Review: Spider-Man Friend or Foe

Spider-Man: Friend or Foe (Xbox 360) Review 8-18-2009

In these times of economic struggle, my friends and I sometimes find ourselves looking for things to do on the cheap. A buddy of mine wanted to do a co-op game together, but without spending too much money. Looking through the local Best Buy we saw Spider-Man Friend or Foe at the $15 price point and it had 2 player local co-op. We decided to pick up despite the bad reviews and figured we could have some fun with it and in the end we were right.

Now don't get me wrong, this is far from a great game and it has lots of issues I will go over in a minute, but in the end we had a fun 2 player co-op brawler that didn't go on for too long and earned us some achievements along the way. The story is rather simple, there is some mind control aliens out there and if you beat the villains, they get angry that they were tricked so they help you. Makes no sense, and obviously made for kids, but what brawler has a good story anyway? This game is very similar to the Lego Star Wars games in the sense that you can go at it single player with an AI teammate, or 2 player co op and as you kill enemies you collect chips similar to how you collect Lego pieces. These chips are used to buy upgrades for your player. Spider-Man is obviously the main character so he has the most upgrades available and extra moves, but as you unlock the other teammates you can upgrade them as well. While fun to unlock more moves (and they do break up some of the monotony of the combat) a lot of times you stick with the basic moves. Unfortunately, a lot of the extra moves cannot be used on the larger enemies and bosses, which makes them somewhat pointless, which is a shame.

Some other negatives and that since this game is definitely made with kids in mind as the audience, it is definitely on the easy side. It seems they really took that Lego Star Wars copying even further with that, whereas you can't really “die” you just lose a few chips in which you can always earn more. There is also a lack of variety in the enemies (similar to how the 80s and 90s brawlers were made). They are mostly just color swaps to reflect the new location you are in, but their attacks and movements are all the same, even for the bigger guys. The only change in characters are the super-villains that you fight and later join you. The lack of variety there is made evident when you play as them though, as you will see how they have a lot of the same moves, even when it comes to the co-op double team moves. Some may say that the short completion time is a downside, but I can argue that it's longer than other brawlers and if it were much longer it could get even more monotonous. I find that the game is best played in short bursts anyway.

I played the Xbox 360 version, so I was able to get an easy 1000 points playing though this game. Most are just going through the game, with a few that you get for unlocking everyone and all their moves. They have other versions for other systems that are all the same game. I have not played them, but PS2 version is basically the same with graphics not as good (although the Xbox version isn't all that great to begin with) and obviously no achievements. The PS3 version is identical graphically but has no trophies since it was released before Sony implemented them and made them required for all games.

Bottom line: game is fun for kids, maybe to play with your kids or younger cousins, people looking for a fun semi-old school brawler, or achievement whores. If you fall into one or more of these categories, it's worth checking out for the bargain prices you can find it for. Amazon has it available for $20 for most systems, with the PC version being less than $13. You can go third party merchants to get it even cheaper. It is a poor-man's Lego Star Wars, but some fun can be had with it on the cheap.

Review: TMNT Turtles in Time (XBLA) 8-6-2009

TMNT Turtles in Time Reshelled (XBLA) Review 8-6-2009

“Ow, my toes!”

Just remember that quote, you'll be hearing it a lot if you play this game.

It is the 25^th Anniversary of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, so there is going to be all kinds of stuff Turtle related being released. First up is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Reshelled. WTF is that you ask? Well, TMNT: Turtles in Time was the sequel to the original TMNT The Arcade Game. It was based on the cartoon series that was on at the time, not the comics, although it did have a couple characters that were in the movie TMNT 2: The Secret of the Ooze. The original arcade game made it to XBLA so it was only a matter of time for the sequel to come out, especially since the original arcade game is still to this day one of the best selling XBLA games. This time though, instead of a port we are getting a full remade game.

Although Konami made the game original, Ubisoft are the current TMNT license holders and they had Ubisoft Singapore prepare this game. This was the first game this particular group worked on, but that's not a comment on the quality. I did not see Konami's name anywhere in the credits, so I'm guessing the remake was part of some sort of agreement they came to. They completely redid the graphics to be in fully 3D and you have a bit more control over what your character can do. It is still the basic 80s/early 90s arcade style brawler though. Move around, just, attack. It can also be played up to 4 player cooperatively. In the original game you could only attack in 4 directions (up, down, left, and right) but now you can do it in 8 directions, now including the diagonals. Other than that, the gameplay remains pretty much the same. Another change, and one that some fans may not be happy with, is the voices have all been redone as well. The classic cartoon voice actors are no longer in the game, and the results aren't very good. I am sure this is another legal issue, but it is still a shame to see (well, hear) happen. The music has been redone as well, and I have seen many posts online of people complaining of this concern, so if that is something you care about, you will not be happy. This is something that did not bother me at all, but felt since many complained I would post about it.

As with most games of that era, it is not a very long game, but you can expect a lot of cheap attacks and deaths. This was because their main purpose was to keep those kids pumping quarters in everytime they died so that they could keep playing. With this being a new version though, you no longer have unlimited continues as you would in the arcade (if you had enough quarters, that is). Now you start off with 6 lives and once they are out, that's it. If you are playing co-op and you lose all your lives, you do come back the next level if the rest of your team survive.

The 4 player mode can be done with any combination of players either on the same console or online. My time online was spent with friends of mine that I had invited to play and there did not seem to be any noticeable lag. There would be a lot going on at once at times, but if ever you lose where you are, you can just press the left trigger to locate your turtle. I played it 2 and 3 player, but not 4 player yet, but had a lot of fun each time, and I can still see myself enjoying playing it again and again. There is always the challenge of trying to get a better score than the last time or at least just laughing it up with some friends while you play together. Another nice feature that I was glad to see is the fact that right in game there is an option to press the X button and automatically invite all members of your Xbox Live Party to the game you have created. This made things a lot easier with a lot less menus to navigate. It would be nice if more games would use this since the Party feature has been available for quite some time now, and it's especially refreshing to see that it was an XBLA game supporting this.

At 800 MS Points ($10) this is steeper than most arcade classics on the system, but about on par with ones that get remade (such as Bionic Commando) so it is nice that they did not release it at their original intended price point of $1200 points ($15). You can beat the game in around a half hour or so, but it is a great game to play 1-4 players and can be played again and again if it is the kind of game you enjoy. Younger gamers, or people just more used to games with a bit more length, story, and depth may tire of it though. This is game 3 of the Summer of Arcade, so again, if you get every game, MS will give you 800 points. If you need more points, I have some in My Store at a discounted rate and can even e-mail you the code directly so you get the points right away (and I obviously will not charge for shipping then either).

I will update this review if I can get a hold of the original game again so I can give a better description of the differences. I also believe that there is a PSN version coming out, in which case I will also update for any differences between XBLA and PSN. Will also update on achivements/trophies.