With the exception of the Nintendo DS version, which received mostly positive reviews, Spider-Man 3 was met with a mixed critical response. Bruce Campbell, who played a French maître d' in the film, narrates the game's tutorial level.
Most actors reprise their roles from the film, including Tobey Maguire, James Franco (the first time he does so as Josh Keaton provided Harry's voice in the previous two games), Topher Grace, Thomas Haden Church, and J. While the game directly adapts the plot of the film, it builds upon it by including additional characters and elements from the Spider-Man comic books and other aspects of the Marvel Universe. The symbiote costume from the film is a major gameplay mechanic, increasing Spider-Man's strength and unlocking new abilities. The game plays similarly to two of Treyarch's previous Spider-Man titles, Spider-Man 2 and Ultimate Spider-Man, incorporating an open world design that allows players to freely explore a fictitious representation of Manhattan when not completing missions to advance the narrative. Beenox ported Treyarch's version of the game to Microsoft Windows. Published by Activision, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions were developed by Treyarch, while Vicarious Visions handled the development of the other versions, which are drastically different. It was released for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Wii, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS on May 4, 2007, and for the PlayStation Portable on October 16, 2007. The game is the sequel to 2004's Spider-Man 2, itself based on the 2004 film of the same name. Spider-Man 3 is a 2007 action-adventure game based on the 2007 film of the same name.