- Aims for fastest time.
- NG+
- Plays on easiest difficulty.
- Manipulates luck.
Spider-Man is based on the 2002 movie of the same name, featuring Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker.
The game has 4 difficulty levels - Easy, Normal, Hero, and Super Hero. By completing the game on Hero or higher, the player unlocks the ability to play as Harry Osborn in the Green Goblin suit, complete with the glider and bombs. It takes place after the main Spider-Man story, with new dialogue, cutscenes, and an alternative voice for the opposing Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe, but pitched down and pretending to be an unknown man who was hired by Norman Osborn to kill Spider-Man). Harry is voiced by Josh Keaton, who was originally intended to be the voice for Spider-Man AND voices Spider-Man in the spectacular TV show, until Tobey stepped up. Instead of the devs getting James Franco (Harry Osborn in the movie) to voice playable Green Goblin, they put all of Keaton's lines into Green Goblin instead (most lines that Spider-Man and playable Green Goblin say are identical for this reason).
How to play this movie (skip this if you don't intend to)
You will not be able to just open the game and play this TAS - there is about 3 minutes of setup required. First, open Dolphin 5.0, and right-click on your copy of Spider-Man, then click "properties". In the new window, press "show defaults". In the txt file, at the bottom, there should be something that says "EnableRealXFB = True". Erase that and Ctrl+S to save the file.
Now play
this TAS. It will create a save file that plays as Green Goblin. Once that's all done, you can now play the movie uploaded here. There is a small chance that the inputs will desync in the first level - this is normal nature of the game. Close it and reopen it and try to play it again. If the first level completes without desyncing, the rest of the game will as well. If it repeatedly won't sync, then sorry - I don't know. Make sure xfb is disabled entirely.
When dumping frames and audio, you will notice they fall out of sync. This is caused by pre-rendered cutscenes. Additionally, the dumped music file and sound effects file each have separate sound. Dtkdump (music) will remain synced with the video, but the Dspdump (SFX) will not. You will have to line them up accordingly (it's not as much of a problem as goblin since all story-based pre-rendered cutscenes are removed, but you'll have to sync the SFX pretty much level-by-level as Spider-Man).
To be more specific, this TAS has 2 pre-rendered cutscenes which play back to back - the activision movie and treyarch movie which play at startup. In your video editor, make a splice in the dspdump on the frame that the SPIDER-MAN "Press Start" screen appears. Then just line up that second clip of audio with the gameplay, and you should be good to go export without making any other audio splices. The dtkdump (music) does not need to be spliced in any way and will remain synced with the game. HOWEVER - it will be eardrum-destroyingly loud, and you should bring it down by around 9-12db so that the viewers won't go deaf, and so that it won't be too distracting from the game and sfx.
Goblin Mechanics
Green Goblin shares almost all combo moves from Spider-Man, but he also has bombs and a glider.
Glider Mechanics:
- Press R to summon the glider, hold it to fly forward.
- Hold A to boost. This will heat up the glider. Goblin boosting on the glider is about triple the speed of Spider-Man's boosted web swinging.
- Press B to use the glider's miniguns. These are very weak and will heat up the glider.
- Press X to shoot glider knives. These are strong, homing shots that will heat up the glider when fired. They are limited but refill over time.
- Press Y to drop glider bombs. These are high-damage bombs that can carpet an area. They have splash damage and can damage you, but only if you're on the glider. They will also heat up the glider, and are limited-but-refill.
- The glider cools off over time (it cools extremely fast since I'm playing on easy difficulty). If the glider overheats, the weapons and boost will be temporarily unavailable until all the heat is gone.
Bombs:
- Hold L and press A to throw a multi-bomb. These will spread out and deal very high damage but also use a lot of your blue meter. I will refer to these as A-bombs.
- Hold L and press B to throw a plain pumpkin bomb. It is mostly useless thanks to its very low damage. I will call these B-bombs (not that I ever use them).
- Hold L and press X to throw a pumpkin rocket. It is a low damage bomb but goes in a straight line, which can be useful for sniping enemies off of buildings from afar. I will call these X-bombs.
- Hold L and press Y to throw a multi-homing-bomb. It produces a cluster of homing bombs that each deal low damage. I will call this a Y-bomb.
Other Goblin Stuff:
- Press Z to produce a razor bat.
- Hold Y to sprint on the ground. This will knock over anyone in your way and deal damage to them.
- Unlike Spider-Man, Goblin cannot perform air attacks. If his glider is overheated, he is basically helpless in the air.
I personally think the run is more interesting as Spider-Man, but Green Goblin is almost 4 minutes faster so, oh well.
Search for Justice
In this level, you are required to defeat 6 thugs before an informant appears in the far corner of the level. I do just that, KO'ing the first two thugs with glider knives, then drop a glider bomb on an enemy on the lower building just ahead, which throws him off the building since it lands right next to him. Then I reach enemies 4 and 5, throwing an A-bomb at them and then sprinting into them, dealing just enough damage to defeat them. I fire some glider knives at an enemy on a nearby building. Now that 6 enemies are defeated, the final group and informant spawn. I defeat the two thugs - normally this would initiate a cutscene where Spidey interrogates the informant, but that cutscene doesn't play as goblin, so I just fly to the end of the level.
Warehouse Hunt
I sprint down the stairs and jump so I'm not seen by the thugs. I open the door and immediately KO the two thugs with glider knives, which opens the next garage door that 3 thugs come out of. By sprinting and throwing an A-bomb at the same time, I throw two of them and sprint through the garage door as it opens. This skips a cutscene where a thug with a necessary item runs into a locked back room with a long process to get him out - instead, he's now standing still and vulnerable. I sprint-jump over the truck ahead and fly up into the vent. I drop down and disable the electricity in the vent to proceed, then head back up and defeat the thug with the necessary item. The game will only let you use the desk switch after a certain amount of time has passed, so I goof around for a moment. I then use the switch, which shows a cutscene of the "closed" door being opened (remember how I skipped a cutscene earlier? In that cutscene, the door closes). I go into the opened room and spam explosions, defeating everyone to open the exit door (the enemies necessary to defeat the level won't spawn if you don't hit the desk switch from earlier).
Birth of a Hero
This level mostly speaks for itself. Go through the vents, skip fighting the enemies, go through the corridor, and then grab the "Handspring" combo. In this large room, I have to defeat 5 enemies to spawn a key to a locked door (on normal it's 10, on Hero it's 15, and on Super Hero it's 20). I use numerous bombs to annihilate the thugs, grab the key, and go through the locked door. I follow the path up the warehouse to Uncle Ben's Killer and defeat him with - you guessed it - a ton of bombs and glider knives.
Oscorp's Gambit
As Spidey, normally you'd have to take some pictures of yourself for the Bugle before some robots spawn. Goblin skips straight to the robots. I destroy the first 3 with glider knives and glider miniguns. For the rest of the robots, I fly against a nearby building and spawn razor bats above me. Normally the mechs would spawn from the sky, but using this trick, they spawn bunched up below me, in the perfect location for me to use glider bombs on them.
The Subway Station
I sprint jump to the first group of thugs and blow them up with glider bombs. Then I face their spawn location and turn the camera away, so I can immediately kill them with bombs and glider weapons. Then I fly up to the side room and pelt the first thug with glider knives, then use the double A-bomb glitch on the other 2 thugs before finishing off the thug in the side room (the side room of the side room, y'know?) with more glider knives. I fly out to the main room but don't get too close to the spawn location of the policeman with 2 thugs (if I did, they would spawn on the other side of the room). I drop glider bombs on them before flying into the corner - normally a cutscene would play, but it's skipped when playing as goblin, so it just spawns me in the spot I would be after the cutscene, complete with all my momentum. I save the civilian before defeating some more thugs and then going through a gate to the final area of thugs. I do the similar glider trick to shoot the thugs as they spawn, and then use the Handspring combo I picked up earlier to finish them off and finish the level.
Chase Through the Sewer
Beat up the thug with the necessary item, unlock the door, blah blah blah. Go through the halls into a large, cylindrical room with two switches - I press them both to unlock the door and continue on. A thug breaks the valve off of the water supply, so I go bomb him (like I do with basically everyone at this point) and get it back. I turn off the water and continue on, boosting past thugs and entering the final room of the level. Normally you would have to KO a large number of thugs to get a key for the door in the lower right, but the glider can clip through it with sheer speed alone (only on easy difficulty). I press the switch to open the door and finish the level.
Showdown With Shocker
Normally this is a hard part where you have to dodge Shocker's blasts as you progress down the subway, but the glider's speed is fast enough to skip it entirely. The glider's speed is also fast enough to clip through the rubble instead of taking a longer route around it. The glider is ALSO fast enough to damage shocker with a glider bomb before his cutscene starts (there's actually a way to clip into this room through the larger door to skip the cutscene and have Shocker's AI not activate, but I couldn't do it even after trying for hours). Can you guess how I defeat him? Let me give you a hint: it involves a lot of bombs. I also use a new trick that involves sprinting repeatedly to deal very high damage to Shocker. It uses a lot of blue bar which is why I use it sparingly.
Vulture's Lair
This level speaks for itself, mostly. I sprint-jump up the tower, skipping basically all the traps (the glider has very bad turns which is why I sprint-jump). Normally you'd have to work around the gates as Spidey, but you can just shoot them with the glider as goblin.
Vulture Escapes
This level also mostly speaks for itself. Follow Vulture. He works on a rubber band, so I stay close and manipulate him into taking the fastest possible route. He occasionally breaks stuff, so I use the razor bats to repair them.
Air Duel with Vulture
This fight is normally cycle based - you knock him down to the building, deal some damage, he flies back up, repeat, but I found out how to 1-cycle him using a TAS-only strat. Two A-bombs, an X-bomb, and some glider bombs will KO him. And yes, you have to get close enough to blow yourself up. An eye for an eye, right?
Corralled
Defeat 10 mechanical spiders and make sure Scorpion doesn't die. Easy as that. On normal difficulty, it's 20 spiders, on Hero it's 30, and on Super Hero it's 40. I manipulate their spawn patterns to get them in ideal or mostly ideal locations.
Scorpion's Rampage
Defeat Scorpion. I sprint into him to knock him over, shoot all my glider knives at him before throwing an A-bomb and dropping some glider bombs on him as well, then doing the repeated sprint trick from earlier, reducing his function to being little more than a doormat.
Coup d'Etat
There is nothing interesting or unintended about this level while playing as Green Goblin, and it's the same on every difficulty.
The Offer
Defeat Green Goblin. There is a method as Spider-Man to defeat him in only 1-cycle, but there is not and likely never will be a way to do it as Goblin since he can't deal over 150 damage in a single hit (opposing Green Goblin retreats to his glider at 150 health). Casually, opposing Green Goblin will kick your ass in hand-to-hand combat, but TAS doesn't really care about all that.
Race Against Time
Disarm the bombs. That's literally it. On Super Hero, this is almost definitely the hardest level in the game (especially as Spider-Man), but on easy, it's the easiest.
On the Xbox version, there are two extra levels here which feature Kraven: Kraven's Test, and The Mighty Hunter. They are pretty interesting levels and I wish they were in all versions.
The Razor's Edge
Defeat 50 razor bats. Nothing special - you can't make opposing Green Goblin spawn the razor bats faster, but you CAN manipulate his location, so I do. I destroy the whole wad of them immediately after they spawn with a bomb, otherwise they will spread out and become very difficult to destroy, especially as Goblin.
Breaking and Entering
There are 5 computers around Oscorp offices. You are expected to be sneaky - if you aren't, Super Soldiers come out and will absolutely toast you... on higher difficulties. On easy, enemy sight lines are super small, and very few super soldiers spawn if you are spotted. Just get the codes from the computers and go to the far end blast door, and put the code in correctly (the code isn't randomized, each computer has a specific piece of it). I use the fastest route possible, even if it means I can't mash through the code.
Chemical Chaos
A bit like the previous level. Get the codes and put them in the correct spots (except this time, you fail the level if you put them in the wrong spots). Door D is locked but I go to it first so the scientist with the pass spawns. I get the codes and go back to the chamber and finish the level, not caring about stealth.
Oscorp's Ultimate Weapon
There are 10 generators around the room. I destroy them with glider guns and then destroy the robot's brain. Second hardest level on Super Hero difficulty.
Escape from Oscorp
You are in the same level as Breaking and Entering, but now you have to escape the way you came in. You are expected to disable the laser wall with a control panel in the far left security room, and disable the turrets with a panel in the far right security room. I do neither, instead opting to just break the glass on the other side of the laser wall from a security room, and eat some damage from the turrets (they are normally EXTREMELY threatening and can kill you faster than anything else on easy, especially as Goblin). I pop open the blast door, go through, and fly to the vent exit.
Mary Jane Kidnapped
Follow Green Goblin. He does not work on a rubber band. Instead, he stops in place when laying air mines... unless you're really far away. I keep as much distance as possible and use a small glitch to continuously gain height past the limit, since I have nothing else to do.
Face-Off at the Bridge
Normally you'd save MJ from the burning bridge, but eh. I don't really have time for that so I pelt goblin to death with glider knives and bombs... and then the game is over. The final cutscene is skipped as goblin, so canonically MJ just dies on the bridge, I guess. Roll credits!
feos: Sorry it me took so long to get around to handle this run.
The Goblin mode and the way it's unlocked look legitimate. I watched this alongside the Spiderman mode TAS, and while both characters can "move really fast", the difference in mechanics is rather noticeable. Most people enjoyed this mode. I also agree that it looks really good and is a solid Moon.
Due to movement complexity and a lot of action, it doesn't really look like anything in this run is executed in a sloppy manner. I was only wondering about a few jumps in Vulture's lair, but after trying to test-TAS it myself I discovered that things are much more complex than they look, and also that Dolphin is not very good at helping you optimize things to death. So given the tools available, I haven't discovered any actual mistakes that don't require knowing the game really well. Once again, this movie's gameplay doesn't look like bad execution, it looks quite good overall!
Accepting to Moons.
