Spider-Man was one of the first games I played on my fam's HP Pavilion machine running XP. The little Celeron that could played the game well, but I could never get past that helicopter stage. So the game sat in the back of my mind, gathering dust as I grew older. Sure, I liked Spidey well enough, but it took me awhile to give this one a shake again. Given how far tech's advanced, I sure as hell knew my PC was gonna make this game run at warp speed. So I opted to emulate it via ReDream.
What awaited me beyond that dreaded helicopter chase was a short, enjoyable romp chock full of frustrating jank and trial and error. But it's so damn charming! From the opening of level 1 alone you see the Fantastic 4 building, the Human Torch himself shows up later on to talk with Spidey after Mary Jane ends up kidnapped by Venom. Cameos range from fun blink and you'll miss it moments like Ghost Rider riding down the side of a building into the resource saving fog that covers New York's streets, to familiar signs for Roxxon Corp. There's even a cheeky billboard for a certain skateboarder's second professional video game outing.
If you enter a cheat code, you can get a "What If?" mode where you get even more cameos and silly shenanigans! See, this is where the game is best. Neversoft truly cared when it came to bringing forth an enjoyable story, and to nerds like me who are somewhat familiar with Spidey, it makes for a great outing between dealing with the game's sluggish controls.
Venom alone makes this game worth your while. He is, without a doubt, the best part of the story and easily the character who gave me the most laughs. Play it for low poly Venom, he's comedy gold.