Spider-Man is undoubtedly not just one of Marvel’s most popular and successful characters, but one of the greatest superheroes of all time. While Peter Parker’s adventures in the comics and movies are well-known, his video game exploits have also been quite memorable. Here are the 10 best Spider-Man video games ever.
The best Spider-Man video games of all time ranked
10. The Amazing Spider-Man
The first Andrew Garfield movie tie-in game was pretty good for a licensed video game, at least much better than its mediocre sequel. The story here is nothing too memorable, and missions can feel pretty repetitive, but it is enjoyable enough an experience. It had strong visuals and pretty good combat controls but is not anything too amazing like the movie that it is based on.
9. Spider-Man (PS2)
The first Spider-Man tie-in video game based on the movie doesn’t nearly reach the heights of its sequel but was a good starting point for the Sam Raimi films. It had decent combat and boss fights and was a dramatic step forward with its graphics for Spider-Man games. The web-slinging is nothing to write home about, but for a movie video game, the rest of the movement abilities were pretty fun. Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe reprised their roles from the movie, and we even got Bruce Campbell narrating the opening tutorial.
8. Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
If you enjoy seeing the multiverse Spider-Man in Into the Spider-Verse, you will likely enjoy Shattered Dimensions. Getting rid of an open world design, this linear game featured Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Man 2099, and Ultimate Spider-Man. As these playable characters, you would hop between realities to restore things back to normal. Each character has their own fighting style, adding a lot of variety to the game and making it a memorable experience. Shattered Dimensions was also written by Dan Slott, who had the longest run on The Amazing Spider-Man comics, which spanned over a decade.
7. Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro
Like its predecessor, Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro is mostly held back because of the hardware it released on. You could fight and explore on the street level this time, where the original was always stuck to rooftops. The villains’ presence here has taken a step back, but overall this is another solid entry during a time when comic book superhero games did not have a lot of success.
6. Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
Web of Shadows is a game that took the Spider-Man and Venom rivalry to another level. With symbiotes continually infecting New York, Peter Parker has to contend with a darker side with a morality system deciding how the story goes and whether or not Spider-Man has his normal suit or the symbiote-covered one. You also got to interact with Wolverine, Luke Cage, and Moon Knight, which were massive cameos.
5. Spider-Man (PS1)
The first Spider-Man game to appear on PlayStation was also the first to bring Spidey into 3D environments, although he was predominately stuck to the rooftops in the city. The game had tons of characters from Spider-Man’s villain roster, including a terrifying fusion of Doctor Octopus and Carnage. It’s obviously dated by today’s standards, but for its time, this was a great release for comic book games.
4. Ultimate Spider-Man
Ultimate Spider-Man was a great comic book game that incorporated a cel-shaded style to give it that pages-to-screen jump that still looks great today. You got to jump between playing Spider-Man and Venom regularly, with each side feeling great to play. While the games above this nailed the feeling of a Spider-Man blockbuster movie, this one is the best comic book representation of the series in video game form.
3. Spider-Man 2 (PS2)
For the longest time, the game based on the second Tobey Maguire Spider-Man film was considered the greatest video game in this area. This was the first Spider-Man game to incorporate a fully open world, including street walking, and was generally considered to have the best web-slinging mechanics for years. This Treyarch game was considered a monumental step not just for Spidey, but for superhero games in general.
2. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Miles Morales’ first starring role in a video game was strong enough to land at number two on our list. With Peter Parker away, we saw Miles overcome the pressure of handling New York City on his own for the first time. We got to see how Miles reaches and represents a whole new community in New York and how important those relationships can be. Gameplay-wise it was more of what was introduced in the 2018 Spider-Man game, which is nothing to complain about at all.
1. Marvel’s Spider-Man
Insomniac’s first run with Spider-Man was one of those games just about everyone knew would be a perfect pairing when it was announced. It included a new story with some expected twists, but also some heartbreaking ones that no one saw coming — and we have not gotten over yet. The combat is all-around great, giving us the best way to control Peter Parker yet by melding him with a style similar to the Batman Arkham games. The only downfall here is the portions where you play as MJ or a powerless Miles Morales because things get seriously slowed down. But outside of those very small sections, we have nothing but praise for this PlayStation console exclusive.
