If you're looking towards Spider-Man: Friend or Foe to fill the hole after you've completed Ultimate Alliance, don't. While the games look similar (they are the same genre and share the Marvel universe, after all) they're completely different.
The biggest difference? Friend or Foe is obviously aimed at a younger crowd, and the game's difficulty reflects that. Where games like Ultimate Alliance aren't really that hard to begin with, Friend or Foe manages to drop the difficulty even more. You'll rarely die as you one-button attack your way through each level, and there's no real backtracking puzzle-solving elements to go through.
That being said, the game isn't bad by any means. The story in Friend or Foe is a fairly novel one. Basically, Spider-Man and some of his rogue gallery get teleported away, and it turns out there are some bad guys with symbiote cores behind it, so obviously Spidey will team up with his former enemies to battle the common foe.

This teaming up is what makes the game worthwhile for the non-youthful gamers out there. Friend or Foe is generic, beat 'em up gameplay at its finest, but the two-player capabilities save it from being an otherwise pointless game for any semi-experienced gamer.
With one player acting as Spider-Man, the other can select from all sorts of other characters to partner up with the webslinger. From villains in films to ones most people won't recognize at all, there's a nice variety of people to choose from. Adding to the variety is the ability to upgrade your characters (and Spider-Man's web attacks) using tokens collected by killing phantoms (the bad guys) and smashing boxes.
| GamePlay: It's easy, easy, easy. For younger or new gamers this is a nice title to get your feet wet, but experienced gamers will grow bored quick. Co-op play is a blast, though. | |
| Graphics: Nice cartoony graphics. Some villains look plain odd in the style, but others look good. Not much variety in villains. | |
| Sound: Spider-Man has his usual bag of quips, but the supporting cast is a little weak. | |
| Replay Value: With a friend, you may play through a second time to try and upgrade other characters. There's not a whole lot of reasons to do that alone, however. | |
| 6.0 | Final Word: Friend or Foe is a generic game which is salvaged by the co-op play. For new or young gamers this is a great title, but for those who have been around the block, there's nothing to see here. |
Kyle Stallock
Updated June 4th, 2008
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