25 Years Ago We Got The Tony Hawk of Superhero Games

A great franchise comes with great responsibility. Talk to any of the folks associated with icons like Star Wars, The Avengers, or Grand Theft Auto and they’ll give lip service to the importance of legacy. When you’re up against the imagination of millions of fans, you’ve got your work cut out for you. And 25 years ago one of the most iconic superheroes of all-time got a game so good it set a new bar for comic book IP years before Hollywood’s Marvel revolution.

When Neversoft released Spider-Man on the original PlayStation on August 30, 2000, the superhero video game landscape was bleak. Licensed games were churned out as quick cash-ins with clunky controls, uninspired level design, and a general sense that superheroes couldn’t have a distinct feel in a medium where plumbers and hedgehogs could be heroes, too. But Neversoft, fresh off the runaway success of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, had the pedigree, the technology, and the creative freedom to change that perception. Their Spider-Man wasn’t just a good superhero game for its time. It set the stage for everything that followed, laying the groundwork for future Spider-Man titles and influencing how the entire superhero genre would be approached in gaming.

At the heart of Neversoft’s Spider-Man was a clear design philosophy: make players feel like the wall-crawler. While constrained by the hardware of the PlayStation, the team managed to deliver mechanics that captured Spidey’s essence better than anything before it.

Web-swinging, arguably the most crucial mechanic to a Spider-Man, was elevated to a level no one thought possible. It wasn’t the fully physics-based system Insomniac would perfect nearly two decades later, but it was fluid, fast, and addictive. Spidey could zip across gaps, swing between rooftops, and scale walls with incredible ease.

It may not seem remarkable by today’s standards but back then most studios were still figuring out how to make three-dimensional movement intuitive, and this took it to a whole new level. Importantly, the controls were forgiving; the game never punished you with the clumsiness of early 3D platformers. You pressed a button, Spider-Man swung, just as you always imagined it in the video game of your mind.

Combat was similarly straightforward but satisfying. Using a mix of punches, kicks, and web-based attacks, players could chain together combos, immobilize foes, or yank weapons out of enemies’ hands. The game also leaned heavily into Spider-Man’s stealthier side, with levels where players could crawl along ceilings, sneak past guards, and use web tricks to distract or disable foes. Paired with comic-book-style narration from Stan Lee himself, these mechanics created an experience that felt like stepping into the panels of a Marvel comic, not just a generic 3D action game with Spidey slapped on top.

Upon release, Spider-Man was met with strong reviews and equally strong sales. Critics praised the fluidity of the controls, the vibrant comic-book aesthetic, and the sheer joy of embodying Spider-Man in a way that no game had achieved before. The use of a fully voice-acted cast, including Rino Romano as Spidey and narration from Stan Lee, added a level of polish rare for licensed games at the time.

The game sold over two million copies on the PlayStation alone, later being ported to the Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, and Windows. It quickly became a staple of the console’s late library, standing shoulder to shoulder with Tony Hawk as proof that Neversoft wasn’t a one-hit wonder. For many players of the era, it was their definitive Spider-Man experience and set expectations sky-high for what would come next. Treyarch, which would later become synonymous with Spider-Man adaptations in the 2000s, used Neversoft’s engine and design as a foundation. The DNA of Neversoft’s Spider-Man is especially evident in Spider-Man 2 (2004), a title widely hailed as the franchise’s gold standard until Insomniac’s 2018 reboot.

Looking back, Neversoft’s Spider-Man also stands as a perfect time capsule of Marvel’s late-’90s identity. The story featured a cavalcade of fan-favorite villains like Venom, Carnage, and Doc Ock, plus cameos from heroes like Daredevil and the Human Torch. It was unapologetically comic-booky, with campy dialogue, colorful environments, and fourth-wall-breaking jokes. That celebratory tone was exactly what fans wanted and established a formula that would be co-opted by the superhero movies that dominated the box office a decade later.

Neversoft’s Spider-Man proved that superhero games could succeed critically and commercially if they respected the source material and put gameplay first. When players swing through the dazzling, hyper-detailed New York of Insomniac’s Spider-Man, they’re experiencing a direct lineage that began in 2000 with Neversoft’s bold experiment. Without it, the genre might have remained stuck in the mire of half-hearted cash-ins, never earning the prestige it enjoys today. Neversoft may have been absorbed into Activision’s corporate machinery, but their Spider-Man remains an enduring testament to a studio at the peak of its creative confidence.