|
|
"The Amazing Spider-man" is just one of many games which star one of the most popular Marvel heroes. Lots of games for lots of platforms (C64, PC, SNES, SEGA, etc), with Spidey in the leading role, while the master villains differ from game to game. And the quality varies, as well. Where does "The Amazing Spider-man" stand? I'll state my case and you decide ;)
At first this action game doesn't look too complicated - the controls are simple (although you can not re-configure them) and there are not a lot of actions that Spidey can perform. |
|
|
| Flip the switches here and there with your web shooter, stop certain enemies so you can enter certain areas, and so on. But, shortly after, things get a bit more complicated. More traps, more switches, more repetitive actions, and so on. One thing that has bothered me was the lack of an introductory story, something that would explain the need for all the web squirting, switch pushing/pulling and climbing (unless Peter Parker is an adrenaline freak as well as a mutant ;) ). |
|
|
 I wish I could say that the game tries to compensate for all of that through slow unveiling of the plot, but that is not the case.
The enemies' AI is? well, low. Their behaviour is limited to following your movement, or just pacing around in a pre-determined pattern. On the other hand, most of the traps that you encounter during the game are quite clever, and require good timing.
The difficulty of the game picks up fairly fast, and Spidey will be losing his life power one time too many, if you're not too careful. The energy/life power meter is in the right part of the screen, and it's nicely done - it's a picture of Spider-man, which slowly turns into a skeleton as your hero loses power (the "meter" is really well drawn). Fortunately, you can restore your energy (and you'll see how while playing the game).
There is a possibility to save your game, but you can only do that on a specific screen.
The graphics are pretty good, even by today's standards (btw, the game was made in 1989). Sprites are nicely done, not too detailed, of course, but still good. Background graphics are OK, and background varies from warehouses, elevator shafts, graveyards, labs, sewer etc. Except a few beeps, the game has no sounds.
"The Amazing Spider-man" is an enjoyable game, but, unfortunately, for a short period of time. After you've beaten it once or twice, you'll quickly lose interest. Still, it's at least worth a try.
Technical details: I ran the game from Win98 and DOS without any problems, but I'm not too sure if it would work under XP. The game is stable on faster machines, and, should you find the need to do so, you could speed it up or slow it down by using -/= keys during your game. |
|
| Reviewer: Abandon5000 |
|
