Pandora's Box: The Ultimate GameCube Tier List

#16: Spiderman 2

Rating: T

Players: 1

Price Range: ~$15 USD

A game based on the film of the same name.

This is the highest rated licensed game on the whole list, and for good reason.

This is just such a classic video game from the generation.

The Spiderman games today on PlayStation pretty much wouldn't exist without the bones that this game had.

My gosh, the game is so much fun.

While Ultimate Spiderman had a better art style, as this game's graphics are...okay if somewhat dated, downtown Manhattan feels as lively as ever compared to that game, with good music to boot.

Again, the web physics are fantastic. Swinging from building to building is just such a joy, effortlessly being satisfying to just traverse the city with Spiderman's powers. Truly a great system.

The combat system is...good. Not the most complex thing out there, but it is so fluid with the sound effects giving such a powerful oomph to give punches a greater impact. The upgrades you collect from experience points from the game's main story and side tangents such as...saving a kid's balloon or taking care of some escaping convicts add more to Spidey's toolkit, and adds just enough to evolve his move set.

And the game's story is insanely memorable.

While there were a lot of creative liberties taken compared to the film, unlike many entries here, it actually enhances the experience far beyond a simple conversion to home consoles.

Besides facing Doctor Octopus like in the film in those familiar set pieces and even Black Cat, you also fight some of Spiderman's rogue's gallery, including Rhino, Shocker, and, best of all, Mysterio.

I'm in the minority in which I feel that this is possibly his greatest adaptation I've seen yet, as unfortunately, the implementations elsewhere were really disappointing.

A big reason why I don't like Far From Home is partially because of the portrayal of him in the film, and that's in addition to the terrible MacGuffin in the form of Tony Stark's glasses, which he trusted in a teenager that has an orbital defense system attached to it, which is beyond stupid and clichéd. Jake Gyllenhaal's performance is fine, but the script is terrible. While him being a reject of Stark is somewhat of a motivation, he acts so selfish and is so much of an asshole to the fellow former-Stark employees helping him with his plan to fool the world and use Tony's glasses, that it makes him very unlikable. The fact that this is post-Endgame when Tony sacrificed himself to save the universe from Thanos wiping out half the universe again and were possibly saved by the Avengers he helped found further diminishes any likability he had. That could be the point, but they try to make him justified, but with him being a terrible person, it just falls flat.

The only positive aspect of his portrayal in the film would be the visuals with his scene with Peter after the reveal that he's a villain, which, by the way, wasn't a surprise at all and was a bad twist, which is quite in line with his character, and the fact that he reveals Peter's identity at the end. The fact that he nearly kills Peter by tricking him onto railroad tracks in the illusion was also good. However, other than that, it was an insanely botched implementation of the villain in my opinion.

However, here, Mysterio is on point. You face him in this grocery store with this unusual health bar with multiple layers, only to deplete it all in a single hit, just showing how pathetic he is without his illusions. You have to traverse a fun house with these rubbery clones of Spiderman. You have to save people from this burning theater. There is also a sequence in which you have to web swing on these flying pods to get to Liberty Island since you otherwise can't get there without something to web on to.

However, the most iconic part involving him is when you got to this arena part of the game where you face off against an unmasked Mysterio in a demonstration of your abilities as opposed to fighting, which is really cool and unique while playing into Mysterio's character as a thinker as opposed to a good fighter since he is more slimy as a cheap shot as opposed to somebody that can fight directly.

And to top it all off, there is this music track associated with Mysterio that is surprisingly unsettling due to how alien and different it is compared to the rest of the game's soundtrack.

And, of course, there is no talk that can exist of this game without talking about the pizza minigame.

Easily one of the most iconic minigames in any game, period.

Sure, it doesn't really make sense because Joe's Pizza isn't in the bay and is instead in downtown Manhattan in the film and Peter was fired from the place in the movie, but I could care less, because this side mode is just so cool. Delivering pizzas as Spiderman in as little time as possible while making sure to not make too many quick movements as to not ruin the pizza is just so fun. Even then, just diving to immediately destroy the pizza is just plain funny. And I know that the music is considered to be "one of the worst video game songs ever", but I don't care, it's simply hilarious and iconic.

And so, it makes complete sense that Spiderman 2 is a childhood favorite and a classic game from this generation despite being a licensed game.

However, some parts are...admittedly not amazing.

The post-game is not that very good. Besides grinding EXP to get the rest of the levels and upgrades and tokens around the city at landmarks, there isn't much else to really do unfortunately.

Having to be at a specific level to progress to a story mission, forcing you to do the same side missions that don't really matter besides the EXP is stupid.

And...say with me for the last time...

Your enjoyability of the game depends on your enjoyability of the movie. There are a few people that prefer the other films in the trilogy, and even though this game is very disconnected from the movie it's based on, it is still a franchise property after all is said and done.

Although, I know pretty much nobody that dislikes Spiderman, which is at least something.

And as a multiplatform game, other versions are viable as well, which is important given that this game is based on a movie in the 2000s with the likeness and voice of Tobey Maguire and others from the film while also being based on a property owned by Sony, we'll probably never see this game rereleased ever.

Emulation is rough, since when my sibling tried to do so, it was so laggy and unresponsive, that it was just unplayable...

Now, I did actually consider placing this and BfBB  at the top of B Tier, but after some convincing from my siblings, I decided to place them here, and...yeah, they deserve to be here for how great for what they are and for the price too, for the production values are surprisingly good for a licensed game.

For an incredibly cheap price and possibly the best Spiderman game, and one of the best ones based on a licensed property, it is classic form the generation, and is a game many people should try, especially if they like Spiderman.