Recently I rented Spider-Man: Friend or Foe for the Wii due to the absence of a Wii version of Marvel Ultimate Alliance at Blockbuster. I had heard about the game but didn't know quite what to expect from it, I mean we have already had a crap load of Spidey games in recent years and at least a few that were actually really good games. So, how do you beat that? Well, you don't but the good news is that FoF is a great action game that may not be too heavy on the innovation factor but has plenty of emphasis on the fun factor.

The first thing that you'll notice about the game is that the art direction is actually quite good here in this game. The visuals are some of the closest video game renditions of comic book characters in a long time (Ultimate Spider-Man). I like the fact that they didn't go with the cel-shaded look as well, many developers have done a great job at employing this technique like the aforementioned Ultimate Spider-Man but this game goes for a more bright, cartoon-ish and less cel-shaded sort of a look. which is a welcome departure.

The thing that makes this game a ton of fun to play is the fact that the gameplay is stripped down to the bare essentials. You'll use the A button for both punches and kicks, the B button for Web techniques, the C button to jump, the D-Pad is used for Power-ups and Specials. The only motion controls that are used here is a quick flick of the Nunchuk which will switch between your two players. I like the feel of the controls in this game they are very streamlined and remind almost of the simplicity in playing the 'ol 8-bit NES games with the incredibly simple D-Pad/ A+B setup. I actually for once wasn't disappointed at playing a Wii game that lacked motion controls! Bottom line: the action in this game rocks, it is fast and furious (albeit not incredibly challenging) and is actually the best time combat-wise that I have had in any game featuring Spidey.

Spider-Man: Friend or Foe's story isn't really all that original (aside from teaming up with Spidey's rogue gallery) and better have been told in previous Spidey games but there are actually some mildly entertaining parts littered here and there throughout the game. It is somewhat depressing to think how much better of a game this could have been had the developers ironed out a few things. For one it is pretty much impossible to die, you may fall off of cliffs, get smacked down by a giant baddie but you'll keep on coming back (seriously I went through the whole game and never saw a game over screen!) EVERY GAME NEEDS SOME SORT OF DIFFICULTY SETTING! Even if there is going to be a "kindergarten" mode there should at least be varying degrees of difficulty that can be toggled aside from that. Another thing that definitely could have been much better is the story itself, the idea of Spidey teaming up with his greatest villains was sorely mis-used and did extremely clunky, this part of the story could have been so much more intriguing and had so much more depth, it's a shame. The lack of any sort of variety in the abilities that you can purchase for your sidekick was disappointing resulting in under-developed sidekicks and a super-powerful Spidey. The last thing that really got me though was the fact that they included a 2 player fighting game with the characters that you unlock but there is no real reason to fight due to the crazy imbalance between characters and lack of any sort of depth, this could have really been a significant feature (online multiplayer would have been great had the combat in the multiplayer been fleshed out).

Sadly, this is one of those game that had the potential to be more but ended up just being above-average rental material. If you want to have a lot of fun for a couple of days definitely pick this one up, even despite it's shortcomings it is a very fun game (especially collaborating with a friend). If your looking for the next great Spidey game look somewhere else but if your looking for a good rental you won't be disappointed if you try it out.

Learning Curve: Instant!

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