Don’t Forget the Presents

When it was released, Spider-man for the Game Boy Color (published in 2000) was considered a port of the PSX (et al) console version of the game. While they were published around the same time, and they share the same box art, these two games are not the same. Not only is one a 3D action adventure and the other is a 2D platformer, but they have different control schemes, different power-up systems, and completely different stories. The only things that are really similar about the games is that they both feature 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. and they both have Doc Oc and Carnage as the final villains of the game. That’s it.

It’s pretty clear that there were basic design notes passed between the teams in charge of the PSX and GBC versions and the portable team was told, “make of this what you will.” They certainly did, crafting together a lengthy Spidey adventure that pits the web-head against some of his greatest foes (including Lizard, Hobgoblin, and VenomSpun out from a "What If?" story in Marvel Comics, this black suit variant of Spider-man became his own character, and eventually became almost as popular as the web-head himself.). But as far as making a good game, or even one at the same level as the console iteration released around the same time, the team at Activision seriously missed the mark. This is an okay title if you like all the worst impulses of mid-2000s superhero platforming design, but for anyone looking for an actual good game, it’s probably best to avoid this release.

In the game, Peter is called out to Doctor Connor’s lab after an explosion blows the place to rubble. J.Jonah Jameson wants pictures of the incident, but Peter (as Spidey) also wants to find out what caused the explosions, and just what it might spell for the city. As he goes exploring he finds more and more of his deadliest foes taking him on, one-on-one, and each defeated villain reveals more of the mystery. In the end, Spidey tracks the villain back to their lair and discovers that it’s Doc Oc, who has captured the symbiote Carnage so he can make an army of synthetic symbiotes. Spidey has to take him, and then Carnage, down all to ensure no one gets that kind of power in the Big Apple.

Spider-man for the GBC has a basic structure. Most of the game is designed around five chunks of the city, all interconnected in a network of zones. The hero starts off in the city proper, swinging along the rooftops. He’ll then have to venture into (and out of) the subway, and then the sewers blow, out to the docks, back into the city, down through the sewers again, and deep into Doc Oc’s hidden lair. Along the way he fights enemies, collects power-ups, and generally becomes the most powerful version of himself he can by the time the adventure is over.

Normally skipping enemies would be faster, but Spider-man does encourage a certain amount of exploration and item collection. There’s a basic leveling system which, over time, powers up your health, attack, and defense. More power-ups are scattered around, further increasing those stats. There are also a few extra abilities you can find, increasing the power, damage, and attacks of your web shooters. Collecting and powering-up your hero is essential to making them strong enough to survive the adventure ahead.

It’s also, honestly, the meat of this story. If you didn’t need to level up and collect other abilities just so you could survive the onslaught of attacks, then this game would be ridiculously short. There are only five main zones (and a few little outcrops) for the whole game, and you can access practically all of them from the beginning of the game. Traversal through most of the game is easy enough, simply swinging along the city, the docks, or through the linear passages of the subway. Without the need to grind up, you could get back and forth through most of the game in a matter of minutes.

Instead, though, you need to grind (for nearly half the total time of the game) just so you’re strong enough to take on what’s ahead. While I’m sure there’s probably a speedrunner out there capable of doing a low-percent run of this game without worrying about grinding or collecting, I am nowhere near good enough of a gamer to be able to pull off that feat. I had to grind and there were still sections of this game I struggled with. The late game is plagued by absolutely punishing level design and enemies spamming out of everywhere, and if I didn’t have all the power-ups and levels I could get, I wasn’t finishing this title.

It’s really annoying, in fact, just how punishing this game is. Spidey has little in the way of invincibility frames, and he’ll take damage simply from touching any enemy in the game. Guys appear constantly from all directions, and this includes endlessly spawning birds and bats that can fly around, avoiding your damage while inflicting plenty on you. The enemies do frequently drop health when they die, but that implies you’re able to kill them frequently enough. Often I just failed, died, and had to go again from the last checkpoint. Losing progress because the game mistakes “enemy spam” for “challenge” is really frustrating.

The game also struggles with balance for the actual levels themselves. The game relies too heavily on “random maze” type level design, creating overly elaborate labyrinths for its boss areas. The sewers are particularly bad as they are not only nonsensically designed, but you have to enter them, navigate down to the boss area (where you fight the Lizard), then navigate all the way back out (hope you remember how you got there), and then, much later in the game, so it all again so you can get to Doc Oc’s lair. It’s a massively obnoxious layout that punishes players over and over again.

In fact, at just about every step I’d say this game is more interesting in torturing the players than actually letting them enjoy the game. It seems to have an early NES, “Nintendo Hard” sensibility to it. The game is short if you don’t level up, so the designers added a ton of enemies and awful traps in levels just to kill you, force you to go back to a checkpoint, and do stuff over and over again. Instead of making something fun they made a game actively out to make you hate it, ruining what might have been an enjoyable experience.

It’s really a pity because there are moments in the game where it’s actually kind of fun to play. The game features bright, smooth graphics and animation, all scored with a bopping soundtrack. When you can get out, letting Spidey swing around the city, enjoying the feel of just being the hero as he gets to be awesome, the game feels great. The Hobgoblin stage has you defusing bombs around a warehouse and there aren’t a lot of enemies or traps and you can just be Spidey. Moments like this feel right. I wish this happened more often so that you could enjoy the game in your hands.

Spider-man on the Game Boy Color is a pretty game that hates you. It doesn’t want you to finish its course, it just wants you to suffer. If only the team behind it could have made something as fun to play as it was to look at. That could have been a game that was really special.