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Welcome web-slinging warriors and joystick jockeys to another thrilling episode of Play Comics where we untangle the sticky situation of comic-to-game adaptations with the precision of Peter Parker trying to explain away his sudden photography skills! This week we’re diving headfirst into the cel-shaded spectacular that is Ultimate Spider-Man, the 2005 game that took Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley’s comic masterpiece and somehow convinced every gaming platform from here to the Daily Bugle that they needed a piece of this web-slinging action.

Released across more systems than Spider-Man has quips in his arsenal—PS2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS—this Treyarch-developed adventure let players experience both sides of the symbiote coin. Whether you were swinging through Manhattan as everyone’s favorite wise-cracking wall-crawler or stomping around as the terrifyingly toothy Venom, this game promised to deliver more comic book authenticity than J. Jonah Jameson has anti-Spider-Man editorials.

Joining us for this ultimate discussion are two absolute legends from the podcasting multiverse: Derek B Gayle and Doug Fink, the dynamic duo behind Walloping Websnappers and a whole constellation of other fantastic shows on the Glitterjaw Queer Podcast Collective that may not be directly relevant to our web-slinging shenanigans today, but are undeniably brilliant nonetheless. When they’re not busy dissecting every Spider-Man cartoon ever created or exploring the depths of various other pop culture phenomena, these two bring their encyclopedic knowledge of all things Spider to help us determine whether this game truly captured the essence of the Ultimate universe or if it just left us feeling like we’d been caught in one of Green Goblin’s elaborate schemes.

So dust off those early 2000s gaming controllers, practice your best Venom growl, and prepare for an episode that’s guaranteed to be more entertaining than watching Eddie Brock try to explain his sudden career change from journalism to alien symbiote hosting!Continue Reading

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Welcome back, web-slingers and button-mashers, to another delightfully unhinged episode of Play Comics! This week we’re crawling back to 2002, when flip phones were cutting-edge technology, everyone was still trying to figure out what the heck a “blog” was, and Activision decided the best way to capitalize on Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movie was to let Treyarch loose with a development kit and what we can only assume were several energy drinks and a prayer.

We’re diving deep into the pixelated web-slinging wonderland that somehow convinced an entire generation that swinging through New York City while your webs mysteriously attach to invisible sky anchors was totally normal. This PS2, Xbox, GameCube, and Game Boy Advance spectacular managed to squeeze Tobey Maguire’s voice into a polygonal suit while adding enough extra villains to make you wonder if someone at Treyarch had been hoarding Spider-Man action figures since childhood and finally found an excuse to use them all.

Joining us for this nostalgic journey through early 2000s gaming jank is the magnificent Chris Ferrell from All Things Good and Nerdy and The Official GonnaGeek Show! Chris brings his encyclopedic knowledge of all things delightfully nerdy to help us navigate the treacherous terrain between movie adaptation and comic book faithfulness. He’s the perfect guide for exploring whether this game captured the essence of everyone’s favorite wall-crawler or just gave us a really expensive tech demo for air-based web physics that would make actual physics professors weep quietly into their coffee.

So dust off those sixth-generation consoles, prepare for some seriously chunky character models, and join us as we swing into action with a game that dared to ask the important question: “What if we took a two-hour movie and stretched it into twelve hours of gameplay by adding every Spider-villain we could think of?” The answer, as you’ll discover, involves more air combat than anyone expected and enough stealth sequences to make you appreciate that this was made before every game decided it needed a mandatory stealth section.

Get ready for web-slinging, wall-crawling, and more mid-air punching than should be physically possible – it’s time to find out if this early millennium marvel holds up or if it belongs in the same category as those websites that still think animated GIFs are the height of digital sophistication.Continue Reading

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Welcome true believers to another thrilling episode of Play Comics! Today, we’re swinging into action with a look at the pixelated prowess of two of Marvel’s mightiest heroes in The Amazing Spider-Man and Captain America in Dr. Doom’s Revenge! This digital dalliance with danger was unleashed upon unsuspecting home computers everywhere back in 1989, proving that even Earth’s mightiest heroes couldn’t escape the allure of floppy disks and joysticks.

Joining us on this retro romp is none other than Andy Larson, one of the amazing hosts of The Last Comic Shop podcast. Together we’ll untangle this web of 8-bit nostalgia faster than you can say “Excelsior!” So grab your shield, shoot some web fluid, and prepare for a Marvel-ous adventure that’s more fun than a barrel of radioactive monkeys! Will our heroes triumph over the diabolical Dr. Doom, or will they fall victim to the dreaded loading screen? Tune in to find out!Continue Reading

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It all comes back to Spider-Man doesn’t it? The cultural saturation of the character in a lot of English speaking societies. The relatable nature of the character (and to be perfectly honest, most of the Spider people characters). The fact that the first Spider-Man trilogy was the first thing since the 90s Batman movies to really hit such a mainstream audience is no coincidence.

So how do we get a look at what Spider-Man means to people? Oh, I don’t know, maybe get a guest like Keifer from Select and Start to come and give us a look at what both this 2004 game and the movie that it ties in with? Yeah, that seems like a good idea. I should pat myself on the back for doing exactly that.Continue Reading

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Sometimes you just can’t help but take a look at something you missed on purpose. Like here, where I wouldn’t normally look at arcade only releases. But it’s Spider-Man and someone asked about it and who am I to let the fans down?

Listen in as The Well Red Mage from Mage Cast joins the show to take a look at the Spider-Man arcade game that so many of us missed growing up. Which sucks because we could have had some more 4 player action going.Continue Reading

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The early 2000s were an exciting time. X-Men had the start of a feature film franchise and I’m sure there isn’t anything that could go wrong with that at all is there….. But for real people were really starting to get the hang of this PlayStation thing. And this was right at the start of every movie having a game to go with it.

Listen in as Billy comes back to help take a look at this game that certainly isn’t a Capcom vs title, but is still nothing to sneeze at. Mostly because that’s a rude thing to do.

This Episode is brought to you in part by Pocus Hocus, a Kickstarter comic that takes a look at what happens when someone sells their soul to the devil and then decides that they want their soul back.

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Well it’s been a nice run of bonus episodes, way more than I ever intended to run back to back to…. well you get the idea. So to get back to the regular episodes I feel like it’s best to go with on of my first loves, our friendly neighborhood wall crawler Spider-Man.

Good thing today’s guest David Gallaher likes Spider-Man too because otherwise this could have gotten weird. Not that it didn’t anyway but at least it’s the kind of weird that we’ve gotten used to on this show.

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It all comes back to Spider-Man doesn’t it? There’s a good reason for that, he is one of Marvel’s premier characters for a reason. We’re just going to have a Spider-Man game for every console aren’t we?

Tune in this week as Aaron Weiss from Weisscast joins the show to help break down why Spider-Man gets so much love in the gaming sphere.

This Episode is brought to you in part by the wonderful Play Comics Patreon Supporters. 

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The world of comics and games, as evidenced by the existence of this podcast, have a decent amount of crossover. But a game where you introduce a whole new team to an already established universe? And have a tie in comic? That’s got to be pretty rare, right?

Listen in as Robert Secundus from Comics XF comes on the show to help take a look at Marvel Nemesis Rise of the Imperfects.Continue Reading

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How do you follow up what is possibly the greatest comic book video game of all time? Or at least was probably holding that spot when it came out. Easy, you just pick the story up right there and start going again. Enter Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro. More like Enter Awesomeness.

Enter Anthony Gramuglia to help break down this not as iconic but equally as good in its own special way sequel, Spider-Man’s place in pop culture, and the Spider-Man comics that were coming out at the time.Continue Reading

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Sometimes Japan gets something super cool that we don’t. Alright, that happens all the time. But in this case it really sucks because it’s a good Spider-Man game based on a comic mini series and it really wouldn’t have taken much to get it ready to come out over here.

Listen in as Adam Messinger comes to talk about Spider-Man Lethal Foes and we cry over the fact that this game never got a proper US release.

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One of the things that I really love about Spider-Man is how big the cast of other characters is, especially the crossover with other Marvel heroes. Maybe some of that is because he’s the first place I really saw that.

And maybe some of why the first Spider-Man game for PS1 is my all time favorite Spider-Man game in the whole world no question is because it’s the first one I really got to play through over and over and over. Listen in as Paul Csomo from Varmints joins the show to finally talk about what is possibly the game that I get asked about doing the most. Easily top 3 worst case.Continue Reading

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Marvel vs Capcom. You knew this day was comping. An epic showdown between some of your favorite comic characters against some of your favorite video game characters. No reasons besides it’s cool. Do you really need one?

Listen in as John Horsley from Spoiler Country joins the show to talk about this wonderful gem of a game that we all owe so much to. And the PlayStation version that isn’t quite as good.Continue Reading

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We’re creeping up to the big boys here, this time stopping by Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter. And once again, we get a stripped down version on PlayStation that takes out tag team but at least this time gives you extra modes to make up for it. If that makes up for it is up to you.

Listen in as Justin Williams from SuperTangent joins the show to take a look at Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter and we try not to cry about the lack of Sega awesomeness in our childhoods. Continue Reading

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In the second of our Play Comics Origins series things are taking a different turn. Not only do we have a game that follows a comic story arc, it actually follows the comic story arc. What a concept!Listen in as Scott Niswander from NerdSync comes by to take a look at Marvel Super Heroes which takes inspiration from the Infinity Gauntlet story arc. Like for real, it actually follows the story. Kind of.Continue Reading

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We just can’t get away from Spider-Man at all. Even when there’s no comic story to match it up with, when there are a host of C List villains, the guy is persistent I’ll give him that.Listen in as Chris and Christi from Chrises on Infinite Earths come to talk about the entire Sega 32X library of comic based games. Yup, this is the one that we got.  Continue Reading

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Spider-Man is back at it again with some more attempts released by LJN. But can everyone’s favorite wall crawler make a better impression when a new development studio is brought in to bring him to the small screen?

Paul Csomo returns to take another crack at Spider-Man. Do things get better here? Or is it just a continued downward spiral, waiting for that one Spider-Man game we know is coming that will bring us out of the darkness?Continue Reading

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Spider-Man makes another appearance and this time time it’s based on the 1994 animated series. So with such an iconic part of my childhood as the basis, this game has to be good? Right? 

Listen in as Matt Gardner from Floating Hands Studios and writer of the comic Alabaster Shadows comes on the show to take a look at this SNES and Genesis take on our favorite wall crawler.Continue Reading

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The Avengers make their return here, this time taking on Thanos in a very loose retelling of the Infinity War story. You know, nowhere near the time the movie was released in theaters or on DVD or anything.

Listen in as Scott Thrower from Fairy Tales for Unwanted Children  joins the show to talk Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems!Continue Reading