Spider-Man: Friend or Foe

I remember over a decade ago when Blockbuster was still around, this was one of the games that I really wanted to get. Eventually after renting the game multiple times my parents lamented and soon enough it was mine. I have a lot of fond memories with playing the game and remember really enjoying the game. All of this though was when I was a child. I was completely obsessed with the Raimi Spiderman films and to have such an easy to digest, small, and not too difficult game based on that material really tickled all the things I wanted in a Spiderman game at that time. And while I still like the concept that Spiderman:Friend or Foe has, the game fails to ultimately evolve into something better of which it could have been. All those things that I liked about the game when I was a kid came back to be all the things I did not like as an adult. It's a really cool concept to base the characters and their designs off of the Raimi verse counterparts, as well as adding characters that were not in those movies into the game but keeping that style. However, it becomes quite obvious even from the opening cutscene that this is a game strictly geared towards children, with the kind of writing and simple format that even great apes could understand. You see that logo in the beginning of the game that says "Official Spiderman Merchandise" and the picture is clear. That kind of tone even runs it's way into the gameplay of the game. You have two people to play as in the core missions of the game, Spiderman and a sidekick of your choosing. This could be a friend of Spiderman like Blade (yes, the rated R Marvel character in a kid's game), Iron Fist, and New Goblin or a foe like Doc Ock, Green Goblin, and Sandman. The list is decently extensive and each character has their own unique moveset and abilities (except New Goblin who pretty much is a reskin of the Green Goblin you unlock for completely beating the story). You get these characters by playing through the game's story, which is pretty simple. Nick Fury basically task you with collecting these mind controlling amulets from villains you meet. Afterwords, these villains join your ranks and eventually you locate the one responsible for all this in Nepal which turns out to be Mysterio. You defeat him using your symbiote Spiderman suit and beat the game, at the end teasing a sequel involving Carnage. For the gameplay itself, its essentially a pretty standard arcade beat em'up. You notice though it takes a lot of punches to put down a standard small enemy even in the early running with combos and all. This is where the upgrading mechanic comes into play. Throughout the game you attract yellow tokens that will let you purchase upgrades for Spiderman's web abilities or upgrade your other characters toughness, strength, and health. Even when upgrading your characters to max stats it still feels like you barely do any damage to the most basic enemies. You can collect powerups during missions for temporary invincibility, increased strength, or a team power up that lets you screen wipe all enemies but these still feel like they don't really do anything. It would be one thing if the gameplay and beating up enemies was fun, but it gets old really fast. There is not much the game adds after the first location, Tokyo, which makes the game feel unauthentically longer than it should. There will literally be moments where the game stops everything just to show you enemies are spawning in. It feels like an eternity when this happens and feels very much like padding. The last thing you want to happen when playing a beat'em up is to stop and watch the characters spawn on screen, one at a time. In addition to padding there are also key cards you have to locate in order to unlock versus mode arenas. Then you have to find the key door, go into the arena and beat up a few enemies. It's another way the game tries to extend your playtime, you can choose not to do these but they are so easy to do that you might as well. Doing these for each of the locations in Tokyo, Tangaroa Island, Egypt, Translyvannia, and Nepal will unlock an achievement with the Xbox 360 version which is worth 125 Gs which is quite a lot just for one location of the game. I can say that is one of the positives, that 100% completing this game is pretty easy and can be done just while playing through the story. The only achievement that will take you a little time is probably going to be maxing all the characters stats and all Spiderman's web upgrades. After that, it comes out to only 12 achievements worth 1000 G. When you take away the padding, that's quite a lot of gamerscore for such a short game. For comparison Castlevania: Symphony of the Night has a 200G total gamerscore you can earn for getting all the achievements and that game is miles longer than Friend or Foe. I won't just say that this game is only good for achievement hunters, I enjoy playing in that Ramiverse just for a bit as well as getting to play as characters like Green Goblin, Scorpion, Rhino, and Blade which is fun even for just a little bit. However, it ultimately could have been way more. Take away the padding and add more substance in more combos or story and this game could be pretty good. For what it is, it's a generic glorified licensed tie in game that lacks the polish other Spiderman games (i.e. Spiderman 2, ) had.

Spider-Man: Friend or Foe was one of my most played games as a kid. I loved everything about it. Until I got curious and decided to replay it recently.

Many people dislike this game. I think it's just ok. The story is very average and doesn't really need Spider-Man. It could be anything and it'd be the same. The acting is just fine but the jokes are painful to listen to.

Easily the worst part is the repetitive gameplay. The levels are long and consist of (Really underdeveloped) God of War like combat. However, you seem to fight a group of enemies constantly for way too long and it gets very boring and tedious.

I will say that the idea of playing as villains from the Spider-Man universe is interesting. It's a shame that it's not developed as well as you'd want it to be.

I do like the opening cutscene and the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy designs. It's a nice touch

With that being said, Spider-Man: Friend or Foe is just painfully average and not that engaging