The Spider-Man Video Games thread!

[Xenon]

I played the hell out of this game, even though it wasn't that great it WAS a game with both Spider-man and the X-men.

And apparently given the boss choices, designed by somebody that had no knowledge of either.

Spider-man's first boss was N'Astirh? and his second boss was a team-up of Carnage and Rhino?
Gambit fought the Black Queen? I don't think he'd ever met the Black Queen at that point.

There was also an odd mix of art in the manual. For several character picture it was obvious that they took one picture and just tried to recolor it into something else.

The intro theme was really catchy though.

See I knew someone would know who that red dragon was. They did at least have him fight Shocker though, that's...something. Rhino/Carnage team up was super weird I agree.

Gambit being in the game at all is weird, as I didn't find this out til after i played it, but apparently the whoel thing is based on a 1979 comic which opens with Spider-Man (on his way to a date with Cissy Ironwood of all people) greeting Scott (who is on a date with Coleen Wing). Storm is underwater in the comic (hence her section), but Gambit, of course, didn't exist yet, so....kinda funny how loosely they sem to have based it.

I hope you saw Snake's Codecs. They have even less to do with Spider-Man than the Kid Icarus messages (at least the Ryu one mentions superheroes), but they are also quite funny. (Too bad they didn't record any new ones for Ultimate and it's just the same recordings from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.)

Oh yes I remember those they were such fun. Smas h is so good about going the extra mile.

[Alex_Of_X]

The Amazing Spider-Man 3
Platform: Game Boy
Released: 1993
Rating: 1/10
Notable: First Appearance of Smythe and the Spider-slayers
Notes: The team behind the overly ambitious Spider-Man 2 for Game Boy returns with a game that's a little more traditional action game but still retains a lot of that ambition. Levels are completed in various ways, like defeating 20 muggers, or tricking Electro into shooting a high voltage switch in a power plant, and you always have to leave not just win (except for the last level). I also like the theme of this one. Spider-Slayers were a constant presence back in the day, and one of my first Spider-Man toys was that deluxe triple spider-slayer toy from the 90s cartoon show, so I'm quite fond of them. The game is based on the comics version of that storyline so the robots are kind of different, but still. But here's the thing. This is probably the worst game I've ever finished. Yeah sorry to bury the lead there but this is a case where they have been subsumed by their ambitions and the result is basically unplayable. It's not the big things, it's the fundamental things that they screw up here. I know I sound like a broken record here but the controls are just so bad. There's a delay in Spider-Man's reaction between pressing a button and him doing an action so severe that the button is completely unpressed before any action even starts. I'd blame my set up, but not only has it never happened before the movement doesn't have this delay. And then there's the problem where it just doesn't work. Spidey has a double jump in this game but whether it will come out or not is haphazard at best. You also can't jump through most platforms, so you're constantly hitting your head on them, killing any vertical crawl you're trying to accomplish. STicking to walls is questionable (i think you hit the jump button), the bosses are so fast that there is no strategy to all but the last ones. For some reason you can't hurt anyone if you've recently been hit. Sometimes being hit doesn't actually do anything (you just keep the health). The first stage requires you to stop 20 muggers, but they randomly spawn in. Sometimes skateboarders spawn in instead, and other times NPCs identical to the muggers will spawn in, reach into their trenchcoat like the mugger...and then pull out a newspaper. My first attempt at the game ended when the game decided to just stop spawning the muggers and only spawn the skateboard dudes instead. Power upgrades are non-descript and hidden throughout the levels, but are absolutely essential this time since boss battles are just tests of endurance where you just trade blows until they hopefully die first. There's just nothing good here, hardest of hard passes. Do not play.

Also...the title screen moves up and down because it's too big to fit on the screen. It's the strangest thing I've seen.

The first boss is fun. The vertical level after can burn in Satan's cauldron

[Xenon]

The first boss is fun. The vertical level after can burn in Satan's cauldron

Yeah that is the first level i noticed we were going to have a serious problem. Really thought about bailing after that one. I only kept going because I knew the game was super short.

[Pav]

Y'know, just the other day I was reminiscing about Spider-Man vs Kingpin, which was one of the three games I got along with my Sega Genesis for Christmas back in the day. At that point in my early youth, I'm not sure I had even read any Spidey comics! So that game really had a big impact on my lifelong love for Spidey.

Lost lots of my old video game stuff in a housefire, but I was also thinking that I'd like to get the necessary equipment and play Spider-Man vs Kingpin again; I never beat it as a kid, and it would be fun to tackle what I remember being a tough but fun game.

-Pav, who remembers figuring out how to summon Venom for extra picture money...

[Alan2099]

I just want to share this. ...

[CaptainUniverse]

I just want to share this. ...

That's neat.

[Garlador]

Yeah . . . then I remembered how that turned out, and got a little sad.

Whatcha talking about it? It gave us the Amazing Spider-Girl, and I'll hear nothing to the contrary.

Getting nostalgic, but my brother and I rented and played the heck out of Separation Anxiety as kids.


I was a bit of a punk and called dibs on Venom.

[Huntsman Spider]

Whatcha talking about it? It gave us the Amazing Spider-Girl, and I'll hear nothing to the contrary.

Getting nostalgic, but my brother and I rented and played the heck out of Separation Anxiety as kids.


I was a bit of a punk and called dibs on Venom.

Ah, cool. And yeah, silver lining.

[Alan2099]

Ah, cool. And yeah, silver lining.

It wasn't bad, but I always thought of it as a weaker version of Maximum Carnage.

That game I loved.

[Webhead]

I just want to share this. ...

Just like Norman to be a nuisance around people playing tbh.

[Phoenixx9]

I just want to share this. ...

Lol, oh my! It was just a dark blobby image with a line coming out!

Did kids buy these games? Were they fun to play?

[Xenon]

Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage
Platform: Super Nintendo, Genesis
Released: 1994
Rating: 7/10
Notables: First Appearance of Demogoblin, Doppelganger, Shriek, Carrion, Firestar, Cloak, Dagger, Deathlok, Iron Fist
Thoughts: My family was very much working class growing up. We lived in a small rural town (no comic shop, in other words) and we owned a house but this was the 80s so that was normal. Unless I found them at a yard sale I got video games basically only on my birthday or Christmas until I was old enough to get my own money by mowing the yard. So it was shocking when, a few months into 1996, only a few months after getting my Super Nintendo, my dad came home with a Maximum Carnage cartridge. No box or manual, just a red game that I would spend hours and hours on over the course of years, never making it past about the halfway point but coming back to it frequently nonetheless. Online opinion of this one is mixed, some people remember it fondly, while others cite it as a bad licensed game. So I was a little nervous going into it. But it held up fine to me. Maximum Carnage is a beat-em-up a la Final Fight or Streets of Rage or, in fact, Spider-Man: the Video game. You can attack, webswing, jump, or shoot webbing a few different ways. You can shoot out a strand that will tie an enemy up, use it to grab the enemy and pull them in for a grab attack (which Spidey or Venom will automatically do if close enough), or create a shield by holding the button. Additionally, there's also a special attack that hits all around you by pressing attack and jump simultaneously, if you web throw a guy while another guy is behind you you'll smash them both together for massive damage, there's a backflip kick and a charging attack and if you hit the enemy several times without missing or being hit you can charge up a Power hit that does tremendous damage. It's actually a pretty extensive arsenal. Plus, after about a third of the way in, you'll start getting Superhero tokens, which are able to summon other side characters to attack the enemy for you. The exact effect variest based on who you summon and who does the summoning. When Spider-Man summons Black Cat, for instance, she does a string of backflips across the screen damaging and knocking down anyone she hits before coming back the other way incase someone wandered back into her range. But when Venom summons her she pounces directly on an enemy. Iron fist heals Spidey but just attacks for Venom. Because oh yes, that's the other thing, while you start as Spider-Man, you get several places in the game to switch between Spider-Man and Venom. For this playthrough I went with Spider-Man because theme. Venom is largely better, though, as he does more damage in less hits while his slower speed isn't' that big of a deal. He also has some unique stages and in fact has a much shorter final section, skipping several levels because he's been kidnapped, lol.


(Spidey and Paul having a discussion about the "bro code")



Maximum Carnage may not have been designed to suck quarters but it's still brutally hard. While the game gives you plenty of options for combat, the enemies, at least the bosses, are both faster than you and can deal serious damage if they hit you. You really need to focus on playing defensively if you want to get anywhere in the game. Of course that's easier said than done, as every boss encounter except for the last one is at least 2 on 1. "Normal" stages tend to end on a pair of a new normal enemy you haven't seen before with boatloads of health, and except for Climb and chase other stages are almost all "Boss" stages where you'll fight Shriek and Doppelganger and as the game goes on Carrion, Demogoblin, and Carnage himself. Each of the bosses also has some weird tricks up their sleeve to make it more difficult to beat them. Carrion must be hit twice in quick succession to actually hit him, and he's in the air, so no combos. Doppelganger will sometimes just make himself invulnerable for no reason before pouncing on you. Demogoblin will counter punch you and interrupt your combo which is bad since a lot of times the enemies don't take damage from single hits only FROM combos (you gotta hit him from just outside his range). Shriek is probably the weakest but she hits hard and can jump around the field at will. Carnage is insane but fortunately you have tools to deal with him every time he's there. As a kid I never got past about the midway point, the first fight where Carnage actively participates. You have to beat Shriek, Doppleganger, Demogoblin, Carrion AND Carnage. Though they don't' come all at once, you'll be facing two at a time until the end, with a new bad guy showing up each time one falls. I was able to barely make it past this fight a couple of times, but I was so weak and near death at that point I never made it past the park afterwards. Had I known about the secret rooms maybe I could have gotten further. These things are crazy. Requiring ou to do specific actions in specific places they're rooms with a bunch of health and some weak enemies that die and give you more health and lives. I also didn't know about the various continues hidden throughout the land. They dry up near the end of course, but I was always stuck with stock except for one.

Maximum Carnage is unfair, difficult, and feels kind of barebones and yet....I really like this game. The music is awesome and has been stuck in my brain for the last thirty years nearly, and a lot of care was put into it. Each superhero when summoned has their own theme that plays which is nice. And honestly it's just fun to play. I took extra glee hitting "Paul" with a dumpster but honestly the combat is just fun. Sound design goes a long way, the thunks and whacks just FEEL good. And enemies individually are no match for you so it's about watching your back and just beating them down faster than they can come at you. The bosses are unfair but it's also true they each have their own strategy. Shriek can be grabbed and thrown, Doppelganger is just a simple enemy, demogoblin needs charge attacks or comboed for maximum range, while Carrion is best beaten by a string of neutral jump kicks. Because it's trueish to the comic (the cutscenes in between levels are just recreations of comic panels), you only fight the same five supervillains the whole time, but at least you get used to them? The one big disappointment is that this game is just crying out for two player. All the bosses are two on one. The last battle against carnage (after a credits fake out) you don't get to use your superhero sidekicks but your lives are doubled by getting to switch between Venom and Spider-Man freely, each getting the full stock of your lives (also there is a secret room in the last stage, nice). That's pretty cool and a good attempt at making the final battle feel bigger (it's over TWO stages even), but its hard for it not to feel a little anti-climatic since there's nothing actually new.

As an aside, this game of course made me super excited to read the comic when I reached it in my readthrough and man was that disappointing. I see what they're trying to go for, and I appreciate how big and epic they were trying to make it, but they just dont' have enough new material to fill all the time they're trying to take. It just takes too long on its anti-hero phase and starts to feel bloated and a little boring. A shame as, had they pulled it off, it could have been a classic that both highlighted one of Spider-Man's hottest villains at the time and served as a meta-critique of the industry as a whole. Kinda like "Whatever happened to truth justice and the American way?" did years later, just near the beginning of the trend instead of near the end. I don't think its a terrible story still, but it's not this epic culmination that I was hoping for as a child as I wondered what the comic book was like. It was definitely one of the more influential pieces of media for my view of Spider-Man, making me think the characters involved were more prominent and important, though actually reading the series has diminished its importance.

Overall, this is probably the best Spider-Man game thus far. It's unfair and brutal but just fun and satisfying to play, even if you lose. Honestly when I started doing this I thought about skipping the whole 2-D era and just starting with the 3-D ones, but wanting to finally finish this one made me go back all the way to the beginning. Funny considering how near the end of the 2-D era it was.



Next Up; Marvel Super Heroes

Lol, oh my! It was just a dark blobby image with a line coming out!

Did kids buy these games? Were they fun to play?

I played a little Atari when I was very little, and until I got an NES of my own it was amazing. Just the idea that you were controlling things on screen was quite amazing. I don't think stuff pre-3rd generation of consoles really holds up, but at the time they were still amazing considering what we could do. (also to be fair that Commercial does a bad job showing the colors on Spider-Man which are pretty good in that game).

[Kevinroc]

Next Up; Marvel Super Heroes

Which game? Do you mean the Capcom fighting game or the Capcom beat-em-up for the Super Nintendo (also known as War of the Gems)?

[Alan2099]

Lol, oh my! It was just a dark blobby image with a line coming out!

Did kids buy these games? Were they fun to play?

Parents bought the games.

As for the rest of it, it was a different times. There wasn't really a lot to compare it to.

[Xenon]

Which game? Do you mean the Capcom fighting game or the Capcom beat-em-up for the Super Nintendo (also known as War of the Gems)?

Fighting Game this time. War of the Gems is a '96 release so it's IIRC 4 games away still. '95 was a busy Spider-year.