Video game:Sony PlayStation Spider-Man 2 Enter: Electro

Peter Parker and his infamous alias Spider-Man first appeared in 1962 in the Marvel comic book "Amazing Fantasy #15." Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he has since become one of the world's most popular characters and is one of the most recognizable superheroes of all time. Through the years, he has appeared in many media versions, including several animated series, a daily and Sunday comic strip, and two very successful motion pictures series. Parker Brothers released the first video game featuring Spider-Man in 1982 for the Atari 2600 game console. Entitled simply "Spider-Man," this action game contained both a single and a two-player mode. The game did not receive much notice when it first came out. However, over time it became one of the Atari system's classic games, as players remain drawn to the opportunity to control Spider-Man's web-slinging abilities, and many more games featuring the hero appeared on the gaming market.

In 2000, Activision released "Spider-Man" for the PlayStation, Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64, and Microsoft Windows. In this single-player brawler, gamers must complete a series of levels as Spider-Man in order to defeat his nemesis Doctor Octopus. The voice actors who portrayed Spider-Man, Black Cat, and Mary Jane Watson in the "Spider-Man Unlimited" television series gave their voices to this video game.

"Spider-Man" received mostly positive reviews. Douglas C. Perry of IGN called it "the best Spider-Man videogame that has ever graced a videogame system," and wrote, "It's a big license game that plays well, and brings you into the world of Spider-Man just as if you were reading the comic book back in grade school." Two sequels, entitled "Spider-Man 2: Enter: Electro" and "Spider-Man 2: The Sinister Six," came out in 2001.

Released for the PlayStation, "Enter: Electro" focuses on Electro, a super villain who draws power from electricity. Similar to "Spider-Man," gamers play this brawler in single-player mode and must defeat a progression of various bosses. Unlike the previous game, "Enter: Electro" included levels played on the ground, and Spider-Man had new powers, such as shooting web balls in mid-air.

"Enter: Electro" received less favorable reviews than its predecessor. Mark Fujita of IGN wrote that the game left him feeling "frustrated and letdown," and that the game was "just not that fun."

Spider-Man remains a very popular character. He expanded the dramatic potential of the fantasy and superhero subgenres by having a strong focus on a younger, more troubled character and his personal struggles. Since his creation, his popularity has led to many of the superheroes who predated him being reworked with more complex personas. In 2012, Marvel rebooted the film series with "The Amazing Spider-Man" starring Andrew Garfield, and Marvel continues to develop video games featuring the web-slinging hero.