Spider-Man: Friend or Foe (Wii) Review
When the Spiderman 3 game came out, on the back of the manual was an ad for the next Spiderman game and a call out to fans for what they wanted to be in the game. Considering Spiderman 3 wasnt a terribly good game and this game was due so soon after, fans were worried that Activision were again going to rush another Spiderman game to market. While Friend or Foe admittedly does have a shorter development cycle than some other games, it does not really show it. While not a great graphical showcase, it is loads of fun to play and even more so when someone else picks up the second controller.
Unlike it’s predecessors Spiderman Friend or Foe is not based on any Spiderman movies or specific comic. However it does contain characters from the all the latest movies and throws them on their head. All the bad guys are there including the Green Goblin, as well as the new Goblin (Harry Osborne); Doc Ock is there too along with Venom and Sandman from the final movie. So how do all of Spidermans enemies finally become his friends? It’s all explained in the intro movie, while fighting all the above mentioned, Spiderman and co are set on by a mysterious force, which sucks all of Spidermans enemies away for no doubt devious and miscellaneous probing, but before old Spidey is taken away, he is swept up away by the aptly named Nick Fury of a organisation named SHIELD. Nick informs Spidey that the meteor that Venom hitched a ride on in the third movie also broke up into 5 different places and guess what you have to go fetch them but your recently abducted enemies (who turn into friends once you save them) are standing in your way. Along with an army of enemies called phantoms.
So now you know all about the back story and what the game is about but how does it play? Friend of Foe reminds me of an old school arcade side scrolling beat em up and turns out Im pretty close to the mark because that basically what it is, but there are of course some tweaks and differences to the formula and they are actually really interesting and the game is a blast to play.
If you are playing with only one player then you take control of Spiderman and for the first level have a foot soldier of SHIELD being your backup, this back up player also helps you dispatch enemies, this second player can later be swapped out for any of the enemies you converted along the way. Both Spiderman’s abilities and attacks can be upgraded as can your team mates. Spiderman has 3 levels of abilities and naturally you only start off with one, and along the way you collect these little glowing things, these glowing things can be spent on the upgrade store on the Helicarrier which acts as the hub for the game. This hub allows you to change your team mate, with some team mates performing better on certain levels than others and each other their abilities although similar, are different. However upgrading these abilities serves little purpose other than to make enemies easier to kill however it still is very easy to kill them especially with two players.
And this is where the game shines the most, the game features an arcade like “drop in and drop out” mode for a second player. The second player however only ever controls the team mate and never Spiderman whose powers and attacks are more varied, however you can swap controllers if you really wanted to. Each player also builds up their combo meter which rewards you for mixing up your moves. There are three levels and as you build up these you begin moving faster and taking down people with ease. There is little to no Wii interaction from the controller either as the Nunchuck only switches you character in one player and you can tweak throws with the remote, although full pointer function is included for the menus.
However thats about it to the combat, every level is pretty much the same, beat up a screen of goons move onto the next, sometimes there will be a bad guy generator which you have to destroy while taking out smaller bad guys or one huge bad phantom will show up but thats about it, its nothing if not repetitive and thats the really bad thing about it.
On to the graphics now, and yeah you know what Im going to say here, the game sadly apart from the character models looks very bland, maybe thats what they were going for but environments while varied across the 5 stages look very comic book like. It looks good enough but could be better; there is some nice effects for attacks but they are sparse in showing up. There is one point of the graphics though where the game really shines and that is the presentation. It is very slick, from the introduction, to the voice overs from the characters it all fits very well together. The presentation also follows through on the menus and interface of the game, like Mario Strikers Next Level games have put together a very slick frontend to the game…
Yes the voice actors, while not the guys from the movie (obviously) do sound very fitting, Spiderman is full of quips and talk backs as he moves around as are the other characters, the music for the game while never being anything great is totally forgettable although its not bad as if it was I could actually remember it being so.
So outside the main story which should last you a little while, less so if you got Co-Op going there is a battle mode for two players as well, it takes a section of a level and makes an arena and you duke it out using any one of the side kicks from the game and of course Spiderman with the simple objective to throw the other person out of the ring, its all very simple with one big moving easily throwing someone out, its good for a quick brawl but isnt as deep as Smash Brothers but then again its not aiming to be.
Spiderman Friend of Foe is certainly better then the shocking Wii iteration of the movie game, however fans of Spidy himself will find the lack of much web slinging a pain and unless you like all of Spidermans friends you may resent them for being in the game at the expense of that. Also the game is very very repetitive, each level is nearly like the one before it and the objectives are the same on each but it is fun to play until a point.
Its a review clich but Spiderman Friend or Foe is definitely a rental. However, avid fans of Spiderman may find this game worthwhile as a buy, though this reviewer can’t justify paying full price for the Wii version when cheaper versions are available and bear no difference, as the Wii version does not incorporate Wii controls at all.
