Boulder Punch Podcast

"EVEN WHEN IT HURTS LIKE HELL."

After the colossal failure of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (both the movie and game) in 2014, it was a clear sign that movie tie-in games were dead in the water, and as a result, the video game rights to Spider-Man immediately went back to Marvel from Activision. Within that very same year, the character was secretly licensed out to PlayStation and Insomniac Games, who immediately got to work in crafting an all-new original world solely for the PS4. After its explosive reveal at E3 2016, the game was hot on everyone's radar, culminating in its phenomenal release in 2018. It's one of the most definitive titles in PlayStation's modern years, and one of the most pivotal pieces of the character's history. So, tune in as Alec and Brian finally dive into the first chapter of Insomniac's Marvel Universe, Marvel's Spider-Man!

AS SEEN IN ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE, DON'T FORGET!

After the release of their game tying into The Amazing Spider-Man, Beenox took their longest hiatus since they started working on titles about the wall-crawler. No new game in 2013, along with the rumblings of them working to improve on every aspect for the next film's tie-in, had many people hopeful that all this extra time meant Activision gave them what they needed to make something spectacular. How very wrong we all were. Tune in as Brian and Alec close out the Beenox era of Spidey games with the worst of them all, The Amazing Spider-Man 2!

TWO GAMES. TWO SPIDER-MEN. TWO DECADES. TOO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT.

After the massive success of Shattered Dimensions, Activision twisted Beenox's arm into released a follow-up thirteen months later, one that would require the reuse of everything and the subtraction of a lot of things. Twelve years later, as we sought to continue our coverage of previous Spidey games, PlayStation and Insomniac decided to drop a massive bomb of new gameplay and details. Now we gotta go halfsies. So, tune in as Alec and Brian discuss the mixed bag of Spider-Man: Edge of Time, along with all the new info and footage from Marvel's Spider-Man 2!

THESE DIMENSIONS SURE ARE SHATTERED!

After the commercial failure of Web of Shadows and subsequent closure of Shaba Games, Activision needed a new developer to turn into a Spider-Man factory. Enter Beenox, a Quebec developer with experience porting a few Spidey games to PC, with a radically new idea. For the first time since 2002, Spider-Man would be going linear, and this time, he wouldn't be alone, as now you could play as four different Spider-Men, all with their own unique villains and all with the same collective goal. So, how did Spidey's second notable foray into the multiverse make its mark? Tune in to find out as Brian and Alec look back on the first Spidey game of the Beenox era, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions!

HE KNOWS SO MUCH ABOUT DINOSAURS, GUYS.

When it was initially announced in May 2021, My Adventures with Superman seemed like a show poised to be let down by WB. The company seemed to nix every potential Superman project at every turn, Cartoon Network sent action cartoons out to flounder and die, and overall, it seemed like it was too good to be true. Flash-forward over two years later, and after several regime changes and delays, the show's first season has finally released in full! So, how did it turn out in the end? Tune in to find out as Alec and Brian go in-depth on Season 1 of My Adventures with Superman!

"SACRIFICES MUST BE MADE FOR THE GREATER GOOD."

After the headaches that were Black Adam, Shazam!: Fury of the Gods, and The Flash, it felt like the only DCEU films that would've hit a chord with critics and audiences before its end would be Shazam! 1 and The Suicide Squad. Whether or not this counts as DCEU or DCU doesn't matter though, because the point is, we finally got some good food. So, come join Alec, Brian, and special guest Trey (@HeyGuysItSpidey) as they dig into the bountiful feast that is Angel Manuel Soto's Blue Beetle!

JUST A FUNNY LITTLE ALIEN INVASION PRANK ON NEW YORK! CLASSIC VENOM!

In the wake of Spider-Man 3 (the movie AND the game, but in this instance the game) being less-than-stellar, Activision quickly ordered a new game that would ultimately attempt to make up for their previous entry's failings. What resulted was a very ambitious, divisive, and uncharacteristically moody game that has become something of a cult classic from the seventh generation that sees the titular character battling Venom and his own inner demons as he and the city of New York get swept up in a symbiote infection and invasion. So, after all these years, what do the boys think of it when looking back? Tune in and find out as Alec and Brian talk Spider-Man: Web of Shadows!

"OUR FATHERS DIED TO CREATE ME. AND NOW... YOU WILL TOO."

In between the development and releases of Spider-Man 2 and 3, Activision demanded another open-world game about the webhead immediately after SM2, scheduled to release a very short eighteen months later. This resulted in a completely unexpected and unprecedented direction of directly adapting Brian Michael Bendis's highly acclaimed and popular modernized take on the character, Ultimate Spider-Man. While initially overshadowed by the games it was sandwiched in between, the game has grown in popularity over time, arguably becoming the fan-favorite of the PS2 era. So, how exactly does it hold up? Tune in as Brian and Alec discuss and try to replicate as many Venom noises as possible while diving into 2005's Ultimate Spider-Man!