So, I was the first one to sit down and put a lot of work into really routing this game. The biggest help to me was a map that I created in Photoshop, (based on a terribly blurry one from IGN.) You can get that map HERE! http://imgur.com/a/bkTyt

UPDATE: Here is an updated map with ALL RACES present and labeled. The secret tokens have also been fully labeled. Race information can also be found below, in this written guide.

And here is a version of the map without any labels at all:

If you like, you can email me for the full .psd file, which has all the elements on different layers.

That first link also contains my written notes, which I will provide the text for, here:

---

Spider Man 2 Speedrun Taran Van Hemert, Mar 8 2015 --- NOTE THAT THIS ROUTE IS DEFINITELY OUT OF DATE! Feel free to make your own updated guide with all the new strats!

CHAPTERS 1&2 – skippable!

1. Start here. Skip Chapters 1&2.

CHAPTER 3 – need 2000hp (hero points) 2. Starting point #2. Go towards Prof. Connors class. Do not pick up any hero points 3. Save the case 4. Connors’ class (You now have 860) 5. Pizza delivery (abort it!) +200 A, B, C +750 6. Meet MJ & Peter (1000hp trigger!) +200 D +250 7. Meet MJ 8. Stop art gallery thieves 9. Follow Black cat to here. +900 DURING FOLLOW: $.Swing 1, Swing 2, Grapple

CHAPTER 4 – need 3000hp + Swing 2 10. Bugle 11. Empire State (skyscraper token) +50 12. Bugle +700 13. Rhino Fight +1500 Hideout #2 +250 Rhino award +250 (might be able to roll over into next chapter)

CHAPTER 5 – need 2000hp + Grapple F +250 14. Doctor Octavius 1st visit M +250 (but you only need 50…) Race #64 +1700

CHAPTER 6 – need 2000hp + Swing 3 15. MJ apartment 16. MJ Movie (Not worth skipping?) +600 17. Get the 5 Photo tokens Hideout #13 +250 18. Black Cat Races to here +1000? (3 skyscraper tokens ) +150. (I do NOT get token Q, saving it for Chapter 8.) $. Swing 3, Air combo 3, Health   CHAPTER 7 – need 3000hp 19. Bugle 20. Quenton Beck Challenge +1500, O +250 Race #101 +1200 G +250

CHAPTER 8 – need 3000hp + Swing 4 21. Doctor Octavius 2nd visit 22. Break-in near MJ’s Play 23. MJ’s Play +1000 $$. DURING CAT FOLLOW: Swing 4, Air Combo 4, Health, Hero punch?, Launch Kick? 24. Follow Black Cat to Art Bandits +1000, Q+250, S+250, Hero in Training award? +250

CHAPTER 9 – need 0hp 25. Bugle $$. Swing 5, Health? 26. Mysterio attacks Civic center +1200 27. Go to Statue Of Liberty 28. Statue Of Liberty +2000 29. Back to mainland 30. Mysterio’s hidden fortress/apartment

CHAPTER 10 – need 3000hp + Swing 5 Race #41 +1200 31. Dr. Octavius 3rd visit – stop reactor (650 trigger) +1500, I+250, Hideout #3 +250 (needed 50) 32. Attacked by robots near Connors (3000 trigger) 33. Visit Connors 34. Teleported to Connors in hospital 35. Bugle

CHAPTER 11 – need 4000hp Race #74 +1700, W+250, Hideout #9 +250 36. Visit Aunt May at bank, fight Doctor Octavius 37. Helicopter chase (is getting hideout 10 possible??) 38. Save aunt May +1800 39. Teleported to middle of park

CHAPTER 12 – need 4000hp 40. Peter’s apartment P+250 41. Bugle assignment / MJ engagement.
42. Black Cat follow to Shocker’s 1st hideout. Z, 4, 3, H15, H16, 1 (+1500)

Race #27 - very difficult - (Mega: +1200, otherwise +500) ~Backup strats: Tokens P, 1, … 2, 3, 4, Hideout #12, and/or Hideout #14

CHAPTER 13 – need 4000hp $$. Swing 6, Rising Shoulder, whirlwind kick, etc 43. Bugle 44. Mysterio Epic final boss fight. Alien Buster award +250 45. Bugle 46. Bugle again! Grrr, mad!! 47. Black Cat, follow to Shocker’s 2nd hideout. T5, T6, Hideout #15, T7, T8 (+1250)

CHAPTER 14 – need 3000hp Shocker award +250 (Rolled over from previous chapter!) 48. MJ play, save MJ from thugs 49. Meet Black Cat at Chrysler Building 50. Race Black Cat to Mech Warrior battle +2000 51. Meet Black Cat at starting building L +250 52. MJ apartment / confess your love LOL +500 T9 +250, T10 +250 if needed, while waiting for Peter’s monologue to finish 53. Teleported to Comic Store

CHAPTER 15 – need 0hp $. ~ Health, whatever else if needed, but will waste time. 54. Peter’s Apartment 55. Meet MJ at diner 56. Save MJ, train fight 57. Teleported to Osborne confrontation 58. Warehouse finale!

Various notes and observations from me to future runners:

• While my map is pretty decent, it's still not as good as the in-game map. I'm NOT talking about the 3D map that you can zoom out to. I'm talking about the 2D MINI-MAP that you see in a circle, in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. I tried to decompile the ROM in order to find that FULL IMAGE in the game files, but I simply could not find it. If anybody can get that 2D map file out of the game somehow, you'll have a VERY detailed map to work with! (It even shows how tall buildings are, using shades of gray!)

• Whirlwind Kick is a FANTASTIC move. It hits all targets in a decent range all around you, several times, with minimal knockback. For example, you can beat up the thugs that attack Mary Jane using it just once or twice. I was surprised to see that the [ThinksTheClown 1h 06m 24s] record does not use this move!! You should certainly have enough hero points to afford it by then!

• I could never figure out how to wall run-and jump VERTICALLY. I would always end up sticking to the wall with all four limbs. I see that the other runners have figured out how to do this. This trick is particularly useful for [Race #64], which is JUST a vertical climb up a building, and gives you a whopping +1700 if you do it in an easy 5 seconds. Again, someone please let us know the exact method to climb walls in this way!

-Some of you guys (Thinks The Clown!!) use funny names for your splits. This is fine, but please ALSO use the chapter numbers. It makes it much easier to tell exactly when/where you are in the game.

GLITCHES: There are only 3 that I know of which are useful for speedrunning: Shocker skip #1: Achieved by entering the room while wall-crawling along the side of the hallway in a particular spot. Shocker won't move, but you can still beat him up. Count your hits, and hit him until he's ALMOST dead. (If his HP runs out, you cannot trigger the real battle, and cannot progress.) Then, return to the entrance of the room to trigger the shocker fight. Shocker will begin the fight with dramatically lower HP. You'll only need to catch up to him and hit him a few times to win. This saves MINUTES of time. Watch me perform this glitch here:

Shocker skip #2: Same as above! Except, you enter the room while wall-crawling along the ceiling. Forward-tap spider man into the room, but don't touch the controls as he passes through the door. Once Spidey is on the other side, you can beat up Shocker most of the way, as you did for Shocker skip #1. Punch him TOWARDS the door -- I think that his location IS retained. I had only ever heard vague rumors about this glitch, and NOBODY had an explanation for how to do it! I used quick-saving on Dolphin emulator to figure it out very quickly. You can watch that process happening in this video!

Black cat follow skip (in chapter 13.) I don't know who discovered this, but when you encounter goons on your way to shocker's hideout#2, you can just ingore them and go STRAIGHT to the hideout, since your tether to Black Cat is broken during the fight. BRILLIANT! I can't believe I never noticed that! You can see this glitch in action here: (53:49)

GLITCHES NOT KNOWN TO BE USEFUL: There are several! My favourite is the "Cartwheel flying glitch" (2:48) where you get hit by a train such that your health bar to zero. You are LAUNCHED across the city at an incredible speed! However, since (I believe) Spider Man respawns from the end point of the LAST mission you completed, this is not a useful trick for getting across the city quickly..... not as far as we know anyway! There may be a way to use this glitch... MAYBE if you could land directly on top of a loading zone before spider man hits the ground? But only a TAS could accomplish something like that.

There are other glitches in that video. It is possible to LEAVE the art gallery, for example, but then there are no pedestrians, traffic, or tokens. I believe there are no loading zones either, but this could be wrong! There's definitely room for exploration, there! Update: Getting out of the art gallery is pretty easy. Just walk up to the door, charge your jump, and keep jumping at it until you get through. it helps if the camera is already on the other side. The city has no cars or pedestrians, and if you go to the 3D map, it's very dark except for a few random buildings, and all the street lights. You are NOT able to enter any races, their tokens are crossed out. You ARE able to shop at the spidey store as normal. Falling in the water also behaves normally. MJ, Beck, and Doc Oc's warehouse do NOT have loading zones, as is normal for this stage of the game. Interestingly, it IS possible to enter the daily bugle, in the same way that you can escape the museum -- walking up to the door and jumping into it. The loading zone IS there inside the pipe. Inside the daily bugle, it is all normal. You appear as Peter and can talk to people. There are NO missions available. When you leave and go back to the city, the cars and pedestrians have returned. The races are still off-limits. The mission in the art gallery is still underway, however, and all those baddies are still there. I don't know what happens if you manage to take a bad guy out of the art gallery. Probably not anything, but it's worth trying.

It is also possible to appear as Peter Parker out in the city. Since you can't do anything but run, however, this is pointless. It MAY be possible to appear as Spider Man inside the Daily Bugle. This would save a bit of time, since you could run a lot faster. I've never seen anyone accomplish this, though. Note that, depending upon how you land inside the air duct, Peter Parker will execute a fast ROLLING maneuver when he loads inside the Daily Bugle. You can use this to save a bit of time. I do NOT know how to perform this trick consistently. Someone could probably figure it out using Dolphin Emulator.

MORE STUFF: Speaking of which, dolphin emulator is TERRIBLE for this game. Maybe it's just me, but the game feels a lot less responsive. I only ever used Dolphin for the sake of quick save and quick load, to test strats and glitches.

I don't know of any way to cause a loading zone to appear earlier than it is supposed to. I used to check on Doc Oc's warehouse and Mysterio's apartment during other missions, to see if I could get in somehow. No luck. Mysterio's windows do have an unnatural glow to them, but that it is. The warehouse trap door is simply locked. If someone could figure out how to bypass that door, AND cause the loading zone to appear in the tiny room beneath it... you could probably win the game in chapter 2 just by going straight to Doc Oc's warehouse! The loading zones are probably very robustly coded, though, since Spider Man can get to absolutely any location on the island from the very beginning of the game.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++THE ROUTE FOR CHAPTER 5+6 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I see a LOT of variants here, so I'm going to list all of them out so you guys can see the important differences.

------TARAN'S ORIGINAL ROUTE (slow and obsolete)------- CHAPTER 5 begins at 13:31 F +250 14. Doctor Octavius 1st visit M +250 Race #64 +1700 CHAPTER 6 begins at 15:33 15. MJ apartment 16. MJ Movie +600 Hideout #13 +250 17. Get the 5 Photo tokens Black cat follow mission begins (I do NOT get token Q, saving it for Chapter 8.) Grab 3 skyscraper tokens +150. $pidey store: Swing 3, Air combo 3, Health 18. Black Cat Races to location 18. +1000p CHAPTER 7 begins at 19:59

----------SPIDY BAWLS' ROUTE:--------- youtu.be/kzG89WTYRBg?t=16m51s (16:51) Chapter 5 begins - 11:00 --- (takes 2:27) token F +250 Visit Doc Oc's apartment travel west token B +250 Race 51 (mega <18, +1700p.) Chapter 6 begins - 13:27 --- (takes 3:26) 3/5 photo op tokens - grabbed on the way to Mary Jane's apartment Mary Jane Cinema mission (+600p) Hideout #13 is ignored. grab remaining 2 Photo Op tokens Black cat follow mission begins. Q +250p 3 skyscraper tokens +150p $pidey store: Swing speed 3, Air Jump Off Kick, and Web Zip! (Maybe not able to afford it until now?) Black cat follow mission ends. (+1000p) Chapter 7 begins - 16:53 (Takes 5:53)

--------- Slyfincleton's ROUTE ------------------- (see video time 15:01 for magical MJ mission skip) B +250 A +250 $pidey store (near arcade) Swing speed 2, Air jump off kick. (Web zip is already purchased.) Chapter 5 begins - 11:48 --- (takes 1:45) Visit Doc Oc All 3 secret tokens in central park (+750) Race 77 (Mega time <14, +1200p) - leads to the church. V +250 Chapter 6 begins at 13:33 --- (takes 3:44) Race 79 (Mega time <11s, +1200p) Straight to MJ's apartment MJ first date mission SKIPPED simply by walking up to it, then walking away. This saves 50 seconds! The current world record [ThinksTheClown 1h 06m 24s] (video time 14:00) does NOT use this trick! Collect 5/5 camera tokens Black cat follow mission is triggered (Token Q is NOT collected) $pidey store: Swing speed 3. Only 1 of 3 easy skyscraper tokens is collected. (+50p) Black cat mission ends. (+1000p) Chapter 7 begins at 17:17 (takes 5:29)

Clearly, you can see that Slyfincleton's route is superior. Not only is it faster, but it saves token Q, and race 64. Grabbing the 3 tokens on central park certainly FEELS slow though, especially since it's not directly between Doc Oc's apartment and MJ's... it might be faster to grab some of the ones just west of central park instead. I am not sure!

It is possible to skip the first pizza mission, and the first Mary Jane mission, simply by walking up to the locations, and then walking away. Neither of these missions is mandatory for the completion of the main story mission.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

TRICKS: JUMP CHARGE CANCELING: It is possible to CANCEL your jump charge by pausing and unpausing. This can be done extremely quickly, and is therefore worthwhile if needed. However, when done during a race, there is an extra menu that pops up, asking if you'd like to cancel the race. This wastes real-world time, but not in-game or in-race time.

CAR BOOSTING Jumping off of a moving car gives you extra momentum. Pretty damn tricky to do though, and considering how fast Spider-Man already is, I can't see this being very easy or useful for a RTA.

INFINITE WALLSPRINT To wallsprint, you hold L (run) and X (wall crawl). (Gamecube controls) You can also be holding the jump button if you want to be charging it. However, if you release A while still holding down L and X, Spidey will jump AWAY from the wall. The trick is to RELEASE X before you release A. That way, Spidey will jump in the direction he is already moving, rather than directly away from the wall. This can be done very quickly and easily if needed, and allows for probably the fastest way to scale buildings. Just make sure you release X before A, and don't let go of L, and you should be good

I'll be updating the map with races, and label all the secret tokens and stuff.
In the meantime, here is my partial list of races. Please, feel free to contribute! Maybe we could put it in a pastebin or something. Also here is the current forum thread about this guide: https://www.speedrun.com/spider-man_2/thread/36oyg/1#vzkvr

			Normal	Mega
E: EASY 		300		800
M: MEDIUM	500		1200
H: HARD		700		1700
I: INSANE	????	????

¤¤stars¤¤ indicate speedrun potential

1. E 5:00 – race across the whole island!
2. E 5:00 – race across the whole island!
3. M 0:45 – landing on spots
4. H 1:05 - climbing
5. E 0:30 – Mega:20 land on spots – goes in a loop
6. E 1:10
¤7. M 1:10 – follow a path – leads to the park just north of MJ’s apartment
¤¤8. H 1:00 – Mega:50 – straight “Get to this spot” NE
¤9. M 1:50 – leads straight to top of chrysler building
10. E RACE
11. M 1:20
12. I race 1:20 – follow path – goes to  ocean
13. M 1:00 – Mega:45 land on spots – leads to half-donut building
14. M 1:05
15. I 1:00
16. I 0:55
17. M 1:40 – Mega 1:05 path follow – large zig-zags, leads to financial district
18. E
19. H 0:45 – Mega:31 - path follow around a few buildings, boring
20. H 0:55 – Mega:50 – land on spots
21. H 0:35 – Mega :30 – half loop, goes NW
22. I Mixed :35
23. H MIXED 0:50 
24. M 0:47 ? Leads NE, away from Shocker #1 warehouse. Landing on spots
25. M 0:35 – Mega 0:20 – wall crawling
26. H 0:30 loops around the building
27. H RACE ? leads east
28. M 2:00 – follow path – zig zags towards the half-donut building
29. M 0:45 
30. E 1:30 - MEGA :15 ? Leads to ARENA
31. M RACE 3:00
32. M 1:10 – MEGA:50 - land on spots – leads E
¤33. E 1:40 – Mega:30 – land on spots
34. E 1:10
35. I 0:40 - Mixed
¤¤36. M 0:30 – Mega:15 – “follow path” N to beebs gallery
37. H 1:00 path follow – does a partial loop, leads SSE
38. I MIXED :50
39. H 2:20 
40. M 1:30
41. M ? Mysteriofs apartment to Bugle
42. I 1:00 Mixed
43. H 1:00 Mega:35
44. M RACE 0:50 – land on spots
45. M 1:10
46. I 1:05
47. M 0:45 – Mega:30 - follow path, half loop to SE
48. M 0:45 – Mega:24 – leads to empire state
¤49. H 0:45 – Mega:40 - follow path SW – goes to lower east side
¤¤50. H walljump 0:30 – tricky to do though 
51. H ? Mega 0:18 ? leads from bugle to peterfs apartment!
52. E 2:00 – Mega:45 - follow a path – big loop
53. M 1:00 climbing
54. E 1:30
¤55. M 0:45 – Mega:30 – “get to this spot” NE (Next to metropolitan arena)
¤56. M 1:30 – Mega:45 – follow a path
57. H RACE :40 - goes in a loop
58. M 1:00
¤¤59. H :50 – Mega:45 – land on spots
60. M 1:00 ? climbing race
61. H MIXED 0:55
62. I MIXED :40
63. M 1:00
¤¤¤¤64. H 0:10 – Mega0:05 – race up a single building 
65. M race 1:20 – Mega:55 – land on spots – leads to arcade
66. E RACE 0:40 MEGA 0:10 ?goes around the block
67. H 0:35 wallsprint heading south
68. H 1:10
69. E 0:30 MEGA 0:08 ? leads to arcade
70. E 1:45
71. M 0:45 – Mega:15 From empire state – path follow
72. M 0:45
73. M 1:20
¤¤74. ? Mega:22
75. M leads to Doc Oc
76. I 1:15
77. M :30 ? to church
78. H :55 Follow path – jumps around a few buildings :(
¤¤¤79. M ? steeple orbit, very easy to do
80. I RACE 1:35 ? deep inside a courtyard
81. E 2:00
82. E 1:40
83. M 1:00 ? goes east
84. I MIXED 1:05
85. M 0:50 leads to central park museum
86. I 1:15
87. M 0:50 – lots of waypoints, but leads straight SW
88. M Climbing 2:00
89. H RACE 1:25 ? leads to upper bridge 
90. H ? bridge race
91. E 2:00 – Mega:45 - follow path – Leads to chrysler building
92. M 0:50 -jumping, landing on spots
93. M climbing 1:10
94. H 0:55 – Mega:40 - follow path
95. ? wall running 1:00 U-shaped
96. E 0:20 MEGA:10 ? U-shaped
97. E 1:00 Mega:10 - Leads to arcade
98. E 1:00
99. E 0:30
100. M 1:10 big loop
¤¤101. M RACE ? Mega 14 - Spot land x5
¤102. I Mixed 0:38
103. Mega:27 – follow path - leads to arcade
104. H 3:10
105. H MIXED :55
106. H 1:15
107. I 1:00 
¤108. M 0:25 – Mega:15 sprint across markers on ground – loops in a U
109. 
110. E 1:00 – Mega:18 – also goes directly to the damn arcade
111. M 0:30 – Mega:13 - Loops around the building in the air
112. H 0:45 – Swing through trees – goes in a loop
113. M 1:35 – Mega1:20 - race to the U.N. building
114. M :30 -- wall jumping
115. M 1:25
116. M 1:05 - climbing
117. ? ? floating platforms that lead north through central park
118. M ? mega 0:50 ? on train tracks
119. I :54 ? wallsprint 
120. H 0:45
121. M 0:45
122. M 0:45
123. M 0:40
124. M 0:45
125. E :20
126. M ? mega time :35 I think
127. 
128. H ? Train tracks race
129. M 0:40 - wallsprinting
¤¤130. H 0:15 ? Mega 0:10. Very short, leads around one building
131. M race 0:50
132. H Wallsprint 0:50
133. M 1:30
134. M 1:00
135. M 1:00 ? MEGA 0:40?
136. 
137. 
¤138. H Walljump 0:20
139. H 0:35 ? MEGA 0:31 - loop
140. E
141. H 1:05
142. M RACE 5:30 ? RACE ACROSS THE WHOLE ISLAND?
143. 
144. H
145. H
146. I
147. M
148. H Race 0:43
149. H Mixed 0:40
150. H Race 0:30 – get to the top of the statue of liberty



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spider-Man 2 is a really great game -- I would describe the web swinging as "kinetic joy." It's still the BEST of any Spider Man game to date (correct me if I'm wrong!) Add to that the fact that the BLESSING that ALL cutscenes are SKIPPABLE (except for one with Mysterio in the theatre for some reason??) and you've got a really great game to speedrun. Again, I was shocked that nobody had really tried before me!

I don't think I'll ever try to reclaim my world record for this game. I'm happy to be an observer now, and I'm just really glad that other people have started to run this game. I had a ton of fun figuring out a good route for the game, and running it until I got a decent time. But the biggest irony of speedrunning is that it takes a LOT of your real-life time. Good luck to all of you who want to give this a shot! I'll be rooting for you.