Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six

Moby ID: 22518
SEGA Master System Specs
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Description

From the ingame intro:

"Doctor Octopus is plotting the crowning caper of his criminal career... to rule the world. He has reunited the Sinister Six and with these super-villains together again, nothing stands in their way - except Spider-Man!"

Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six is a side-scrolling game which puts you in the role of Spidey throughout six levels against Electro, Sandman, Mysterio, Vulture, Hobgoblin and Doctor Octopus respectively. Some puzzle solving (like finding a key) is necessary to beat some levels. Spidey can duck jump, climb walls, punch, shoot webs to swing (by pressing punch and jump together) and perform a jump kick (by pressing the punch button twice). Collecting web cartridges allows Spidey to shoot limited web projectiles.

Although hard to die, Spidey has only one life, there are no items to recharge life (but killing some guys will do so) and only one continue.

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Credits (SEGA Master System version)

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 64% (based on 19 ratings)

Players

Average score: 2.9 out of 5 (based on 29 ratings with 4 reviews)

An inferior port of an above average NES game.

The Good
This is actually a pretty fun game...on the NES. The Master System version is inferior in all ways except one: graphics. It’s a shame because the in game visuals are upgraded quite a bit, with a noticeably higher color palette. The added colors make the game look much brighter, resulting in a more comic book like look. However, for some reason the cool screens that occur before each level, introducing the member of the Sinister Six you will be fighting at the end of the stage (for example the one before the first stage shows Electro shooting some bolts, and Spider-Man dodging them) have been chopped up, and only include the villain's face next to a cheesy looking head shot of Spider-Man.

The Bad
Well, where to begin. First off it was only released in PAL regions, and like many NTSC to PAL ports the timing is off, and the developer that ported it was to lazy to fix it. So it runs noticeably slower than the NES version. This cannot be fixed on your Master System, but if you dump it to your computer and play with an emulator, and change the region to NTSC, it runs at a much better speed.

Second are the controls, which have degraded severely in the NES-Master System conversion. The responsiveness of the buttons is a bit lower, and the hit detection is horrible. For a hit to register on some enemies sometimes you have to be basically on top of him, others you need to be almost out of arms reach, it's quite frustrating.

Third there is the sound, which suffered greatly during the port. The music sounds muffled, and a lot of the sound effects are either missing or very faint.

Fourth are all of the enemies that were cut out, or changed. Many enemies in the Mysterio stage were taken out or severely reduced in quantity, which is a shame because that was probably the funniest level on the NES. Also in another level, Vulture would fly by and drop bombs on you, but in the MS version he is missing completely, instead bombs just fall from thin air. Also some enemies are still in the game, but look pretty dumb compared to their NES counterparts, as I said before the color pallet is better in this version, but yellow shirts and green pants is an undeniably bad choice for armed thugs.

Fifth there is the enemy AI, which was nothing special in the NES version, but is pretty bad in this one. Not as noticeable on the normal enemies, but the bosses are horrible. For example there are a few bosses that teleport from one spot to the other to try to confuse you, which made the fight more interesting on the NES. But in the MS version it takes a ridiculously long time for them to reappear, and you have to run around like an idiot for sometimes up to 20-30 seconds to get them to reappear. Then when they do appear it usually isn't anywhere near where you are, 90% of the time it's on a higher or lower platform, and they will walk over to the spot that is directly above or below you and stand there like an invalid, punching at nothing for a good while, until the disappear and reappear in another location far away from Spider-Man. I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

Speaking of the boss fights, there are a couple fights (Stage 3 and 6) that were changed significantly, one of which pretty much ruined the battle because they took away the only thing that was unique about it. I won’t give away any spoilers, but just trust me on this one.

Now for the last and MOST IMPORTANT reason this game is inferior to the NES game it was ported from, a flaw that cripples your attack capability: Spider-Man’s jump kick, or lack thereof here. Oh yes, you can kick in this game by double tapping punch same as the NES, but he stands stationary and kicks, instead of leaping and inch or two like he did on the NES. Standing still, the kick actually has shorter range than the punch making it completely useless. It might do more damage than the punch, but I can’t say for sure, since I only hit an enemy a few times with it, throughout the whole game! If you are wondering why this is such a big deal, is because you only have 2 attacks: the punch and the kick, and you can only perform a punch while standing still. The kick was essential to defeating some bosses, because it allowed you to attack airborne enemies by executing a kick from the edge of platforms. In some cases, you can use your web projectiles, but after the first level, I could probably count on my fingers (with a few left over) the amount of web cartridges you find throughout the rest of the game.

The Bottom Line
If you want some 8-bit Spider-Man action, Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six is probably the best you can do, but NOT this version. Find yourself an NES copy. It's still not the best game ever or anything, but there is some fun to be had there (you can read my review of it here at MobyGames as well). All in all I must admit that I am disappointed, as I used to play this one all the time on the NES when I was a kid, so I was excited to play it on the Master System with nicer graphics, but why did they have to ruin the rest?

SEGA Master System · by Magus_X (111) · 2009

A decent NES Spider-Man

The Good
This is a game that I used to play on my NES way back when I was a kid, I still have it, though haven't played it in years, so I busted it out to give it another whirl. Now I have found that much of the time going back and playing a game that you loved back in the day turns out to be less than thrilling, comparatively, because games have come such a long way since then. However this game is just as addicting as it was then. It is challenging, but not so much so that you want to through your controller into to wall in frustration.

The action is fast paced, and at times you really get the feel that you are Spider-Man. You can climb certain walls, and use your web to swing from buildings and other objects (this ability is unlimited, and does not need web cartridges). Most of the boss fights are pretty entertaining, the hit detection is fairly good, and the enemies explode into little pieces when they die, which I actually think is kind of satisfying, although I know another reviewer here thought it was kind of dumb, which is understandable (because it honestly doesn't make any sense) but keep in mind many of these types of games back then would have the enemies just fall down and flicker a bit and then disappear, and in the Master System version of this game they disappear in some kind of lame very small puff of smoke or something. So I kind of like the exploding.

The Bad
The game though is not without it's faults. The attacks you can perform are limited, a punch, a jumping kick, and if you are lucky enough to find a web cartridge you can shoot web projectiles. Although at least he does actually jump when he kicks in this version, as he does not in the Master System version, which is a big deal, because this is the only attack you can perform while moving.

The Bottom Line
There are some things that are not necessarily good or bad. The music is catchy, but repetitive. There are only 3 different tunes in this game, the title screen theme, and 2 other themes that they alternate between the stages, which isn't too horrible, since this game isn't really all that long anyway, but I'm sure they could have fit a few more on to the cartridge. The graphics are okay, but nothing to write home about, you could certainly do worse on the NES. The controls are tight enough to get the job done, but sometimes they can be flaky, like when you are trying to swing with your web, or every once in a while a punch won't register, but nothing game breaking or anything. It is overall a very playable game, even in 2009, which is saying something. Just stay away from the Master System version, this is much better. If you want to know why, you can read my review of the MS version on this site as well.

NES · by Magus_X (111) · 2009

Poor Spidey, What Did They Do To Ya?

The Good
Spider-Man is, agruably, one of the most popular super heroes around. By 1992, he had been the star (or guest star) of several video games, except the NES. When this game came out, fans were eager to see what was in store for them...

The Intermission scenes that occur before each level are nice, borrowed from the comic book min series.


The Bad
In 1990, LJN did the smart thing and had the first Spider-Man game for the original (black and white) Game Boy developed by the folks at Rare. The result was a great action adventure game with impressive graphics, sound, storyline and playability.

Yet, the subsequent Spider-Man titles for the original Game Boy and the NES version, were all developed by B.I.T.S. Now, I am sure that the folks at B.I.T.S. did their best, but every Spider-Man game they developed turned out to be a huge mistake.

While the artwork on the game's cover is taken from the mini-series from the early 1990s, the game's storyline is reduced to a few sentences about how the Sinister Six is plotting to take over the world. The intermissions at the begining of each level are impression, but the ending is a letdown and it keeps getting worse;

  • The graphics and sounds are just slightly above average, and musical notes tend to repeat often. In fact, if you pause and unpause the game, the music restarts. Killing enemies often results in their odd explosion.

  • Control is horrible. For some, insane, reason 'B' was made the jump button, while 'A' was made the punch and action button. Spider-Man does not start out with the ability to shoot web projectives, and web catridges only provide about ten shots. Yet, you do have an unlimited amount of webbing to swing from.

You can climb onto certain flat surfaces in the background, but your wall crawling abilities serve little purpose and the jump kick is often difficult to perform on cue.

Spider-Man can only take about a dozen direct hits and then he is dead. Period. No health restoration. No extra lives or continues. Either you beat the game in one setting or you start all over from scratch.

As is the case with the original Game Boy version of Spider-Man 2, B.I.T.S decide to have Spider-Man collect certain objects in the game to advance.

While it is not a horrible idea, it lends itself to situations that greatly undermine Spider-Man's strength and thus would never exist in the comics.

Why not simply take a cue from the 1990 Amazing Spider-Man Game Boy or, even, Sega Genesis title? The NES is capable of much better then this and LJN-BITS let alot of fans down.



The Bottom Line
Spider-Man Return of the Sinister Six seems to be a game that is grossly underdeveloped. As if, LJN grabbed the game away from BITS, before it was even half way done.

Comic book fans waited a long while for Spider-Man to appear on the NES, and what we got was a let down.

NES · by ETJB (428) · 2008

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Trivia

Spider-Man

Although Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six came late in NES' history (1992), it is its one and only Spider-Man licensed title for the system.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by chirinea.

SEGA Master System added by Freeman.

Additional contributors: Alaka, LepricahnsGold, Jo ST.

Game added May 25, 2006. Last modified September 3, 2023.