, putting the focus on their specialties. The familiar Amazing Spider-Man was the jack-of-all-trades, mixing together combo attacks and web shooting flair. Spider-Man Noir was a master of stealth and a more violent and serious version of the hero. Spider-Man 2099 has cool gadgets that he can use in unique freefall sequences. And Ultimate Spider-Man has the Venom symbiote, giving him a focus on strength, goo, and rage. With a great voice cast and a confident art style, Shattered Dimensions is one of the purest Spider-Man experiences in any medium.
2) Spider-Man (PSX, N64, Dreamcast, 2000)
This was a game changer. The first 3D Spider-Man game defined everything that would come in the next two decades. The web-swinging. The wall-crawling. The spider-sense. The acrobatic combat. In 2000 there had never been a game like this and it was mindblowing. Every chapter focused on a different villain and in doing so, told a different kind of Spider-Man story through different gameplay. There’s the standard thugs-in-a-bank level, placing the emphasis on stealth and combat, but then that gets followed up with a brutal helicopter chase. Spider-Man must chase Lizard through a cramped sewer, and then team up with Venom to find Carnage and Mysterio. It all culminates in a team-up between Spidey, Venom, Captain America, Daredevil, the Punisher, Black Cat and the Human Torch storming a secret undersea base to defeat Doctor Octopus and Carnage. The story is still a lot of fun today and the game was the Rosetta Stone for all 3D superhero video games.
1) Spider-Man 2 (2004)
A movie tie-in? No, this game was so much more. Where Neversoft invented the formula in 2000, Treyarch perfected it in 2004. Where other Spider-Man games restricted you to the rooftops, this game let you leap from the roof of a taxi and swing up to the needle of the Empire State Building. It had a fun and memorable story, but that’s not how people played this game. Because along with Grand Theft Auto 3, this is the game that defined open world. You could simply patrol the streets of New York, feeling the thrill of web-swinging and looking for randomly generated trouble. Stop a mugging. Beat up a gang. Catch a kid’s damn balloon. Few games have ever had such fun base mechanics, but by empowering the player, Spider-Man 2 utterly captured the joy of being the Amazing Spider-Man.
So what is your favorite Spidey game? Tell us in the comments below.