Spider-man: Friend or Foe

With great power comes great responsibility and for many years Peter Parker has lived by his late Uncle Ben’s words of wisdom. As Spider-Man, he’s protected the streets from criminal scum and met an assortment of super villains in battle. Yet on this day, villains he once traded punches and kicks with are now his allies against a common foe that threatens the world. This is certainly not just another day for our favorite hero that does whatever a spider can in Spider-Man: Friend or Foe for Sony’s PSP.

Bad Guy #3: “We just had to pick the one night Spider-Man teams up with Doc Ock to attack him.”

Unlike Activision’s recent movie licensed Spider-Man 3 game, Friend or Foe was designed with younger gamers in mind and leaves out the dark tone of the movie tie-in games as well as the more mature tone of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (a game that featured an impressive number of Marvel heroes including Spidey himself). In Friend or Foe, Spidey finds himself attacked by his old foes Doctor Octopus, the Green Goblin, Venom and the Sandman when a new threat called Phantoms attacks them all. Without a moment’s notice, all Spidey’s enemies are teleported away and - before they can capture him - Spider-Man finds himself rescued by none other than Colonel Nick Fury who heads the anti-terrorism task force known as S.H.I.E.L.D. It seems that this mysterious new enemy has a familiar link to the alien element that had once taken Spidey hostage as the black suit (and later became a part of Eddie Brock, AKA Venom).

The mystery unfolds in the game’s main Story Mode as Fury informs Spider-Man that meteor fragments connected with the new threat have landed in several areas throughout the world including Tokyo, Cairo, Nepal and Tangaro Island. While the locales from the console versions are intact, the PSP version plays slightly different. For starters, the levels are shorter … appropriately bite-sized for the portable format. The game places you in Tokyo first and playing through a number of short levels until you meet up with the area level boss at the end and move on to the next location. Taking it’s influence from Ultimate Alliance, Friend or Foe also has platforming elements which would have been great since Spidey can swing from platform to platform but thanks to some flaws like a camera that can’t be manually turned for a better angle as well as poor ally AI makes the platform jumping not so fun.

The first two flaws I mentioned above are but the tip of the iceberg and oftentimes get in the way of the action. There have been times where I jumped to my death because I couldn’t see the other side of the platform and many times where I would jump to the other side of a platform only to have my sidekick follow close behind only to drop to his or her death. The action itself is another problem thanks in part to the level design (there are moments in the game were you pass throughout without encountering a Phantom) and when you do encounter them the enemy variety consists of the same enemy type. Battles can get really repetitive and the real challenge the game throws at you comes in the form of the boss battles.

Shopping in a Japanese Target can be … interesting.

Not everything is bad, though. Spider-Man begins his adventure joined by a number of friends that have showed up in past games featuring Spidey, such as the Black Cat … your first sidekick. From there you’ll be fighting against your old foes that are being manipulated by the mysterious enemy that controls the Phantoms. After defeating them individually you’ll be able to pick your once foes as sidekicks, allowing for strange team ups with Venom and the Sandman. As a single-player game the allies are controlled by the computer until you switch characters manually with the Triangle button but the game is best played with a friend who can connect with you and take up the role of the second character. Each character possesses different fighting abilities that cater to their unique attributes. The Sandman, for example, can perform a powerful attack by building up sand into one mean attack that can take out multiple enemies. Doc Ock uses his mechanical arms by swinging them blender-style for multiple blows.

There are also moments when you’ll be performing tasks that require both characters to pull off together. Many of these moments have you pulling switches at the same time while other times it’s performing a chained combo to defeat the bigger characters. You’ll be collecting tokens to purchase upgrades for your characters as well as unlocking new arenas to use for a versus mode that allows you to fight a friend as any of the characters you managed to unlock.

On the graphics front, Friend or Foe has an interesting visual design that caters more to younger gamers since the cartoon-like quality of the character design makes the game look like it belongs in the Saturday morning cartoon lineup. Then again, this look gives the backgrounds a dull look and even in the more exotic locales such as Cairo the game offers up some flat and boring textures. At least Spidey and his cohorts look decent enough on the PSP widescreen and there are some flashy effects that work.

Iron Fist: “For the last time … I’m not a wrestler for the WWE
and I can’t get you Hulk Hogan’s autograph.

The soundtrack is actually nicely handled and never gets too annoying even playing this one for long periods of time. One of the game’s highlights is the voice acting that’s occasionally funny (the Helicarrier computer is just plain hilarious) during cut scenes and mission briefings. The sound effects are just adequate and come out nicely in the PSP speakers.

In the end, Spider-Man: Friend or Foe for the PSP is an interesting concept that just doesn’t quite have what it takes to give younger Spidey fans something to really love.  The problem with the game is the action that grows tedious very quickly and despite the fact that you get to play a number of cool enemies or play alongside a friend wirelessly, even the intended target audience likes some variety and levels that offer more to do than just clobber mindless enemies. If your young gamer really loves the web-slinger, you might want to consider a purchase while everyone else might just want to consider this one a weekend rental.

Gameplay: 6.9
Offering a slightly altered version of the console game, Friend or Foe is still a repetitive brawler aimed at a younger audience. There are some cool individual moves for each character and you can play the game cooperatively with a friend or battle it out in the various unlockable arenas.

Graphics: 6.5
Friend or Foe is not very pretty but at least it’s colorful and tries hard to look like good animation. On the PSP widescreen, the backgrounds and action fit the screen nicely but sometimes the camera can offer some lousy angles.

Sound: 6.5
There’s some solid voice acting in the game and most of the dialogue as actually witty and funny. The game’s soundtrack is pretty good and won’t annoy parents and the sound effects work with the action well enough despite its repetitive nature.

Difficulty: Easy/Medium
The Phantoms come in three sizes but this doesn’t change the fact that they’re not as smart or as challenging to beat even for younger gamers. The only real challenge comes from battling Spidey’s major bad guys like Venom.

Concept: 7.0
We’ve seen Spidey take on the likes of the Sandman, Venom and the Green Goblin before in other games but this is the first time he’s teaming up with them as playable characters. The PSP version plays much like the console version with a few differences and that’s not a bad thing. It’s too bad it also borrowed the console version’s poor AI. Well, at least there’s wireless multiplayer.

Multiplayer: 7.0
Some games were just meant to be shared and Friend or Foe plays much better with a friend seeing as the computer does a somewhat lousy job of keeping a sidekick alive … or from committing suicide by jumping off a platform too soon. You can also challenge a friend to a one-on-one battle as any of the character you unlock in the main mode.

Overall: 6.9
Spider-Man: Friend or Foe for the PSP is not a bad game for younger gamers but it does lack variety and challenging enemies to fight. Still, loyal Spidey fans will love the premise and the fact that you can play as recognizable villains makes this a game worth renting before you decide to get this for your youngster.