Spider-Tracer: 10 Hidden Secrets from the 2000 “Spider-Man” Game

To this day, the “Spider-Man” game from the year 2000 remains my favorite Spider-Man video game. It recently came to my attention that much got cut or changed in the original 2000 game before it saw release. There were also two well-hidden Easter Eggs, Easter Eggs hidden so well that most players, myself included, didn’t even know of their inclusion! For this month’s article, we’ll be looking at 10 of the wildest secrets from the 2000 video game that you probably didn’t know about!

 

1. Kraven Had a Secret Room

 

 

Hidden in a training level, Kraven the Hunter had a secret room. Inside was a plethora weapons, crates saying “Property of Sergei Kravinoff”, animal pelts on the walls, and Spider-Man images adorning several monitor screens. It was in here that you could find a hidden token to unlock the Peter Parker costume. Alas, if you were like nine-year-old me and used cheats to unlock most of the costumes and skipped training for the main game, you never found this secret Kraven the Hunter Easter Egg.

 

2. Green Goblin Had a Secret Room

 

 

Level Seven, “Police Chopper Chase” had an out of the way crane. I, myself, was too busy running from the firing police helicopter to notice it as a kid. On the side of this crane, there was graffiti of a pumpkin with the word “Bomb”. Inside was a hidden room, complete with pumpkin bombs, a glider, a Spider-Man poster with a pumpkin over the head, computer equipment, and some books. Sure, it could belong to the Hobgoblin, but knowing that Norman Osborn had hidden lairs hidden throughout the city (as shown in Hobgoblin’s first appearance in “The Amazing Spider-Man” #238), I’m betting it’s his.

 

3. The Symbiotes Looked Much Different

 

 

In the final game, the symbiotes had a cutesy, goopy physical appearance. However, as found by YouTube user Anganoff (who just so happens to have found most of the secrets I’ll be sharing with you today from a beta version of the game, aside from the Kraven and Green Goblin rooms; HUGE shoutout to him!), the symbiotes originally had a head with sharp teeth upon four spidery legs, and could stand up when needed. It was a creepy look, and perhaps that was why it was changed: So that the rating for the game would allow for kids to play it.

 

4. Monster-Ock Looked Much Different

 

 

Ever wonder why the picture of Monster-Ock at the top of the last level’s screen looks so different compared to the character actually chasing you in this game? As it turns out, Monster-Ock looked much different look originally. Before settling upon the final look for him, Monster-Ock had sunglasses, was red AND orange, complete with a loin cloth carried over from Doc Ock’s game design. I couldn’t say why they changed his look, other than to speculate that they just thought the final look was just cooler. While I do prefer most of the creature’s final look, I do wish he’d kept the original head with the sunglasses. Oh well…

 

5. Tony Hawk Was Going to be a Playable Character

 

 

The 2000 “Spider-Man” game’s developers worked on this and “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2” (billboards advertising the skating game appear throughout the various levels). They also included Web-Head in that game as a playable character (which I detailed in that aforementioned earlier article). As it turns out, Tony Hawk was going to appear as a playable costume for Spider-Man, complete with a line of dialogue from the game’s narrator (and Spider-Man co-creator), Stan Lee!

 

6. Vulture Was Going to be a Boss

 

 

According to a design document, Adrian Toomes was a proposed boss for the game! I would theorize that this never got further than this document, however, as no character design has ever surfaced. He showed up two years later in the movie game, “Spider-Man”.

 

7. Lizard Was Going to be a Boss

 

 

While pursuing Venom in the sewers, Spider-Man runs across the Lizard, a prisoner of the symbiotic madman. Other than some dialogue with Spider-Man, the character does little else than gesture with his hands while speaking. However, a storyboard for the final cutscene with the defeated villains in jail shows the Lizard sitting among them. In the final cut of the game, Lizard is replaced in the jail cell with one of the generic Jade Syndicate thugs from early in the game. Lizard was also in a magazine preview of the game, suggesting he had a much larger role than we originally thought. It’s unknown why the scaly menace was cut, but he was later added to the sequel game, “Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro” as a boss. I’d theorize that enough work was done on the character the first time around that he was able to easily be added to the second game.

 

8. Iron Man Was Going to Appear

 

 

The 2000 “Spider-Man” game had plenty of heroes show up; from Daredevil, to Captain America, to the Human Torch. But it seems that at some point, Iron Man was going to appear. There’s been no design or voice file for Iron Man found to my knowledge, but there was a cut bit of Stan Lee dialogue describing the character (as he did for most of the other characters in the game) to prove that at least some work on him had been done.

 

9. Scorpion Originally Had His Classic Costume

 

 

One thing people will notice about the Scorpion in this game is that he has his obscure, redesigned armor from the Howard Mackie and John Byrne reboot going on in the comics around the time that this game came out. However, at some point, it seems that the Scorpion was intended to show up in his classic green costume! I can only guess that the then-modern costume was used to be more in line with the comics of the time. It’s a shame that the classic costume hadn’t made the cut instead.

 

10. Spider-Ham Was Going to be a Playable Character

 

 

Yep. Spider-Ham was going to show up, seemingly as a playable costume/character, much like Spider-Man 2099 had! Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, the character was cut! We know he was planned due to a “Spider-Ham” line from Stan found by the aforementioned Anganoff. It would be another ten years before Spider-Ham made his video game debut in “Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions”.

 

And there you have it, ten of the biggest hidden secrets from the 2000 “Spider-Man” video game. What was your favorite, and did you find any? Be sure to let me know in the comments section below. And check out Anganoff’s YouTube channel for more in detail looks at these and a multitude of other secrets not listed here: https://www.youtube.com/@Anganoff/videos