A to Z Challenge: Spider-Man 2

 There are plenty of games you can use for S, but let me use one of my favorite PS2 games:  Spider-Man 2.  Unlike all movie tie-in games to that point, SM2 had an open world that let you swing around New York City as the webslinger to make it more than just a cheap merchandising product like Happy Meal toys or collector cups.

There is of course a campaign that you can complete.  You have to tangle with Mysterio and maybe Electro or another Spidey villain and work with/against Black Cat in addition to Dr. Octopus.  One of the neat things is they used the movie actor voices for Spidey (Tobey Maguire), Mary-Jane Watson (Kristen Dunst), and Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina).  And your guide to the game is none other than Bruce Campbell!  Early on, Bruce will educate you on the controls and such in his own sardonic way.  After you finish the campaign you don't hear from him anymore, which is sad.

And you may ask yourself:  Well, how did I get here?!

The campaign though wasn't really the selling point.  As I said, there was an open world allowing you to go all around New York with familiar landmarks like the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, Madison Square Garden, and even Ground Zero.  I doubt everything was exactly accurate, but for a 2004 game it was pretty good.  And really cool to swing up to the top of the Empire State Building, dive off, and then catch yourself by shooting a web right before you go splat.  You can also perch on a building or bridge and watch the sun rise or set.  It's pretty neat.  At that point it was probably the closest you could get to a game that just let you just walk around (or swing around) BEING the superhero.

Even after you complete the campaign, there are still missions you can do while you're swinging around.  They're just mundane ones like stopping robberies, stolen cars, sinking boats, or runaway balloons.  Yes, you get to save balloons which is harder than you might think.  You can't shoot it with webbing or it'll pop so you have to be able to climb up and snatch it, which can be hard.

For the longest time I could not beat the final battle with Dr. Octopus.  Whatever I did, something went wrong.  I finally gave up and just figured I couldn't do it.  A few years ago at random I took the game out and beat that last mission in only like 3 tries.  Maybe I was just trying too hard before.

By now there have certainly been better superhero games but it's still pretty decent for a movie tie-in from 2004.