Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 has arrived in stores around the world this very weekend after an incredible reception. The title is one of the highest-rated games of 2023, which is not easy to achieve considering the number of great games that have been released this year. However, before this Spider-Man 2, there was another one released in 2004, and it was also fantastic.
Based on the homonymous movie, the most surprising thing about this game is that, until the arrival of the 2018 Spider-Man, it was probably the best Spider-Man title available on a console. And we say ‘surprising’ because video game adaptations of movies don’t usually turn out very well in general, so this was one of the exceptions.
Why was the 2004 Spider-Man 2 so famous? Mainly because of the freedom it offered when moving as Peter Parker. Although previous games had already made swinging through the city good, this installment made it enjoyable. That subtle difference was everything, as you could traverse New York as if it were the movie (and even better, as seen in the comics).
Although the video game followed the plot of the movie, there were plenty of side objectives throughout the city to complement the main story. Furthermore, while the combat system wasn’t great, it wasn’t bad either. It simply got the job done, but the swinging mechanics complemented the rest.
The main versions of this game were released for PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox. These were developed by Treyarch, the famous studio involved in the Call of Duty series for the last decade. Vicarious Visions handled the versions for Nintendo DS and PSP, Digital Eclipse developed the Game Boy Advance and N-Gage versions, and The Fizz Factor worked on the PC versions.
