The 10 Best And 10 Worst Spider-Man Games Of All Time
With great power comes great responsibility... to make a game that lives up to the legacy of everyone's favorite web-head. Spider-Man is no stranger to video game adaptations, starring in almost forty different entries since 1982, but he does seem to be a stranger to good ones.
Despite having some of the best comic arcs in all of Marvel history, Spider-Man seems to be cursed with some pretty inconsistent video games. It takes a lot to bring the hero to life in a way that captures the hearts of fans. Though the webslinger's gaming career has shown significant improvement over the years (and even turned out some truly remarkable projects), there's still a lot of chaff to root through in the search for the top "Spider-Man" game. From the truly amazing to the less-than-spectacular titles that have spanned the hero's lifetime, here are the ten best and ten worst "Spider-Man" games of all time.
WORST: Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin
The worst thing that can be said about "Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin" is that it's notoriously difficult and that other games have simply done better in the years since. Spidey's Sega-exclusive adventure is remarkably challenging even on its easiest level, and that's not even to mention the "Nightmare" mode on the Sega CD version. The difficulty manifests in some pretty weird ways, too. For instance, Kingpin keeps a team of deadly guard dogs that seemingly cannot be defeated. Hyper's review noted that "[it's] a game for dog-lovers everywhere ... there is no way I can find to inflict any harm on the Kingpin's guard dogs."
Despite that, the entry has its perks. The fact that "Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin" incorporates so many of Spidey's unique powers on top of the generic action-platformer mechanics puts it a step above some of the other titles on this list. The game also features alternate endings depending on how well you play the final level. Ultimately, though, the game just isn't all that memorable, even with the bells and whistles. It's just punishingly difficult.
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Release Date: 1991
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Available On: Sega Genesis, Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear, Sega CD
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Genre: Action, Platformer
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Game Modes: Single-player
BEST: Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage
"Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage" had a slightly rough start, but it's become more highly regarded in the years since its release. Launched in 1994 for the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis, the game received mixed and middling reviews that criticized its graphics and clunky controls. Players also found fault with the difficulty and lack of variety in the characters' move sets, claiming that the title can feel unnecessarily long and repetitive when using the same attacks against the same enemies in front of the same backgrounds.
However, "Maximum Carnage" has aged like a fine wine. It has come to be viewed more favorably in recent years as a result of its faithful adaptation of the comic arc of the same name, catchy soundtrack, and ability to switch between Spider-Man and Venom throughout gameplay. Player reviews are more forgiving of its faults in retrospect, and publications like 90s Reviewer have come to appreciate its combo system and special web attacks.
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Release Date: Sept. 16, 1994
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Available On: SNES, Sega Genesis
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Genre: Action, Beat 'em up
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Game Modes: Single-player
WORST: Spider-Man: The Animated Series
"Spider-Man: The Animated Series" was an attempt to adapt Spidey's breakout 1994 cartoon. What the developers ended up with was a game that sadly did not capture the spirit of the beloved show, but did feature a generic plot carried by clunky controls.
The gameplay and level design differ slightly between the SNES and Sega Genesis versions, but they follow the same basic story: New York City is being terrorized by a number of Spider-Man's villains following a mass breakout at Ravencroft prison, and it's up to you to stop them. According to a review by Comic Book Video Games, "Spider-Man: The Animated Series" embraces a "20 to 1" enemy-to-hero ratio that's presumably meant to make Spider-Man a plucky underdog facing overwhelming odds, but in practice seems "more concerned with having as many foes as possible with no intention of giving them a clever reason to be where they are."
The inclusion of lesser-known villains like Alistair Smythe (also known as the Ultimate Spider Slayer) is interesting enough, but it doesn't make up for the game's numerous flaws. Like Sega-16 says in its review, "you'll definitely find and play worse licensed games ... Still, it doesn't offer much in terms of playability or even having much fun either."
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Release Date: 1995
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Available On: SNES, Sega Genesis
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Genre: Action, side-scrolling platformer
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Game Modes: Single-player
BEST: Spider-Man: The Video Game
While it's certainly not the highest-ranked Spider-Man adventure, "Spider-Man: The Video Game" holds a special place in many fans' hearts. This colorful beat 'em up title set the stage for future "Spider-Man" games with side-scrolling action that featured not only Spider-Man, but Black Cat, Hawkeye, and Namor the Sub-Mariner as playable characters. Spidey lovers could group up around the arcade machine and take on a whole slew of bad guys in a cooperative punch-fest for the ages.
"Spider-Man: The Video Game" was extremely well-regarded at its release, with Computer and Video Games magazine praising its "incredible graphics," and nostalgia has only made it sweeter. Most "Spider-Man" games over the years have been strictly single-player, so a cooperative multiplayer option that combines fun beat 'em up gameplay with a comic book aesthetic and interesting villains is a real gem.
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Release Date: 1991
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Available On: Arcade
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Genre: Action, Beat 'em up
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Game Modes: Single-player, Local multiplayer (Up to 4)
WORST: The Amazing Spider-Man (Game Boy)
Since 1992, game developer Rare has launched a number of iconic titles that gamers recognize across all sorts of genres. Whether you got your banana-grabbing fix from "Donkey Kong Country," planted your first-person shooter roots in "GoldenEye 007," or discovered your love of platforming in "Banjo-Kazooie," chances are you've at least heard of or played a good Rare game.
As it turns out, they can't all be winners. Back in 1990, Rare released one of the worst "Spider-Man" games ever made — the infamous "The Amazing Spider-Man" on Game Boy. It wasn't for lack of effort, as the title provides a sufficient challenge without being too lengthy (in fact, the game is only about twenty minutes long from start to finish). The title also packs in as many Spider-powers as Rare could reasonably utilize with the system's limitations.
But it's these limitations that proved to be the downfall of "The Amazing Spider-Man." The Game Boy's monochromatic screen saps the color out of the web-slinging hero, and Spidey often blends into the background as a result. And of course, there are also only so many abilities you can put into a game where players only have two buttons to work with — wall-crawling is restricted to only two levels, and all of Spidey's other powers have to be executed by holding the jump and punch buttons. As GameBoyle's review points out, the resulting clunky controls make "the most acrobatic of superheroes [maneuver] about as well in these sections as Aunt May might."
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Release Date: July 1990
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Available On: Game Boy
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Genre: Action, Platformer
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Game Modes: Single-player
BEST: Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
"Spider-Man: Web of Shadows" boasts an original plot full of creative story beats that give players much more control over how they play Spider-Man. Anyone familiar with the Spider-Man canon knows that Peter becomes more impulsive and violent when he's using his black symbiote suit, and "Web of Shadows" encourages you to play with the darker and more terrible side of Spider-Man. The game's story and ending change depending on which suit you rely on more during the campaign, giving you several different avenues to explore as you play the friendly (or not-so-friendly) neighborhood Spider-Man.
There are a few things that keep this title from ranking higher, despite its creative concept. A review by 1UP noted that the game suffers from uninteresting combat and poor camera controls. You also can't free roam after you've completed the main story — while Treyarch gave players unfettered access to the city in titles like "Spider-Man 2," fans were disappointed that "Web of Shadows" didn't offer a similar experience.
None of this would be too bad if the whole story (symbiote suit or not) didn't feel somewhat out of character. IGN points out that Spidey is a "whiney hero" who occasionally drops civilians off buildings and whose alter-ego only makes an appearance by name. After a handful of well-characterized Spider-Man games, these drawbacks ding the overall experience just a bit.
WORST: Spider-Man: Battle for New York
"Spider-Man: Battle for New York" is yet another underwhelming handheld title, this time taking place in the Ultimate Marvel universe. The story reimagines Spider-Man's first altercation with the Green Goblin, who is created in this universe when Norman Osborne attempts to recreate Peter Parker's radioactive origins with the help of his Oz Formula. When things inevitably go wrong and Norman loses his mind, the Green Goblin decides to create a goblin army out of the citizens of New York City. Spidey, unsurprisingly, steps up to stop him.
The story itself isn't so bad, but it's marred by restrictive and poorly-designed levels, as well as difficult combat that has deeply frustrated players. According to Metacritic user reviews, these drawbacks made an otherwise fun game delivered into a below-average experience. It was also released after Spider-Man games had largely started taking a turn for the better, making its performance seem worse in comparison. It's no wonder IGN called this game "pretty forgettable."
BEST: Spider-Man
It's hard to find anything negative to say about 2000's "Spider-Man" from Neversoft. For many players, it was the first Spider-Man game to capture what it really meant to play Spidey on-screen. Gone were the days of awkward platformers and side-scrolling beat 'em ups — they gave way to a three-dimensional adventure that embraces Spider-Man in an entirely new way.
"Spider-Man" features a vast cast of Spidey villains voiced by the same actors that played them in the animated series, though the game isn't just a redux of the cartoon. It follows an entirely original plot narrated by none other than Stan Lee, and the movement supplied by the same engine used for "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater" gives players a lot more freedom over how they embody Spider-Man. Most impressive of all is the inclusion of so much canon-accurate material. Super Swim Team 7's review sums it up nicely, saying "it covers nearly every angle of Spidey lore, from street-level crime to bank robberies to trouble at The Bugle ... and more."
The game obviously suffers from its fair share of drawbacks, though these were mostly due to the limitations of the time. The animated cutscenes were left out of the N64 port, and there were a few instances of clunky controls and awkward camera angles that made the game less than perfect. Still, it set the standard for what would constitute a quality Spider-Man game moving forward.
WORST: The Amazing Spider-Man (Atari)
As it turns out, there were actually two games titled "The Amazing Spider-Man" released in 1990, and the one developed by Rare wasn't the worst of them. When you hear the word "superhero," most people might conjure up a mental image of a costumed powerhouse beating up baddies. Well, as developer Rick Yapp of Oxford Digital Enterprises told The One magazine in 1990, the Atari version of Spider-Man "can't beat anybody up at all."
This shocking change of pace was born of the desire to create a sort of puzzle-platformer that put Spidey's braininess and web-slinging abilities to greater use, but the result is a tiny Spider-Sprite awkwardly crawling/wiggling through giant areas without using his Spider-Sense or any of his offensive abilities. Perhaps because of the platform limitations, the puzzles in this game get hard — even in an otherwise positive review, Obsolete Gamer admits "a game like this would never make it today."
At least the levels cycle through different movie genres, which is a nice little nod to Mysterio's love for movie magic. It's not the comic-accurate touch fans were hoping for, but it's comic-accurate nonetheless.
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Release Date: 1990
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Available On: PC, Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore 64
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Genre: Platformer
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Game Modes: Single-player
BEST: Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
"Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions" appealed to fans of the Spider-Verse long before the hit film "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" hit theaters. It features Spider-Men from four different timelines and dimensions, showing more of the breadth of the Spider-Man canon for the first time in the gaming sphere. After Peter Parker mistakenly scatters shards of the Tablet of Order and Chaos into different dimensions, he must team up with three other versions of Spider-Man from those realities: Spider-Man Noir (a stealthy Spidey from the 1930s), Spider-Man 2099 (a mutated hero from the future named Miguel O'Hara), and Ultimate Spider-Man (an alternate Peter Parker bonded with the Venom symbiote) to retrieve the fragments. The Spideys face off against a host of Spider-Man villains in their respective settings as they work to stop Mysterio and his newfound mystical powers.
It's not just the Spider-Men that get an alternate dimension makeover, either — each of the major villains they face has a unique power-up, like a super-charged Electro. The detail involved in each alternate world raised the stakes for both Spidey and the player. According to IGN, "There's a sense of drama in 'Shattered Dimensions' that has been missing from Spidey games for years."
WORST: The Amazing Spider-Man: Web of Fire
"The Amazing Spider-Man: Web of Fire" is a mediocre game that just couldn't catch a break. It was released in 1996 on a dying system. Sega announced plans to retire the 32X shortly before "Web of Fire" was released, so many fans passed it up. It's one of the lesser-known Spider-Man games as a result, but the feedback it did receive was still largely middling.
As noted in Sega Lord X's review, the game offers little that couldn't have been accomplished by a console from a previous generation. Villains are generic and offer unsatisfying fights, the animations are slow, and Spider-Man's sticky fingers get in the way more often than they actually help. Captain Frugal's review pointed out that Spider-Man often sticks to stage hazards like fire barrels and electrified objects, which leads to a ton of annoying deaths.
Additionally, although "Web of Fire" incorporates plenty of web-slinging action, the execution is aggravating at best. While swinging through the rooftops of New York City, there are sections of the game where players have to jump into empty space and simply hope there's a building on the next screen. Even the extra air time you get while swinging isn't always enough to save you from a nasty fall — which could have been prevented if you'd just been able to plan your jump.
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Release Date: March 1996
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Available On: Sega 32X
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Genre: Action-adventure, Platformer
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Game Modes: Single-player
BEST: Ultimate Spider-Man
By 2005, Treyarch had developed three Spider-Man games — the PC version of the beloved 2000 "Spider-Man" and the adaptations of Sam Raimi's first two films. "Ultimate Spider-Man" was a step in a new creative direction for the dev, venturing away from realistic graphics and into a more comic-inspired style. Characters and backgrounds became more stylized with special shading techniques and thicker outlines, cutscenes scrolled through animated panels of exposition, and even elements of the on-screen UI were designed to fit with the comic art style.
Even the writing was comic-accurate, which might explain some of the game's incredible success. Treyarch brought in Brian Michael Bendis, co-creator and writer of the "Ultimate Spider-Man" comic book series, to tell an in-game story that tied directly to the comics. As noted by Game Informer, adapting the comic with the help of its creator skyrocketed the game's quality and made the experience more memorable to the character's fans. For its storytelling and the ability to play as either Spider-Man or Venom "Ultimate Spider-Man" remains a unique and original game — even if some of the chase sequences are a bit clunky.
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Release Date: Sept. 22, 2005
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Available On: PC, PS2, Xbox, GameCube, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance
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Genre: Action-adventure, Side-scroller beat 'em up (DS, GBA)
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Game Modes: Single-player, competitive multiplayer (DS)
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Metacritic Score: 75 (PC), 74 (PS2), 77 (Xbox), 76 (GameCube), 78 (DS), 62 (GBA)
WORST: Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six
The best thing that can be said about "Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six" is that it's a serviceable action game — but it's still saddled with its share of obvious faults. The game was seemingly doomed to fail from the start, since it was released on the NES after the Super Nintendo had been on the US market for an entire year; the clunky controls and staggered play performance didn't do it any favors.
On top of all that, it can barely be considered a Spider-Man game. Everything that makes Spidey the hero that fans know is glaringly absent. Spider-Man spends most of his time walking on the ground like a muscle-bound baddie, punching and kicking his enemies with all the heroic flair of a saltine cracker. There's hardly any web action — which is probably a good thing, considering how confusing and inconvenient the web-shooting mechanics are — and the wall-crawling is minimal. It's like the developers took an unfinished, generic action game off the shelves and splattered a coat of red and blue paint on top of the protagonist.
In answering whether "Return of the Sinister Six" is any good or worth seeking out, Comic Book Video Games remarked, "On a [system] with games like 'Mega Man,' 'Mario' and 'Castlevania,' hell no." If you're looking for a faithful superhero experience, maybe pass this one up.
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Release Date: October 1992
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Available On: NES, Sega Master System, Game Gear
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Genre: Action-adventure
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Game Modes: Single-player
BEST: Spider-Man 2
If "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" is what happens when movie-to-game adaptations go awry, then "Spider-Man 2" is an example of everything done right. As IGN's review stated at the time, Treyarch really nailed what it meant to feel like Spider-Man – long before such praises were lauded upon 2018's "Marvel's Spider-Man."
The game roughly follows the plot of the blockbuster movie, but with a few additional quests and boss battles added in to expand upon Spider-Man's adventure and give players an excuse to explore the sprawling landscape of New York City. Players could swing through the buildings to their heart's content, stopping minor crimes on their way and interacting with a surprisingly realistic world. In many ways, this game set the tone for every Spidey game to follow. Even nearly two decades after its release, "Spider-Man 2" is still considered to be one of the best Spider-Man games of all time. Just make sure you don't pick up the PC version — the genre and plot are entirely different, and it's so infamously riddled with bugs that it's nearly unplayable.
WORST: The Amazing Spider-Man 2
It seems as though any game titled "The Amazing Spider-Man" is cursed with poor performance. "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," based on the movie of the same name, hit consoles in early 2014 to underwhelming reviews, leaving lot of fans disappointed. It was also Activision's last stab at publishing a Spider-Man game after several years of moderate to outright success, souring the company's reputation just before the license was turned over to Sony Interactive Entertainment and Insomniac Games for "Marvel's Spider-Man."
So what makes "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" so bad? Well, just about everything. It's certainly not the most egregiously awful game on this list, but it suffers from prioritizing quantity over quality. As IGN points out in its review, there's just too much going on with this game — too many villains, too many side-quests, and too many plot points being added to a bad "Spider-Man" movie that was already overstuffed. It also struggled with a number of performance bugs and glitches that hampered basic gameplay. Overall, it was just a disappointing follow-up to Activision and Beenox's better Spidey games. The first "Amazing Spider-Man" game wasn't exactly terrible, but the sequel didn't even live up to those expectations.
BEST: Marvel's Spider-Man 2
"Marvel's Spider-Man" and its "Miles Morales" follow-up were near-perfect adventures that truly made you feel as powerful as the Web-Slingers themselves. The games offered Spidey fans all the action they could want, the snappiest web-swinging in gaming history, and phenomenal comic book-inspired storylines to boot. For a sequel, fans really just wanted more of the original. Insomniac Game delivered that and more with "Spider-Man 2," which is not only a worthy successor to the first game, but also an excellent showcase of the PS5. Kotaku's review noted, "Being Spider-Man has never felt better or looked prettier," which is dead-on. "Spider-Man 2" is utterly gorgeous and gives players even more costumes, combat abilities, and even Spider-Men than the original game.
The gameplay in "Spider-Man 2" is second to none, but the story is really what endeared the game to fans. There have been so many lackluster takes on the Spider-Man/Venom rivalry, but Insomniac's versions of the characters really shine. Truly the biggest knocks we can make against this one are its somewhat-rushed third act and the fact that all of Spidey's gadgets feel unnecessary once he gets a particular upgrade. After this triumph, all that's left is for Insomniac to pull off a hat trick with "Spider-Man 3."
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Release Date: October 10, 2023
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Available On: PlayStation 5
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Genre: Action-adventure
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Game Modes: Single-player
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Metacritic Score: 90
WORST: Spider-Man 3
Unfortunately, the good movie adaptations couldn't last forever. Years before fans were introduced to the mess that was "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," things began going downhill for ol' webhead when Treyarch released "Spider-Man 3." IGN reviewed it as a mediocre-to-bad game based on a mediocre-to-bad movie, and it frankly doesn't live up to the standard set by the first two entries in this series. "Spider-Man 3" was a new-gen release for the PS3 and Xbox 360, and players expected a step up in graphics and mechanics that simply wasn't delivered.
And that's pretty much the main problem with the game. It suffers from a handful of glitches and the campaign is too short, but most of the complaints revolve around the fact that, like GamesRadar noted, it's just too similar to "Spider-Man 2." It didn't add anything substantial enough to justify the next-gen release at the time.
BEST: Marvel's Spider-Man
As noted by Girlfriend Reviews, many critics raved during the early days of the game's release that "Marvel's Spider-Man" really "makes you feel like Spider-Man." The open-world New York City, the talented voice cast, and the dynamic and exhilarating web-swinging all come together in a unique experience that really captures the spirit of Spider-Man as a character.
The particularly remarkable thing about this game is that, while many of the elements on display have been present in Spider-Man comics, movies, and games for decades, everything manages to feel entirely original and fresh. Every wisecrack is funny, every villain seems revitalized, and even J. Jonah Jameson's endless diatribe against Spider-Man is repackaged into a new and compelling format. Peter Parker and his alter ego both make their way through incredibly detailed New York background with style, whether you're helping Aunt May with FEAST, flipping through the rooftops on your way to meet Dr. Octavius, or checking out easter eggs around the city. All told, "Marvel's Spider-Man" is a modern superhero masterpiece, and a beautiful spectacle to behold in its original PS4 format and the remastered PS5 edition.
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Release Date: Sept. 7, 2018
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Available On: PS4, PS5
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Genre: Action-adventure
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Game Modes: Single-player
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Metacritic Score: 87 (PS4),
WORST: Spider-Man: Friend or Foe
"Spider-Man: Friend or Foe" is quite possibly the worst modern Spider-Man game — which is really saying something, all things considered. Fans were promised a game that featured an interesting cast of playable villains from all across the Spider-Man canon, and while "Friend or Foe" does technically deliver on that promise, the end result is more mess than masterpiece.
As IGN noted in its review, the biggest problem is that it's seemingly trying to be several games all at once. The cinematic cutscenes are reminiscent of the movie-inspired titles, but aspects of the game also seem to pull from more comic-styled titles like "Ultimate Spider-Man." What results is a clunky beat 'em up with an awkward storyline that doesn't really add a lot of flair to its characters' move sets. You don't feel like you're playing Spidey and his cast of supervillains so much as a generic set of tough guys with a bit of added flair.
BEST: Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
The direct sequel to "Marvel's Spider-Man," this game follows up-and-coming superhero Miles Morales as he puts his Spider-Man training to the test in his first solo mission. With Peter Parker out of the country, Miles is left to defend Harlem from the nuclear threat of the Roxxon Energy Corporation and the mysterious organization known as The Underground. As is the curse of every Spider-Man, Miles must juggle his personal life with that of his alter ego and find some way to stay afloat when the two begin to clash in unexpected and devastating ways.
While originally described as "an expansion and an enhancement" to its predecessor, "Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales" quickly surpassed developer Insomniac's intial vision and became a standalone title with all the awe and appeal of a larger game (per IGN). Despite being smaller-scale, the game packs in all the web-slinging action a Spider-Man fan could ask for, with the added bonus of Miles's unique powers and personality.
While "Marvel's Spider-man" still boasts a higher Metacritic score, reviewers found that "Miles Morales" improved greatly on the immersion and gameplay of Marvel's New York City, boosting the overall quality while trimming some of the fat of its predecessor. As a result, Kotaku called it "a more narrowly-focused game," saying that "the best moments in this game are in its specificity ... you'll see the same things from new perspectives, and in that way they're almost brand new."