Sony recently announced that it would be combining PS+ and PS Now into a service that includes the best bits of both, trying very hard to give the impression it is Sony's Game Pass, when it's actually Sony's Nintendo Switch Online. It looks like a horse and sounds like a horse, but it's actually a zebra. That isn't the worst thing in the world, especially for casual players who might not follow all the big releases, considering how deep Sony's roster is. Since the subscription service was announced, I've only thought of one thing - the classic Spider-Man game needs to be in there.
Marvel’s Spider-Man on PS4 may not technically be the console's best exclusive, given how many refined, mature, gritty blockbusters call the console home, but it has always been my personal favourite. The traversal in Spider-Man makes it stand out amongst Sony's increasingly similar and focus-tested blockbusters, and there's a sense of vibrant fun that other games, laden by heavy themes, never seem to replicate. My love for Spider-Man (and its follow up Miles Morales) has only made my heart grow fonder for the 2000 version.
Spider-Man (2000) was the first superhero game I played, and given how terrible most superhero games were in the late '90s and early '00s, any other selection might have put me off the genre for life. The PS4 version feels like the perfect marriage of 2000's efforts and Insomniac's previous game to Spider-Man, Sunset Overdrive. Thanks to the fact Spider-Man is better known in the world of comics, movies, television, and lunch boxes, and because the PS4 version is the only one that comes to mind when we consider Spider-Man video games, it's not the first classic that will come to mind when we collectively think of the best titles for Sony's new platform. Not to mention - and sorry fellow oldies, this is going to sting - there are many players around whose first console was the PS2, or even the PS3. Unless the PS1 game is a classic on the level of Final Fantasy 7, a lot of players have forgotten this important era of gaming history. You'll have as many people calling for Spider-Man as you do Vib Ribbon.
But that's the whole reason the game is so perfect. It's Spider-Man, and that not only gives it a mascot known around the globe but also a mascot that, thanks to Insomniac, is indelibly tied to PlayStation in the eyes of many gamers. It's not like a lot of the other PS1 titles where they feel like a hard sell or a weird experience - although we really do need some of the strange acquired tastes in the mix too. Spider-Man is the perfect gateway into the PS1 era, because the characters and power-ups are already known to the audience, while the experience (unlike going back to play, say, Spyro without the Reignited polish) is brand new.
Since it was a PS1 game, you couldn't just swing across the whole city, but luckily you didn't have to fly through rings either (iykyk). Thanks to a toxic gas, similar to the fog in Silent Hills, Spider-Man was restricted to smaller areas, although swinging and wall-crawling was still included. Combat was a fun if simple iteration of hack n slash mechanics that relied on Spidey punches, but also had some neat powers. Spider-Man could wrap enemies up in webs, could throw web balls at them, and could even lock himself in a web igloo then break out of it explosively, doing damage to any enemies nearby. You stopped bank robberies, fought lizards in the sewers, and even tangled with Venom.
Comparing it to the PS4 version is unfair when we think of the technological advancements that have been made, as well as the ways the industry has come to better understand games as an artform, but it feels part of the legacy of one of PlayStation's most prized possessions, and this new service is the perfect way to let people experience it.