Which Marvel Game Has The Best Spider-Man

There have been many different video game versions of Marvel’s Spider-Man over the years, but one version stands out as the best over the others. Spider-Man is playable in many Marvel games, which makes sense, considering he is arguably Marvel Comics’ most popular superhero. As such, Spider-Man has not only appeared on the roster of the majority of Marvel’s biggest team-up titles, but he’s also had quite a few solo games dedicated to exploring his character. Over time, Spider-Man has become Marvel’s most well-represented character in video games, which means that a variety of different interpretations have been developed to varying degrees of success. Movie tie-ins and comic book adaptations have both been met with acclaim, but out of the many different game incarnations of the character, the best is undoubtedly in Marvel’s Spider-Man.

Whether it’s creating the hero’s persona and backstory or creating a new suit design – such as Marvel’s Spider-Man’s Advanced Suit – crafting a new version of Spider-Man is a tough balancing act. Developers need to find a way to make that game’s version of Spider-Man not only stands out among a massive crowd of other iterations, but they also have to find ways to ensure that he stays true to the character. Veering too much in one direction or another can result in a particular adaptation either feeling like a dull, lifeless caricature of the beloved hero, or a character that doesn’t feel all that much like Spider-Man at all. The former is more common, with Marvel’s Avengers and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3‘s versions of Spidey lacking uniqueness and memorability.

The latter problem is arguably worse and is one of the reasons most Marvel heroes shouldn’t be in games like Fortnite. Watching any Peter Parker – whether it’s the classic comic variant or the Tom Holland lookalike skin – gun down foes with an assault rifle breaks any illusion of semblance the Spider-Man skins may have with the character in-game. While it is important for a game to get Spider-Man’s look right, nailing the personality, story, and powers is even more important. In this way, several games have successfully captured the essence of Spider-Man, such as Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Ultimate Spider-Man from developer Treyarch. However, none have captured Spider-Man as well as Insomniac did in Marvel’s Spider-Man.

Why Marvel’s Spider-Man Has The Best Video Game Peter Parker

Insomniac captured the essence of what made Spider-Man so great in its 2018 game, and the PlayStation version of Spider-Man even beat Tom Holland in a popularity poll. In order to make a version of the character this iconic, the studio had to design a Spider-Man that not only delivered on the web-slinger’s familiar elements, but also helped the character stand out with new developments. In order to do this, it changed Peter Parker’s story a bit, having him work as a lab assistant to Dr. Otto Octavius, creating an interesting mentor/mentee relationship that helped to inform his character. In addition, the game also masters Peter’s abilities, giving players a wide range of moves and powers that they can customize, along with an open world designed specifically with web-slinging in mind. All of that, coupled with a phenomenal performance by actor Yuri Lowenthal, made Marvel’s Spider-Man‘s Peter Parker a memorable and distinct version of the character, regardless of medium.

There have been favorable comparisons between Marvel’s Spider-Man‘s Peter, Marvel’s Avengers, and other games, with the Insomniac version of the hero becoming somewhat of the gold standard. Despite releasing at a point where dozens of Spider-Man games had already been made, Marvel’s Spider-Man remains the best yet, with a version of the popular hero that is unmatched by any other in both character and gameplay. With Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 set to continue the adventures of this version of Parker (and the equally excellent Miles Morales), there’s still much to look forward to.

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