Spider Man: Friend or Foe (PS2)

Spider Man: Friend or Foe is a Marvel-based game for the PlayStation 2. The premise is that strange beings made out of symbiote energy are appearing in five places across the world, and after Spider Man is teleported into the Helicarrier by Nick Fury, it is found out that the energy is coming from strange meteors landing in these five places. This turns out to be symbiote energy, which comprises Spider Man's black suit, and as Spider Man goes along to secure these meteors, he makes new friends along the way (Iron Fist, Black Cat, New Goblin, Prowler, and Lizard) who join his team, as well as old enemies who he defeats.

I actually made a point of getting this game because of an intense interest to see what it would be like if Spider Man and his enemies worked together.

It didn't disappoint at all. The voices were pretty great, and the interactions between the characters were fantastic, because they actually kind of made it feel as though the alliances were temporary, but accepted. I loved Spidey's moves as well as the fact that the moves were upgradable, with new ones becoming available as you go through the locations. You can switch teammates between levels, and later in the game (plus after you beat it) you can swap out Spidey's regular suit for the more powerful black suit.

There is a level of replayability in the game, as in each level, there's a secret tablet and door, in different places, and combining the two gives you access to a bonus level. I had some pretty great fun going back through the levels and finding them.

The big problem I have with the game is the character design, quite honestly. It looked comic-booky, blocky, and overly-Japanese. I got a ghost of the original characters in there, but they didn't really feel too fun. However, they did get Spider Man's witty attitude just right, which I loved because they kind of miss out on that in the other games.

Now, the content in the game was greatly limited, and it will take two, maybe three days to "beat" the game. The air quotes are because it doesn't take too long to beat all the worlds, but it will take about twice as long to get all the tablets and concept art. Still, you can probably beat the game entirely in around a week. So, this is only worth a rent, as you can get all the content in about how long you would normally rent for.