This game deals with Electro trying to get his hands on a device that can harness and amplify human bio-electricity. On a normal human, this is pretty powerful, but in the lightning-powered hands of Maxwell Dillon, it could make him a god.
No relation to the similarly named Spider-Man 2, which is based on the Sam Raimi movie of the same name. Or The Amazing Spider-Man 2, also based on the movie of the same name, which also featured Electro as a villain. Or Marvel's Spider-Man 2, the sequel to Spider-Man (PS4).
This game contains examples of the following tropes:
- Adaptational Badass:
- In most of the comics, Electro is shown as being too incompetent to take the position of Big Bad. Here, he's much more competent.
- The Shocker is the Marvel Universe's Joke Character for the most part. Here, he's dangerously powerful and fast, pretty much a full on Lightning Bruiser with ranged attacks too.
- A God Am I: Dr. Connors tells Spidey that if Electro wears the Bio-Nexus Device, he will become a god. Electro reflects this when he wears the device.Electro: Tonight, Electro dances with the gods!
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: All the costumes from the original, plus Alex Ross's famous ideas for the costume from the movies, Spider-Phoenix, a version of the Earth X Venom costume, the black and white Negative Zone costume Spider-Man wore, the nanotech suit from Spider-Man Unlimited, and an insulated costume worn to fight Electro once. Most of them, as in the first game, have some sort of power-up to abilities, such as infinite webbing or invulnerability, but this time around you can mix-and-match costumes and power-ups.
- Anti-Frustration Features: As mentioned above, costume powers can be put to other costumes without issue, allowing players to keep using their favorite suit without having to sacrifice more useful powers in the progress.
- Art Evolution: While not a massive leap over its predecessor, the game does look a good bit nicer and the character models are noticeably more detailed. The most obvious improvement is perhaps Spidey himself, as while most versions of the previous game removed the detailed patterns from his suit and used solid colors instead, here the default suit not only has the patterns, but now Spidey is also rocking the infamous "armpit webs" present on some versions of the suit.
- The Artifact: In most versions of the game, some unlockable storyboard panels are simply blank white rectangles. This is because the now-white panels used to depict the Twin Towers.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Hammerhead delivers this to Electro to stop his whining in the ending scene.Electro: Oh, so close, so close! If it weren't for Spider-Man, I'd be a GOD now!
Hammerhead: Would you SHUT UP?!
Electro: *Quietly whimpering* - Boss-Arena Idiocy:
- Sandman and Hyper Electro both stage their respective boss fights in locations peppered with sources of the only thing each one is vulnerable to (water pumps and power generators, respectively). This is lampshaded in the latter thusly:Spidey: Man, you'd think a guy would get wise to this trick.
- Justified with the Lizard. He would be unbeatable were it not for the fact that the serum used to turn him back into Dr. Connors was being produced in the lab where you fight him.
- Sandman and Hyper Electro both stage their respective boss fights in locations peppered with sources of the only thing each one is vulnerable to (water pumps and power generators, respectively). This is lampshaded in the latter thusly:
- The Cameo:
- The villains of the first game appear in the ending, and Doc Ock is still beating his head against the bars.
- Not necessarily an appearance, but in the various Bugle headlines, you can see various familiar names from Marvel Universe like Ghost Rider, X-Men, Captain America, Stark Industry, etc.
- Canon Discontinuity: The game takes place in a separate continuity than that of Spider-Man 2: The Sinister Six.
- Canon Foreigner: Dr. Watts.
- Characterization Marches On: The Lizard in the first Spider-Man game seemed to be fairly sentient, and would tell you how to get to Venom, if only for revenge. The Lizard in this game is far more feral, design-wise and personality-wise, with no intelligence to balance it out.
- Cherry Tapping: It is possible to defeat the Lizard without the serum, but very difficult unless you have invincibility equipped.
- Continuity Nod: The ending shows the villains in the cell near the cell with villains from the end of the first game, with Ock still banging his head on the bars.
- Contrived Coincidence: Electro needs a large sapphire in order to make the Bio-Nexus device work. It just so happens that Zeus' Tear, the world's largest sapphire, is currently on display at the New York museum.
- Darker and Edgier: Compared to the first game. This one opens with Electro zapping several scientists on-screen (including Dr. Connors), and the Lizard is completely bestial. Spider-Man keeps his wisecracks, though.
- Deadpan Snarker: When Spider-Man falls to his death, he lets out a sarcastic "Wonderful." at the player.
- Disc-One Nuke: The attack challenge in the training menu holds a secret costume that unlocks once you take out 75 enemies. On one hand, you need to beat every tutorial level to access the challenge and it is fairly difficult to reach a number that high; on the other hand, you can do it in kid modenote which makes the challenge extremely easy, and the suit comes with the extra damage, jump height and swinging distance powers, which are all quite useful in the main game. Since training is available at the very start of the game, you can obtain the three powers before even starting the game's storyline.
- Easy-Mode Mockery
- As in the first game, some levels are half-finished for you on Kid Mode.
- When you defeat a boss, you unlock artwork of that fight. If you did it on Kid Mode, the art shows a Super-Deformed version of Spidey, who looks out of place against the properly proportioned villain.
- Energy Being: The result of the Bio-Nexus being used by Electro.
- Funny Background Event: The epilogue shows the villains from previous game. Aside from Doc Ock still beating his head against the bars, an unnamed Mook is still stuck in the ceiling!
- Guide Dang It!: To unlock the Electro-proof costume, you need to beat Lizard on hard, using only cure darts. Didn't know it was even possible? You're not alone.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Sandman largely appears out of nowhere twice, and has little to no speaking part in the entire game. He does sit in at Electro's meeting though.
- Head Desk: Dr. Octopus is still banging his head against the bars of his cell when Hammerhead and Shocker asks if him and his cellmates know how to play Go Fish (the same game that led into Ock banging his head in the first place).
- Healing Boss: Hyper Electro has a gimmick of using a tower with electric conduits to fully heal himself when his health gets too low. Destroying the conduits to disable the tower is necessary in order to defeat him.
- Healthy Green, Harmful Red: Spider-Man's and the bosses' health meter
is given as a colour gradient, like a "reverse rainbow": green for full, yellow as the midpoint, and red for low. - Immediate Sequel: Spider-Man is seen reading the newspaper about Doctor Octopus' scheme from the previous game being foiled, implying this game takes place only a few days or weeks after the first. Cemented by the ending showing Hammerhead, Electro, and Shocker in the cell across from Ock, Rhino, Mysterio, Scorpion, and the Jade Syndicate goon, with Ock slamming his head against the bars and the goon still stuck in the ceiling.
- Lady in Red: Dr. Watts appears in a rather sensual red dress near the end of the game.
- Large Ham: Electro, especially after he merges with the Bio Nexus.
- Lightning Can Do Anything: Electro certainly finds inventive uses for it, including using it to move things around a room and animating a bunch of suits of samurai armor.
- Mineral MacGuffin: The Zeus' Tear, needed for the Bio-Nexus device.
- Most Common Card Game: Double subverted. In the ending, Hammerhead and Shocker are playing Poker. Hammerhead admits he doesn't know any other card games, and Shocker asks their fellow prisoners (Doc Ock and the other baddies from the first game) if they know how to play Go Fish.
- Narrator: As with the previous game, Stan Lee narrates the game.
- Never Say "Die": Averted, as one point, Electro says "Give me the jewel Spider-Man! Give me the jewel or this one [Dr. Watts] DIES!"
- Noodle Incident: Spider-Man asked Beast "What's got you bounding about? Not the Sentinel attack, I hope."
- Ominous Fog: Unlike the previous game, however, there's no in-universe justification for this. The "fog" is simply implemented due to the game's graphical limitations. Ironically, this game has more outdoor levels than the previous game.
- One-Winged Angel: Hyper Electro.
- Psycho Electro: Played pretty much as literally as possible after Hyper Electro gets unleashed.
- Shout-Out:
- Hammerhead's meeting with the gang is a shout out to the scene in The Untouchables, though he smashes a wine glass rather than someone's head.
- When Spidey is crawling up the wall in the second-to-last level to catch up with Electro, lightning-caused explosions will burst around him. Among other things, he'll say "EXPLOSIONS! Now in Activision!", and reference Neversoft and Vicarious Visions.
- One of the stories in the newspapers that pop up reads "Who Watches the Watchmen?"
- Several of Spidey's pop culture-riffing quips:"I don't need pointy ears and a cape to figure out that this is probably another heist."
"Come out to the coast. Have a few laughs."
"Just goes to show that Good wins because Evil is dumb."
- Spinning Paper: The Daily Bugle headlines shown at various points appear with this effect.
- Take That!: "I don't need pointy ears and a cape to figure out that this is probably another heist."
- Tempting Fate: During the climb towards Electro:Spider-Man: Lightning rings! I suppose it could be worse...!
[Beat]
"Yeah - I think a lightning-cascade qualifies as WORSE!" - Time-Limit Boss: The Shocker, due to the building risking an explosion from the out-of-control fire.
- Title Drop: Sandman does this in Catch That Train! level by yelling "You'll never catch that train!" to Spidey.
- Today, X. Tomorrow, the World!: One of the final boss' taunts.
- The Unfought: The Beetle.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: Well, sort of, and directed at Spidey. In one early level, you have to put out a fire by using your web yank on a fire hydrant. It's possible to put Spidey directly in the blast zone and watch him get hurdled by the water blast directly into the burning building.
- The Voiceless: The Lizard, in an odd change from his last appearance.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: The Shocker. He's also the first boss.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Beetle. He appears after the first fight with Shocker, although his identity isn't revealed until after the first fight with Sandman, and is part of Electro's gang in the following FMV. After that, he plays no further role in the story.
- What If?: As in the previous game, there is a What If? mode.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Spider-Man's reaction to the aforementioned Contrived Coincidence.
