First off, I'd like to wish all a slightly belated Happy New Year; and hope to all that it is a better, healthier year than the last in more ways than one.
At the time of the game's release, there was much confusion over the Lizard's inclusion in the game. Rumors now proved false once said that if you went to the pizzaria where Peter Parker works at 4:00 AM, one of the manhole covers would open allowing you to go underground and fight the Lizard in the sewers. There was a trailer that was shown at the E3 2003 video game convention that completely featured CGI work done by Blur (the same company who did the three cinematics in the final game) that featured the Lizard at the end of it. Which in turn, inspired much confusion over his inclusion in the game. I will run through the trailer on memory as it has been quite some time since I've seen the trailer.
First, scene we see some lady getting mugged and the guy started running away, a web comes down and pulls him up off of the screen and the purse falls into the womans hands. Next we get some fancy scenes of Spidey swinging dangerously close to traffic and flipping high into the sky again where we cut to another camera angle caught in a thunderstorm of Spidey jumping in front of the Chrysler building and lands in an alleyway. We then see a closeup of the Lizards face as the camera starts panning out he starts walking faster and faster till' he is running towards Spidey and he tackles him.
I may have forgotten a few parts of it by now; but it was quite an awesome teaser. I've looked all over the web for years and I never have found the trailer online but it can be found on the complete MTV Spider-Man animated series DVD, so I've heard.
The Lizard was eventually taken out of the game due to the possibility of him appearing in Spider-Man 3 at the time. There is even still something in the final version of the game that the Lizard left behind. In the fight arena there are giant lizards that you fight; who are presumably who we would have fought before we fought Lizard in the sewers had he stayed in the game. There are maybe even a few more in the game. There is a piece of Lizard concept art hanging on the wall in some of the Spidey Shops. On the very end of Roosevelt island on the side the abandoned Oscorp testing site is; there is a curiously large drainage hole hanging off the side of the dropoff next to the water. I know I may be looking too far into it, but it is still a possibility, especially seeing how far in there the hole goes. Perhaps it was where we entered the sewers with our battle with Lizard in the earlier build. Maybe; maybe not.
And interestingly enough, the same exact animation that was used in the part in Spider-Man 3: The Game where Lizard jumps out at you from under the water in slo-mo was the same exact animation that was used in the trailer I have just told you about.
Lastly, I have a few very rare pics of the Lizard from the trailer. The only ones on the internet.
