Many say that this is the worst Spider-Man game, but many also say it's underrated. Which side is true?

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Spider-Man 3 is a very unlucky product. Its movie was panned upon release, and its game suffered an even worse fate. The movie and the game share a surprising amount of similarities, and not just in plot points; ironically that’s where they differ the most. It’s in their strengths, weaknesses, critical reception, and retrospective praise that the Spider-Man 3 game is almost identical to its counterpart. Both products are following a critically acclaimed movie and game, and both severely failed to meet expectations. We will return to this parallel later, but for now I want to frame the game and explain how the critical acclaim of Spider-Man 2 and Ultimate Spider-Man set expectations for Spidey games going forward.

Spider-Man 2 delivered the, at the time, best swinging we had ever, all while looking great for the time, telling a solid story, and being hailed as the best for years to come. While Ultimate Spider-Man didn’t revolutionise the character like Spider-Man 2 did, it was a great game, and one many, myself included, remember fondly. So when Spider-Man 3 released, fans were obviously disappointed, and no pun intended it was the black sheep of the series, being the but of jokes in many of my videos. But each time I made a joke regarding this game, there were people in the comments telling me that the game isn’t that bad; so here I am, ready to try the game for the first time in a while, and as is often the case with these games that are initially panned but retroactively deemed an underrated gem, the truth is that both sides have valid points. Yes, this game looks rough most of the time, yes the story isn’t very interesting, and yes, the gameplay is not as fluid as Spider-Man 2, but the game is also relatively competent in all those facets, and it has some fun boss fights. The biggest problem with Spider-Man 3 is that Spider-Man 2 does just about everything better. The same was true for Ultimate Spider-Man, but that got a pass because it wasn’t a sequel, and it had its own very respectable strengths. One of this games strengths, just like the movie, is how unbelievably cheesy it is, and there are enough “so bad it's good” moments here that justify at least trying the game. With Marvel's Spider-Man 2 just around the corner, I want to go back to yet another game where the symbiote is centre stage and see what went wrong, and where treyarch went right. So with all that said, let’s take a look back at this, brace yourselves, 16 year old game, and figure out if Spider-Man 3 is truly an underrated gem, or if its disregard is warranted.

The first thing many will notice about Spider-Man 3 is that it looks worse than a PS2 game, don’t believe me? Look at Spider-Man 2; and here's the kicker; this is a PS3 game. Yea, a poor start to say the least, and it doesn’t improve for the PS2 version of the game. We will be focusing on the PS3, XBOX 360, and PC version of the game because it’s the one most are familiar with and it’s the game with the most content, but I seriously wouldn’t blame someone for opting for the last generation version instead. The PS2 version, while having less content, trims the fat from the PS3 version, and while it may not look as nice, it is still a fine enough game, even including its own black suit mechanic that we will talk about later. But let’s stay focused on the PS3 version, because oh man does it start poorly.

Spider-Man has a lot of bad games, but it seems many consider Spider-Man 3 to be the worst Spiderman game. This is where Spiderman 3 the movie and the Spider-Man 3 game are very similar. The Spider-Man 3 PS3 game follows Spider-Man 2 not to be confused with Marvel's Spider-Man and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 that is to be released soon as of this Spider-Man 3 Review. This Spider-Man 3 Analysis will not talk much about the Spider-Man 3 PS2 version. Venom in the Spider-Man 3 Movie had his issues but his appearance in this, the worst Spider-Man game, warrants analysis, especially when Venom might appear in the best Spider-Man Game, and no I don't mean Ultimate Spider-Man. Tobey Maguire, or Bully Maguire does great here compared to Spider-Man 2. The Spider-Man 3 QTE segments are definitely a highlight of this game and if you haven't seen the Spider-Man 3 quick time events then I highly recommend you check them out.