The Amazing Spider-Man

The Good
The Amazing Spider-Man (1990) features large graphics, good sound effects, responsive controls, a reasonable level of difficulty and a pretty good storyline. The nice intermission sequences feature Spider-Man's using some good one liners and the game's wall crawling levels pay homage to the classic Atari 2600 Spider-Man game.

The Bad
The controls are good, but Spider-Man fans may find them a tad bit restricted. Spider-Man can only climb walls during specific levels and he can not really stick to objects. The control scheme used to swing a web is a bit too similar to the scheme used to perform a super jump.

The Bottom Line
The Amazing Spider-Man (1990) is the best of the Spider-Man games released for the original, black and white Game Boy. It is a solid, single player, platform game that does not score too many points for originality but, for its day, looks and sounds pretty darn good and is fun to play.

The Good
Spider-Man swings into the original Game Boy system, as only a spider can. At the scene of the crime, he arrives, just in time. Spider-Man has to utilize all his super powers in order to bring down a gang of super villains who have kidnapped our webbed wonders' wife.

LJN Toys published the game, but, thankfully, Rare handled the programming. Spider-Man features nice, 8-bit, black and white graphics. The characters are large, the urban levels are well designed and you can jam out to game's funky soundtrack.

Familiar super villains taunt our hero between levels, and act as bosses. Spidey can punch, kick, duck, swing on webs and shoot web projectiles. Minor enemies drop icons that give you points, restore your health and give you more web fluid.

Most of the game involves side-scrolling levels, but a couple levels have you climbing up a skyscrapper, a nice nod to Spider-Man 's adventure on the Atari 2600. This game has lots of nice little touches that show respect for comic book universe.


The Bad
Spider-Man is a solid platformer, but it doesn't break any new ground in the genre. The story involves a damsel in distress, the levels are pretty straightforward, the enemies in the game are standard for the genre and each boss follows his own pattern that is easy to spot.

The cut scenes between the levels look nice and feature some catchy dialogue, but the ending is a letdown. Also, because the game was made in 1990, we get to see Spider-Man talking to the villains via a big, bulky cell phones. Wow.

My biggest complaint is that Spider-Man is a tad difficult to control in certain situations. You have a regular and super jump. The super jump, for lack of a better phrase, is necessary in certain places and requires you to get a bit of a walking start.

The super jump also seems to be required to start swinging on your webs. Sometimes when you want a super jump, you end up doing a regular jump. It's not a huge problem, but it does occasionally happen.

The Bottom Line
The Amazing Spider-Man is an enjoyable, black and white platformer. It was released early in the Game Boy's life, and contemporary gamers might not be as impressed as gamers were back in 1990. To be sure, this Spider-Man game doesn't break new ground in the genre, and it's control mechanics have a few rough spots. The Amazing Spider-Man may not be "Amazing", but it is well made and it is fun to play.

The Good
What I like about this game is that it is challenging and well,a spider-man game.It has very detailed graphics.This is probably one of the best graphiced games for the gameboy. You have 3 or 4 continues.It takes 1-hit to kill an enemy. there are alot of old spider-man foes.When you continue, you continue where you died,not at the beggining of the level.

The Bad
What I did not like about this game is that when you play it on GBC/GBA/SP like some other games(Super Mario L2 , Mega Man,etc.)It does not have customized color like so many other games. MANY times the levels are annoying due to alot of enemies.If you jump,you have to back up to jump high,you can't jump high unless you go back and run forward.

The Bottom Line
I would describe it as a fun side screen adventure that if you have that extra 10$ You should get it.It is a game where if you a new game,you stop playing this one.If you are a spider-man fan,you will like it.If you like adventures,you'll like it.Anything else is a risk.