Following the release of 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day,' players are returning to Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and opting for its most challenging traversal setting: zero swing assist. This trend sees players disabling the game's built-in speed regulation and path correction, leading to both humorous mishaps and impressive displays of web-slinging skill.
The swing assist feature in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is designed to help players navigate New York City by regulating speed and guiding them along optimal paths. The setting ranges from 10, offering the highest level of course correction, down to 0, which disables it entirely. By default, the assist is enabled.
Players participating in this trend are disabling swing assist and often documenting their experiences with videos set to songs from the 'Brand New Day' soundtrack, such as Tame Impala's 'Loser' or Bad Bunny's 'EeO.' Many of these clips feature players donning the 'Brand New Day' suit, which was added to the game earlier this year. The immediate consequence of turning off swing assist is a significant drop in traversal fluidity, with players frequently stopping short or colliding with the environment.
Even players who previously considered themselves proficient with zero swing assist are finding the game more demanding after time away. Social media posts highlight the difficulty, with one user captioning a video of their character hitting a tree and a car: "When you hop back on Spider-Man after watching Brand New Day but your lowkey washed." Another post humorously stated, "POV: you're bad at zero swing assist but you refuse to turn it on because you're Spider-Man."
This challenge has also become a showcase for highly skilled players. Videos demonstrating expert web-slinging, where Spider-Man can nearly brush the ground, have garnered millions of views. Some viewers express disbelief, speculating that the players must have immediately crashed after such precise maneuvers. One such video, posted in early August 2026, has accumulated over 2.3 million views.
However, the zero swing assist trend has also drawn criticism. Some commenters view the pursuit of this challenge as performative or indicative of a "superiority complex." Others argue that a degree of swing assist is essential to capturing the fantasy of being Spider-Man, with one player suggesting that even minimal assist acts like an extension of Spidey-sense. The phenomenon has effectively created a new category of dedicated players, colloquially referred to as "Spider-Man sweats."