Spiderman: Friend or Foe is one of those games you read about in a gaming magazine or on a gaming site one month, and then the next month it magically appears on store shelves. So, I barely had time to even learn anything about this game, much less develop expectations for it. This can be a good thing, as hype will kill a game fast. But I don’t think Spiderman:Friend or Foe would have ever developed that much hype to begin with.
Mistah Clutch has the review.

Review score: 6.0/10

Introductions

Basically, Spiderman is just chilling out on a rooftop when all of a sudden a bunch of his arch-nemeses start to attack him. Then, all of a sudden they all start getting attacked by a group of unknown enemies. One by one they begin to disappear while being attacked. Spidey is the last one left…poof, he vanishes. Turns out he is teleported aboard a helipad being used by S.H.I.E.L.D and Nick Fury. It’s up to Spiderman to figure out what is going on and save the world and, gulp, perhaps even his enemies!

Combat

Very standard beat ‘em up action. You have an attack button, a jump button, and a throw/grab button. The levels are very linear. You’ll go into one section or room of the level, it’ll be blocked off or some giant door will slam. Beat up all the bad guys, then move on to the next room/section and repeat. The enemies are all the same. There are 4 basic enemy types, all re-skinned for each level. I mean, they’re literally just re-skinned! You have little flying Phantoms; your basic ground soldiers; bigger and meaner ground soldiers and mini-bosses. Usually, you’ll also fight one of your enemies at the end of each stage. They invariably join you after you whip their butt and remove the mind control device from them.

Graphics and Presentation

They aren’t Rainbow Six quality, but they do look very nice. They’re sort of a hybrid between the movie and the comics. Doc Ock looks very comic book inspired, while Sandman is almost a clone from the movie. I do like the brightness of the levels. There are a lot of darker 360 games out there, this one almost felt as colorful as Beautiful Katamari and each stage is cliché, but they are very pleasing on the eyes. 

Storyline

Spiderman and Nick Fury are trying to find out who is behind the disappearances of some of Spidey’s most notorious villains. During his research, he discovers that his enemies are being forced to carry out someone’s master plans via a mind controlling device. After Spidey saves them, they want to join him to help kick the butt out of who ever turned them into a fighting marionette. Although, there isn’t too much of a story, the way the computer interacts with Nick Fury is downright hysterical. I had a few moments where I was caught off guard. One particular scene has the computer describing how she gave Captain Fury a “much needed vacation”. The game plays similar to Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, only not near as in-depth.

MultiPlayer

The co-op really makes this game a worth renting. You can drop in and out with ease, just like in Lego Star Wars. Player one controls Spidey, whilst player two controls one of his villain turned friends. There’s a versus mode and it’s surprisingly fun, but seems a tad bit lacking. I think it was just tacked on to add a little replay value, because by the time you level up every character, you’re pretty much done with the campaign.

Sound

Sound is what you’d expect from a beat ‘em up. It’s there. It’s nothing special. You can just as easily play this game with custom soundtracks. In fact you might enjoy it more that way.

The Straight Dope

This is a great game to play with someone who is just picking up the controller for the first time. I played this with some family members at Thanksgiving who had never really picked up a controller and they seemed to be enjoying themselves. Just don’t expect for Spiderman: Friend or Foe to be the next big Spiderman franchise.

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