Games to Play to Prepare for Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

No one can deny that 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was a welcome surprise and a hit with both audiences and the box office. Directed by Daniel Pemberton and hosting a great voice cast such as Shemeik Moore, Jake Johnson, and Hailee Steinfield (and John Mulaney as one of the weirdest yet most endearing members of the Spidey-family), the film introduced the audience to Miles Morales as he struggles to come to terms with his newfound powers and learning to step up to be a hero for his friends, family, and his city. With the announcement of the film’s upcoming sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One) coming in 2023, I decided to compile a list of great games to play that allows webheads to prepare for the return of the Spider-Verse when it hits the big screen once more.

LEGO Marvel Collection (2019)

So admittedly, this one may be a cheat since there are three games in this bundle, but they all amount to a great deal. LEGO Marvel Collection contains three amazing LEGO games, LEGO Avengers, LEGO Marvel Superheroes, and LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2 with each game's DLC. Not only do the games also scratch any Marvel fan’s itch when a new MCU film releases, each game boasts a great number of playable Spider-Man characters in an open world, especially the latter two games. Superheroes 2 contains Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Man Noir and even the tall-child-voiced Spider-Ham from the film, so this game would be perfect to play last right before the movie releases.

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (2010)

If you are able to find a copy of this at your local game store or online, I highly recommend picking it up. An older title released during the Xbox 360/Playstation 3 era, the game doesn’t have the best visuals or combat, yet it is incredibly fun with an awesome story that fills the player in with lore from the comics. The story takes the player through, what else, different dimensions and allows them to play 4 different Spider-Man variations: Amazing, Ultimate, Noir, and 2099. Each dimension has its own unique playstyle as well as environment and villains to fight, yet all entangle with each other as each Spidey chases down pieces of a tablet to keep it from falling into the hands of long-time fish-bowl-headed villain, Mysterio. I initially bought this game to prepare for Spider-Man: No Way Home, and it was a great choice as the game not only has a huge catalog of ne’er-do-wells to beat the snot out of, but gets the player ready for dimension-jumping shenanigans.

Marvel’s Spiderman: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition (2020)

A game that needs no introduction at this point, Miles Morales Ultimate Edition includes both the base game in which we play as Miles, but also the precursor that introduced Peter Parker to next gen in a non-stop action romp. Praised for pretty much everything, including its web swinging (in direct competition with Spider-Man 2 2004), some players enjoy just swinging around the vast city taking selfies in mid air. What I recommend, however, is to boot up some What’s Up Danger and recreate that cinematic masterpiece of a scene straight from the movie (You know what I’m talking about).

With 6 different games included on this list, with hundreds of play hours in your pocket, completing all these games will help to satisfy your Spider-Man hunger for a while. Each game has a great cast of different web-slingers to play with, all with their own interesting playstyles and differences. Although there are many more Spidey games out there, this collection is in my opinion the best bang for your buck, as if you slow down and enjoy each of these games, you’ll be in perfect shape when Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse (Part One) hits theaters June 2nd, 2023.