Spider-Man: Friend or Foe

Spider-Man has already made one trip into gaming land this year with a tepid reaction from gamers. Spider-Man 3 followed up the media blitz of a blockbuster motion picture with gameplay and visuals that frankly stunk. Now, with Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, the developers have tried to return Spidey to what he does best: beat up bad guys and crack jokes about it along the way.

Spider-Man: Friend or Foe starts off with a cutscene I like to call the "Spider-Man Movies Family Reunion." Spidey gets ambushed by the combined forces of Sandman, Doc-Ock, Venom, and the original Green Goblin while the "new" Green Goblin shows up to lend Spidey a hand. Next Level Games apparently didn't get the memo about how all of those characters, with the exception of Sandman, died in the movies. Of course, being able to play with all of these villians more than makes up for the lack of continuity.

What's this?  Doc Ock and Spidey?  On the same side?  Gasp!

If the idea of taking out baddies with Doc-Ock's tentacle arms isn't enough to make your spider sense tingle, how about a full-fledged co-op mode with a friend? Friend or Foe allows one player to don the web-head mask while the other person can control one of several unlockable characters. Aside from the cast previously mentioned, other sidekicks include Black Cat, Prowler, Silver Sable, Blade, and more. Some characters are encountered as the game progresses while Sandman, Doc-Ock's, Venom, and both Green Goblins can only be unlocked by defeating them in boss fights and removing a symbiotic mind control device - one that an unnamed evil mastermind is using to control their actions.

Cannon fodder along the way is provided by small, medium, and super-sized dudes called "Phantoms" who teleport into the game to attack Spider-man and his side-kick. These Phantoms are extremely easy to defeat, especially when considering that the player's characters are automatically respawned when killed. No checkpoints or saves to revert back to here; get killed, respawn on the fly, and keep on punching. This does make the game far too easy at times, with the only exception being boss fights where no respawning occurs. Still, players will find little consequence to losing as the boss fight simply starts over from the beginning if all of the player characters fall in battle. When playing single player, the computer will control the actions of either the side-kick or Spider-man by the player's choice. The side-kick will do some damage but the computer AI only performs the most basic of attacks against baddies and lacks the imagination and zealousness of a real player.

The simplistic gameplay only adds to the ease of fighting these Phantoms and the inevitable boss figures. Rather than require players to perform elaborate button combinations, Friend or Foe takes a more casual approach: the A button on the Wii Remote throws punches while the B button handles specific actions for each character such as webbing for Spider-Man or grabbing nearby items for throwing. Character movement is controlled by the analog stick on the Nunchuck and the Z button handles jumping.

The motion control usage in the game is limited. Shaking the Nunchuck will switch control between Spidey and his sidekick while the Wii Remote motion controls will perform special moves such as swirling bad guys around with a web line. While single players may find they occassionally switch inadvertantly to their side-kick, in most cases the switching only occurs with an intentional shake. The controls in the game are nicely implemented and respond easily, again thanks to their simple design.

Kind of a low blow there, Spidey.

The graphics are nothing stellar, but the animations in the battles are nicely done. Jumping into the air, web lining a bad guy, and then swinging him around in the air before pummeling him into the ground never gets old. The environments, however, could use some flair. The design of the levels is very linear and the surroundings from one level to the next offer very little variety at this point in the game. Even so, Friend or Foe does a good job of making gamers feel like they are playing in a comic book primarily due to the cartoon graphics and nice battle animations.

Between missions, players can use tokens collected in the battle to buy upgrades for the characters who have been unlocked. Strength, health, and toughness are the primary adjustable stats, but special attacks are also available. The latter moves include more powerful web shots or a killing maneuver that impacts surrounding villains.

Spider-Man: Friend or Foe may come across as much too easy for the more hardcore players, but it does provide fun arcade gaming. The cooperative gameplay and the diverse cast of playable characters are the highlights of the game thus far. The question remains, however: will these strengths overcome the overt simplicity and maintain the gamer's interest until the end? Come back for Stage 2 and more answers.