Arcade but Not Arcade

For the most part the early 1990s were a dire time for SpidermanSure, DC Comics has Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, but among the most popular superheroes stands a guy from Marvel Comics, a younger hero dressed in red and blue who shoots webs and sticks to walls. Introduced in the 1960s, Spider-Man has been a constant presence in comics and more, featured in movies regularly since his big screen debut in 2002. games. Aside from the decent arcade game from Sega, Spider-Man: The Video Game, we had a series of fairly rote, flat, dire released from first LJN and then Acclaim. It's hard to know who had the license or how things were worked out between companies, but despite Acclaim releasing two of the more recent released for Nintendo's systems at the time, LJN was back, working this time with Software Creations on yet another mediocre Spider-man title. But this time they also roped in the license for X-MenLaunched in 1963 and written by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the X-Men featured heroes distinctly different from those featured in the pages of DC Comics. Mutants who didn't ask for their powers (and very often didn't want them), these heroes, who constantly fought against humans who didn't want "muties" around, served as metaphors for oppression and racism. Their powerful stories would form this group into one of the most recognizable superhero teams in comics (and a successful series of movies as well). so they could be mistreated as well.

Spider-man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge is, well, a pretty mediocre platforming title. As far as games we'd seen up to that point it is one of the better ones to bear the Spider-man name, but that didn't really make it "good". It was function, basically playable, even beatable, but those are all minimum baselines you expect for a video game (and it's amazing when a title can't even achieve that). No, the problem with this Spidey and the X-Men crossover is that it's just not very fun. It feels like yet another rote entry from Marvel's superhero cadre, and with two big names on the box you'd really hope for more.

In the game, Spider-man witnesses the kidnapping of various members of the X-men: Cyclops, Gambit, WolverineAlthough not one of the original X-Men, Wolverine is certainly the most popular, even before he was played, to much acclaim, by Hugh Jackman in the Fox film series., and Storm. Following the trucks that took the heroes, Spider-man discovers they've been loaded into machines by the evil Arcade, a genius-level super-villain who wants his revenge on the X-Men. Capturing Spider-man as well, Arcade puts each hero through a series of deadly tests, expecting them to die in him machine. But when they survive, the heroes come for Arcade and swear to take him out, once and for all.

Credit to LJN and Software Creations, Arcade's Revenge does boast all five heroes each with their own play style and powers. They each get their own set of levels, their own challenges to overcome, and distinct styles to their play. Gambit, with his stack of cards that will run out over time, feels like a very different hero from Spidey, or Wolverine. It's admirable that a level of work was put in to make them all feel distinct such that you could find ways to enjoy each of the heroes and what they could do.

Additionally, the game does look good. Each of the heroes boast individual sprites that look great and, again, feel distinct Their animated well, with smooth motions and lots of frames. Care was put in to match these heroes to their comic book style, and while not everyone is perfect (Cyclops, bless his terrible costume, looks particularly goofy), they are crisp and well designed. The game shows more polish in the design department than I would have expected from anyone working with LJN on a licensed game.

All that being equal, this game is still a mess and it all comes down to the game play. As good as the game looks, the underlying structure is not great at all. Each hero is slapped into levels that hardly feel like they were designed for them, and it amounts to a lot of rote stages that just kind of meander, leading to unfulfilling ends. Gad these stages been assigned to anyone else -- other superheroes, or, hell, even a mascot like Sonic or Bubsy -- I doubt they would have felt out of place at all.

The best of the lot is the Gambit stages. There are two, a chase sequence stage with a gear bearing down on the hero and a vertical auto-scroller, and these feel like they were designed to not only match his powers but also his personality. They're weird, bright, colorful, with jazzy music and a playing card motif. Sure, there are chess pieces in there as well (adding a weird equating of chess and poker despite them being completely different), but overall I liked these stages as they were nice changes of pace from the other zones.

Cyclops and Spider-man have the most basic stages, each of them basically platforming maze stages where the hero has to navigate through all the paths and particulars until they reach the end. Neither of them feel like they were specifically designed for the heroes -- Spider is in a broken down section of city that feels more appropriate for The PunisherAn anti-hero who was never meant to be a hero in the same way as the Avengers, the Punisher has taken on his own life in pop-culture, but that doesn't change the troubling qualities to his characterization. and Cyclops feels like he got dropped into a Sonic 3 stage -- and they don't exactly suck you in with their basic game play.

The worst, though, are Wolverine and Storm. The rough and tumble Canadian is dropped into a clown-filled fun house that feels very out of place for the hero. His first zone is a maze stage again, which is boring. But then he has a stage where he's chased by Juggernaut and, man, this one is frustrating. If the big guy catches up to you he does a ton of damage, and it's easy to get caught up on objects or fail to do enough damage the the guy in the process. I hated this stage so much.

But then there are the Storm stages and these are just plain awful. They feel like they were taken from the worst sections, the water sections, of the Sonic series. Both stages have Storm swimming through water sections, her health tied to a breath bar, and the stages keep filling with water. There's more than a few sections where you have just enough breath to get to the next area and if you take any damage you die. Worse, Storm is very floaty and hard to control. If I had played these stages as a kid I would have thrown my controller hard enough to break it... maybe followed by the game.

I mean, seriously. She's a hero with control over the weather and she can fly. Why put her in a water stage? It feels like a stage that could have been assigned to just about any water-based mutant like... uh... well, okay, I don't know of any but I'm sure the X-Men have some in their team. They have heroes with all kinds of powers. Or use the same mechanics (minus he breathing shit) and do a floating stage in the sky. Then Storm would be able to fly and it wouldn't seem so stupid. This was just such a terrible set of stages.

Of course, being a rush little product, the fighting mechanics are also lackluster. The enemies have absolutely no A.I. and so the same couple of attacks over and over. Bosses are even worse, frequently only having one attack they spam, ignoring you and just going about their patterns over and over. This is a game where standing in one spot and punching or using your powers over and over will get you through most enemy encounters. It's brainless, which is its own kind of not fun.

I don't doubt that some level of care was put in by the team over at Software Creations to try and make a handsome, fun game. But they just didn't quite get it there. This is above average for the era of Spider-man titles but that doesn't make it good. Those with a need to play everything with the hero might get through this adventure. No one else should.