Spiderman: Friend or Foe

by ACTIVISION

Product Features

• Choose a sidekick from a long list of Spider-Man's powerful allies and swap between the web-slinger and the chosen sidekicks at any time during gameplay. Each sidekick, good or evil, features their own unique attributes that will assist Spider-Man throughout the game's challenges.
• Fight against movie Super Villains and then, using an innovative combat system, face off against and defeat some of the Spider-Man movies' most notorious Super Villains such as Doc Ock, Sandman and Green Goblin, and then convert them to join Spidey's list of potential sidekicks.
• A unique co-op mode lets friends join the game at any time and take control of Spider-Man's sidekick. Playing in two-player co-op mode allows gamers to discover new ways to overcome obstacles and enemies.
• As players progress through the game, battle arenas are unlocked where raw one-on-one brawling with any Super Hero or Villain can take place at any time.
• Replay the game or experience Versus mode with a different sidekick and eventually play as Black-Suited Spider-Man (Spidey's darker, more aggressive persona) with different powers and abilities. On different worlds, a host of secret areas containing special tokens can be discovered in the first play through, which players can go back and explore at any time.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000TEJFL2
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches ; 3.2 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: October 4, 2007
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,647 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #89 in Video Games > Wii > Action
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: Nintendo Wii

Spiderman Friend or Foe Wii

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun Gameplay, Lots of Action, Beat It in 6 Hours, November 17, 2007

By 

Masaki Lee (USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Spiderman: Friend or Foe (Video Game)

With the Spiderman movies adding so much drama and character development to the original comics, it's nice to find a game that is less somber and more playful. This game will appeal to a younger crowd as the gameplay is rather easy to figure out. It's not that challenging but it is quite fun to play.

The story line revolves around some unknown mastermind that is using shards from the meteor that spawned the symbiotic suit to brainwash villains such as the Green Goblin and Doc Ock to do his bidding, as well as to power an army of holographic monsters called phantoms. With the help of S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury, you trot the globe, recover the shards, and free the brainwashed villains, which turns enemies into allies. Even though the story line seems a little far fetched, the game's jokey, playful tone makes it quite refreshing, and it ultimately serves its purpose of letting you fight alongside some of Spidey's greatest villains, a concept that manages to stay novel throughout. You'll also team up with other heroes along the way, including Spiderman regulars such as Prowler, Black Cat, and Silver Sable, as well as b-team favorites such as Iron Fist and Blade. A big part of what carries the humor in Friend or Foe is the quality of the voice work, which is consistently great.

The basic structure of the game isn't all that interesting by itself. You travel to some exotic locations, such as Tokyo, Transylvania, or Nepal, where you'll fight holographic phantoms before facing off with a brainwashed villain. The phantoms come in just a few different varieties, and though they get stronger over time and change appearance between locations, the same tactics seem to work pretty well from start to finish. Although the boss fights are presented differently, they all rely on the same basic strategy of throwing objects at the villains from afar. They can occasionally be a little time-consuming, but they're never particularly challenging.

There's really not much else to the game beyond the fighting. There's a little bit of exploration, in that there are DNA samples and secret arenas scattered throughout the game, but more often than not you'll just stumble over them in the course of playing the game. Spidey can double-jump and use his webbing to swing over small gaps, but platforming is minimal. When you do die, be it at the hands of an enemy or from falling off a platform, the only penalty is that you'll lose a couple of tech tokens, a type of in-game currency that falls out of defeated enemies and smashed objects. You use the tech tokens to upgrade the abilities of Spider-Man and friends.

It's pretty much all fighting, all the time, against the same handful of enemies, with no consequences for dying. The whole thing can be wrapped up in less than eight hours. So what makes the action in Friend or Foe interesting? A lot of it rests on the combat, which manages to be both accessible and somewhat dynamic. There's a single attack button that you can use to tap out some simple combos, but it's Spider-Man's web-based abilities that bring a lot of panache to the game. The webslinging abilities let him grab enemies from afar and launch them into one another, into the ground, or right off the edge of a platform.

You can earn additional web talents over time, including the ability to shoot projectiles and wrap enemies up, but your starting abilities seem to be the most useful. They're also the most visually interesting, though admittedly some of the actions look more exciting than they might otherwise be due to exaggerated physics that cause everyone to linger in the air before gravity pulls them back down. It's very easy to string these moves together, and even though it's not much of a challenge, fending off a dozen enemies at once with a constant flurry of attacks can be pretty satisfying.

It can be a real thrill to fight alongside some of Spider-Man's greatest villains as well, and you can switch back and forth on the fly between controlling Spidey and his sidekick. When controlled by the artificial intelligence, your sidekick can take care of itself pretty well. As awesome as it might sound to finally get to play as these villains, the sidekicks simply don't have as many abilities as Spidey, which makes them inherently less interesting. This ends up limiting the appeal of the game's two-player support, although it's consequently less disappointing that there's no online play.

The game uses the Wii Remote and Nunchuck well so you'll be flicking the Wii Remote to simulate body slams, throws and nice in air moves. Spider-Man can sort through different webbing styles (and you get extra ones once you unlock the symbiotic Spidey suit). You can also swing enemies around to slam into other enemies by flicking your wrist. You can also do unique moves with each side kick that you earn.

The games graphics are pretty good. The voice overs are even better. The cartoon look and simply game play make for a younger audience. However no matter what is said it is still a well crafted game with a lot of appeal.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just what we were looking for..., April 18, 2009

By 

Nicole Leishman "N Leishman" (IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Spiderman: Friend or Foe (Video Game)

I am writing this review to hopefully help someone in a similar situation as my family with Wii game buying. We got our Wii for Christmas and our son is just about to turn 4. He got the Go Diego Go Safari game when we got the Wii (by the way, I also recommend this title if you are looking for something that very little children can play on the Wii.) He played that game a handful of times, won the game, and now won't touch it, it's too easy. However, there seems to be a gap between that game (there aren't many that young) and the bulk of the games which are much too difficult or slow moving. So...we are having a hard time finding anything besides Mario Kart he can/will play. When we were shopping recently we found a sale rack of Wii games and this one was on there. It went against my better judgement to buy it without reading the reviews first, but he absolutely had his mind made up that this was the game he wanted. The main point of my review is to encourage buyers looking for games they can play WITH their younger kids. I am not sure he would do as well alone, but I am astounded how well he does when his dad or I play with him, in fact he really does as well, if not better than I. I agree with many other things that other reviewers have said, that the graphics and tone of the game in general are light hearted enough to engage kids. The controls are easy enough to figure out, if you care, and if you don't (like me) or are really young (like my son) then you can just push the "A" button over and over and still be effective. However, there are upgrades and combo moves and all that fancy video game stuff, that my husband will not die of boredom or frustration when he has to play with our son. And again, I think the graphics are a great mixture of realistic and cartoon to be pleasing to many levels of players also. Additonally, I can see that it will grow with our son (and his younger brother in a year or two) and therefore I am very happy with the purchase. Overall I am very pleasantly surprised by this game, and think it is filling a void in our Wii library and highly recommend it for families.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Game!, December 9, 2007

A Kid's Review

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Spiderman: Friend or Foe (Video Game)

I love this game! The graphics are great and the plot is good. I love being able to play as villains, especially Venom. However, if you are considering buying this for Wii because of the remote's abilities you MUST know this: The Wii Remote is hardly ever used for this game. It is used only to click on options and do slam attacks. However, my little brother loves this game, and the Co-op works nicely. For fans of arcade fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom the versus mode 1-1 is a must. But going back after beating the game on the first and second levels is too easy. You can't really fail so for those that like a challenge, this is too easy for you. But for those who aren't that good at hard games should buy this. For ages 7-12 this game makes a great gift. This game looks animated instead of looking like the movies unlike Spider-Man 3 for example, so people who don't like games aimed for kids might not want this game. Yet younger children will adore this game and its humor. Lots of levels, collectibles, and characters make this game a lot of fun for kids.

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