Hidden Gems #39 Spider-Man (PS1), & Apocalypse

Today we look at two games they were by Neversoft who of course fits into the Tony Hawk week perfectly seeing that these two truly forgotten pieces of work deserve to be looked at since the PlayStation 1 games they had on their belt were few rarities that were pretty impressive to play for the time.

Apocalypse: Start off with the first beginnings of Neversoft, and that game was called Apocalypse. A 3rd person shooter for you guessed it The PlayStation 1, it was the year 1998, and this was and all or nothing type game that people were gonna remember, or just not so much. Well for one a striking title name like Apocalypse sure got the eye of gaming critics, and even more so how did they get Bruce Willis to do the main character's voice acting? The general story puts Bruce in a holding cell only to break out of it as chaos emerges in the break of shooting in fast pace gameplay that is freakin' amazing. It does remind of another destruction incarnate type like One which is also another overlooked title of the same console, but sticking back to Apocalypse eventually after shooting your way outta the place the main antagonist The Reverend in the opening cutscene shows that... ''He uses his expertise to create four powerful "Horsemen of the Apocalypse", War, Plague, Beast and Death, in order to ensure this comes to pass.'' The controls are very fast, and responsive, and for a PlayStation title this feels really comfortable pace which is something you don't feel like with most popular selections. You shoot through guards, boxes, giant bosses, and yes The Reverened who turns into a demonic satan transformed possessed only to be slayed by Bruce as the ending cutscene shows you in the same postilion as The Reverend is defeated you end up up the same fate perhaps as the game goes into the credits. While its not a entirely long game its pretty fun for a 2 to 3 hour game based on chaos around you. This game was so positively given by many critics that Neversoft had pitched their next idea in the form of skateboarding which we all now know as Tony Hawk games, but what if they kept making 3rd person shooters instead like this one what would of happened?

Score: 8.5/10

Spider-Man: Next after the success of Both Apocalypse, and the first Tony Hawk game they wanted to tackle superhero genre more specifically they were huge fans of Marvel, and Spider-Man was one that rarely had good games out there which meant that you'd have to be extremely careful touching a precious franchise like this into video games. While the fans are finally getting justice of some really great Spider-Man recently like with Insomniac in this era you had only one good Spider-Man game at the time and that Was Spider-Man and Venom Maximum Carnage. There was much high expectations for this game to succeed, and I'd say it is interesting where they went with the direction of the game focusing more on the old school than at the time Modern Spider-Man which would of been based on the 90's cartoon which the cover makes me a bit confused as well which isn't bad to go with, but seeing a comic vibe of every load screen definitely feels very original you feel like, and play exactly like what Spider-Man would do to get by many enemies in the way. Eventually you face bosses that are for the most part, I do like the fact after facing Venom twice he ends up an ally the rest of the way. The one aspect I really fought I'd never see is the combine might of Doctor Octopus, and Carnage fused into a terrifying way to literally he grabs you the games over so you gotta time the webs very carefully i'll admit it was annoying, but pretty scary for the time. This is one of the best Marvel games out there that if you played it you strongly recommended, and also it led to having a few other great Spider-Man titles to come after it even though they were developed by different companies. Spider-Man 2 based on the second movie was far better than the first game on the PlayStation 2, and like said before Spider-Man for the PS4 delivered massively on the hype surrounding it. This game will keep you busy terrific game that still hold up pretty well for 2000.

Score: 9/10

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