You'll Have To Care Ahead Of Time, Because The Game Won't Help

Spider-Man: Friend or Foe has to bank on you wanting to team-up Spider-Man with various members of his Rogue's Gallery, and for that to be sufficient to keep you entertained. Which was a bit of a disappointment. I wasn't expecting something spectacular, but I hoped for more than a lesser version of the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance games.

That's what we're dealing with, essentially. You've got Spider-Man and some other character, either another hero or one of his arch-enemies he's working with temporarily. You start the level, enter an open area, fight generic villain cannon fodder. Repeat this many, many times, with occasional fights against large generic villain cannon fodder, until you reach a boss fight. There's a pattern to each boss fight*. You beat the villain (who is being mind-controlled), and they join you because they want revenge. Move to next level. Add in some unlockable stuff, the ability to improve certain characteristics of your characters (through tokens you collect for smashing enemies), and that pretty much covers it.

So yes, it gets tedious. There's a limited amount of dialogue in the game, so certain phrases are repeated frequently, though you'll get an occasional amusing exchange between Spidey and the person he's working with**. The cut scenes before the levels begin are pretty funny. You're helping Nick Fury out on this, and so he and the SHIELD computer are filling you in each time. The computer has a bit of a sense of humor, and enjoys busting Fury's chops, which seems to entertain Spider-Man quite a bit, while annoying Fury. So there's a low-intensity conflict between Nick and the computer throughout the game, which made me laugh on several occasions. Hey, I took my amusements where I found them.

Another problem with the game: They let you play as the Prowler but took away his cape. Come on, give the Prowler his cape back, video game people! I'm as surprised and pleased as anyone the Prowler actually got to be a playable character in a video game***, but he has a nice cape. Is it that hard to animate something a billowy cape?

OK, that wasn't really a gripe. I was only periodically sad Prowler didn't have his cape. More serious problem: Camera perspective. The camera remains in a fixed point throughout the game. Sometimes, this makes it difficult to determine where you are in relation to something else. Say there's an unlockable content thingy floating between two ramps. You want to hop across the gap from one ramp to the other to grab it, preferably without falling to your death. It would be nice if you could move the camera to ensure you were lined up properly, but that's not gonna happen. Other times you'll see what might be a secret area hidden behind a rock, or a building ledge. It also might be a solid wall or bottomless pit. Again, don't expect the camera to swing around where you can actually see what's there before you charge in.

Hmm, what's something positive I can say? Oh, I liked their choice for Villainous Mastermind. I'm a little surprised they went with him, but it's nice to see him get a little love, since Doc Ock, Norman Osborn and those freaking symbionts tend to hog the attention when it comes to Spidey villains.

So, repetitive gameplay, unhelpful camera, but some amusing cut scenes, and they didn't just go with obvious choices when it came to playable characters. I'd say the negatives outweigh the positives, but it doesn't take that long to beat, if that helps.

* With the Rhino, for example, you throw something at him so he charges into an electrical whatsit, gets stunned, and you can punch him a bit, he gets mad, starts stomping the ground, causing rubble to fall (some of which you'll be able to pick up and throw), repeat.

** With the possible exception of the Black Cat, none of the other characters find Spidey funny. Mostly, they wonder if he's suffered brain damage, and act as though they'd rather be there with anybody else.

*** Rocket Racer must be pissed he didn't get invited.