Moveset basics
The controls pull double duty and nothing about that is obvious from the opening menus. Press Space to jump. Hold the direction into a wall or ceiling and tap SpaceSpace, and Spidey sticks. Release Space to drop. That's how you reach the high routes.
For web-swinging, jump first and then hold L in midair. L alone fires webbing as a projectile, so get the order wrong and you waste web on whatever's in front of you. The swing arc is faked with lookup tables, not real physics (David Foley said so), which is partly why it feels snappier than it has any right to on this hardware.
Kick-attack is SpaceK, a jump followed by a kick in the air. Webbing fires diagonally as well as straight, useful when enemies sit on ledges above you. And the sewer walls are slippery. Even while sticking, Spider-Man slides downward if you don't move. Finish climbing, or drop and reclimb.
Working the camera
Three shots per stage, that's the cap. Camera pickups add one extra photo if you find them. The Final stage disables the camera entirely, so whatever web you reach it with is all you get.
Photos of basic thugs pay $5. Bosses and mid-level heavies pay real money: $150 for Doctor Octopus, $250 for Lizard, Electro, and Sandman, $300 for Hobgoblin. Spider-Sense flashes just before one of them shows up, which is the cue to burn a shot. Animals pay nothing. Never waste a picture on a rat or a bat.
J. Jonah Jameson walks onto the Streets of New York stage at the start, yelling. He's worth $50, and yes, he pays for his own photo. That's Peter's day job in one frame.
The Peter Parker ability is a different tool. Activating it sends Peter home to refill life and some web, but the clock keeps ticking, and when you come back you have to restart the level from the beginning. Only worth it if you're early in a long stage with a lot of life gone.
Boss strategies, stage by stage
Doctor Octopus (Warehouse)
Crawl. That's the whole fight. Duck low and crawl right until Doc Ock is backed against the far wall with nowhere left to retreat, then wait for a tentacle strike, pop up the instant it ends, punch, duck again. Repeat. His tentacles sweep right over a crouched Spider-Man.
Lizard (Sewers)
Web is nearly useless here, so don't waste your meter trying. Crouch when Spider-Sense triggers, crawl left, stay down, pop up to fire a shot, immediately duck. Stand still for too long between shots and his lunge catches you. Patience wins this; haste loses it in three hits.
Electro (Power Station)
Get down and keep firing web. That really is the entire strategy. The level leading up to him is the hard part: lightning from the sky, sparks swarming, goons with guns. Most players run out of web meter on the walk in. Conserve, then unload.
Sandman (Central Park)
Webbing doesn't work on him. There's a fire hydrant on the right side of the park, and the hydrant is the actual weapon. Web-sling to reach it before Sandman does, power up a Web Shield at point-blank range, and kick the hydrant when he arrives. Easy to miss on a first run, because the game never tells you the hydrant is a weapon.
Venom
Venom shows up at the end of several stages. The tactic never changes: back against a wall, power up a Web Shield, hit him as he closes in, power up the next shield immediately. Timing the shield refresh is the whole fight. The wall keeps him from wrapping around behind you.
Hobgoblin (Streets of New York)
He flies and he drops bombs, and keeping distance lets him pick his moment. Power up a Web Shield, close the gap, kick. The bombs are less scary when you're directly under him than when you're dodging across the street.
Kingpin (Final)
Only hits in a very small patch around Fisk's head do damage. Body shots are cosmetic. Jump and fire web at his face, or jump-kick and aim high. Every connected punch sends Spider-Man flying across the room, so every mistake costs meaningful time. Meanwhile Mary Jane is being lowered into a pit of acid the entire fight. If she drops, it ends there, no appeal.
The Final stage and the bomb
No more photos in this stage. No refills from the Daily Bugle either. Whatever web and life you carry in is the budget for rematches against Electro, Lizard, Hobgoblin, and Venom, plus disarming the bomb, plus beating Kingpin before Mary Jane hits the acid.
The bomb itself is a color-matching puzzle, not a fight. The dome flashes one color at a time. You apply the colored key that matches, then wait for the dome to reset, then apply the next key. Pick wrong and it detonates on the spot. Game over, clean. No warning, no second try.
Only after the bomb is disarmed does the entrance to Fisk open. You can run the whole sequence online in the browser right here, and the Final stage is where your earlier choices on web conservation come due. Save web on Electro. Don't burn camera shots on rats. The Kingpin fight is a lot shorter when you arrive with a full meter.