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We’re playing some of Spider-Man’s best video games in our Salute to Spidey! Last week Activision announced Spider-Man’s next big video game spectacular, Spider-Man: Edge of Time, and if you haven’t seen it already, checkout the official trailer here! Beenox returns to developer duties behind Edge of Time, which I’m happy with. Beenox did a great job with last year’s Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, but I hope they change things up, and step away from the repeated button mashing beat-em-up format.

Last week we played what I personally consider arguably the best Spider-Man game ever made: Spider-Man on the N64, PSOne, and Dreamcast. The inevitable sequel came out just a year later, but from a new developer.

Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro

Publisher: Activision
Developer: Vicarious Visions
Released: Oct. 19, 2001
Platforms: PlayStation
ESRB: Everyone

Though Vicarious Visions took over from Neversoft, practically nothing outside of story has changed in this game, which is both good and bad. Enter Electro has the same graphics and gameplay style as before, which works well, but none of the problems have been fixed — the biggest one being the camera — which is highly annoying. The camera is actually a bigger villain than any combination of Spidey’s rogues, and can sometimes be the main cause of most of your mission failures. I contemplated using the level select cheat to get me past the mission in the hanger where you have to move objects out of the way of a runaway airplane, and again when you’re timed to navigate a maze of buildings to find keys to deactivate a bomb. The jerky camera is also responsible for making web-swinging frustrating instead of fun in some levels.

But that’s just the bad. The levels and missions are still as vast and fun (for the most part) as the last game’s. The boss battles are often very difficult, but still fun, though I’ll be happy if I never have to play the Sandman battle ever again. Shocker, Lizard, Beetle, Hammerhead, and of course Electro, are the rest of the Club of Spidey Haters after your head. A small disappointment, however, is the sorry list of cameos by other Marvel legends. I like the X-Men, but Xavier, Beast, and Rogue can hardly live up to the last game’s giant cast, though being able to play in the Danger Room almost makes up for it. Thor was originally to be featured in a scene, but was cut in the game’s re-release when it was pulled after the events of 9/11. This was due to the final battle originally taking place atop the World Trade Center.

After you’ve finished the story mode, there is still plenty of fun to be had. What If? mode is back, which gives the campaign a subtle makeover; I still get a kick out of Big Head mode, and there is a whole closet full of costumes to play with.

Black Suit Spidey
Peter Parker
Amazing Bagman
Captain Universe
Battle Wounded Spidey
Negative Zone
Spider Phoenix
Alex Ross Spidey
Scarlet Spider-Man
Ben Reilly
Quick Change Spidey
2099
Dusk
Prodigy
Earth X Venom

Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro is a very good game, but like most sequels, it doesn’t hold up to the original. Even though they’re both practically the same game, the first game had a magic about it that this game is lacking. But just like the first game, Enter Electro is the key blueprint for the following year’s big Spider-Man game, and one of the best superhero games ever based off of a movie.

Next week on The Comics Console, we continue our Salute to Spidey as we play Spider-Man: The Movie!

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Andrew Hurst
andrewhurst@comicattack.net
@andrewEhurst