I’ve been playing Spider-Man: Friend or Foe during my free time for the past month, and I have to admit that I’m quite surprised at how much fun I’ve had playing it.

More after the break.

The story starts when evil creatures start appearing around the world. These enemies aren’t human, they’re holograms with a symbiote core. It’s just like the symbiote that Venom came from. You first encounter them in the intro to the game, when Spiderman fights Sandman, Doc Ock and Venom. They capture your three enemies(great, no?) and you get beamed up in the sky to meet your new boss. Col Nick Fury has just recruited you to save the world.

In this game, you mainly play as Spider-Man with a sidekick following you through each level. You can change your sidekick from a selection screen on Nick Fury’s helicarrier. There is also an upgrade station where you can learn new skills for Spider-man and his sidekicks.

I can’t remember the last time I played a beat-em up game, so I was kind of excited to play this game especially given the marvel license. I was expecting the usual beat-em up formula, just mindless button mashing ’till you finish the game. That is kind of what I got from my single player experience. However, play this game with a friend (he can join in or quit anytime), and it’s a totally different game. Time your combos, use them to your advantage and you’re almost invincible. I’ll admit that playing it co-op made the game maybe a little too easy, but we had a blast plowing through the waves of enemies, using our different combos side by side. For example, you could use Spider’s web to trap the enemies down and then have your friend use Rhino’s charging move to plow through them or using his grab to pick them up and throw them off the ledge.

Each stage has its final boss, like Doc Ock. Beating the final boss of a stage, who was under the control of the symbiote, causes them to join you as a sidekick. In some stages, there are secrets hideouts to unlock, which are then used as arenas to duel in for 2-player competitive play. Killing monsters in the stages gives you credits to unlock more moves and finding all the secrets in a level gives you bonus credits for doing so.

Fans of the marvel characters or just Spider-Man in general will have a blast playing this game. Being able to try out all of these characters and all of their moves that you’re used seeing them use in the comics is really gratifying. I would make sure I had a friend to play with, it’s just more fun. The game’s script isn’t very deep, but its full of little jokes that keep you entertained. Even when battling, Spider-Man and his sidekick will say some quips that will just makes you laugh.

The game isn’t without its flaws. Twice, I had to restart the game. Once, we zoned into one of the secret hideouts and we spawned in a black screen, nothing had loaded and we kept dying. The second time, my friend got stuck in a wall and couldn’t get out. Since the camera keeps the focus on both of us, we couldn’t move further ahead so we had to restart. After a while the game gets repetitive. There are only three types of enemies : Small, Medium and Large. Each world has these three types, only with different skins.

All in all, this game is definitely worth a rental. For Marvel fans, it might be worth a buy.