Gaming Target - Game Boy: Spider-Man

Written by Jason McAninch on November 16, 2000

Review: The brainy web shooter spins his way into this action-packed Game Boy Color title

I'm sure that we all know the story of Spider-Man. Young Peter Parker went to a science seminar in collage, and was bitten by a radioactive spider. Gaining the abilities of the spider though the bite, Peter made big bucks wrestling, on his way out from the wrestling ring, Peter sees a thief run right by him, he could have easily caught himЕbut he had his head in the clouds, the thief escaped. Then tragedy struckЕ he came home one night from a wrestling match, and his Uncle Ben had been murdered. Peter tracked down the man who killed his Uncle, and it turned out being the same thief that he could have stopped. So it was because of him that his Uncle was now dead. Peter then promised from now on, to use his abilities to help fight evil and protect the cities of Manhattan, New York.

This game is a much better improvement than the previous games like the Atari 2600 Spider Man game. This game has all of the important elements: great graphics, responsive controls, and faithfulness to everything Spidey. You can fight all of the most well known villains that are just waiting to step on the Spider: Doc Ock, The Lizard, Carnage, and Hobgoblin. You might be asking yourself if Spider-Man can swing from a web in this gameЕwell of course he can, he can УclingФ to almost everything imaginable. Can he defeat his worse enemy Carnage? The question is can you? For two main buttons, that's pretty impressive.

The only setback that I could find was the button programmed to fire a web ball at Doc Ock was kind of hard to do, it tells you to roll your thumb from the B to A button. When you do this a number of times it will start to hurt your thumb. In addition, you'll probably only hit one button, which would cause you to jump in the air at the end of fighting Carnage and loose the battle. That's not good, but that's the only control issue.

Almost everything about this game is awesome. The story of this game revolves around a mysterious plot involving some of Spider-Man's greatest enemiesЕVenom, Doctor Octopus (Doc Ock), The Lizard and eventually, Carnage. Spider Man must solve this evil scheme to win, but that's all I can tell you, I don't want to give away the plot, it's just like a comic book, only you can't find out what happens in the end by turning to the last page. The levels are huge and almost anything can be explored from the beginning. The Sewers are 3 times bigger as the any Super Mario Bros. levels, if not more. Though out the changing environment in levels, the Web head does his daily business. As he progresses, he gain power-ups that remain with him the rest of the game, including the Super Web Ball, Web Shield, Health, Attack, and Defense Improvements.

The graphics are tight. Spider-Man transcends his pixels to become more muscular, and acrobatic. It's the same for the rest of the characters in the game, especially the bosses. Doc Ock's tentacle walk is awesome, as is Carnage's ferocious symbiote. The city backdrop is simple but beautiful, the sewersЕlike any other sewers in New York, grungy and that forbidding smell. You can tell that the creators have spent a lot of time on the graphics and plot of this game, giving you stunning graphics to stare at, and a plot so you don't get bored.