Introduction

Let's Play the Spider-Man Remaster

In 2000, one of the first character action games ever released -Spider-Man- found its way to the PS1 and Nintendo 64. Developed by Neversoft, it used the Tony Hawk engine to do something unexpected: set the foundation for nearly every Spider-Man game to follow. It established fidelity with Spider-Man's character, his world, his villains, and his powers for an all around excellent experience unlike anything that had come before.

It was a hard act to follow, but a year later, Vicarious Visions were up to the challenge. Enter Electro took a big leap ahead in trying to vastly improve the game design, variety, and presentation of its predecessor. But when it came time to choose the developer of the third Spider-Man title, neither Vicarious or Neversoft were on the table. Neversoft went back to their Tony Hawk train, and Vicarious returned to making portable versions of Neversoft's titles.

In this crazy game of Activison's developers constantly porting each other's work, there had to be someone experienced with Spider-Man who wasn't also busy with Tony Hawk. Enter Treyarch, now one of Activision's most prolific and famous developers, given the reigns of the Spider-Man franchise thanks (presumably) to their work on this oft-forgotten Dreamcast remaster of Neversoft's title.

We're going to first play this remaster, and look at it as a bridge between the fifth-generation Spider-Man games and their sixth-generation successors, then go on to playing the Spider-Man: Movie Game. What did Treyarch learn from their development of this title that carried them through the most successful period of Spidey's videogame career, and exactly how many minor details can you change when porting a game without changing the overall design? Let's find out!

Videos

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