Being a fan of superhero video games is hit or miss, to put it lightly. For every Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, there will be an Avengers and for every Arkham Asylum, we will have a Gotham Knights.
Believe it or not, there have been countless Spider-Man games made throughout the years and not all of them are worth playing. Today we’re going to talk about the 5 worst Spider-Man games of all time.
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5. Venom/Spider-Man Separation Anxiety
Venom/Spider-Man Separation Anxiety was released in 1995 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Super Nintendo, and PC. First of all, what a name for a Spider-Man game, huh? This game is named after the comic book run of the same name but loosely follows the story of Venom: Lethal Protector.
The game isn’t the worst-playing title on the list, it’s just generic. It’s a shallow attempted sequel to Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage, which was a widely successful game at the time. It feels like a cliché beat-em-up game similar to Battletoads, but not nearly as good. In my opinion, you could swap Spider-Man out for any character and this game would pretty much read the same.
4. Spider-Man Vs. The Kingpin
Spider-Man Vs. The Kingpin was released in 1991 for the Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega Master System, the game was ported to the GameGear in 1992 and then finally ported to the Sega CD in 1993. Unlike some Spider-Man games, in Spider-Man Vs. The Kingpin you have the powers you’d come to expect to have playing a Spider-Man game.
The player can do what’s expected when playing a web-slinging hero, from shooting webs to crawling around in tight spaces, what more could a player want? Well, to be honest, this game is just so painfully generic, that even Spider-Man couldn’t save it.
You’re crawling through levels, and even sometimes swinging short distances, and having a dozen people dressed the same fire a gun at you in repetition doesn’t make for a good experience. You’ve probably played a game like this back in the day at one point or another, with the only difference here is you get to swing around sometimes.
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3. Spider-Man Battle For New York
Spider-Man Battle For New York was released in 2006 for the Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo DS. What makes this game stand out from the others is that you get to play as the Green Goblin on some levels, and Spider-Man on others.
The game has extremely clunky combat and movement that leave much more to be desired though. There is little to no innovation in this game, and it feels like it was more of a cash grab following the release of Ultimate Spider-Man in 2005 which was released on PC and console to a resounding reception. Overwhelmingly positive reviews across the board and some even say it is one of the best Spider-Man games ever made, but the Battle for New York misses the mark.
Rocking a 4.5/10 from IGN, Spider-Man Battle For New York did not live up to both critics’ and gamers’ expectations. Enemies take cheap shots while you’re unable to move and even when you can move, the game is clunky. You’ll be bombarded with repetition and bad controls with the player needing to spam a fireball attack just to make it to the next level. You remember Spider-Man’s signature move… Fireball, right? Exactly.
2. Spider-Man Return of The Sinister Six
Spider-Man Return of The Sinister Six was released in 1992 for the Sega Master System, Nintendo Entertainment System, and Game Gear. For this ranking, we will be specifically focusing on the NES version because of unfortunate circumstances you can read about below.
Do you remember the age of NES games that were so difficult you had to memorize the level to have any hope? Then you’ll be familiar with the gameplay for Return of The Sinister Six. You will be struggling to collect items to help you complete each level, like the glasses needed to see in the dark… Which makes sense.
The controls will put up more of a fight than Electro as you struggle to predict how Spider-Man will move. When Spidey jumps, you have little to no control over him until he lands and cannot attack while jumping. Spider-Man… cannot attack while jumping. You see the problem here, right? On top of that, the web swinging is next to impossible to get used to and will probably get you killed instead of saving you.
Though you do indeed get to face off against the Sinister Six as promised, the game was doomed from the start. With all eyes on the Super Nintendo, which had hit the market in 1991, it made this game appear even more lackluster in comparison to the games released around the same time. The competition was fierce, and the dated technology of the NES couldn’t keep up with the exciting innovations of its successor.
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1. The Amazing Spider-Man – 1990
The Amazing Spider-Man was released in 1990 for the Game Boy and is the worst Spider-Man game of all time. Despite being made by Rare, this game made for the Game Boy was just plain bad. Clunky controls and the limited graphical capabilities of the Game Boy made for some frustrating gameplay. I mean seriously, it doesn’t even look like Spider-Man.
Everything is in slow motion here as you jump and wait for Spidey to land, and shoot webs that move frustratingly slow. Speaking of jumping, you have a regular jump and a high jump. The “fun” part being that you don’t know which jump you are going to get when you hit that button. Are you going to clear the gap and save New York and more importantly… save MJ, or are you going to fall into a pit of death and finally reunite with Uncle Ben?
Do you agree with our list? Let us know in the comments below.
For more from Insider Gaming, check out 5 of the worst 3D Super Mario Games
The writing and analysis of these games is truly masterful. Branden Monfreda -literary genius!
All joking aside, I haven’t played all of these, but I would tend to agree with Branden‘s assessments based on his descriptions!
Jason