There have been a lot of Spider-Man games over the years, and it’s never really much of a surprise to me when a new one shows up on the shelves.  In fact, it’s such a non-surprise that pretty much every time I DO see one, I end up sighing piteously before wondering if I should give it a try.  I mean, it’s not like I haven’t found good Spider-Man games before, and it’s not like I haven’t played the most godawful crap with that red and blue freak of nature stamped boldly across the front of the box.

And when I took a run at Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, now available for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC, as well as for scads of handhelds and last-gen systems, I was downright surprised.  See, the basic plot of the game looks like your normal run of the mill class X beat-em-up.  And when you actually sit down to play it, that’s exactly what you get.  But it’s the little things that make all the difference.

See, in Spider Man: Friend or Foe, you’re going to be taking on a series of villains in the standard Spider-Man vein.  You’ll be going to Tokyo, Egypt, Nepal, and even Transylvania in pursuit of what are called Phantoms, beings that are a combination of hard-light holographic projects (think Star Trek: The Next Generation’s holodeck technology) combined with, of all things, the Venom symbiote.  But these symbiote / hologram hybrids aren’t here on vacation–they seem to be interested in taking over the planet.  And to do so, they’re taking over the minds of some of Spider-Man’s most feared villains, including Doc Ock, the Green Goblin, and even, somehow, Venom himself.

Interestingly, you can probably figure out who’s behind all this, if you know anything about the Spider-Man universe: who’s the only villain you’ve ever seen who handles holography as both weapon and method of disguise?  Yeah, I know–really only obvious in retrospect, but still kinda obvious when you think about it.

Aside from that, you’ve really got to hand it to Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, because while they did make a fairly derivative sort of game, they infused it with a cartoony charm and a sense of humor that’s all its own.  Yes, of course, Spider-Man himself will crack wise throughout the WHOLE GAME, almost nonstop…but he won’t be the only source of humor in this game.  For instance,  the SHIELD helicarrier’s computer will have a really choice line about how, while Venom is a pretty nasty way to die, there are worse—including wasps with laser-guided missiles.  See?  Funny!  It’s fantastic to know that games can still introduce humor into otherwise lackadaisical brawlers.

It’s not a huge game, nor is there a whole lot to do, but a couple days’ rental will be terribly entertaining.  If you like your games packed to the gills with action, and not a whole lot else, then you’ll have an absolute ball with Spider Man: Friend or Foe.  But if you like complex and thrilling titles, well, the vicarious thrill you’ll get from this won’t be near enough.

Perhaps the single most schizophrenic game on the shelves right now is Spider Man: Web of Shadows.  Featuring fully THREE different versions compatible with seven different hardware platforms, it’s amazing that so many versions of one game can exist.  For the sake of our coverage today, we’ll be handling the Xbox 360 version, which also saw releases on the Wii, the PS3, and the PC.

Spidey’s got a lot on his plate this go-round, with Luke Cage needing help with New York’s gang problem, the Kingpin running amok with a collection of supervillains, including parts of the vaunted Sinister Six like Vulture, Electro and Rhino, and of course, Spidey’s worst nightmare Venom working on conquering the planet with a collective of symbiotes peeled off his own superstructure.  Worse, the Venom symbiotes are going to start attaching themselves to various locals, including some superheroes.  Man, you’ve never seen freaky until you’ve seen Wolverine in a symbiote-black suit.

Let me start off by saying that this is possibly the most fun I’ve had playing a Spider Man game yet.  It’s set up in kind of a sandbox format, so you’ll have a lot of room to webswing around to get from place to place and mission to mission.  I have never had so much fun with the web swinging component of a Spider Man game.  And the combat is also a pretty new and interesting step—you’ll actually be able to upgrade your attacks using experience points, allowing you to do all sorts of strange and highly effective attacks.  In fact, there’s one great sequence where you’ll fight the Vulture by webswinging from flying henchman to flying henchman until you can get in web range of the Vulture himself, and then take him on in mid-air.

However, there’s a down side to all this—the lock-on mode isn’t exactly always there, and has an annoying tendency to just suddenly decide not to lock on any more.  And the difficulty can be somewhat unbalanced at times.  I remember my first bout with Venom—there would actually be moments where I couldn’t land a punch on ANYTHING in the area because there would be so many enemies simultaneously trying to pound me that I couldn’t stay on my feet.  I tried every trick I had in my repertoire, which I admit was rather extensive by that point, and it still didn’t work for several tries. That, as far as I’m concerned, qualifies for a second look in the whole difficulty department.

It’s hard to hate Spider Man: Web of Shadows because it’s easily the best game in the whole series…but then, that’s not really saying much.  Has there been a good Spider Man game yet?  I can’t think of one offhand, frankly.

I loved swinging from place to place on my weblines, humming one of the various Spider Man theme songs that have cropped up from sheer joy.  It didn’t matter—I could climb the highest buildings, or I could swing only feet above the streets of a surprisingly extensive New York City.  I pummeled thugs and broke up gangs and took on all the biggest names in the Spider Man universe.  And though some parts were better than others, I still had a lot of fun.

And at the end of the day, isn’t that the point?