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‘Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered’: Fans unimpressed with new Peter Parker, call it ‘ugly off-brand Tom Holland’

'In order to bring the best performances to players with our next-generation ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man’ games, we have recast the face of Peter Parker,' announced Sony to much outrage from fans

On Wednesday, September 30, Sony announced new details on ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered’, an update of ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man’ for Sony’s next-generation console, the PlayStation 5. The game will reportedly feature upgrades like better graphics, a higher frame rate, and a few new Spider-Man suits. 

According to a Playstation blog, “The team has done the painstaking work of updating the city’s environment to take advantage of the new console. Beyond improved models and materials, one of the biggest things we have brought to the game is ray-traced reflections and ambient shadows. We now have true reflections on the windows of buildings, and it looks stunning with our new skies and weather.”

But it’s not just the environments, the characters have also gotten a huge upgrade. “From higher fidelity skin, eye, and teeth shaders to individually-rendered strands of hair, the new tech and detail brings our characters and their performances to new life,” says Sony. But here’s where the problem began. 

Fans of the game did not like what Sony did to Peter Parker’s character. Sony wrote in the blog, mentioning some of the “bigger changes” in the game’s look and feel: "In order to bring the best performances to players with our next-generation ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man’ games, we have recast the face of Peter Parker. We loved working with John Bubniak on the original game; however, to get a better match to Peter Parker/Spider-Man actor Yuri Lowenthal’s facial capture, we have cast Ben Jordan to be the face model for Peter Parker on the PS5 console. He looks incredible in-game, and Yuri’s moving performances take on a new life.”

But fans did not seem to think he looked incredible. “Honestly I really don't like this. This isn't just a touch-up, it's a whole ass unnecessary redesign. Not only did Peter look fine, he looked unique. He wasn't Tom Holland, and he didn't have to be Tom Holland. So f***ing sick of the MCU influencing everything,” wrote a fan on Twitter. Another fan said, “I hate to nitpick but I absolutely HATE this face model re-design. PS4 Spider-Man actually looked like someone who’s been Spider-Man for 10 years while the remaster is just Tom Holland if he looked his actual age.” Another fan wrote, “Yaknow, this kinda sucks cuz I liked the old Peter model because it really did feel like if Peter Parker had been Spiderman for 8 years. This is just attempting to be Tom Holland again.”

In fact, many thought the new skin was downright ugly. One Twitter user wrote, “They switched the face of Peter in the Spider-Man so he could look more like Tom Holland and it’s so ugly and now I keep seeing his ugly face all over my tl.” Another fan of the game said, “Ugly ugly ugly. Offbrand Tom Holland. I hate this so much... there was no reason to completely change his face. He looks like a 12-year-old. Not a fan at all.” Another fan said, “They made him look too much like Tom Holland now it’s ugly.”

As per Sony, the Standard Edition of ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales’ will be available physically and digitally on the PS4 console and the PS5 console at $49.99/€59.99 MSRP. The PS4 version of ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales’ has a free upgrade path to PS5 Standard Edition.