Spider-Man and the X-Men: Arcade's Revenge

"If you look past its flaws you got an average, but hard all around game"

Spider-Man and X-Men: In Arcade's Revenge for the Super Nintendo might have been one of the best super-hero games of its time. It could've also have been one of the best puzzle game of its time as well. Everyone wanted super-hero games to be different than the adventures they experienced in the comics. In this game you finally get to see Spider-Man and the X-Men work together for the first time in a super-hero game. This game also didn't fall for the oldest super-hero trick in the book. It unlike the other games did not use the more major villain. Instead it just took a page out of an X-Men comic and put up one of the more mistaken villains of them all: Arcade.

So to sum it up you'll play as the X-Men and/or Spider-Man through ridiculously levels with the dumbest missions ever (like collecting cameras) and then fight the main boss at the end. Hey it can't be that hard right, wrong. This out of all the other superhero games is one of the hardest and most confusing. You'll really need a lot of skill to pass some of the early levels as well as the later ones so you can beat this game. Also if you lose, that's it it's over for you back to the beginning. This game to sum it up gets ridiculously hard and levels like those Gambit stages are close to impossible for many to pass. Hell many won't pass Spider-Man's levels and I guess you will understand.

Gameplay-

The gameplay plays quite easily enough to help this game out the whole way. The controls are, first off, real easy to learn. The main controls for the game will be easy to learn and should in fact make you master them the first time playing, or maybe the second time playing (hey you never know!). Your character's main moves are real simple ones. Jump, Attack, Get to another platform, and dodge machine gun bullets (hey, I did say simple, right?). If you can get past these small, but sometimes-quirky controls, then you can get past anything. The game also has a steady frame-rate, which follows all your moves quickly and very steadily. The enemy's intelligence is a bit low, however. Machines and other plastic comic material stuff should only attack you certain times, so you shall be able to dodge them real easily. The game has a large array of levels, each one albeit different than the other. In one level you will be putting down cameras with Marvel’s costumed cretin, Spider-Man, while the next you will be sizzling monsters up with Marvel’s spandex wearing badass, Wolverine. Each one is different which more than makes up for the much more weaker parts in this perpendicular game.

8/10
A bit on the better side, and yes that is a good thing.

Graphics-

Considering at that time, graphics were not the talk of the town, but this game still delivered in that kind of subject matter. The game has got nicely detailed character models, and while even though they lack a bit of the quality and of the freshness that are originally seen in the sizzling comics. Still the area backgrounds and the game’s huge environments and all of that other stuff twirling around the area, should still, at least, have made you extraordinary pleased, at that time of course. But I do not know, with games like Donkey Kong Country, these graphics don't even compare. Oh well... so let me just tell you that well… you should not expect much. OK!

8/10
Look at the nice colors! Oooh…

Audio

The audio may not have been as fresh as many others, but it was still good considering this whole game’s superhero content and individuality. All the moves you do make a nice sound, including the times when you hit enemies. But as I said with the graphics, other games did have better audio.... so don't expect much. The background tunes, however, are pretty smoothing, and at times can make you feel nice and all tingly inside.

7/10
Not your average kind of game music is all I will say!

Replay-

The game's weakest factor comes in the form of its replay value. There is just no use going back to, and then playing the game once you died the 2nd time and then once again being sent back to the 1st level. In a matter of minutes, it will all just get repetitive and at last... really boring, and even quite annoying. My advice is that if you can find a place where you can rent this, then please do so. I am sure you'll love yourself then, or you could just be that guy who threw himself out of a window because he lost too many times in the dwindling and very lofty game.

4/10
Repetition, Repetition, and Repetition!

Overall-

If you can deal with the game’s many mistakes and prominent failures then you should come up with one hell of a game. While repetition and embezzlement do kick in, it would not really matter since this game has a nice character selection list, but it is crushed down by its awful and unreal difficulty. A two-player mode would have also been nice. Oh well, there is always next time.

6/10
Revenge is crushed down by unreal difficulty and lack of being much fun!

6/10
For
Spider-Man and X-Men: in Arcade's Revenge for the Super Nintendo.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/19/01, Updated 09/03/02