Summary
Very few comic book superheroes have hada video game career as successfulasSpider-Man’s. From the early 80s, all the way to the early 2020s, Peter Parker and his friends have starred in multiple digital adventures, with many of them becoming absolute classics of their respective genres.
There’s no denying thatboss fightsare some of the most fun and most important aspects of any video game. Fortunately for Spidey’sfans, his comics feature an extensive gallery of memorable and menacing villains that developers can easily implement into exciting battles. As a result, these eightSpider-Manvideo games have more bosses in them than any other.
In this forgotten Super Nintendo beat ‘em up, Spider-Man joins forces with the X-Men. By combining these two Marvel IPs, developers had a larger variety of bosses to choose from than one would expect when comparing it to a solo Spidey adventure. However,some of the villains that appear inSpider-Man And The X-Men In Arcade’s Revengeare surprisingly obscure.
In addition to some of the usual suspects, like the Sentinels, Rhino or Carnage, this game also features unknown comic book villains like N’astirh, King of Cards and Master Mold. As the title suggests, the main antagonist is Arcade, a classic comic character that most people are not going to recognize. At the end of the day, however, this unique cast of 10 different bosses helpedSpider-Man And The X-Men In Arcade’s Revengestand out a lot more.
Treyarch’s thirdSpider-Manproject stayed away from the world of the Sam Raimi movies, which resulted in a unique adventure that is fondly remembered by fans, even to this day. This popularity was mostly thanks to its amazing stylized graphics, its dual playable characters and, of course, its incredible boss fights.
InUltimate Spider-Man, Spidey has to face various classic villains, like Shocker, Rhino and Venom. But things get even more interesting when players get to control Venom himself. Players are forced to fight some unexpected bosses, like Wolverine, Beetle and Carnage. With a total of 12 different boss battles,Ultimate Spider-Manis an enjoyable experience from beginning to end.
The 2023 sequel to Insomniac’sSpider-Mangame was much more ambitious and expansive but, sadly, it couldn’t surpass its predecessor when it comes to its total number of bosses. This is mainly due to the fact that it didn’t receive any DLC, and Insomniac has already confirmed thatthey don’t have any plans of releasing DLC forMarvel’s Spider-Man 2in the future.
But even with that caveat, this incredible PlayStation 5 game still featured 13 different boss fights, and they’re all as memorable as they are exciting. Of course, a fair share of these encounters are repeats of bosses with new abilities (Mainly Kraven and Venom), since this game has two playable characters, Peter and Miles. But there are still a couple of solid battles against the likes of Mysterio, Scream, Lizard, and Sandman. The only thing missing from this adventure was a true battle against Cletus Kasady, AKA Carnage.
This often forgotten sequel toSpider-Man: Maximum Carnageis loosely based off of the 1995 comic book storyline,Venom: Separation Anxiety. Seeing as this comic featured many other iconic symbiotes, its game adaptation cleverly included all of them as bosses.
InVenom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety, the titular duo has to facevillains like Riot, Phage, Agony, Scream and Lasher. But it’s not all about the symbiotes. Other obscure characters make surprise appearances in this beat ‘em up adventure, with some prominent examples being Ramshot and Bomblast. There’s no Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, or Rhino in this game, and its gallery of bosses makes it more distinctive and memorable, even though some of the enemies are reused throughout the main campaign.
Beenox’s 2010Spider-Mangame features a more conventional collection of classic villains, like Kraven, Sandman, Vulture, Doctor Octopus, and Carnage. However, they are very different from usual.Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensionsis a Multiverse adventure, and thus, it introduces unexpectedly unique incarnations of these characters from other dimensions, each with its own design and art style.
In addition to these fascinating Multiverse villains,Shattered Dimensionsalso features a few surprise appearances of icons from theX-Menseries, like Juggernaut and Deadpool, just around the time the Merc with a Mouth was getting more popular. As a final nice touch, the final boss is none other than Mysterio, which is not very common inSpider-Manvideo games.
The Amazing Spider-Manis a loose adaptation of the 2012 movie of the same name, and even though it’s far from the best Spidey video game ever made, it still has some positive qualities. One of them is its extensive collection of boss battles, 14 in total, including many villains that were not even mentioned in the original film.
Of course, Lizard is the main antagonist and final boss of the game, just like inThe Amazing Spider-Manmovie. But in addition to him, Peter will also have to fight many other villains, both popular and obscure, like Scorpion, Black Cat, Vermin, and Alistair Smythe. The most interesting aspect about this game is that it features two optional boss battles against Iguana and Rhino, who would later make an appearance in the film’s sequel with a completely different design and personality.
Insomniac’s first foray into the legendarySpider-ManIP was a monumental success that changed the reputation of comic book games forever. It also had an incredible and emotional storyline with multiple powerful antagonists. The base game already featured 11 different incredible encounters against a variety of characters, from iconic villains like Electro, Vulture, and Doctor Octopus, to more obscure ones that ended up being surprisingly compelling, like Mister Negative and Tombstone.
And if that wasn’t enough bosses already,Marvel’s Spider-Manhad a three-episode DLC campaign that introduced thrilling new bosses, like Black Cat, Silver Sable, and Hammerhead. With 16 in total, this is not theSpider-Mangame with the highest number of bosses, but it definitely has the best ones in the series.
There’s no denying that Treyarch’s video game adaptation of the secondSpider-Manmovieis not only one of the best entries in the franchise, but also one of the most popular movie-based games of all time. However, and much to the surprise of fans,Spider-Man 2only features 7 different bosses, and half of them are different encounters against Doctor Octopus and Shocker.So, it was up to its sequel,Spider-Man 3, to up the ante on this aspect.
This adaptation of the third film is often considered one of the most disappointing video games in theSpider-Manfranchise, but it did feature 17 different boss battles in total, which is both astounding and refreshing. As expected, it has a few encounters against the film’s antagonists, like New Goblin, Sandman, and Venom. But there are also interesting fights against other comic book villains that never appeared in the Sam Raimi trilogy, like Lizard, Rhino, and Kraven the Hunter. But what’s especially odd aboutSpider-Man 3is that it also introduced new characters who were created exclusively for this game, like Mad Bomber and the Arsenic Candy Gang.
