Spider-Man
Developer: Parker Brothers
Publisher: Parker Brothers
System: Atari 2600
Release Date: 1983

	That's one small step for Webhead....

Like many world-famous licenses, Spider-Man started out modestly on the Atari 2600. He climbed up buildings by shooting webs, rescued hostages, and defused bombs planted by the Green Goblin. If he freed hostages or reached bombs before they exploded, he was rewarded with extra webbing. But if Spidey accidentally shot his webbing onto thin air, he would hurtle streetward and bounce off the ground with a sickening thud, unless he could save himself. The Atari version of Spider-Man suffered from the same problem that most of the games of that era did: It was pointless after a time. Advanced levels just meant higher buildings, more bombs, more green goblins flying around, and less webbing to work with. But heck, when Superman was first conceived, he couldn't even fly, so we can forgive Atari for its less-than-stellar creation - definitely not an indication of some of the good games to come.

	I think I left my lunch up here.
	A sign of things to come.
	We're bad to the bone.

Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six
Developer: B.I.T.S.
Publisher: LJN
System: NES, Game Gear
Release Date: 1992

Return of the Sinister Six for the Nintendo Entertainment System was a rather bad game based on the Spider-Man license. This time around Spidey had to defeat a band of supervillians bent on taking over the world: Mysterio, the Hobgoblin, the Sandman, Electro, the Vulture, and, of course, Dr. Octopus. The NES version was a crummy side-scroller with bad graphics, repetitive sound, and a musical score that would restart every time the game was paused. It's hard to imagine that the system that ran this abomination was the same one responsible for classics like The Legend of Zelda and Metroid. Despite the misleading title, this was the only Sinister Six game released; one can only shudder at what a prequel to this might have looked like. (OK, it was based on a comic storyline.) The Game Gear version (released in 1993) featured updated graphics, animations, and sound effects and is superior in every possible respect.

Now show me 16-bit Spidey