Top 10 Spider-Man video games ranked from worst to best
4. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Movie tie-in games have a reputation for being… well, mediocre. Development is often rushed to ensure the game releases around the same date as the movie’s premiere, greatly impacting its quality. Due to that, players have been let down after playing games like Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Fight Club, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and many more. However, there has never been a greater exception to that rule as Spider-Man 2 (2004).
Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 is considered to be one of the greatest superhero movies ever. So it’s only fitting that Treyarch created a faithful adaptation that’s considered one of the greatest superhero games ever as well. One of the things that made it such a hit with critics and players alike was its innovative take on Spidey’s web-slinging.
No other game before adopted a physics-based traversal system that allowed players to control when the wall-crawler would shoot each individual web. It truly shaped the path for other Spider-Man games to follow. To this date, many still consider Spider-Man 2 to have the best swinging mechanics even when other (modern) games such as Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 have been released.
Spider-Man 2 (2004) gracefully adapted the events of Sam Raimi’s movie while also expanding on them by adding new characters and narratives. What’s most surprising is how it managed to merge its amazing story with an open-world design. Back in the day, it was one of the very first superhero games in history to make use of an open map that gave players more opportunities for exploration and naturally discovering side content. It set a high bar for what the Spider-Man games could do both in terms of narrative and gameplay. Without it, the wall crawler’s digital adventures could look different today.
The only reason Spider-Man 2 (2004) isn’t higher on the list is not due to its faults (which, most of them are excusable for its era). Instead, is due to the launch of three amazing games we’re about to discuss now that managed to surpass it in almost every way possible.