Footage of the canceled Spider-Man 4 video game leaked online, demonstrating a surprising link to Radical Entertainment's Prototype 2.

The early in-game footage shows off some of the game's open-world exploration and aerial combat. The Spider-man 4 features a web-swinging system that looks like a combination of Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. A slice of the game's combat was shown off as Spider-Man strings together a series of hits against an innocent taxi. Later on, the Wall-Crawler takes to the sky, fighting an aggressive helicopter in the process. The video also shows off what appears to be the game's completed user interface and a small selection of missions.

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Yet while the leaked footage is no doubt fascinating for Spider-Man fans, some viewers have pointed out the bizarre connection it has to a more... violent open-world action game. As noted by Obscure Gamers, following the cancelation of the game in 2008, developer Radical Entertainment would go on to reuse several Spider-Man 4 assets in Prototype 2. Some developers on Spider-Man 4 estimate that the game was roughly 10% to 15% complete when Sony/Columbia killed the project.

Many of Spider-Man's animations, both on the ground and in the air, bear a striking resemblance to those seen in Prototype 2. The games also share a similar menu system, color palette and several vehicles that were likely reworked to accommodate Radical Entertainment's brutal 2012 open-world game.

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Spider-Man 4 began development in 2008, alongside Sam Raimi's film of the same name. Following complications between production companies Sony and Columbia, Raimi's fourth Spider-Man was canned and reworked into The Amazing Spider-Man which was released in 2012. The Spider-Man 4 video game was terminated alongside the film in 2010. While Raimi's Spider-Man 4 movie may never see the light of day, fans are currently enamored with this early build of the Xbox 360 game.

While the Prototype series does share many design principles with some of the more successful open-world Spider-Man titles, its tone is much darker. The second game in the franchise stars James Heller, a United States soldier infected with the Blacklight virus which grants him superhuman abilities. Throughout the course of Prototype 2, James uses his newfound abilities to track down Alex Mercer, the protagonist of the first game, who he blames for killing his family.

Spider-Man has appeared in several video game adaptions with varying degrees of success. Several Spider-Man games on the PlayStation 1 are still lauded by fans today, while Spider-Man 2 is widely considered to be one of the best superhero games ever made. Most recently, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales launched alongside the PlayStation 5 and received universal praise from fans and critics alike.

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Source: YouTube and Obscure Gamers