Spider-Man: Friend or Foe
Posted October 14, 2007
Taking advantage of the rampant popularity of the Marvel series, Spider-man: Friend or Foe is a multi-platform action button masher published by Activision. The slick presentation kicks off the story with an alien invasion in New York City, home of the illustrious Peter Parker. Zipped up to S.H.E.I.L.D.’s flying ship, Nick Fury informs Spider-man of the devastation caused by the aliens and their relationship to the same type of symbiotic sludge that brought Venom to Earth. With the help of Spidey’s legion of archenemies, Spider-man and his rogue’s gallery will fight side by side to save Earth. 
The opening cinematic is the exactly the same across the platforms, but the narrative is molded differently between consoles and handheld devices. The Nintendo DS version uses voices / text and animated heads in between each level. They become repetitive over time, but do convey the necessary information to allow the story to unfold.
Gameplay
This is a straight beat-em up title, but with the inclusion of power-ups, upgrades, and teammate assistance. Spider-man and fellow villain will battle vast quantities of enemies and the occasional boss in major cities around the world. Throughout the levels, there will be various items to pick up such as bronze/silver/gold coins, health power-ups, and webbing supply. The developer also included a lovely mission arrow indicator when you happen to get lost inside one of the cities.
Combat is very simple to handle as tapping the punch or kick button usually takes care of most enemies. Spider-man can also throw enemies or switch over to this teammate when low on health. I found this to be an excellent strategy as the enemy A.I. usually focused on the human controlled player. Also worth noting, the touch screen isn’t used in combat situations. The touch screen is only implemented when interacting with a specific object and mini-games.
The NDS version of Spider-man: Friend or Foe incorporates a much better usage of villain talents to compliment Spider-man’s fighting abilities. For instance, Black Cat can break into locked doors while Spider-man cannot. Switching over to her and selecting the door will start up a mini-game to crack the lock. The mini-games are usually easy, but they do offer a nice break from the button-mashing fighting.
In Nick Fury’s ship, Spider-man can upgrade his health, energy and moves between levels. Increasing Spider-man’s stats will give you more health to work with, up his defensive capability, and add more overall damage to attacks on the invading alien forces. By using the collected coins from each level, Spidey’s can also purchase characters for the Free Play mode as well as buying survival mode, boss battle mode, and the mini-games found in the main campaign.
Spider-man can also choose which villain he wants to fight beside during the game after the initial missions with Black Cat. The villains become available as Spidey meets them along the way, be it a chance encounter or a mini-boss battle. My favorite teammate is the dastardly Otto Octavius. His fighting skills are top notch and his spinning arm attack helped me escape death several times. Different from the console version, villain stats cannot be upgraded.
This NDS title features co-op play if you have a friend with a NDS device and their own copy of the game. This adds a bit of life to the title, especially since it’s lacking a versus mode or online support. Playing with a friend can speed up collection tasks and introduce strategy into larger fights. It’s also fun to revisit levels in free play mode, but only after you have unlocked the extra villains.
Graphics
Visually, the environments on the NDS are colorful, but generally lacking in life. The 3-dimensional environments look above average on the dual-screen. The screens act as one image, allowing the player to jump from rooftop to street level in one fluid jump. The character models are excellent though. The cartoonish flavor to the character models and animations give the game a unique feel on the Marvel universe. As far as the frame rate is concerned, the game only runs into problems in the co-op mode when battling several enemies. The graphical hitching goes into overdrive as the two NDS devices communicate between each other.
Audio
The auditory emissions are almost all of the attacking variety, but the musical score does compliment the action fairly well. The sound effects never become overly annoying and fit the Spider-man universe. The NDS speaker balances the various types of audio as well. The voice-overs stick to the same cartoonish flavor as the visuals and do a decent job of portraying the characters. Spider-man’s voice actor does his best Tobey McGuire impression and it mostly pays off. Interestingly, the same actor did the voice for the oddball Wooldoor Sockbat on Comedy Central’s animated series Drawn Together.
Overall
Spider-Man: Friend or Foe is quite entertaining if you dig the characters in the Marvel universe. It’s a genuinely fun beat-em up with enough mini-game variety to keep the gameplay fresh. Additionally, the NDS version is much tougher to complete than the simplistic console versions, due to extensive collection tasks and a balanced health / damage model. While the single player campaign is on the short side, the remaining alternate modes breathe extra life into the game. I’m always surprised to see a hand-held title that’s more entertaining than its console counterpart, but the NDS version of Spider-man: Friend or Foe certainly fits the bill.
The opening cinematic is the exactly the same across the platforms, but the narrative is molded differently between consoles and handheld devices. The Nintendo DS version uses voices / text and animated heads in between each level. They become repetitive over time, but do convey the necessary information to allow the story to unfold.
Gameplay
This is a straight beat-em up title, but with the inclusion of power-ups, upgrades, and teammate assistance. Spider-man and fellow villain will battle vast quantities of enemies and the occasional boss in major cities around the world. Throughout the levels, there will be various items to pick up such as bronze/silver/gold coins, health power-ups, and webbing supply. The developer also included a lovely mission arrow indicator when you happen to get lost inside one of the cities.
Combat is very simple to handle as tapping the punch or kick button usually takes care of most enemies. Spider-man can also throw enemies or switch over to this teammate when low on health. I found this to be an excellent strategy as the enemy A.I. usually focused on the human controlled player. Also worth noting, the touch screen isn’t used in combat situations. The touch screen is only implemented when interacting with a specific object and mini-games.
The NDS version of Spider-man: Friend or Foe incorporates a much better usage of villain talents to compliment Spider-man’s fighting abilities. For instance, Black Cat can break into locked doors while Spider-man cannot. Switching over to her and selecting the door will start up a mini-game to crack the lock. The mini-games are usually easy, but they do offer a nice break from the button-mashing fighting.
In Nick Fury’s ship, Spider-man can upgrade his health, energy and moves between levels. Increasing Spider-man’s stats will give you more health to work with, up his defensive capability, and add more overall damage to attacks on the invading alien forces. By using the collected coins from each level, Spidey’s can also purchase characters for the Free Play mode as well as buying survival mode, boss battle mode, and the mini-games found in the main campaign.
Spider-man can also choose which villain he wants to fight beside during the game after the initial missions with Black Cat. The villains become available as Spidey meets them along the way, be it a chance encounter or a mini-boss battle. My favorite teammate is the dastardly Otto Octavius. His fighting skills are top notch and his spinning arm attack helped me escape death several times. Different from the console version, villain stats cannot be upgraded.
This NDS title features co-op play if you have a friend with a NDS device and their own copy of the game. This adds a bit of life to the title, especially since it’s lacking a versus mode or online support. Playing with a friend can speed up collection tasks and introduce strategy into larger fights. It’s also fun to revisit levels in free play mode, but only after you have unlocked the extra villains.
Graphics
Visually, the environments on the NDS are colorful, but generally lacking in life. The 3-dimensional environments look above average on the dual-screen. The screens act as one image, allowing the player to jump from rooftop to street level in one fluid jump. The character models are excellent though. The cartoonish flavor to the character models and animations give the game a unique feel on the Marvel universe. As far as the frame rate is concerned, the game only runs into problems in the co-op mode when battling several enemies. The graphical hitching goes into overdrive as the two NDS devices communicate between each other.
Audio
The auditory emissions are almost all of the attacking variety, but the musical score does compliment the action fairly well. The sound effects never become overly annoying and fit the Spider-man universe. The NDS speaker balances the various types of audio as well. The voice-overs stick to the same cartoonish flavor as the visuals and do a decent job of portraying the characters. Spider-man’s voice actor does his best Tobey McGuire impression and it mostly pays off. Interestingly, the same actor did the voice for the oddball Wooldoor Sockbat on Comedy Central’s animated series Drawn Together.
Overall
Spider-Man: Friend or Foe is quite entertaining if you dig the characters in the Marvel universe. It’s a genuinely fun beat-em up with enough mini-game variety to keep the gameplay fresh. Additionally, the NDS version is much tougher to complete than the simplistic console versions, due to extensive collection tasks and a balanced health / damage model. While the single player campaign is on the short side, the remaining alternate modes breathe extra life into the game. I’m always surprised to see a hand-held title that’s more entertaining than its console counterpart, but the NDS version of Spider-man: Friend or Foe certainly fits the bill.