Trivia / Spider-Man (PS4)

• All-Star Cast:
  • The game stars a lot of well-known voice actors, which include Yuri Lowenthal, Tara Platt, Travis Willingham, Darin De Paul, Laura Bailey, Mark Rolston, Phil Morris, Scott Porter, Brian Bloom, Josh Keaton, Dwight Schultz, Jason Spisak, Fred Tatasciore, Erica Lindbeck and Keith Silverstein.
  • The Japanese dub also has many high-profile Anime voice actors, mostly in villainous roles: Tesshō Genda (Kingpin), Nobutoshi Canna (Electro), Hōchū Ōtsuka (Vulture), Ryūsei Nakao (Scorpion), Kenyū Horiuchi (Norman Osborn) and Kenji Nomura (Tombstone).
• Approval of God: Jamie Fristrom, the man responsible for Spider-Man 2's web-swinging mechanics, was given an opportunity to look at Insomniac's take on it and enjoyed what he played. A high honor considering Insomniac did look to that and other Spider-Man games for inspiration.
• Ascended Fan Nickname: The game is really called Marvel's Spider-Man. But since it is a PlayStation exclusive game, on top of finding it a necessity to distinguish the game, fans refer to it as Spider-Man PS4. It's gotten so popular that both Insomniac Games and Sony use the name in reference to the game. The nickname has become a bit of an Artifact Name over time, though, thanks to the Remastered releases on PS5 and Windows PC.
• Creator Couple: Lowenthal and Platt, who voice Peter and Yuri, are married in real life. Same goes for Willingham and Bailey, who voice Wilson Fisk and Mary Jane, respectively.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Peter Parker is about 23 during the events of the game. Yuri Lowenthal was 47 when the game came out. Ditto Mary Jane, voiced by Laura Bailey, who was 37 when game came out. And most would still agree that they both sound pretty convincing! It says something that in the sequel, Lowenthal also voices Peter at age 15 in flashbacks and barely changes his voice yet still sounds appropriate.
  • Nadji Jeter is about 21 years old when voicing the teenage Miles Morales. He turned 27 just before the sequel's release.
• Development Gag: The developers planned to include a mission where Spider-Man tracked Martin Li to his favorite dumpling place, but it was cut as it was - as the game's director put it - "a disaster." This is what lead to the disastrous dumpling recipe joke in-game.
• Enforced Method Acting: According to William Salyers, he really was upside down when doing the rooftop confrontation scene with Yuri Lowenthal in order to make the scene more powerful.
• Executive Meddling:
  • Despite the free reign Insomniac had with the game, Marvel just refused to allow Peter or Mary Jane to say the word "balls".
  • Yuri Lowenthal revealed in a GameZone podcast that Marvel executives were very much against the idea of killing off Aunt May, and fought against the idea for months before finally relenting. Of course, Marvel not allowing Aunt May to die is nothing new, so the fact they allowed Insomniac to go through with it is impressive.
• Fake Nationality: White American Tara Platt as Japanese-American Yuriko Watanabe.
• Fake Russian: American Fred Tatasciore as Rhino, who this game reminds you is the Russian Aleksei Sytsevich.
• Foiler Footage:
  • The E3 2017 Demo mission was about Mr. Negative personally attacking a Fisk construction site before escaping in a helicopter, but not without showcasing his powers by launching a beam of explosive negative energy at Spidey first. In the actual game, a Demon Swordsman takes his place and the power is replaced by a simple rocket launcher.
  • The E3 2018 Raft demo originally showed Spider-Man turning to look at the leader of the Sinister Six in a bright light while in the actual game Doc Ock appears from below the building smashing Spidey’s hand with one of his mechanical arms in the process.
• Follow the Leader:
  • The game more or less features gameplay very similar to the Batman: Arkham Series, with perch-based stealth sections, nimble attack-counter-dodge combat, slo-mo close-up takedowns, and grappling based around aiming at ledges. Not necessarily a bad thing, given that the Arkham series is pretty much regarded as the high water mark for video games based on comic books (and a lot of Bat-fans often noted that this gameplay felt a bit more apropos for Spider-Man to start with). Heck, the developers flat out admitted they used those games as a template for this one. Again though, Tropes Are Not Bad.
  • The combat has also drawn comparison to the Devil May Cry series, due to its speed, heavy use of acrobatics, and Spidey's air combo resembling Dante's, except of course using his fists rather than a sword. Creative director Bryan Intihar even stated in a commentary that he is a fan of Devil May Cry, so it's possible he did take inspiration from it.
• In Memoriam: The end of the game's credits features a dedication to Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko, who passed away a few months before the game's release. The credits for the Silver Lining DLC includes a dedication to Stan Lee, who passed away in November of 2018.
• Killer App: The Playstation 4 was already doing well, but this game helped get many fence-sitters to purchase one just to play it. It's the fastest selling and best-selling game on the console and Sony have put out affordable bundles with the game to get new consumers in. It ended up becoming the best-selling console title of 2018, and many credit both God of War PS4 and Spider-Man PS4 for allowing it to get there, beating out Nintendo Switch and Xbox One.
• Lying Creator:
  • No symbiotes, huh, Insomniac? Venom's very brief cameo as Harry's life support says otherwise. His role however is so small that even mentioning him would likely have lead to overhyping.
  • Not long after Miles' reveal, journalists began to question Insomniac if Miles would also be playable and gain powers as he did in the comics. Insomniac instead deflected by stating that the story would be Peter-centric. While not a lie per se, as Miles never did become a playable Spider-Man, to the shock of many, he did have his own playable sections in the game just like Mary Jane. And naturally, the first stinger is clearly setting him up for Spider-Man-style playability in a sequel. He would finally get to become Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
  • Before launch, Insomniac promised that players could control the game's time of day and weather after beating the game, but only the option to alter time was included at launch. However, Insomniac has since clarified that the weather selector is still being worked on and will be part of a future patch. It still has not been added to the game by November 2020 (the same month the sequel and PS5 remaster were released) and another update for the original PS4 version was released the Sunday before Thanksgiving that year but still didn’t include the option, making it doubtful that the feature will ever show up.
  • Insomniac finally mentioned that the Raimi suit wasn't going to be added to the game when the final DLC suits were revealed and they couldn't always add what fans wanted. Guess what released in a free patch a few days later.
• Milestone Celebration: The PC ports of both this game and Spider-Man: Miles Morales were released during Spider-Man's 60th anniversary in 2022.
• The Other Darrin/The Other Marty: A rare video game example for a character model rather than a voice actor outside of a Yakuza game. In the remaster, Peter's facial model is now provided by Ben Jordan to better fit Yuri Lowenthal's original voice, mo-cap, and facial capture performance from the PS4 version.
• Playing Against Type:
  • A variation. This is the first licensed game made by Insomniac Games.
  • Josh Keaton, normally known for heroic roles (including Spidey himself), provides the voice of Electro.
  • Erica Lindbeck's previous Marvel animated role is the heroic Jane Foster. Here, she's cast as Black Cat, who is an anti-hero.
  • Travis Willingham has had a fairly varied career, but often plays toward the more heroic side of things, with starting his career as Roy Mustang and gaining Marvel fame as Thor, among other roles like Knuckles and King Roland. Wilson Fisk is an uncommon leading villain role for him.
  • Stephanie Lemelin as Screwball is a surprise since she's more known for good characters like Artemis.
  • Brian Bloom often plays heroic characters, such as B.J. Blazkowicz, or even within Marvel itself, he voiced the good 'ol Captain America in several works. Here, he plays the cold mercenary villain Taskmaster.
  • Matthew Mercer, who often plays heroic badass Anti-Hero characters, voices the "Fake Spider-Man," who while still a Badass Normal who can hold his own in a fight, is also a Nice Guy.
• Pre-Order Bonus: Pre-ordering the game gives you early access to several items but they can be still unlocked in regular gameplay.
  • A skin pack that consists of 3 costumes; Punk Spider-Man from Spider-Verse, the Iron Spider suit from Avengers: Infinity War, and a "Velocity Suit", an original design from a Marvel costume designer.
  • A few upgrade points to get a head start.
  • Early access to a gadget otherwise unlocked by other means in-game.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Yuri Lowenthal is a big Spidey fan now portraying the webhead in this game.
  • The Japanese voice actor for Peter Parker, Kazuyuki Okitsu, also has been a huge fan of Marvel’s Spider-Man series. He even brought his Spider-Man figure with him every time he does the recording.
• Recycled Script:
  • The game has many striking similarities to the various Spider-Man films from both Sam Raimi, Marc Webb, and even the MCU. There's Spider-Man established to have been a superhero for a while like the MCU incarnation, though longer, making him more like the Sam Raimi incarnation, the story features Dr. Otto Octavius creating his Doc Ock tentacles like Spider-Man 2 (though initially funded by Norman rather than Harry), Spider-Man tries to stop a subway train like in Spider-Man 2, halfway through the plot switches to one involving the main villain planning to poison the city from a tall skyscraper with an antidote that Spider-Man needs to disperse to cure it like The Amazing Spider-Man and its game, and even pulls in some influence from the Netflix Daredevil show with Wilson Fisk resembling that show's version of him both physically and in terms of how much power he apparently has in New York City. Hell, even the ending dialogue with Octavius is near-identical to the dialogue with Green Goblin from the first Spider-Man movie. There's even some scraps of what Sony planned to do with Spider-Man as a franchise after The Amazing Spider-Man 2 by having the Sinister Six in the game. However, the game does its best to mix things up.
  • Otto's role in the plot is almost identical to that of Curt Connors from the first Amazing movie in that both are looking for a cure to a condition they have (neurological disorder/missing limb, respectively), both act as mentors to Peter who ends up inadvertently helping turn them into villains, both have their work stolen by Norman Osborn after working for him (directly/indirectly) who's seeking a cure for a family condition (Harry's/his own), both go insane after gaining their powers, both poison the city for vaguely well-intentioned reasons, both have almost the exact same climactic battle on top of the OsCorp building (complete with spire), and both end up in jail at the end rather than being killed.
    • Becomes Hilarious in Hindsight with the first Amazing Spider-Man movie's suit getting added into the game, both the PS5 remaster and the original PS4 version.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • Voice actors Yuri Lowenthal and Tara Platt are married in real life. Ditto for Laura Bailey and Travis Willingham.
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, Spidey and Silver Sable's voice actors (Víctor Ugarte and Xochitl Ugarte) are brother and sister in real life.
• Role Reprise:
  • From Super Hero Squad Online: Yuri Lowenthal as Spider-Man and Travis Willingham as The Kingpin.
  • From Spider-Man: The Movie: Dwight Schultz as the Vulture.
  • From Marvel's Spider-Man: Nadji Jeter as Miles Morales, Nancy Linari as Aunt May, and Jason Spisak as the Scorpion.
  • From Spider-Man: Web of Shadows: Fred Tatasciore as the Rhino.
  • In the French dub, Spider-Man is voiced by Donald Reignoux, reprising his role from The Amazing Spider-Man Series, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes and its sequel. As for Aunt May, she's voiced by Emmanuèle Bondeville, reprising her role from the Amazing Spider-Man 2 video game.
  • In the European Spanish dub, Spider-Man is voiced by Mario Garcia, who dubs Tom Holland as the same character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: The developers wanted to include the "Charging Bull" and "Fearless Girl" statues in the game's version of Times Square, but were refused. The developers opted to replace it with a statue of Lockjaw.
• Sleeper Hit: Fans and critics were expecting the game to be a modest hit at best. People didn't expect this game at launch to outsell God of War (PS4), which was the Killer App for the PlayStation 4 in 2018.
• Teasing Creator: While Gwen Stacy has yet to make an appearance in the games, Insomniac has teasingly implied on their Twitter account that she is still alive in their continuity.
  Insomniac: Who said Gwen Stacy is dead in our universe?
• What Could Have Been:
  • Josh Keaton, Ben Diskin, Robbie Daymond and AJ LoCascio auditioned for the role of Peter Parker before the casting of Yuri Lowenthal. Keaton and Diskin previously voiced Spider-Man and Eddie Brock in The Spectacular Spider-Man, while Daymond portrayed the titular character in Marvel's Spider-Man. Keaton would eventually go on to play Electro in the game.
  • Zeno Robinson read for the part of Miles Morales before Nadji Jeter was cast.
  • The black symbiote suit was considered as an alternate suit, but was scrapped as the game's director decided that it deserved to have a bigger role than just an unlockable outfit. It would later appear in the sequel.
  • At the Fisk construction site, Martin Li would be the one escaping in the helicopter, as seen in the 2017 E3 demo. This was later changed to just a bald generic goon.
  • Concept art of Miles Morales hints that his story arc would've taken a more somber tone with him likely obsessively trying to track down the whereabouts of Martin Li after his father's death.
  • Early on in development, Miles was apparently only ever meant to cameo in the Post-Credits scene rather than be a full-blown supporting character. Their decision to have Miles gain his powers led to necessitating his role in the story expanding to better flesh him out.
  • As revealed in the files, there was going to be an unlockable Spider-Cop suit in the game, and its abilities were to summon backup cops and a donut drone to help in combat. While the suit is fully-modeled, it doesn't have any animations.
  • The final boss against Doc-Ock was initially planned to have you fight him all over New York, however to cut back on crunch and to have it resonate harder, it was scaled back to simply fighting him on top of the Oscorp building.
  • The Advanced Suit had undergone a few revisions throughout the game's development, with several conceptual sketches showing a more armored and metallic appearance for the costume (the art in question also shows the costume was planned to have been called the "Docsuit" at one point).
  • Concept art of the Advanced Suit shows the suit was planned to retain the traditional black spider at one point before Insomniac decided to ditch it in favor of the white spider.
  • Originally, Marvel executives approached Sony's rival Microsoft to make the game. Microsoft passed on the offer as they had little interest in making licensed games so Marvel partnered with Sony instead.

Other Facts

• In July 2019, Spider-Man surpassed Batman: Arkham City as the best-selling superhero game in the US in terms of lifetime dollar sales.

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