Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage

"An Amazing beat em up title, that grows tedious, then picks up again!"

Hello there, true beleivers! As a fan of both comics and video games, I will do my best to be fair in this review, to both aspects. Maximum Carnage was a 14 issue mini series, that spanned several different Spider-Man titles. Some of the writers (and readers) of the day felt it was too violent and dark, but in the end, the redeeming, wholsome side of Spidey and crew won over. It showed that sometimes, sacrifices and compromises must be made, but in the end, being true to your moral fiber is what counts. That is why, in the end, Marvel picked it up. It featured a "family" of demented criminal super villians (led of course, by our man Carnage, a serial killer with an alien symbiote suit like Venom's), working at utter chaos and random murder in NYC, fought time and again by a host of awesome super heroes, lead by Spider-Man and Venom. The unlikely pair brings a fair yin/yang approach to leading their sometimes changing super team line up. Spider-Man is moral, and wants to see the good in people, beleiving in human rights. Venom, on the other hand, doesn't care about collateral damage (i.e. innocent people in the cross fire), he just wants to murder his "son", Carnage, to prevent the mass killings already taking place in town. In the game, you can opt to play as either Spider-Man, or Venom, to stop this rampage.

SNES had some great side scrolling, beat em up titles. This is definately in my top five. Read on, my friends, and see if this title is your cup of tea, even by today's (2007) standards.

Graphics - 9/10 These are some good, hand drawn sprite animations. True to the comics in many ways. There are tons of bad comic book games from the 16 bit era, but this one looks true to the heroes, villians, and random baddies you face, as well as the backgrounds and cut scenes between levels (comic panels straight from the series!). The attack animations of everyone, the effects and comic word "sounds" (kapow, bang, wam, etc), are all here in great detail.

Sound - 8/10 There is some fine sound. This title is mostly average when it comes to some of the level music tracks. Other tracks are actually quite good and memorable, but they're overdone a bit, so it loses some of the polished "cool factor". Well made, but nothing new from this era. It fits the Carnage and Venom characters well, though. As for the fighting sound effects, they are mostly spot on considering the hardware at hand. Everything synchs up well, and you get a feel for battle flow from the sound itself in many cases, as all beat em ups should be.

Gameplay - 8/10 This one teeters on a nine, but drops to an eight for the steep learning curve. If young Spidey fans want to take on this title, it may take a GREAT deal of practice. It can be hard, at first. It also becomes a bit tedious, only briefly, but enough to lower the score a bit here. As for the positives, for most players, after one or two continues you'll likely know what you're doing difficulty-wise, especially if you like beat em up games. Both Spider-Man and Venom are playable characters, and you can switch between the two at certain points in the story if you wish. Spidey is fast and has webbing attacks, Venom is brutally tough and strong, and has symbiote (read: gooey and spikey) attacks. Choose whoever fits your style, and get ready to take on a host of super villians and their army of hypnotized, "crazed" New Yorkers. That's right, you play most of the levels by scrolling through maps and fighting (arcade style beat em up) armed humans, and after several dozen of them go down, you fight a mid and/or ending boss, usually a powerful supervillian from Carnage's "family" of evil, or the man himself in a couple of cases. The battles are fast and furious, and sometimes frustrating, but with perserverance, some extra lives, and pattern knowledge, you can save NYC from the evil cloud that hangs overhead! If you loved the comic series of the same name, this game is definately for YOU! You'll enjoy all the locales (and more) of the comic, and all the fights with the supervillian teams are there! You can also websling, throw objects in battle, meet super heroes that assist you in a variety of ways when you summon them, and do combo and super moves any time you wish. A well rounded experience, if you ask me, one that only falls a little flat in parts due to difficulty. The game is also quite long for this genre, so if you love this style, you'll love the length. If not, you may want to collect continues and lives whenever you can, as not to repeat levels. There is no password feature.

Replayability 7/10 - Pretty big, if you like this genre of game or the storyline alot. Venom is super strong, Spidey is super fast, and they share most levels and allies, but differ at some points as well. If you simply must see it all, I'd say you'd spend at least a full day of gaming on this title if you're brand new to it. Or more. Since most places you can find this cart at are probably willing to sell it for very, very cheap (as in less than five dollars U.S.), I'd say this one is worth the buy for it's replay value. Down the line, I always pick it up and play it, even after beating each stage with both characters and finding all the extra lives and things of that ilk.

In closing, if you love beat em ups, or comics, or just plain Spider-Man and his crew, you will like this game. Since you won't find many rental places letting this one go, I'd have to say all you can do is buy it somewhere used, for very cheap. It's worth it to any fan listed above. It offers a nice challenge, cool bosses, fun heroes, decent tunes, and some hidden bonuses. In the end, it's all you can ask for of a 16 bit era title of this genre, really! Pick it up, and enjoy!!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/06/07