Spider-Man

Spider-Man was released in 1982 by Parker Brothers as an action platformer in which the player, as Spider-Man, climbs the facade of a skyscraper, dodges falling objects, and knocks off enemy agents using webs, while trying to rescue a hostage held on the roof of a burning building. The game combines vertical climbing with time pressure, since flames advance up the facade and the player must climb fast enough to avoid being caught, which would ruin the entire rescue attempt. Besides the fire itself, the player must also dodge objects and enemies thrown out of windows, which multiplies the pressure for quick reactions during the ascent and forces the player to choose a route that avoids windows rather than exposing themselves to unnecessary risk.

The key mechanic is shooting webs, which Spider-Man can use either to neutralize opponents trying to knock him off the facade or to create a makeshift platform to rest on during the long climb up the building, which sets the game apart from simpler platformers of the same era. On the Atari 2600, the game works with simple but functional graphics, a clearly legible hero character in his typical red-and-blue costume, recognizable at a glance even on modest hardware, and smooth vertical movement that, for its time, surprisingly well simulates the feeling of climbing a high-rise building and the tension of the approaching fire.

Spider-Man was among the successful licensed titles of the early 1980s and was one of the first attempts to bring a comic-book superhero into interactive form on a home console, well before the later boom of video game comic adaptations. Today it is interesting mainly as an early example of a superhero video game and as evidence of how licensed titles from the Marvel universe found their way to players long before the creation of more extensive and elaborate adaptations on the more powerful hardware of later console generations.

Why play it: For fans of the early history of superhero video games and Marvel licenses, this is an interesting, if technically modest, example of how comic-book heroes first came to life on home consoles.