Spider-Man PS1 developer ‘absolutely is’ willing to rework classic game
At Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, many fans may overlook an even greater hero: Spider-Man on PlayStation 1. Although 23 years have passed since this classic first graced our gaming screens with aerobatic stunts and sprawling 3D cities, its charm remains timeless both for fans and its developers who created it.
At first glance, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 may seem outdated with regards to graphics; however, making such assumptions is both foolish and sacrilegious – games like Spider-Man laid the groundwork so that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 could swing across New York with grace (or without) depending on who plays the character – we owe everything that happened back then to everyone’s friendly neighbourhood spider.
Chad Findley was delighted when GAMINGbible had the chance to sit down and speak with Chad, former Neversoft dev and lead designer of PS1 game Neversoft: they remembered his time spent creating it with great fondness: it “was before super high costs and razor thin margins of modern projects, before money dictated decisions on every front; therefore everything about Neversoft was exactly how one hoped it would be, fantastic”.
Findley said she enjoyed creating the game “especially as I was such an avid Spidey fan. Not only could we include most of our desired characters in it, we even created what-if mode with tons of cameos from Marvel characters… I even voice directed Stan Lee!” It is hard not to smile when hearing Findley talk fondly of creating such an advanced game back then despite any obstacles they might have had along the way.
“Creating an immersive 3D city was our biggest challenge – hence the storyline with fog covering over its ground level – on our debut. Unfortunately we weren’t capable of creating one featuring pedestrians and vehicles,” revealed they team.
“Wall Crawling on Real Architectural Surfaces Was another Challenge – Once our initial pass at wall crawling had been done and evaluated as satisfactory, real buildings and rooms began being constructed with odd angles and tight surfaces requiring Dave Cowling, our lead programmer, to address that as well. Luckily for us he proved extremely intelligent by developing a secondary “small Surface Wall Crawling Mode”, that enabled us to keep moving forward.”
At Findley’s request, classic Spidey still stands up well today – thanks to him. But now the all-important question arises: would he do it all over again and remake the game? “While at first I may hesitate due to licensing and approval processes that may arise… but eventually yes – Spider-Man was such a fantastic, quirky character with inspiring messages while remaining exciting and fun; exactly what we need these days!”
There’s always hope, yet hope doesn’t always translate to tangible outcomes. Fans were delighted when we briefly saw our beloved pixelated Spidey return, showing there is significant interest for a remake.
However, while we might never witness an actual remake of Spider-Man himself, newer games offer comforting respite with stunning visuals and deep stories – though I am uncertain whether that should provide much comfort to classic gaming enthusiasts like myself.
