With the release date for the PS4 exclusive “Spider-Man” video game having been recently revealed, I thought this would be a great time to take a look back at Spider-Man’s history in video games. What’s that? It’s been done before? Fine! How about if we take a look back at some of the weirdest times Spider-Man showed up in a video game? And by weird, I’m talking about times when he secretly showed up as a boss character or on, of all things, a skateboard! What’s that, now I’ve got your attention? Good! Let’s hop in the DeLorean and head back to 1989!
In the aforementioned 1989, Sega released a sequel game entitled “The Revenge of Shinobi” (the first game was simply entitled “Shinobi”). In it, several very familiar characters show up as boss characters to do battle with the main character, Joe Musashi; from Batman to Rambo, and, you guessed it, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man… or was it? In the original version of this game, Spider-Man and Batman were actually both impersonated by a shapeshifter. But what’s that, you’re saying this doesn’t count because Spider-Man didn’t really show up in this game? Ah, but he does.
You see, as time went on, this game received several software updates throughout its production. One such update was made to include the real Spider-Man, as well as the copyright information signifying that the character was owned by Marvel Comics. Sega had, by the time of this update, been licensed to use the character for “The Amazing Spider-Man vs the Kingpin”, which is why Sega decided to add the real McCoy by 1990. Other characters were altered to avoid lawsuits. Spider-Man was also altered again by the time this game was released on the Playstation Network and Xbox Live Arcade because the Sega license to the character was only for a limited time.
Fast forward to the following year in 1991, and the Punisher got his own Game Boy game entitled “The Punisher: The Ultimate Payback”. Now, it was advertised that Spider-Man would be showing up in this game as a guest star, and the two characters have been encountering each other since Punisher, aka Frank Castle, first showed up in “Amazing Spider-Man #129”. It’s not out of the norm for the two to meet. So what exactly makes this a weird Spider-Man appearance, you ask?
Well, Spider-Man shows up to offer advice to the Punisher to help him complete his missions. Nothing too weird about that, right? Except Spider-Man does nothing to stop the vigilante from killing off the bad guys (something we know Spider-Man would definitely try to prevent). Spidey simply stands aside to let the Punisher do what he’s got to do and then takes the civilians off to a safe place when he’s done. Over the years in the comics, when Spider-Man teams up with the Punisher, it’s usually only begrudgingly. He doesn’t approve of Frank’s methods, and the two have fought each other as much as they have helped each other because of this difference of opinions on how to take down criminals. I could see Spider-Man exchanging information with the Punisher to help save lives, but I just can’t believe he wouldn’t lift a webbed finger to save the bad guys, too. It’s what Spider-Man does. Very weird, indeed.
Remember those cool Neversoft Spider-Man games from 2000 and 2001 for Playstation One, Nintendo 64, and Sega Dreamcast (the sequel had the subtitle of “Enter Electro”)? Of course you do! Those, in my opinion, were some of the character’s best video games to date. But did you know that the developers at Neversoft also worked on 2000’s “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2”, adding the ability to unlock and play as Spider-Man? It’s true! He even had alternate costumes to choose from.
That wouldn’t be the last time Spider-Man was an unlockable character. In 2001’s “X-Men: Mutant Academy 2” Spider-Man was an unlockable fighter, being the only character in the entire game that wasn’t an X-Men-related character!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPP6O9R4-04
It’s worth noting that Rino Romano, the voice of Spider-Man from television’s “Spider-Man Unlimited” voiced him here, the Neversoft Spider-Man games, and in our next entry…
To cash in on the popularity of the movie, 2003 saw the release of “X2: Wolverine’s Revenge”. Don’t let the cover of the game or title fool you. The game has nothing to do with “X2: X-Men United” save for the unlockable movie costume. What’s this have to do with Spider-Man? Well, it turns out that there was a deleted scene with Web-Head that could only be unlocked when all of the dog tags were collected. This appearance was so secret, I didn’t even know it existed until some years later after the game’s release. Not even using the cheat codes to unlock everything worked. Talk about the Parker luck…
And there you have it, some of the weirdest Spider-Man video game appearances in the character’s long history. Which was your favorite, and do you remember playing any of these? Sound off in the comments section below!
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I loved that Spidey was in THPS2. I would play as him all the time.
@ Paul: Definitely! I know there’s plenty of more video games I’d purchase if Spidey was in it.
Even had his own end video
That’s so cool, I had no idea that spider-man appeared in Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2!! That’s pretty neat!! I guess everyone wants to play as spider-man, no matter what the game hahaha!!