Welcome back, web-slingers and button-mashers, to another delightfully unhinged episode of Play Comics! This week we’re crawling back to 2002, when flip phones were cutting-edge technology, everyone was still trying to figure out what the heck a “blog” was, and Activision decided the best way to capitalize on Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movie was to let Treyarch loose with a development kit and what we can only assume were several energy drinks and a prayer.
We’re diving deep into the pixelated web-slinging wonderland that somehow convinced an entire generation that swinging through New York City while your webs mysteriously attach to invisible sky anchors was totally normal. This PS2, Xbox, GameCube, and Game Boy Advance spectacular managed to squeeze Tobey Maguire’s voice into a polygonal suit while adding enough extra villains to make you wonder if someone at Treyarch had been hoarding Spider-Man action figures since childhood and finally found an excuse to use them all.
Joining us for this nostalgic journey through early 2000s gaming jank is the magnificent Chris Ferrell from All Things Good and Nerdy and The Official GonnaGeek Show! Chris brings his encyclopedic knowledge of all things delightfully nerdy to help us navigate the treacherous terrain between movie adaptation and comic book faithfulness. He’s the perfect guide for exploring whether this game captured the essence of everyone’s favorite wall-crawler or just gave us a really expensive tech demo for air-based web physics that would make actual physics professors weep quietly into their coffee.
So dust off those sixth-generation consoles, prepare for some seriously chunky character models, and join us as we swing into action with a game that dared to ask the important question: “What if we took a two-hour movie and stretched it into twelve hours of gameplay by adding every Spider-villain we could think of?” The answer, as you’ll discover, involves more air combat than anyone expected and enough stealth sequences to make you appreciate that this was made before every game decided it needed a mandatory stealth section.
Get ready for web-slinging, wall-crawling, and more mid-air punching than should be physically possible – it’s time to find out if this early millennium marvel holds up or if it belongs in the same category as those websites that still think animated GIFs are the height of digital sophistication.
Learn such things as:
- How do you decide who to use as a boss in a movie tie in game?
- Will we ever have a bad Spider-Man game ever again?
- What if…..Chris had latched onto The Flash instead of Spidey?
- And so much more!
You can find Chris on BlueSky @chrisferrell.bsky.social and of course his podcasts All Things Good and Nerdy and The Official GonnaGeek Show.
If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in.
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A big thanks to Spawnography and Piecing it Together for the promos today.
Intro/Outro Music by Best Day, who is still looking for those steel beams in the sky.
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