Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro Review

Pretty much everything regarding Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro feels like one of those superhero story sequels that only exist because the producers thought they had massive success with previous entries and are now making a story because they know audiences will come to it regardless of quality. Something along the lines of Superman 3, the Joel Schumacher Batman movies or the 90s live action TMNT movie sequels.

Everything in this game was already done in the previous Neversoft game. It's very much a typical expansion sequel of the era. The biggest improvement Enter Electro has is that that the scripted sequences with the tank controls, slowly descending web swinging, and limited camera movement are noticeably reduced if not outright gone.

The music is also just as good as the first game too.

Other than that, it's the same game, combat is a little better in that there is an auto lock on and Spider-Man will close in any enemy nearby him but considering this game came out the same year as Onimusha Warlords and the first Devil May Cry game having slightly better combat than the first game by Neversoft isn't really a worthwhile improvement. The former even had 3D beat em up combat with tank controls much like this game. There isn't a dedicated dodge button or a reliable means of defense. Spidey is a tank with the frequent health pick ups being the only reason why I was able to scrape by combat.

The hard parts of the game is where you have to deal with the bigger environment with lots of enemies being thrown at you and hoping you can tank hits and hopefully find enough health pickups to get past the level, the multi colored key section where you need to find the keys on a timer, the plane section where you need to web up the propellars and bosses like Lizard and Electro himself and dodging Electro's blast while climbing up a large structure.

Much of the challenge comes from the limited movement and combat. I also used save states on Duckstation in conjunction with the frequent health pickups. The latter prevented me from relying on the using the cheats within Duckstation itself. That having the web yank work the way you want to it where sometimes where Spidey will do it or he will just shoot his generic webbing.

The story itself is extremely barebones if not a borderline excuse plot. This would be fine if the gameplay was great but it never rises above being "okay" at best.

Some have complained about how this game has some of Spider-Man's jobber villains like Electro, Shocker, and Hammerhead but I argue a good writer can make them compelling. Electro does have interesting versions like Spider-Man TAS and The New Animated Series. This game however, he just runs around committing crimes and Spider-Man stops them. Electro kidnaps a character towards the end of the game but she has no personal connection to Spider-Man. At least Venom from the first Neversoft game kidnaps Mary Jane and there was a symbiote invasion Spidey had to stop where in this there isn't much of a plot or stakes other than Electro does bad things and he teams up with bad guys. The titular character of this sequel doesn't even have enough overacting or scenery chewing moments to make him any less forgettable.

The Neversoft game didn't have the most in depth plot but the presentation carried much of it, however here there is not enough plot or enough of Peter being challenged as a character that it pretty much warrants the comparison between the superhero movies previously mentioned. Everything about Enter Electro just makes me ask, "why was this game even made?"

On a side note, it does annoy me even in the comics how whenever Spider-Man is around other heroes, they just have to beat over your head that Peter Parker is an underdog and a weakling by comparison to the Avengers and Fantastic 4.

Overall, by no means is Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro something I consider "terrible" but it's so average and a by the numbers sequel that I got to wonder what was even of it. The Neversoft game was popular so Activision wanted a quick buck so they got Vicarious Visions to make this within a year. It's not the most egregious example of games and by extension media being made like this but it doesn't make me kinder on it by any means.