Facing the Spider Trivia Quiz

Answer: Castlevania

Released in 2010, "Castlevania: Lords of Shadow" is a reboot of the "Castlevania" series. It features Gabriel Belmont, in the year 1047, where the Lords of Shadow threaten to tear apart Earth and the Heavens, bringing about the end of days. Gabriel encounters numerous giant spiders while tracking down the pieces of the God Mask.

The first of these is encountered in the remains of the Dekub Tree in the Enchanted Forest. Gabriel does more than just kill these spiders: he can subdue and ride them, and use their webbing to create bridges or pull things loose.

Answer: Metal Queen

"Brütal Legend", an action-strategy hybrid game, follows the story of Eddie Riggs, a roadie who one day finds himself in a fantasy world seemingly influenced by heavy metal music. Eddie uses an axe (strength) and a guitar (magic) to free humanity from Doviculus.

At one point, Eddie ventures into the Lair of the Metal Queen to obtain bass strings powerful enough to heal Ophelia. The Metal Queen is a large metallic spider that attacks with chrome blasts, smaller spiders, and by slicing at Eddie. She can be damaged while in shock; after being defeated, Eddie has 1:29 to bring the bass strings back to heal Ophelia.

Answer: human

"Silent Hill" is a series of survival horror games featuring dark plots and gruesome monsters. "Homecoming" follows Alex Shepherd, a soldier who returns to his hometown of Shepherd's Glen, only to find his father and brother are missing. His search leads him to Silent Hill, where he discovers his true past and ultimately faces Amnion, a monster from the Otherworld. Upon defeating Amnion, Alex cuts open its bloated, human body, revealing the corpse of his missing brother.

This gives Alex a sense of closure and relief from his brother's untimely death.

Answer: Return of the King

Electronic Arts obtained the rights to create a video game adaptation of Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" films, and so created a series of video games depicting the events of the movies, rather than the books. The games were designed to highlight key parts of the films and developed to feel like the movies.

In "Return of the King", Sam passes through Torech Ungol, fighting numerous spiders in the process. After making it through the labyrinth, he encounters the monstrous Shelob wrapping up Frodo, intending to kill him. Sam attacks and eventually drives off Shelob; her fate thereafter is unknown.

Answer: Resident Evil

"Said the spider to the fly: how do you wish to die?" In "Code: Veronica", Chris and Claire Redfield are attempting to escape an island where members of the Ashford family (one of whom helped found the Umbrella Corporation) are experimenting with the t-virus. Through the course of events, Chris learns that Alexia Ashford has awakened from a 15-year coma that she underwent to try and help her body control an injection of the t-veronica virus strain.

The first time Chris comes face-to-face with her, she kindly lets a giant black widow spider attack him. Though the spider crushes the crane Chris was in, Chris escapes and manages to kill it.

Answer: Limbo

Limbo is an incredibly fluid black-and-white puzzle game created by the Danish developer Playdead. In this silent, shadowy game, a young boy has to make his way through a forest to find his sister. Playdead describes "Limbo" as a 'trial and death' game.

The shadowy nature of the game makes it difficult to see things like traps in the game, and the boy's death scenes can be surprisingly jarring. Early in the game, the boy gets stalked by an incredibly large spider that attempts to impale him with its legs.

The boy eventually kills the spider by crushing it with a boulder and uses its body to help bridge a large gap.

Answer: eye

In "Twilight Princess", Link's quest for the Mirror of Twilight takes him to the Temple of Time. The boss of this dungeon is Armogohma, a gargantuan tarantula with a large red eye on its back. It is capable of shooting a fiery laser beam and also harasses Link with smaller spiders. Link is able to defeat Armogohma the way one would any gargantuan spider -- by smashing it with gargantuan fists of stone.

When Armogohma dies, its red eye is itself revealed to be a spider, which scurries around until Link kills it too, thus obtaining a piece of the mirror.

Answer: Aragog

Aragog, an acromantula, is much more aggressive in the "Chamber of Secrets" video game than he is in the "Harry Potter" movies where he is an old, blind spider. On Hagrid's advice, Harry follows a bunch of spiders into the Forbidden Forest. Although he gets Aragog's counsel on the mysterious monster unleashed from the Chamber of Secrets, Aragog lets his children attack Harry. Harry is able to cut pillars of webbing that are holding Aragog up, at which point he directly faces Aragog.

He defeats Aragog by repeatedly blasting him with the spell Rictusempra, and then hightails it out of the Forbidden Forest.

Answer: Skyrim

The fifth installment in the series, "Skyrim" is primarily about defeating Alduin, a dragon prophesied to destroy the world. Among the many enemies you will have to fend off in your quest to save the world are frostbite spiders. Frostbite spiders come in three sizes: small (relatively speaking), large, and giant. All sizes are large and aggressive, and readily attack whatever wanders near them or their lairs. Mods have been made for "Skyrim" that replace all the frostbite spiders with bears, which for some reason are considered less terrifying than giant, venom-spitting spiders.

Answer: Doom

If giant spiders are your idea of hell, you'd love "Doom", where you literally have to face down the monstrous Spider Mastermind to get out of Hell. The Spider Mastermind was the demon that planned the invasions of moons of Mars. Though the game's unnamed protagonist (lovingly called "Doomguy") manages to defeat the forces of Hell, it isn't enough to save Earth from an invasion, which takes place in the sequel, "Doom II". Doomguy faces off against the Spider Mastermind in a map titled "Dis"; the song that plays on that level is a heavy metal riff titled "Facing the Spider".