Can Spider: The Video Game overcome its all-time awful title?
What Is It? Spider: The Video Game is a 1997 action platforming game released on the original PlayStation. The game features 3D graphics but you will only ever be able to move in two dimensions at all times, although the game does switch which two directions so it’s not always left/right and up/down. Does this make it a 2.5D platformer? Personally, I say ‘no’ because I consider Crash Bandicoot a 2.5D game and that provides more freedom than this.
Semantics aside, Spider has you playing as a spider who somehow has a human’s brain transported into it. There are some cutscenes and a whole backstory in the instruction manual, but you should not approach Spider expecting an amazing story.
So, what should you expect? How about a really fun, unique action platformer, for starters. You will spend most of the game moving left or right and equipped with a jump, front attack, and rear attack. The levels will twist and turn and your spider abilities of clinging to walls and ceilings will be utilized frequently. You can even, when upside down, spin a web from which you can hang and swing. I might have used this ability five times in a meaningful way throughout the entire game, but it is fun that it exists.
Most of the game is platforming through levels, across gaps, over nefarious liquids, and other genre staples you would expect. There is nothing particularly exceptional about any of this, but it works really well thanks to great controls and the often changing camera angles giving more of a 3D feel. I’ve played other games in this style (mostly Tomba and Klonoa) and I think Spider features better controls than them.
You will also get a slew of different weapons throughout the game. Your basic attack is simply swiping with one of your arms, that will always be a fallback. Additionally, you will pick up various weapons from flamethrowers to mines to homing missiles. The variety here is fun and is amplified by some weapons such as mines equipping to your back legs. This allows you to blast a flamethrower in front of you and send off moving mines in the other direction. The game never gets hectic enough to need to multitask like this, which is certainly a technical limitation as the game features plenty of slowdown as-is, but it is fun to get to carry a variety of weapons and use the right one for the task.
Make your way through levels, taking out a few enemies and platforming the whole way. Most levels are fairly small and feature multiple exits. The exits are important because you will be gated from progressing a handful of times throughout the game if you haven’t found enough exits up to that point. This is a mechanic I typically don’t like very much, but given how short the levels are, with many of them being able to be completed in under five minutes, I found myself enjoying the process of returning to levels and finding the paths I didn’t see the first time or two through.
There are a few boss fights along the way. They are mostly decent to fine, but will likely test your patience as the two hit points you have don’t leave a lot of room for error in a boss fight. The game will provide healing for one HP, but those are few and far between both in normal levels and boss fights.
The game can be wrapped in a few hours, with finding all of the exits and unlocking secret levels via in-level pickups being a draw for extending your playtime. I estimate about five hours for my first playthrough.
The Best Part: This game is a genuinely fun 2D platformer despite the bizarre premise, name, and basically everything else going on. The game controls really well for a PS1 game with smooth, fluid movement and a great sense of control over the spider. None of this is a given in a platformer on the original PlayStation where even some of the most notable games in the genre had their share of control quirks.
The Worst Part: The type of difficulty this game offers is potentially quite annoying. There are layers to this, as a bunch of small issues that stack on top of each other to make certain annoying levels instead of fun. I will focus on two main points for brevity; only having two hit points and enemies showing up on the edge of the screen. Two HP on its own is fine, but combined with the second issue, it becomes a big issue. Due to camera angles, mostly, the game will often have enemies appearing uncomfortably close to your spider as you move through the levels. You will have a split second to react before getting hit and one of those two precious HPs are gone. This is extra unfortunate because the game controls so well, you will WANT to run through the levels at a brisk pace, but be forced to take things extremely deliberately out of fear of the next enemy, or enemy projectile, coming from the edge of the screen.
The Verdict: Spider: The Video Game is an extremely Atari-coded name for a videogame. Was plain “Spider” taken? Was “Spider With Guns” too edgy for the time? We’ll never know. What I do know, after playing through this poorly named game, is that Spider: The Video Game is a really fun 2D-in-3D platformer.
The gun and enemy mechanics are mostly good, but the platforming and the forced exploration of finding multiple exits is where the game really hits a stride. Once you play a handful of levels and start to learn the tricks of these branching paths, it becomes a focus as you make your way through each new level. All of this works so well because the levels are, mostly, quite short so the lack of checkpoints and a bunch of retries necessitated by only having two hit points are only minor annoyances instead of game-breaking ones.
I bet if you read all of my PS1 reviews on this site, the vast majority of them have some warnings about control jank. It’s a wonderful thing to discover a new-to-me game from this era which controls incredibly well and offers a very fun experience in a genre I love.
If the combination of platforming and spider-based gunplay, combined with the bizarre premise and atrocious cutscenes, appeals to you at all, I can safely say that Spider: The Video Game is worth your time.
How to Play: PlayStation 1*
*console played on for this review
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