Spider-Man PS1 Review
Developer:Neversoft
Publisher:Activision
Platform: PlayStation 1, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, PC, GameBoy Colour.
Release Date: 15th September 2000 EU, 30th August NA
This game is 18 years old already holy shit snacks.
Plus, given the release of Spider-Man on PS4 this seems appropriate to review now to see how far Spidey has come.
I remember the first time I played this was in my first year of having my PS1. I was 7 and I got my first demo disc and this game was one of the first games I played on it. I remember too there was Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour, but Spider-Man is what I spent the most time on. He was one of the first superheroes I was ever exposed to as a kid next to Superman, Batman, Hulk, Iron Man and the X-Men. And I remember spending so much time watching the 90’s animated Spidey series.
The demo I played had only the first level and no music. Don’t even think it had Black Cat in it either yet. But the first time I swung on my first web it caught me. And then I stuck to the wall on the side of the next building and it filled me with such excitement. I was Spider-Man! Then beating the first thug and so on. I played that level so much as a kid. But it wasn’t until around May 2017 I first got to play the full game for myself. In fact the first Spider-Man game I had was this game’s sequel; Spider-Man 2 Enter Electro.
But the game!
The plot of this game revolves around a supposed reformed Otto Octavious. He’s hosting a convention when Spider-Man comes and ruins the show by stealing Ock’s tech. Though it’s later revealed to be Mysterio posing as Spidey, and obvious it wasn’t Spidey because Parker was in the audience at the time, Eddie Brock also present at the convention is angered at Spider-Man’s thievery. He turns into Venom and goes off on a vengeful quest to kill Spidey once and for all. But, after a boss battle or two with Venom and saving Mary Jane from his grasp, you end up working along side him to stop any further symbiotes getting out and about.
Meanwhile, the lie of Spidey stealing Ock’s tech was all a ruse so that Ock can enact his next big attack; filling New York with a smog (so your levels set outside are forced to be on the rooftops, which is a clever work around the level designs and the popular fog technique used in PS1 games) and from this, with some help from Carnage, he plans to use symbiotes to gain control of the world.
Along the way you get help from Black Cat, have a brief encounter with Daredevil, Punisher and even Lizard if you navigate the sewer levels correctly, Human Torch and even Captain America at the end!
For bosses to beat you get Scorpion (who you have to save JJJ from), Rhino, Mysterio, and the two big bads of the game Carnage and of course Doctor Octopus. And, especially made for this game, Monster-Ock! Doc Ock wears Carnage’s symbiote and you have to run like fuck away from him which made for one intense gaming moment.
The gameplay is simple but very fun. You get to shoot webs, punch, kick, jump high, web swing a limited distance and wall crawl. You can also pick up and throw objects and on certain levels get special web upgrades like lacing your webs with fire when fighting against the symbiotes.
You can be creative with your webs too; you can shoot web balls, make web gloves for added punching damage, web yank your foes towards you or to your left and right (which makes for fun times tossing bad guys off of buildings) and a web dome where you encase yourself in web, use it as a shield and explode out for an area attack. You have to be careful though because you do get a limited amount of webbing to use. At most you get 10 cartridges. You can collect more to refill your webs along the way of course but the more you use your webs and your web dome especially the more they’ll get used up. So use them sparingly.
For enemies you get thugs with guns, thugs with scales and thugs made of goop.
The boss fights are interesting. Scorpion is a simple punch and dodge affair. Rhino you get him to ram into guff and punch. Venom you have to catch from him disappearing and you punch. Ok there’s a little bit of a pattern here.
But Mysterio you have to attack on 3 different plains on his giant self. That does make for a clever boss fight I think but there have been criticisms on how it’s laid out with the electrified floor and not enough time to get out of the way of attacks and attack back with web balls, if you can get them to work.
Carnage you have to catch in sonic waves and then you can pummel and Dock Ock you avoid his arms, get him trapped, lower his shield and pummel away. Monster Ock, yeah you just run.
But the one thing they got right is playing as Spider-Man. For his first 3D outing you feel like Spider-Man and it’s so much fun to jump and punch and swing around as him. It’s not the same as modern Spidey games of course where you get open worlds to swing around in, but this was classic action adventure gameplay in closed in levels.
The levels are laid out like comic books which is appropriate. There’s 6 different sections of levels each with their own comic book cover but 34 levels overall. That’s a lot but really, they’re all quite short. Which isn’t a bad thing at all honestly. Given the game’s technical limitations each level makes the most of Spidey’s abilities, introducing new enemies, environments and boss battles.
You get levels set on rooftops, in offices, at the Daily Bugle, and down in the sewers, so you really get about New York.
You could probably get through this game in 2 hours on your first go through but there is plenty to go back and play through.
There’s 3 different difficulties to play through each given you different rewards such as new costumes. And each costume has (or hasn’t with some) got in game abilities so this adds for more replay value to go through the game again in a different costume of Spidey’s. There’s comic book covers to collect and not to mention lots of easter eggs to go on the hunt for.
Oh, and there’s even cheats. Remember when games did cheats to add more fun into the game? You get big head mode, unlock everything if you’re lazy and just want to dive in with everything readily available to play (if that were today you’d have to pay to unlock everything fast), debug mode, invincibility, unlimited webbing, and all game covers.
This game I always felt closely tied in with 90’s animated series at the time. It used the same voice actor for Ock for one thing, but also just the design of the game and especially the logo used for Spider-Man’s name for the game. And given I was a huge fan of the cartoon at the same time I loved the similarities between the two. I could watch the series and then go play Enter Electro and live out my childhood fantasies of being Spider-Man.
And today this game is still a lot of fun to play. It’s lasted this well 18 years on. The gameplay is as sharp as it has ever been, it sounds good still-- I mean the soundtrack is catchy, dialogue is great and effects! The story is strong for its simplicity. It’s hard to find any faults within this game.
Maybe you could argue with some technical difficulties like how moving about can be a bit stiff at times especially on the wall crawling and there isn’t much in the way of dodging enemies attacks apart from jumping at the time of your spider sense going off. But there’s a reason this game got such high praise 18 years ago and still to this day it’s a solid game.
Comparing it to how Spider-Man looks on the PS4, Spidey’s come a long, long way. And it’s nice to see the leaps and bounds that have happened between now and then from this game, to see how far the games have developed into becoming a fully realised and immersive Spider-Man game and experience. It’s spectacular, it’s amazing! Sorry, I had to…
But, yeah. Damn good game. Solid. Go get.
They really should use Monster Ock in the comics...
Where to purchase:
Ebay; £11.84 - £25, $12-25 (16/09/18)
Amazon; £23.88, $15- 126 (16/09/18)