Spider-Man Friend or Foe is a 1-2 player beat em up similar to Marvel
Ultimate Alliance only you play as characters from the Spider-Man
universe. That is an easy way to describe this game. It's a lot like
Marvel Ultimate Alliance only you play as two characters at a time
(instead of 4), and it's a sort of dumbed down version of the game made
for a younger audience. You can play as Spidey, or several allies and
villains in the Spideyverse. Venom, Blade, Iron Fist, Silver Sable,
Prowler, Black Cat, Sandman, Lizard, Doctor Octopus, Rhino, Scorpion
and others are all playable in this game.
The story involves a meteor that has landed on earth and symbiotic
beings from the meteor known as Phantoms are wreaking havoc around the
world. Nick Fuy enlists Spider-Man's help to find all the meteor shards
and figure out who is behind the Phantoms. The story is extremely basic
but it doesn't matter much, the combat and beat em up action are why
you're playing the game right?
There are 5 different locations, with 4 levels in each. Every couple
levels you'll get a new ally to join your team. The cool thing about
the allies, besides the fact that you can play as some of the great
villains in Spidey's rogues gallery is that you can upgrade them. You
can improve their speed, strength and health as well as unlock a super
attack for each ally.
While the game is fun, it is very repetative and this is extremely
apparant in the enemy design and level design. There are only 4
different enemies in the entire game. That's it. Each level they have
different "costumes" and maybe slightly different attacks, but they are
really the same enemies as the first time you encounter them. It gets
really boring after the first couple levels and your only reason for
playing is unlocking all the playable characters and getting the
achievements.
The level design isn't quite as bad, but there's really nothing special
about it either. It's just there, and very bland. The most interesting
level would be Transylvania with the unique buildings and atmostphere
but the rest are just plain, highly stylized cartoonly looking
landscapes.
I really like the cast of playable characters, although I really only
played as a couple. I used Prowler at first and then mostly the
Scorpion. I didn't use them that much though, I played as Spidey most
of the time. He just has a better variety of attacks then any of your
teammates do. It kinda sucks too cause the idea of playing as villains
is awesome, its just they only have a few unique attacks. The best
characters to use with Spidey are Iron Fist, the Scorpion, Venom and
maybe Doc Ock, Rhino and Sandman. The rest kinda suck. The biggest
dissapointment is New Goblin. He has the exact same attacks as Green
Goblin. He doesn't get to use his sword or hoverboard at all. (GG
doesn't use his hoverboard either).
Spidey has many more upgradable things than the allies do. He has
something called the "Web Lab." This is where you upgrade his various
web based attacks. During the game you can switch from the "web sling"
attacks, "web shoot" and "web stun." Web sling seems to be the most
effective of all, the various attacks consist of Spidey shooting out
his webs to grab onto object (or enemies) and swing them around in
different ways and slam them into the ground or throw them across the
screen. One cool upgrade you can get is a toxin that is emitted
whenever you use a certain web sling attack. Your enemies will get
poisoned and do damage over tim. The web shoot attacks consist of
Spidey shooting balls of webbing at enemies or objects, and a few
upgrades let him create a bomb or a huge blast of webbing. The last
ability, web stun, has Spidey shoot webbing all around an enemy to trap
them in it and effectively stun them. There is a neat upgrade here that
allows you to electrocute the enemies while they are stunned. There are
a lot of variations on Spidey's attacks that give him a huge arsenal of
combos to pull from. This is why you'll want to play as Spidey most of
the time and let the computer (or your friend) play as one of your
allies.
Aside from some minor problems the game is really fun and I highly
recommend anyone play this game, especially fans of comic books or even
fans of easy achievements. You can get all 1,000 points in 8 hours or
less. Spidey's humor is intact and funny as ever and the voice acting
for the other characters is quite good as well. The game has a great
sense of style that is sort of cartoony with some flashy animations and
humor all around. It is clear this game was intended for a younger
audience but that doesn't take anything away from it. So if you lied
Marvel Ultimate Alliance, X-Men Legends or if you're just a comic book
fan in general give this one a shot.
