Spider-Man & Venom: Separation Anxiety

Despite it's lukewarm challenge and replay value, Separation takes the trophy from earlier Spidey adventures. Rent before you buy, though. A lively weekend of superhero sluggin' will probably get you to the finish and you'll have a blast along the way.

With all it's faults, Separation Anxiety still delivers rock 'em-sock 'em action. It's well worth playing through the next time your spider sense begins to tingle.

What we have here is the sequel to Maximum Carnage and, while it's a good game, it's still pretty much the same thing as the original - lots of running left-to-right and hitting a whole bunch of cloned bad guys. This game is real repetitive.

The Genesis version is very close to the SNES version, which is both good and bad. The good part is that the graphics are indistinguishable and the music is almost, but not quite as good. The gameplay is the same as the SNES, which brings us to the bad side. Separation Anxiety is an extremely repetitive game that offers nothing new to the genre, except that it has Spider-Man.

The graphics have been improved a bit, with more animations and more color. The areas you fight through are more diverse and interesting than MC, bit it still feels extremely repetitive. You basically have the same attacks, with the addition of some new stuff that adds a bit of excitement, but no real long-term play value.

Remember Maximum Carnage? There was a game that people loved or hated. Personally, I found a lot of enjoyment in that game. The sequel, however, doesn't do it for me. I don't like the graphics: plain and simple. The moves and sound are almost the same, as are the enemies, seemingly ported directly out of the original. With so little changed, you must ask yourself, "Is it really worth it?"

While the game isn't 100% (game play isn't highly polished, and graphics are by no means as slick as similar offerings such as EarthWorm Jim) it is quite fun to play. I sat two of my younger cousins down to try the game out, and they both seemed to love it. Of course, they didn't seem to find it as hard to play with as I did and were quickly webbing up slime left and right. So who knows.. it seems to be a great game for kids (and who doesn't love Spiderman), it just lacks that polish that makes it really likeable by adults.

This game suffers from the same thing most Final Fight games suffer from: repetitive levels and the same enemies throughout the whole game. Separation Anxiety requires little skill other than continuously pressing the attack button and the occasional jump button. The enemies are cheap, monotonous and annoying; it is almost impossible to move two steps without taking mandatory hits! Comic-book fans might like this title, but I'll pass on this one.

Do not buy Separation Anxiety or download the ROM or pick it up on that weird Wii thing Nintendo has going. Do not confuse it with Maximum Carnage (it’s not hard to tell the difference: Maximum Carnage is the one that doesn’t look like crap) As a matter of fact, it’s probably best to pretend Separation Anxiety never happened. You’ll live a healthier life for it.

Gähn! Da helfen alle Superkräfte nix, Spiderman und Co sind Schlaftabletten allererster Güte. Grafisch tut sich gar nichts, der Sound glänzt durch Zurückhaltung und die einfältigen Bewegungsmuster der Gegner würden auch meine ungeübte Oma nicht in Verlegenheit bringen. Einzig der unfaire Schwierigkeitsgrad und die dämliche Steuerung sorgen dafür, daß man schnell hängenbleibt. Die Motivation, sich durchzubeißen, ist aber auch denkbar gering - schließlich läßt sich im Handbuch bequem nachlesen, was noch langweiliges passiert.