Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six

The Good
Spider-Man: Return Of the Sinister Six (1992) has all the makings of a great video game.

Not only is Spider-Man one of the most famous comic book characters around, but designers of the game had only to look at the original Spider-Man (1990) game for the Game Boy, in order to get a sense of how best to bring the famous “web-head” to the NES. No re-invention of the wheel was required in this case.

In 1990, LJN had the folks at Rare program the Amazing Spider-Man for the original, black and white Game Boy system. While it is not a perfect game, it is the basic format that most of the good Spider-Man video games have adopted and fine tuned.

Great potential existed for Spider-Man: Return Of the Sinister Six (1992) to really shine in terms of graphics, music, sound effects and game play. Heck, the designers of the game could have borrowed the actual plot from the Sinister Six storyline.

Doctor Octopus first formed the Sinister Six in Amazing Spider-Man Annual 1 (1964), and ended up kidnapping Betty Bryant and Aunt May.

The evil criminal gang was assembled once more by Doctor Octopus in The Amazing Spider-Man issues #334-33 (1990). It is this newer version of the evil criminal gang that this NES game seems to be taking its cues from (at least when you look at game’s artwork).

In 1990, Doctor Octopus reassembles the Sinister Six (replacing the late Kraven the Hunter with the demonically possessed Hobgoblin) to take over the world by hijacking a space satellite and using an experimental drug designed to eliminate heroin addiction.

Initially, Doctor Octopus tells everyone, including his criminal partners, that, the drug is going to be a deadly poison, to be released if the world governments fail to comply with his demands.

Yet, in reality the drug makes it impossible for addicts to “get their fix” and thus (if released into the atmosphere), addictions (and drug dealers) would need to obey Doctor Octopus in order to gain access to a temporary antidote.

This is an interesting storyline, especially when the Sandman had to be blackmailed into joining the Sinister Six, with some amazing artwork. While, the censors might have insisted that the comic book storyline been modified, it still could be adapted into a great video game storyline.

So, Spider-Man: Return Of the Sinister Six could be a great video game without "reinventing" the wheel. The basic game play mechanics and story line are readily on-hand for the designers of this game to use. What could possible go wrong?

The Bad
Spider-Man: Return Of the Sinister Six (1992) suffers from graphics that are slightly above average. While you can recognize the familiar characters, it is a far cry from being "Amazing" .

Spider-Man actually spends most of his time trying to avoid fighting. This strategy is something that the programmers of this game -- B.I.T.S. -- used when it made Spider-Man 2 and 3 for the Game Boy.

Except for the boss battles, success in the levels generally requires you to avoid (run away) from most of the enemies or locate an item needed to solve a puzzle (i.e. in the Sandman's level you have to find TNT and a detonator in order to blow up a thin wall).

I can appreciate the desire to try and highlight the fact that Peter Parker (a.k.a. Spider-Man) is actually quite intelligent. However, B.I.T.S.efforts to remind us that Spider-Man has got super brains as well as super powers never panned out well.

Action-wise, Spider-Man can only punch, duck, kick, jump, climb certain walls and swing on a web.

The wall-crawling ability is pretty much useless in the game, and while you have unlimited web fluid for swinging on a web, you almost never get the ability to shoot web projectiles.

Spider-Man can only shoot web projectiles in the game if he can find one of the rare web cartridge icons in the game. If he has unlimited web fluid to swing like Tarzan, why can't he use some of that fluid to shoot some web projectiles?

Each of the six levels in the game are actually fairly short, and, again, success is largely based on running away from (or jumping over) minor thugs and bird droppings until you get to the boss.

Defeating the bosses, much like defeating any of the minor thugs, is difficult largely because of the poor control mechanics and the fact that this version of Spider-Man has few offensive moves and almost no real use for his super powers.

Pressing the 'B" button in the game makes your character jump, which is the opposite of how just about every other NES game was programmed.

Even if you overlook the game play reversal, hit detection is inconsistent, and their are lots of little weird things in the game that suggest that development was rushed.

Spider-Man, minor thugs and most of the bosses actually explode into four little pieces whenever they die. I can understand the censorship rules against "graphic violence" that existed, but why not have the characters fall down.

Heck, some of the bosses in the game do fall down when they are defeated and it looks fine. So, I have no idea why the designers chose to go with this silly looking animation death sequence, except that maybe it was easier to have characters break apart into little pieces.

What about the story? Well, Doctor Octopus is plotting to take over the world, but how he plans on doing that -- or what the various members of the Sinister Six are doing to further this plan -- are left unanswered.

While the game box artwork and the pre-level intermission sequences are clearly based on the 1990 Amazing Spider-Man comic book series, no effort was made to adapt the storyline into the video game.

The final level in the game, oddly enough, seems to take place in a Castle or estate Mansion (just outside of a park). I say, "oddly" because that is actually taken from the original comic book battle between Spider-Man and the Sinister Six, circa 1964

The first time that Spider-Man battled the Sinister Six (in Amazing Spider-Man Annual 1, 1964), Doctor Octopus's secret lair is located in large estate.

Yet, the video game's artwork, and featured enemies is clearly based off of Amazing Spider-Man issues #334-33 (1990). Heck, the design of Doctor Octopus is based off of how he looked in the 1964 comic book.

Again, I can understand that some elements of the 1990 comic book story line would have to be modified in order to avoid any potentially taboo subject matter (the comic book storyline is being critical of both drug addiction and certain aspects of drug prohibition).

However, Spider-Man: Return Of The Sinister Six needs to have some sort of storyline, and explanation for the different locations in the game, even if it is not a great or complicated storyline.

Otherwise you are left with six, largely unconnected stages that somehow have something to do with Doctor Octopus wanting to take over the world.

Lastly, something should be said about the game's music. I may be wrong, but I believe that this game has only two (maybe three) different sound tracks on this game. As a result, you get to become VERY familiar with music, especially when level's music will start over, should you pause and un-pause the game

The Bottom Line
Spider-Man's NES adventure is less "Amazing" and more "Adequate" (read: "slightly above average"). Spider-Man fans looking for a better, retro gaming experience starring the wall-crawler may want to check out Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin (Sega Genesis/CD) or Spider-Man: The Animated Series (Acclaim, SNES).