Chances are you're
reading this because you're curious, not because you own the game. If you're collecting
for this system, then you already know that this is NOT an easy game to find. That brings
up the question: Is this game worth the triple-digit figure it generally commands? No, not
really, but there is a decent Spider-Man game in here. There's a mysterious laser-web hanging over the city, locking everyone inside. As usual, it's up to Spidey to figure out who's behind this evil deed. At its heart, the game is a standard platformer mixed in with a hint of Final Fight. Thanks to its decent looks and solid gameplay, it does rise above the level of mediocrity that so many licensed games fall into.
Spider-Man controls well, but his speed is a bit on the ridiculous side, especially when he hits full stride. The levels are designed fairly, but a few are a bit overlong. This is made even worse by the fact should you die, you'll be taken all the way back to the beginning of the level, regardless of how much ground you've covered.
Should things get a bit rough, you have the ability to call in Daredevil (after you've rescued him in the first stage) to help you out and hopefully calm things down. Our hero's arsenal includes standard three-hit punching combos, jump kicks, and of course, web-slinging. Enemies range from the standard thug to mechanized assailants with enormous power.
The world Spider-Man encompasses looks quite good, easily amongst the best of
the 2-D games for the ill-fated console. Some of the backgrounds feature some great
effects, particularly the heat waves in stage three. Everything is animated with
spectacular detail, so much so that Spider-Man has never looked better in a video game.
The graphics engine fails when it comes to the graininess of the background objects, a
common occurrence on the system.
Sound effects are sparse and unfortunately don't drown out the awful, grating music. The meager sound-chip inside the small console proves that it's truly worthless on nearly every level. Definitely not a game you'll be showing off your stereo with.
Even with the overly hard difficulty level, this is easily one of the best Spider-Man games to date, only second best to the recent 3-D incarnations of the super-hero. If you can deal with the irritating music and sometimes floaty controls you'll be quite pleased with this one... but it's still not worth $100 from a gameplay standpoint.
