The gamplay on
Spiderman: Friend or Foe was tedious at best. I was rather excited to play the game when I first got it, but after the five minutes of start screens, my excitement was starting to wane. I was really looking forward to swinging through the city and climbing up buildings, but even that was taken away from me to some extent.
Spiderman starts his game out in a battle against some of his enemies, when a mysterious group of baddies climbs up to the building they are all perched atop... and begins making Spiderman's villains disappear. Good, right? Not so much - they want Spiderman to die as well.
Nick Fury happens to be in his giant, glowing spaceship of doom (he was just in the neighborhood, you see) and teleports Spiderman up in the nick of time. Nick informs Spidey that these damned annoying robots are using the same meteorite that transformed Venom... and it is up to you to stop them. But, wait, there's more! Not only do you get the illustrious honor of smashing the bots to bits, but you are also forced to have your ach rivals tag along for the journey. Oh, goody!
Unfortunately, the co-op is rather useless until the characters are needed for their specific (and rather silly) deeds. Black Cat opens locks, Doc Oc screws with some circuitry... all things Spiderman could have really done on his own. Each character has a few special moves that serve to cut up the tedium in battle, but you need to collect energy to use them. Mostly, you spend your time (what little play time there is) punching and kicking robots until your fingers bleed. Another downside to the co-op is that you can't swing around the city! All the buildings are close enough to jump to, and Black Cat just cannot shoot white goo out of her wrists like you can. Bummer.
Basically, the formula for Spiderman: Friend or Foe is as follows: Nick tells you such-and-such has happened and sends you to said place, you run through such-and-such area disabling one thing or another and smashing robots, and then you defeat one of your archenemies (they are all under some sort of brainwashing) and they are so grateful they decide to tag along with you! The only saving grace is the puzzles in the game. They are pretty basic, but a welcome change to hitting your buttons over and over. All are timed and require a bit of precision and use of the stylus. My favorite one was tapping on a series of numbers when they changed colors from red to green (shows how desperate for change I was!).
On the upside, you can always hook up with one of your friends and play online. It is still pretty much the same thing, but at least you can be miserable with a buddy!
