Insomniac's Canceled Spider-Verse Game Shouldn't Be the End…

Insomniac's Spider-Man series takes place in a fairly well-established Marvel universe. Though no other Marvel heroes make full cameo appearances, Nelson and Murdock's law firm can be found in Hell's Kitchen in the first Marvel's Spider-Man, as can Jessica Jones' Alias Investigations office, and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 features a chase sequence where Black Cat steals a magical device from the Sanctum Sanctorum. But Insomniac's Marvel universe was about to get a whole lot bigger.

In December 2023, Insomniac was hacked by a ransomware group. This resulted in a slew of confidential documents and files being leaked to the public, many of which discussed unannounced in-development projects. According to these leaked files, a multiplayer Spider-Verse game was once in the works at Insomniac, though it was seemingly canceled during development. But the potential of a Spider-Verse game is simply too great to leave alone, especially when the perfect groundwork for one already exists.

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A Single-Player Spider-Verse Game Deserves Another Shot

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions Laid The Groundwork for a Spider-Verse Game 15 Years Ago

Released in September 2010, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions sees players take control of four different Spider-Men, each one coming from an alternate Marvel universe. Now household variants, Shattered Dimensions features the classic Earth-616 Spider-Man, his Ultimate universe counterpart, Spider-Man 2099, and Spider-Man Noir, all of whom are forced to work together when Mysterio fractures the Tablet of Order and Chaos.

Each level follows a different Spider-Man through their distinct reality as they take down well-known Marvel universe threats like Sandman, Kraven the Hunter, Electro, and Juggernaut. Each Spidey has a unique moveset and their levels focus on a different style of gameplay, such as Spider-Man Noir's playstyle revolving around stealth and Ultimate Spider-Man's playstyle centering around his powerful Symbiote abilities.

When Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions came out, the concept of a Spider-Verse wasn't a fully established thing. Though the last few episodes of the 90s Spider-Man cartoon brought together a handful of Spider-Men from different realities, and the comics explored alternate versions of the Wall-Crawler, the Spider-Verse as fans know it today didn't exist until 2014's Amazing Spider-Man #9.

Dan Slott, a writer on Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, went on to write the 2014 Spider-Verse comic run.

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions may not feature a massive open-world or a ton of optional content, but its linearity helps to keep its experience concise and well-paced. Even 15 years later, Shattered Dimensions' formula still lays the perfect blueprint for a modern Spider-Verse game.

How a Modern Spider-Verse Game Could Put a Modern Spin on Shattered Dimensions' Formula

While a linear, mission-based Spider-Verse game could be great, many fans expect a modern AAA superhero adventure to be open-world. A Spider-Verse game could go above and beyond by offering not just one open-world, but multiple, each one themed around an alternate Marvel universe. These would be inhabited by unique enemies, buildings, and bosses that put fresh spins on classic Spidey villains.

Of course, these distinct open-worlds would be accompanied by a set of distinct playable characters, each with a unique set of attack and traversal animations, and each with a slightly different set of abilities. Shattered Dimensions' Spider-Man line-up would still work all these years later, but it might be smart to swap out the Ultimate version of Spidey for a more popular variant like Gwen Stacey's Ghost Spider.

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