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Box-office buster: Spider-Man’ on PS4 tops ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ with big debut

Marvel’s Spider-Man – E3 2018 Gameplay | PS4

Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man is one of the best games of the year, giving Marvel fans a chance to swing around New York City and take down famous villains in absolutely gorgeous fidelity. It seems PlayStation 4 owners have taken notice, as the game is now the fastest-selling exclusive in the system’s history.

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In just three days, Spider-Man managed to sell more than 3.3 million copies, making it the fastest-selling first-party PlayStation title ever. This number is about 200,000 more than what previous record holder God of War managed earlier this year over the same amount of time.

According to USA Today, the Spider-Man game had a significantly bigger launch than the film Spider-Man: Homecoming, which raked in $117 million in its opening weekend. With the $60 price tag of the game, it took in at least $198 million, and this number will only continue to rise over the coming weeks and months, particularly during the holiday season.

There’s a long history between Insomniac and the PlayStation family, with the studio’s Ratchet & Clank franchise dating back to the PlayStation 2 and the Resistance trilogy releasing on PlayStation 3. The remade 2016 game Ratchet & Clank was the fastest-selling game in the entire series, and it earned big sales thanks to terrific action and platforming. A tie-in film was released in theaters at the same time, but it flopped both critically and commercially. Some things just lose their charm when you take the interactivity away.

The success of Spider-Man all but guarantees we’ll see a sequel in the future from Insomniac, but we’re also hoping the developer returns to the Xbox-exclusive Sunset Overdrive at some point. Insomniac was proud of the original game, but its exclusivity to the less-popular Xbox One likely didn’t help it get exposure. That’s a shame, as some of the traversal and open-world ideas in Spider-Man feel like an evolution of Sunset Overdrive‘s mechanics.

Spider-Man is the latest in a growing list of great exclusives for the PlayStation 4. Just this year, we’ve already gotten God of War, Detroit: Become Human, Shadow of the Colossus, and MLB 18: The Show — and with several others on the way, there’s no better time to own a PlayStation 4.

Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
The best video games of October 2023: Mario, Spider-Man 2, and more
Spider-Man soars through the air in a biomechanical suit in Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

October 2023 was one of the best months for video games in a long time. From the indie to the AAA space, there was a spectacular new game coming out every few days. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder arrived and improved upon their predecessors in almost every way, while indies like Jusant and Wargroove 2 hit the scene with fresh ideas. While the phrase “there’s something for everyone” is played out in the game industry, that truly felt like it was the case this month.
Having so much to play can also be overwhelming, though. Players are left to sift through which titles are worth checking out, which are fine, and which should be passed up entirely. To help you out on that search, I’ve rounded up our seven favorite games released during the blockbuster gaming month of October 2023.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Nintendo dropped a brand new 2D Mario game this month, and it's outstanding. Super Mario Bros. Wonder lives up to its namesake, eliciting a sense of wonder with its expertly designed levels that reward players who poke around in them and also feature Wonder Effects that can drastically change what players are doing on the stage. From singing Piranha Plants to a top-down perspective shift, Super Mario Bros. Wonder stays consistently fresh and creative the whole way through.
“With its wealth of unpredictable levels, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the series’ best 2D entry since its SNES days,” Giovanni Colantonio wrote in a four-star review of Super Mario Bros. Wonder. “It’s still the same familiar platformer, but one that’s been given a new lease on life thanks to a fantastic new art style, delightfully absurd transformations, and flexible difficulty. It’s the closest I’ve gotten to recapturing those magic moments with the original platformers, even if there’s still room for Mario to grow into his new overalls.”
Personally, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is my favorite game of the year and one that I know will appeal to gamers of all ages and skill levels. If you only play one game on this list, I urge you to make it this one. Super Mario Bros. Wonder is available now exclusively on Nintendo Switch.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2

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Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 fixes one of its predecessor’s biggest flaws
Venom perched on a rooftop.

Insomniac Games has always had a penchant for silky smooth controls, and while Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 doesn’t make any drastic changes to gameplay, the new Symbiote and Bioelectric abilities give both heroes (Peter Parker and Miles Morales) more options when taking on groups of enemies. Both Spider-Men are a joy to play as in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Traversal has also seen minor, but helpful improvements, with the addition of web swings and the ability to swing around corners, which ensure that almost no roadblocks to movement exist while playing as a Spider-Man.

That’s why I was surprised that some of the most memorable moments of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 for me were moments where I wasn’t in control of Peter or Miles -- and I’m not just referring to the sequences where I controlled a drone or Spider-Bot. Some of the weakest parts of the first Marvel’s Spider-Man were the ones where I wasn't controlling the titular hero. That’s not the case in this sequel, though, making that one place where Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is a clear, drastic improvement over its predecessor.

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Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 lets its villains evolve in ways comics never could
Mysterio in Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2, like the best Spider-Man stories, leaves a lasting impact on its characters. In comics, events like Death of Gwen Stacy, the corruption of Peter with the symbiote, Peter's marriage to MJ, and the reveal of his identity during Civil War left a mark on both the web-slinger and readers because they were character-driven moments that felt like they would change Spider-Man forever. Not all of these moments were actually allowed to do that, though. To maintain a brand identity and accommodate an ever-revolving door of writers, Marvel Comics always tries to get Spider-Man back to a status quo after radical changes.

Most infamously, One More Day undid Peter Parker and Mary Jane’s marriage and the fact that people knew Spider-Man’s identity after Civil War. Although there are still plenty of excellent Spider-Man stories coming out to this day, personal stories with a feeling of permanence are rare unless the comic is set in an alternate universe like the excellent Spider-Man: Life Story.

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