Spider-Man: Mysterio's Menace

[Anonymous No.9595717]

When it comes to Spider-Man video games from the early 2000's, it's most common to talk about the ones based on Sam Raimi's films, however there was something quite special just before that. Neversoft, at that point most well know for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, took that engine and simply made what was, at least for its time, the best Spider-Man video game ever made... and they stopped there, focusing mostly on Tony Hawk from that point onwards. However, that wasn't the end of it for good, even though it was 2000, and Sam Raimi's 1st film came out in 2002, Activision made sure to release a lot more.

In that very same year we got a port on Nintendo's Game Boy Color, which was quite different, with areas being connected while Spider-Man leveled up to make progress in them more viable, a lite MetroidVania feel. In 2001 we got ports of Neversoft's original, though they were almost identical, besides making 100% completion a lot easier, since the Quick-Change suit, which used to require 10.000 points to unlock on the Zip-Line training, now required 7.500, still difficult, but much more possible. 2001 also gave us a sequel to Neversoft's original, this time by Vicarious Visions, called Enter Electro, only on PS1.

Activision wasn't satisfied with all of that, and got both Torus Games and Vicarious Visions, which was already working on Enter Electro, pump out a couple of portable titles, one for Game Boy Color and another on Game Boy Advance. Spider-Man 2: The Sinister Six was a sequel for the original Game Boy Color port of Neversoft's original, and it got rid of the more open style in favor of traditional levels. Mysterio's Menace is the one I wonder the most about though, it can be seen as a sort of Spider-Man 3... but is it a sequel to The Sinister Six or Enter Electro? It's portable, but everything it it looks like PS1 assets.

[Anonymous No.9595757]

>>9595717
I didn't read your post OP sorry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQcVFtie6Zk&list=PLO4jlmGoc6uA_jQnwMG6Sh2J5O6MZxdRU&index=16&ab_channel=RingsOfGeonosis

[Anonymous No.9595772]

>>9595757
>I didn't read your post OP sorry
No need to apologize, anon! It's fine really. I'll admit that I wrote quite the essay, I can't help myself when I write about something I'm interested in, but the main point of my OP is to ask if Mysterio's Menace is a sequel to the PS1 duology or the GBC duology.

[Anonymous No.9595794]

>>9595772
I treat it as a companion game to Neversoft's duology. They are to the PS1 titles what Battle for New York and Ultimate DS are to Ultimate Spider-Man on GC/PS2/Xbox. Quasi-sequel maybe?..

[Anonymous No.9595807]

>>9595794
I suppose, it's odd because it's portable, so you'd assume it follows up on the GBC duology, but pretty much everything in it, the GUI/HUD and pre-rendered sprite for Spider-Man especially, looks exactly like you'd expect a portable sequel to the PS1 duology to look, I guess it could be seen as a sequel or spin-off to both at the same time, but I'm not sure, it's not really explained anywhere what the intent was, but your suggestion seems reasonable and likely.

[Anonymous No.9595831]

>>9595807
>I guess it could be seen as a sequel or spin-off to both at the same time
Yes, that's exactly what I meant. There were also Raimi games which were their own thing, I didn't enjoy any of them that much, even Spider-Man 2 which everyone likes to suck off. The 'neversoft canon' is great across the board but I haven't played the GBC games. Ultimate Spider-Man is my absolute favorite though

[Anonymous No.9595871]

>>9595831
>I haven't played the GBC games.
I'd definitely check them out if you can, they're both good in their own way. I'd say that the original one on GBC, while it does somewhat follows the same story as Neversoft's, it plays quite different, not only because of the 2D, but also because there are no levels, just connected areas, making a pseudo open world, and Spider-Man levels up as you progress. It's fun, but flying enemies can be annoying, enemies in general due to how much they respawn, and jumping doesn't feel too good.

Spider-Man 2: The Sinister Six on the other hand, feels quite a lot like Mysterio's Menace, just more basic, as you go from level to level and Spider-Man is the same from beggining to end, no levelling up or acquiring new abilities, either way I love the level design and gameplay, it feels much better than the original, especially jumping, and webbing feels more responsive, even though it's the same button combination, A and then B immediately after it, or B and then A, I don't recall too well, anyways I recommend this one.

[Anonymous No.9596867]

>>9595717
>In that very same year we got a port on Nintendo's Game Boy Color
OP here, I wrote this in the 1st post of the thread and realized that, out of the 5 installments in this series, if you can call it that, Spider-Man (2000/GBC) was the only one I still hadn't taken the time to play extensively and properly beat, so I decided to play it for a while today. I've decided that I'll beat it, just to complete this series whole, but I've got to say that to me this is the least enjoyable installment. I don't mind the idea of interconnected areas and a pseudo MetroidVania style, but the execution was not ideal at all, for quite a few reasons unfortunately:

1. All areas are nicely condensed and fun to explore except for a single one, the Sewers, which just happen to be where you'll spend most of your time by far, and with no map at all.
2. Flying enemies are the worst to fight against, as Spider-Man's not well equipped to deal with them, so they take a lot of health away, especially the bats... in the Sewers, of course.
3. Control isn't responsive, it takes a second for Spider-Man to respond, and not only that, he keeps too much momentum while on the ground, but his jumping barely goes forward.

I kept playing, giving up, picking it up again, then giving up... until I got sick of it and decided that either I went after a guide or I'd give up on this for good, so I swallowed my pride and used a guide. I feel that the experience is much better now, especially with a map of the Sewers, getting all of the hidden upgrades and taking the best routes so bats don't take away all of your health is ideal too, and almost kind of fun... but overall I can't help but feel that they dropped the ball on this one, both The Sinister Six and Mysterio's Menace were huge improvements.
>Spider-Man most dangerous enemies are bats and seagulls for some reason

[Anonymous No.9597368]

>>9596867
Well, just a little update, I've managed to beat it, though I'm not sure if it was a 100% run or not... I've found 2 guides, one from IGN back in the day, and another by Legomondo, I found both to be excellent, but regarding the Defense Upgrade, which are items you find in levels to upgrade your defense to a maximum of 6, there's something odd. Legomondo's guide mentions that Doc Ock's Lab has a Defense Upgrade, but you can level up both your attack and defense to 4 through XP, and then there are 2 Attack Upgrades you can find, which I did, but for defense it mentions a 3rd one in the last level, even though I had already found 2 by then and it doesn't make much sense to reach level 7 even though there isn't even a slot for it, I'm not sure if it's a mistake in the guide or not, but anyways I went into the last bosses completely leveled up in all fronts, so I suppose it counts as a 100% completion, though I'm not sure due to the guide.

Anyways, leaving my 100% completion OCD aside, I want to talk about this installment, a GBC port for one of my favorite video games of all time, which is the PS1 original by Neversoft, of course I didn't expect them to make something as good as that, but I was frustrated by my experience. I've mentioned how cryptic the Sewers are, and how you spend a lot of time lost there and getting swarmed by bats, flying enemies in general feel quite cheap. I still dislike how Spider-Man controls aswell, his jumping and momentum to be more specific, this should be one of the most agile characters in fiction, but he sure doesn't feel like that here. A lot of the concepts just aren't fleshed out enough, like how you pretty much have to grind for XP so you can fully level up Spider-Man... grinding, in a Spider-Man video game, doesn't feel right... also, if they wanted to make a MetroidVania, which I'm down for, they could've at least given players a map...

(1/2)

[Anonymous No.9597389]

>>9597368
I know it all sounds quite negative so far, but it's not all bad though, far from it. One thing that I must stress though... if you're going to play this, do yourself a favor and use a guide, or else you'll probably want to quit as soon as you go to the Sewers for the 1st time, not knowing where to go because everything looks the same, getting attacked from all directions, with tons of bats swarming you and taking away all of your health as you try to find upgrades and fail because they're all hidden in the most cryptic manner possible... it takes a nosedive in quality here so a guide is a must, at least to me. Anyways, I was going to talk about what I liked... and there was lots of it, there's a reason I tried so hard to keep up when I could've just given up, there are lots of qualities here. Well, the 1st thing you'll notice is how it looks and sounds, not only are all sprites and environments well detailed for GBC standards, we've also got some quality tunes and SFX in the OST... and the best part to me is its atmosphere, it's dark, grim, but not edgy and overdone, it feels appropriate for the story told, which is also a good time really.

We have a password system that works well, as intended, and has an atmospheric and moody password screen too which I love... and while I think they messed up a lot of what they went for with this MetroidVania lite style, mostly in execution, some of it does work, when you know how to get all of the upgrades and power Spider-Man up, also some grinding to fully level him up, you feel the difference from early on, how you take enemies down quicker and with ease, when they used to give you trouble. Overall, it can be fun with a guide, combat is satisfying, at least apart from enemies constantly respawning, some level design is good, and atmosphere is perfect... but it can be a frustrating experience, especially for the reasons mentioned earlier here, still, I don't regret my time with it, and I'm glad I played it.

(2/2)

[Anonymous No.9597847]

>im already at full health!

[Anonymous No.9597857]

How do I shot web?

[Anonymous No.9597868]

>>9597857
>How do I shot web?
Well, it depends, which Spider-Man video game are you currently playing?

[Anonymous No.9597870]

>>9597847
>SURF THE WEB
>SURF THE WEB

[Anonymous No.9597871]

>>9597857

[Anonymous No.9598334]

REAL CHAD'S SPIDEY GAME CUMMIN THRU

[Anonymous No.9599002]

>>9598334
This is the one I had as a kid. Also, is that art by John Romita Jr.? Spider-Man doesn't have a dick at all, looks weird.

[Anonymous No.9599290]

>>9595717
Comfy thread

[Anonymous No.9599396]

>>9598334
Absolutely adore this one. I've completed this, on all difficulty settings because I liked it so much, before the original, and now that I've played them close to one another I have to say that its improved so much on the foundation set by its predecessor. Of course it can be disappointing that they removed every MetroidVania element and went with a simple level to level structure, with a Spider-Man that doesn't change from start to finish... but this Spider-Man controls so much better that it's hard to care, especially his jumping, control is lovely here. Also, instead of having some levels you just want to skip through, like the city, subway and docks, and then levels that are ridiculously cryptic, like the sewers and lab, all levels here are well designed, not too linear, but also not too confusing to navigate, and you have a Spider-Sense that activates when you keep Spider-Man standing still, that points to your objective so you know where to go. I don't think the atmosphere, story, OST and graphics are as appealing as the original... but everything else is an improvement.

[Anonymous No.9599405]

>>9599002
I don't know... it doesn't look much like JRJR's art style to me, but I have no idea who did it, or if it's even a Marvel artist and not someone Activision hired to replicate Marvel's style, anyways we might never know, which is a shame because it's a lovely cover, one of my favorites.

>>9599290
Agreed! I'm glad you're enjoying, anon. It's always fun to talk about such a beloved character and his video games with everyone here.

[Anonymous No.9599642]

>>9595717
Had this one as a kid, gave it away, never got past the sewers. Tried it again during the pandemic and I somehow missed the upgrades and got filtered hard by the time I got to Doc-Ock and Carnage's base. I grinded all my health up and still couldn't do it so shamefully had to look up a password to give me the upgrades. I still feel terrible about it. Is this one (and 2 on GBC) any "fairer" (i.e. easier for a little bitch like me to handle)?

[Anonymous No.9599653]

>>9599642
there's a stickied youtube comment where one of the devs apologizes for how stupidly hard the game is

[Anonymous No.9599661]

>>9599653
Just saw that, gave me a chuckle. Seriously though fuck I used to just replay the first part rather than grapple with the sewers because swinging was actually fun aside from those fucking birds.

[Anonymous No.9599686]

>>9599642
I'd say that both sequels improved on the foundation set by Vicarious Visions' original installment, Torus Games went in a completely different direction for the sequel, no upgrades and it has standard levels, which are well designed and fun to explore, while Vicarious Visions' returned for the next installment and polished concepts from their 1st attempt, allowing you to choose the order in which to play levels, again you find items to upgrade Spider-Man, but level design is more compact and enjoyable to play and explore, also both of them have difficulty settings. Don't feel bad about struggling, you shouldn't be too hard on yourself, even a developer apologized in that comment, it's because there were many problems with the video game, not with you, and speaking as someone who completed it for the 1st time recently, I don't see how it could be an enjoyable experience without a guide. If you'd like to give it another shot where you manage to get all upgrades, I'd recommend IGN's guide (https://web.archive.org/web/20090812055445/http://guidesarchive.ign.com/guides/14631/basics.html)) due to it having a map for the sewers, and Legomondo's one as a complement (https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gbc/370571-spider-man/faqs/16982)) as they were the guides that helped me out.

[Anonymous No.9599940]

>>9599686
Thanks Anon. I'm assuming you're the OP, I haven't played many Spidey games but I always enjoy seeing your threads.

[Anonymous No.9600041]

>>9599940
No problem! I'm glad you enjoy these Spider-Man threads I make, it's always fun to talk about his video game library, as I feel that he's been more lucky than most super heroes, most licensed characters in general really. Cheers, anon!