Spider-Man: Friend or Foe Review

By Jason Nimer

Game Informer magazine recently ran an op-ed piece entitled, “In Defense Of Short Games” in which one of the magazine’s contributors made the argument that games don’t have to last more than 50-100 hours to be good. While I usually don’t care for Game Informer’s opinions, this short editorial really stuck with me. Games are constantly blasted for being “too short,” but more often than not, it is the overly long games that become the object of my scorn. Similarly, overly complicated games are often more vexing than simpler ones. Some of my favorite games of all time are about as simple and short as games get. Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!!! doesn’t have online multiplayer or any unlockable content, but I’ll continue to play and replay the game as I have for the past 20 years or so. I’m sure I’ll be taking swings at Soda Popinski from my chair in the nursing home, years and years after the gaming public has forgotten all about Halo and Grand Theft Auto (Madden games will still be coming out once a year… and it will be almost identical to this year’s version!).

So, bearing in mind that short, simple games aren’t always a bad thing, Spider-Man: Friend or Foe for the Nintendo Wii still isn’t very good. While there is a lot wrong with the game overall, I can’t side with other, harsher reviews of FoF – there are a few very positive things going on with this title. Since the bad outweighs the good, we’ll leave ole’ Spidey’s more positive aspect until the end of the review. Let’s start with what makes Spider-Man: Friend or Foe offensive to not only fans of the Spider-Man feature films, but long-time Spider-Man comic book fans as well (this reviewer falls into both categories).

Spider-Man: Friend or Foe’s premise and style should be the first warning to hardcore Spider-Man fans. For this game, Spider-Man and his enemies have been transformed into pseudo-anime versions of themselves and thrown into a conflict between Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. and some space robots that can control minds and look suspiciously like Venom. Now, I’ve been through some serious leaps of faith with Spider-Man in the past (the clone saga, Eric Foreman from “That 70’s Show” as Venom, Peter Parker’s hilarious mid-70’s views on drug abuse during the Capt. Stacy saga, etc.), but Friend or Foe asks long-time fans to swallow a serious line of tripe which serves as a lazy excuse to team up Spider-Man with his most popular foes.

The good news is that the game is aimed at younger Spider-Man fans who more than likely won’t question the story’s validity and plot holes that border on insanity (Harry Osborn is the “New Goblin” from the third Spider-Man film, yet Green Goblin, his supposedly dead father, is alive, well and still has access to Oscorp’s weapons and gadgets… what?). The game doesn’t just stop with tailoring the story for the younger set; the gameplay also has its sights set on the attention spans of 8-year-olds. Friend or Foe is, at its core, a simple yet mildly enjoyable beat ‘em up adventure. There isn’t a gamer on the planet that will have a problem breezing through this very easy game, and chances are their younger siblings won’t have too tough a time either.

So far, you’re probably thinking that Friend or Foe is just another youth-oriented easy game you might consider trying out when it hits the bargain bin. For a lot of gamers, this will most likely be the case. For every hundred gamers who overlook this title, there will hopefully be one or two who give it a shot. Why? Well, beyond the “kiddy” story, design and feel, beyond the simplistic and extremely easy gameplay, there is a surprisingly fun co-op mode hiding in the outwardly lackluster package that is Spider-Man: Friend or Foe.

Friend or Foe’s single player is anything but a good time. You’ll be mashing buttons, setting up some cool looking but otherwise unimpressive combos and rolling your eyes through some of the most obvious boss fights since the NES days. Add a second person, and it actually becomes kind of fun – especially if the second player is younger or inexperienced with video games. When I started the game, I found myself thinking, “I can’t believe I’m going to spend my two days off this week with this!” After cajoling a female friend to play through the game as my partner (of course, she picked Spider-Man… I got stuck with Silver Sable), it became a fun, old-school experience like the old TMNT, Simpsons or Gauntlet arcade games.

Is Spider-Man: Friend or Foe a must-buy or must-play game? Certainly not. It isn’t even among the best Spider-Man games, and there have been some really, really bad games based on my favorite wall-crawler (I’m looking at you Arcade’s Revenge for SNES…). Friend or Foe falls short in nearly every category, but saying that it is unplayable (as some reviewers have) is simply unfair. Two-player co-op can be a surprisingly fun distraction, especially if you don’t feel like explaining how to choose a receiver and throw a pass to someone who doesn’t know a d-pad from a Wii-mote. Spider-Man: Friend or Foe is one of those games that you might play once, but it will be a big hit on Thanksgiving Day, when all your younger cousins descend on your video game systems. Instead of letting the rugrats erase the save files from your more complicated and intense games, give them Friend or Foe and sneak off for a second helping of pumpkin pie.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 60%.