Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 features the biggest gaming trend of the 2020s

All the trendiest PS5 action games feature a parry button, so you better believe Marvel's Spider-Man 2 has a parry button as well.

Lee Brady

Published 20 Sep 2023

Returning Spider-Man PS4 players were probably already expecting those Marvel's Spider-Man 2 trophies to challenge their ability to dodge, counter, and disarm — but did you know you'll also have to parry this time around? I already struggle to remember all of Spider-Man's controls in the middle of a fight, so it's possible Marvel's Spider-Man 2's parry move will just outright stop me from getting the platinum trophy for this best PS5 games list contender.

Spider-Man can stagger foes and bosses in upcoming PS5 game

Revealed in this detail-rich PlayStation Blog post, the new parry move can be activated in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 by tapping the L1 button just as the yellow circle around an advancing circle turns red. The post describes using it to counter a Hunter mini-boss, but chances are most enemies and bosses will give you the option to parry them instead of dodging.

The parry button has become very fashionable as of late, particularly in the realm of big PS5 games. God of War Ragnarok, Kena Bridge of Spirits, Final Fantasy XVI, Elden Ring, Resident Evil 4, Hogwarts Legacy — hell, even Sonic the Hedgehog caught the parry bug in Sonic Frontiers. Now, it looks like Peter Parker and Miles Morales will be joining in, giving us one more thing to remember we can do in combat while playing Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

Look, there is a beautiful moment that happens when playing the Spider-Man games. After about 5-6 hours, something in your brain snaps into perfect focus, and you become one with the game's overwhelming number of available actions. Suddenly you find yourself disarming foes and backflipping over oncoming enemies while still remembering to fire out all your available gadgets and expend your special moves, as if you've finally been elevated to a state of Spider-Nirvana.

Then you go to bed, wake up the next day, and find that everything you thought you knew has completely left your muscle memory. Suddenly you're taking pot-shots left and right, you're doing fights without using anything more than the standard web-shooters, and you've completely forgotten how to yank guns out of enemy hands. You might find yourself getting into the groove sooner than you did last time, but you will never truly come to terms with everything Marvel's Spider-Man lets you do in combat.

The same looks to be true for Marvel's Spider-Man 2 as well, now that the game is serving up a brand-new damage-avoiding parry move for your brain to entirely forget about until you've already been hit. Throw in a whole slew of super moves and gadgets to remember, plus some sort of super move you can activate by pressing L3 and R3 together, and you've officially entered the button-mashing zone. Here's hoping Marvel's Spider-Man 2's black suit does triple damage so we can just spam the square button right to the end.

In all seriousness, it also looks like Insomniac Games has done some clever things by remapping the gadgets and special moves a little, so this might be just a touch easier to play than the first Marvel's Spider-Man. It's still one of the best PS4 games ever made, it also fries my brain whenever I step away from it for more than a minute. Are you looking forward to parrying in the Marvel's Spider-Man 2? Or are you afraid your brain might fry as well? Let us know in the comments below.

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Written by Lee Brady

Staff Writer Lee keeps one eye on the future (Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth), one eye on the past (PS Plus Premium, recent Sony news), and his secret third eye on the junk he really likes (Sonic Superstars, Final Fantasy XVI). Then he uses his big mouth to blurt out long-winded opinions about video games.