Cover:
Spider-Man steps out of a bar. Through the open door, you can see a women with a black eye giving Spidey the finger.


Page 2: Previously...
Peter Parker aka. Spider-Man is Marvels most prominent, and properly the most popular, character. He became Spider-Man through the bite of a radioactive spider, which gave the problem ridden, adolescent Peter astonishing powers. But he becomes the hero that we all love (or at least should), when he lets a thug escape and has to learn, that the same thug killed his beloved Uncle Ben. Since then he fights crime in the streets of New York, and lives after his mantra: “With great power comes great responsibility”. Great fucking story, innit?
Spider-Man comics in the nineties became a spiral of never ending sagas, the example therefore is the clone saga. Even though the stories were horribly contrived, the sales broke records. The reason was, that the comics were marketed as valuable collectors item with shiny and limited variant covers.
But I don't want to malign a whole era, since a couple of good stories came out of it.
Then again, I have to say that Spider-Man is a character that lost his appeal, and his fake-ass clone was just ridiculous. Nevertheless, the success wouldn't wear off, that's why the decision to venture into different mediums seemed just logical at that point. Next to the cheesy movies (remember Fantastic Four from 1994?), a heap of games were made.
So, the question is, how could the games be when the original material wasn't even holding its own?

Page 6: "女性の破壊者のSpider-Man!"
The genius Spider-Man is that he has an incredible rogue gallery, powers and design. Pretty much the whole package, right? So, you wonder how somebody could fuck something up like “LJN” did.
The two games I'm referring to are “Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage” (1994) and the follow-up “Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety” (1995). Both pretty much the same travesty, just that the latter is a little more polished. The games are side-scrollers, and each of them loosely a storyline from the comics. The only “significant” difference is that you can play Separation Anxiety with two players. However, the music is terrible and doesn't fit to a Spider-Man game, the stories are what you'd expect (= dull) and the graphics are mediocre. Like the graphics, the gameplay reeks of mediocrity, and the worst thing is that the web-slinging is only useful when you're in climbing stages. The essence of wanting to play Spider-Man is because of those sweet and sticky webs, man! And pretty questionable are the enemies. Why do you punch a courier and even worser two young women? They don't even look remotely dangerous to me, and I have yet to open a Spider-Man issue where he just beats up girls for fun.

The worst is that when you finish the games you get a puny “Game completed” and then the credits roll. What the fuck?!
That's when I had enough and looked for a different game, what I found was “The Amazing Spider-Man: Lethal Foes”. A japan exclusive game that's also based loosely on the comic miniseries “The Lethal Foes of Spider-Man”, in which Spidey has to deal with his, now united, foes.

Since the game is in japanese I can't tell if its fully adapted that story or just the premise, nevertheless I can surely say something about the awesome gameplay. Like the aforementioned games is this a side-scroller. Although, the movements are pretty basic, the fact that every button on the controller has its function from, which the most notable is the web-slinging, that makes the gameplay feel so consummate. The web slinging is assigned to the shoulder buttons of the snes controller, which makes it a lot intuitive than you'd expect, plus there webs are unlimited. The enemies are pretty much the same in all those levels, but that didn't bother me as much. The different levels are mediocre, but look very good. The graphics, in general, looks bright and the models more refined, and reminded me a little bit of that Spider-Man television show from Toei. Good Times.

Overall, the game is, like the Punisher game, a great, fun and especially unexpected surprise. It doesn't get too deep into the Spider-Man universe, and since everything is in japanese a lot of the quirkiness of the character gets lost. But that's the only flaw, the rest of the game gives a good insight into his rogue gallery, which is as important as the superhero himself.
But the question I always ask is unanswered. Is/Are the game/s better than the comics?

Page 24: Ads
But the question I always ask is unanswered. Is/Are the game/s better than the comics?
The comic, after the “Brand New Day”-storyline, got better and harkens back to the old Spider-Man comics again. With that, I mean, the good and old ones, those were Peter Parker is more important than the costume. Plus, as a newbie you can get into it with every issue(except when there is a longer story arc) without feeling lost. The stories are light, fun and easy to digest, so don't expect a “Watchmen”-esque story and gritty art. Lastly, there is the fact that you can get to see great art of some of the best newcomers and old masters of the industry.

But in conclusion I have to say I wouldn't recommend the comic over the game (fuck the other two), since the game is really hard to get. So, it's a draw. When you ever get hands on to the game, grab it and play the shit out of it, and when you ever wanted to read a Spider-Man comic, go get a copy (while its hot!) of the amazing Spider-Man!

Excelsior, Nerds! See ya next week (hopefully)!
(Feedback appreciated!)