Spider-Man: Friend or Foe Review

It’s been a few months since Spider-Man 3 was released in theaters, and while I did enjoy the movie very much, it left me wanting more. With my shiny new Wii set up in my room, I decided to break it out and try and get that Spider-Man fix with Activison’s new title, Spider-Man: Friend or Foe. Unfortunately, it leaves a lot to be desired.

Spider-Man Friend or Foe starts out interestingly enough, as you are abducted by Nick Fury, and find out that a handful of Spider-Man’s worst villains have been mind controlled by someone using meter shards that have been infused with a sybtiote, similar to that which created Venom. Spider-Man sets out to find out who this evil doer is, and put an end to all the madness. Spidey isn’t alone however, as he he meets up with a slew of allies along his journey that help him fight the good fight. While the plot is pretty simple, as well as predictable, the dialogue in the game provides quite a bit of comic relief, as Spider-Man’s retorts are as witty as ever. Sadly, the silly dialogue is one of the very few good things I have to say about this game

The game has five levels cut up into four different sections. These levels consist of you and a teammate running along a one-way path until you find a group of enemies. Dispatch them, move on until you find the next group. Rinse and repeat. Every level in the game is as uncreative and unchallenging as the one before it. You will find yourself hard-pressed to distinguish between each level. Occasionally you will come across secret items that allow you to unlock additional content, however the items are mostly out in the open and extremely easy to find.

All 20 stages of this game are boring and tiresome, but are still no match for the effortlessness and monotony of the combat system. Since the game does not make use of the Wii’s motion sensing ability in any way, all your commands are mapped to the Wii’s buttons, although the only button you really need to know about is A. A is your nomal attack, press it and enemies will die, no strings attached. There are also special attacks, jumps, and grabs that you can use with your characters, but when it all boils down, mashing the A button is all there really is to it. The combat is so easy and uninspired in this game that I believe a blind bird that was shot with a stupid-ray could complete the whole game within a day, or maybe less, considering the game only takes about 5-6 hours to beat.

Before every mission you can select an ally to accompany you. You start with just one, and gain more as you progress through levels. You are allowed to switch and control your partner at any point in the game, but you will find it best to stick with Spidey. In levels, you collect a sort of currency called tokens, which explode out of just about anything you can get your hands on such as crates, boxes, etc. You use these tokens back at HQ after every level to upgrade your characters stats, as well as learn new special moves.

Again, some special moves you can learn are actually kind of cool, and somewhat rewarding. There are even co-op attacks between you and your ally that can obliterate anything on screen. While this is all good and fun, you will almost find it unnecessary to use such attacks, considering the battles are so easy you could probably do them without fingers, let alone special attacks. However, even if you do somehow manage to die, (which you would have to try to do) never fear! Once you are dead, you respawn in the same spot, with the penalty of losing a few tokens. What if you don’t have any tokens? You will just keep respawning, again and again until you move on, or the world explodes. It’s just that easy.

Last, but surprisingly not least, are the graphics, which are sub-par at best. Character animations seemed fairly good, and all the characters moved smoothly, but the lack of detail on the characters (and everything else) as well as their bodies being disproportionate makes this look like a badly done Nintendo DS game.

Spider-Man Friend or Foe falls short in just about every aspect. A sub-par story with abysmal level design and combat so easy it will make you want to run and cry to your Aunt May, will quickly turn any gamer away from this game. If you need something Spider-Man for this holiday season, turn elsewhere, for there is no fun to be had here, unless you are under the age of ten.