It starts off with The Kingpin slandering Spider-Man on live television. Then it has Peter Parker donned in his iconic blue and red suit, infiltrating Doctor Octopus’ hideout and laying waste to scores of his faceless goons. Later, the star of the show will rescue MJ from peril, and throw everything he’s got at the likes of Sandman, The Lizard, Electro and the various other supervillains terrorizing the streets and sewers of New York City.
One of those baddies is Venom, and that bastard is the most persistent and relentless of the lot. And while all of this might sound like scenes from Insomniac‘s Marvel’s Spider-Man and its sequel, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, it is, in fact, pulled from the 16-bit glory days of console gaming almost 30 years ago.
Web and flow
If you’ve read our Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 review, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of Insomniac Games and Sony Interactive Entertainment‘s latest action-adventure offering. Even more so than its 2018 forerunner, the way it balances narrative and spectacle is masterful – with the inclusion of the symbiote suit, and latterly Venom as a fully-fledged character, responsible for much of that exhibition in the game’s final third. A lot of this should be experienced first-hand, so I won’t spoil the specifics here, but I will say that Venom’s evolution over the course of the game’s 20 or so hours of Story Mode sees the black-suited saboteur’s character evolve from support act to center stage star at a rate of knots.
Anyone familiar with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 themselves already knows what makes Venom special here – and while it’s definitely one of the character’s best-ever video game appearances, the black suit has filled roles of varying prominence across the pantheon of Spider-Man video games for over 30 years.
In 2000’s Marvel vs Capcom 2, for example, the musclebound Eddie Brock fills the symbiote suit, bringing a suite of alien-powered abilities to its fast-firing 2D battles. In 1991’s Spider-Man: The Video Game, Venom is a hulking brute who impedes Spidey’s progress throughout the arcade-exclusive’s uber-combative sidescrolling beat ’em up’s environments. While unplayable in 2000’s PS1 classic Spider-Man, Venom drives much of the game’s narrative, delivering one of the character’s most sophisticated game appearances of all time. And in terms of style, Venom has rarely looked as good as he did in 2005’s Ultimate Spider-Man.
My favorite, however, arrived via the Sega Genesis (or Mega Drive as it was known on British shores) in 1995. This game, simply titled ‘Spider-Man’, was a sidescrolling action game that pit Peter Parker’s alter ego against a variation of The Sinister Six, this time led by The Kingpin. With Electro, The Hobgoblin, Sandman, The Lizard, and Doc Oc comprising the rest of the supergroup, Venom in this instance was merely an auxiliary supervillain – but one who stalked you from level one right through to the final showdown with Wilson Fisk.
“Often without warning, Venom would swing from off-screen at the most awkward moments, almost always when you were otherwise locked in the throes of battle with baddies or bosses.”
Often without warning, Venom would swing from off-screen at the most awkward moments, almost always when you were otherwise locked in the throes of battle with baddies or bosses. To make matters worse, with no health bar to speak of, you were often unsure of how long the symbiote would hang around, so you were invariably forced to juggle the task at hand while keeping Venom at arm’s length by pummeling A and B – all the while powering through the game’s tank controls and unwieldy web-shooting mechanics.
In one instance, I was down wrestling with end-of-zone boss The Lizard at the foot of the labyrinthian sewers level, and, lo and behold, Venom forced himself into the equation. I found the rhythm of fighting both simultaneously so challenging that I was forced to turn to my Game Genie’s unlimited health hack just to get onto the next level. I was only nine years old when I picked up Spider-Man in 1995 – discounted in the bargain bins at the back of my local Woolworths store – but I can remember that showdown as clear as day.
Which, of course, speaks volumes for how much Venom in this guise has stuck with me. Spider-Man as it featured on the Mega Drive/Genesis riffed on the concurrent animated series of the same name that first aired between 1994 and 1998, but while I thoroughly enjoyed Spidey, this take on The Sinister Six, and the game’s ruthless platforming, it was Venom who unsettled me most, proving a formidable and totally unpredictable foe in what was already a really unforgiving game.
Venom in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is a show-stealing powerhouse, and this guise absolutely fits the game’s narrative and flow. It’s easily one of the best interpretations of the savage symbiote – across film and comics too, for my money – but equally, I’d love to see a less front-and-center slant in future, in the same vein as the ’95 classic some 28 years later. Just the thought of a less charismatic Venom stalking Miles and Peter from afar is enough to send shivers down my spine, appearing without ceremony akin to, I dunno, Pyramid Head in Silent Hill 2. Jesus Christ, there’s a thought. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe some things are better left in the past.
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