4. Spider-Man 2
The year was 2004. Previous attempts to capture the webhead experience had been met with meh amounts of success, with Spider-man and Spider-man 2: Enter Electro ranging from decent to good. The first Spider-Man movie had its own game (remember that?), which was your standard licensed game bought in order to satiate gamers who didn't know better. By the time a game based on the second movie was scheduled to come out, no one raised an eyebrow.
How did it succeed against the odds? Shocker! Spider-Man 2 completely changed the way we play as Spider-Man and was a major step forward for superhero games. No more bottomless pits and linear narrative. Spider-Man 2 let you play as Spider-man in a huge sandbox version of New York City that has since been replicated constantly. This unexpectedly awesome sequel was a must-have for pretty much everyone with a Playstation 2, and to be honest, we've been waiting for a proper follow-up ever since.