Warning: The following review may contain slight story surprises to Marvel’s Spider-Man.

“Spider-pig, Spider-pig, does whatever a spider-pig does…” Yes, now I’ve ticked off my list both a music reference and movie/pop culture reference in one very crap go, I think it is time to get into the review. Another one of those “retro” reviews as the releases, for the most part, have fallen silent for the start of the year. Though the use of the word retro is objectionable, it is hardly two years old and feels like anything else that’s come out in recent years, in fact, that’s my first issue.

Sony’s Marvel’s yet another reboot for Peter Parker’s life: Marvel’s Spider-Man is a tread-for-tread superhero game that is following in Batman’s shadowy footsteps. Much like everyone with a working heartbeat and a hand that can mash a square button like it feeds me a cake every time, the “Arkham combat system” is drilled into my brain. The thing is, the combat system that used to belong to Kratos before his past died like his second wife, that style worked for Batman.

Spider-Man is a different hero. Sure, they are both vigilantes and are both protecting New York (or Faux York). The last thing they have in common, is they both avoid killing at all costs. Batman avoids it for morals, while Spider-Man avoids it because he’s a kid or at least he is most of the time. The friendly neighborhood Spider-Man wouldn’t be so friendly if he went about hanging men upside down with their necks cut like slaughtered animals. However, that’s the large difference between the two.

When Batman leaves a foe for the constabulary, he’s leaving men mostly knocked from here to next Sunday. Spidey? He’s sticking men to the walls with his white wrist liquid, which is something I tried once, but it hadn’t congealed enough yet. For the most part, if he’s putting someone out for the count of ten, he’s putting them in a safe place to sleep. Why does this matter?

Combat isn’t Peter’s thing, he uses it to defend himself, but it isn’t his main thing. Sensing incoming attacks, directing anything harmful away from the public, and generally being the underdog in any fight is more his style. WIth that said, in my recent return and third time playing Marvel’s Spider-Man, I opted for the hardest difficulty. After Dark Souls, the pleasure has never been the same. No matter what difficulty you play, you have to hit enemies, but it is here that dodging is the most crucial. On lower difficulties, the combat is easier making dodging less important.

The game’s story is there, but that’s another case of it being a comic book hero in a video game. The most important and common part of the game will be the gameplay, believe it or not. That’s what’s all over the place. They managed to cram in stealth sections, boss battles, the introduction of villain battles, more enemies cropping up to make those clutching their Spider-Man lunch box wet themselves, and the obvious web-swinging. Swinging and I go way back, and I’m not just talking about my Thursday nights with your mum.

Spider-Man games are notoriously hit and miss when it comes to their core mechanics. Spider-Man (September 2000) for the PS1 was a game of rooftop fighting and little else, as the floor didn’t exist. Spider-Man (2002) for the PS2 was largely forgettable, and I often think of the PS1 game more when I think of Sam Raimi’s first movie. Then Spider-Man 2 (2004) released for the PS2 and mastered web-swinging. It is is the standard bar to hit when one thinks of the mechanic, so much so that every game since is written off for not being that good.

I won’t say Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man is better, but it does bring its A-game. The movement is fluid, the release of every swing is spot on, and you feel the speed. The problem is how little control one has over what is done. The PS2 masterpiece let you hold on to the web, run across vans, and then keep swinging until that last moment; then you’d just be dangling there. That had the momentum, feeling, and an overall sense of skill to it. Not an impossible skill like parrying in a Souls-like game, but rather an “easy to learn, impossible to master” skill.

There was a whole mini-game in there (the PS2’s Spider-Man 2) that was teasing you at how impossible it was to be gentle, precise, and fast. In Marvel’s itsy bitsy spider, there isn’t a sense of risk or reward when flying through the city. It is fun, I’ll never take that away from this system, though none of it feels like I’m the one doing the flips, tricks, and other fun stuff. Part of the predecessors’ unlocks were tricks to do much like combat combos, now you press the X button and Peter dances in mid-air like a downed spider in the bathtub.

Ok, I’ve kicked it enough for a hot minute, let’s point out that it isn’t all bad. I like it a fair bit actually. To compare it with another venerable game series of my childhood, I have played tens of hours of Marvel’s Spider-Man, more than the first two hours Tomb Raider (2013). I’ve gone so far to almost 100% complete the game on one of the saves, played through it another time, and had gone back for a third helping for this review. It is doing something right, and that’s easy to find. Peter is likable, the supporting cast is enjoyable, but the twists are as predictable as the L train is around 7th and Bedford.

This game deviates instead of doing our usual rigmarole of dead uncle, power and responsibility, newspaper, girlfriend, balance life and hero responsibilities, and running over the same old ground that Pink Floyd sung about. We rather get a more grown-up look at Peter still, misunderstanding that renting a place means paying sometimes, Aunt May is still looking over him, and his personal life is haunting him. I’m almost tempted to joke that this is what adult Peter would be in Into the Spider-Verse if Marvel had the keys. While I’m partial to the latter’s overall story, I prefer the former’s version of adult Peter in this context.

“Old” Peter in the movie Into the Spider-Verse is a loser that just saves a couple of people and lives off of the fame. This Peter isn’t even in his 30s, he’s about 24 and has had his relationship with Mary Jane, what we know from movies and a majority of comics is done. This is Peter out of education, out of the emo phase that we don’t talk about, and out of a lot of established lore for him. He’s single and ready to spend a lot of his time in spandex popping some balloons. When he’s not in red, white, and blue spandex, he’s working with Doc Ock.

We might be done with that troubled relationship with MJ at the start of the game, but we’ve still got fans to please. I like this interpretation of MJ and Peter’s rather fragile and distant relationship, as it gives more depth to the characters than the trodden line we’ve walked before. Generally, when we see Spider-Man outside of the comics it is to face one of four, maybe five, foes that don’t have depth. One issue with Spider-man and Marvel as a whole, is that the villains aren’t as interesting as the heroes.

By saying the Sinister Six make an appearance I’m not spoiling anything for anyone, because by my reckoning, there have been 11 iterations of the group. At one point they were even called the “Insidious Six,” then there was “Sinister Sixty-Six,” “Sinister Twelve,” and “Sinister Seven.” There’s something about a group with the initials “S.S.” that bothers me, I wonder why. Though none of them stand out the same way as Rhino in Spider-Man 2 (2004), Green Goblin in Spider-Man (2002), Doc Ock, and maybe Mysterio. I’ll happily spoil that two out of three (and a bit) ain’t bad; I’m also happy I’ve ruined your day with Meat Loaf.

The plot as far as Portentous Sextuple is concerned is a copy and paste from anything with Spider-Man, making their impact as worthwhile as J. K. Simmons in Far From Home. Since we know the major players, the “Twist” is about as missable as a twelve lane highway filled wall to wall with semi-trucks. Much like anything with Disney’s Marvel-man (not the UK superhero or to be confused with Captain Britain), it is playing the game a bit safe. it’s not held to the standard of a movie, but it feels as if no one wanted to take risks. In no way is Disney’s Marvel’s Sony’s Spider-Man bad, there’s just nothing to pique interest other than fan-service.

The most interesting “risks,” if we can call them that, involve not playing as Peter in a few sections. I genuinely approve of this version of MJ, but every time I have to play one of her forced stealth sections, I want to use Peter’s sticky white wrist liquid to bounce every developer that thought was that was a good idea off a wall. One thing we’ve learned from stealth over the last decade is your ability to counter-act the AI alerting each other. MJ doesn’t have that, nor does Miles Morales otherwise known as Spider-Man.

As a story, it is nothing spectacular but hits all the beats one would hope for. There are trinkets, references, jokes, suits connecting all the Spider-Man mythos into one, including the one suit with a flaming skull, and every bit shows there’s love for the game. There is just a lack of something to put one’s finger on, it might just be how prim and pristine the game is. Toby McGuire wasn’t perfect in the movies or the games, but that’s the point, he was just a little off and had a charm with that. There’s a reason those of us in our 20s, 30s, and 40s point to Sam Rami’s Spider-Man, it’s the tipping point that made superhero media cool.

In conclusion, Marvel’s Spider-Man is the best for gameplay and story in recent memory. It might not match our nostalgic feels of loathing towards a child yelling “I lost my balloon!”, the combat might be taking a lot from Arkham, and the web-swinging might not be as free as we might hope. However, there is nothing that comes as close to those wrist liquid producing memories like the Sony-owned Insomniac iteration of your fun, charismatic, neighborhood web-swinger and his pals. It is fun, light, and more than heartwarming in every way.

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Marvel's Spider-Man

$39.99

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• The best swining in years.
• Enjoyable characters I want to be around
• "It's Spider hyphen Man!"

Cons

• Just more "Arkham combat."