Spider-Man: Friend or Foe

Functioning as a classic 3D level-based beat 'em up, Spider-Man: Friend or Foe has Spider-Man and his allies enter world levels via the Helicarrier, which serves as the main hub. Player will primarily control Spider-Man, though they are able to switch to the sidekick accompanying him. A second player has the option to join in and play as the sidekick. Each character has their own unique combat style. New sidekicks are recruited as the story progresses, and may be either heroes or villains, the latter of whom need to be defeated in a boss battle first.

The player can acquire tokens for upgrading combat abilities, power-ups that can temporarily enhance the player, and DNA Helix collectibles that unlock additional content, such as character bios. and additional bonus. In addition, the player find secret rooms throughout the levels that, once cleared of enemies, can be used as battle area settings in the two-player versus mode.

All characters can be upgraded via a technology tree. Spider-Man himself has the most extensive upgrades to his combat abilities, with three entirely separate interchangeable web modes that can be unlocked and utilized (web line, web shoot, web stun etc.). Each other character has one unlockable special move. Spider-Man and his allies can also perform Hero Strikes that wipe out entire waves of enemies, each Hero Strike is different depending on the used ally, though the effect is the same. Hero Strikes can only be performed after being purchased from the upgrade store.

The game's opening cutscene shows Spider-Man fighting the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Sandman, and Venom, with assistance from the New Goblin. After the villains are defeated, they are attacked by a number of symbiote-like creatures. Before they get the chance to fight them, the villains and the New Goblin are teleported away by an unknown force, while Spider-Man is rescued by S.H.I.E.L.D. and brought aboard their Helicarrier. There, he meets director Nick Fury, who explains that the creatures which attacked them are called P.H.A.N.T.O.M.s (Perpetual Holographic Avatar Nano-Tech Offensive Monsters), and are combination of symbiotes and holographic technology. He then reveals that the meteor which brought the Venom symbiote to Earth broke into multiple shards in the planet's atmosphere, which landed in various locations across the globe. Reportedly, someone already retrieved some of the shards and used them to create the P.H.A.N.T.O.M.s, so Spider-Man is now tasked with recovering the remaining shards before they fall into the wrong hands.

Spider-Man is given several S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives to aid him in his quest, starting with Prowler and Silver Sable. In Tokyo, the web-slinger encounters Black Cat, whom S.H.I.E.L.D. sent ahead to investigate, and Spider-Man convinces her to join forces. He also finds Doctor Octopus at his secret lab, where he is attempting to recreate his fusion power experiment, and the Green Goblin at the Oscorp Tower, who has already retrieved a meteor shard. Since both villains were placed under mind control by the P.H.A.N.T.O.M.s' creator, they now seek revenge against them, and reluctantly join forces with Spider-Man after he defeats and frees them from the mind control. On Tangaroa Island, Spider-Man rescues another S.H.I.E.L.D. operative, Iron Fist, from P.H.A.N.T.O.M.s, and defeats a mind-controlled Scorpion and Rhino, retrieving a meteor shard from the latter, while persuading both of them to join his team. In Cairo, Spider-Man encounters the Lizard (portrayed here as an antihero), whom he also recruits, and defeats a brainwashed Sandman, who hands over his meteor shard and agrees to join forces. In Transylvania, Spider-Man finds Blade fighting P.H.A.N.T.O.M.s while hunting something and recruits him. He later discovers that the creature Blade was hunting is a mind-controlled Venom, whom he defeats, while retrieving his meteor shard. Afterwards, Venom recounts that the person who brainwashed him has a "bubble for a head", and is recruited into the team, despite Spider-Man not being very keen on the idea.

Although Spider-Man's team was able to retrieve all the meteor shards, the P.H.A.N.T.O.M.s have been shown to be growing stronger with each location they visited, to the point they now resemble symbiotes, without any sign of technology in them. In Nepal, Spider-Man's search for the final meteor shard leads him to encounter the P.H.A.N.T.O.M.s' creator: Mysterio. Claiming that he wants to conquer the world with his army and that he needs the meteor shards to make them stronger, Mysterio steals most of Spider-Man's shards and escapes, leaving his P.H.A.N.T.O.M.s to fight the web-slinger. Outnumbered, Spider-Man reluctantly crushes his last shard in his hand, leading to the recreation of his symbiote black suit, which enhances his powers. Fighting his way past the last remaining P.H.A.N.T.O.M.s to reach Mysterio's hideout, Spider-Man ultimately defeats the villain and claims back the stolen shards. Upon returning to the Helicarrier to hand them over to Nick Fury and have his black suit removed, Spider-Man is thanked for his help and returns home. Fury later analyzes the shards and, believing that Mysterio was on to something, decides to further study them, telling his computer to initiate "Project Carnage." After the completion of the story, the New Goblin is also unlocked as a playable character.[6]

Spider-Man: Friend or Foe was originally announced via a promotional page on the back of the Spider-Man 3 video game instruction booklet. The teaser stated that the game would be "A new twist on the legend. A new take on the movies". The game's website shows a few screenshots of the game and the Green Goblin makes an appearance.[1] The game has a very different engine and style as compared to the previous official film tie-ins. It was developed by three different companies depending on the console. The Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 2 versions were created by Next Level Games. Beenox developed the Windows edition. Artificial Mind And Movement developed the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable versions of the game.[7][8]

GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 55.04% and 55 out of 100 for the DS version,[14][20] 59.62% and 57 out of 100 for the PC version,[13][19] 63.64% and 62 out of 100 for the PlayStation 2 version,[9][15] 60.80% and 58 out of 100 for the PSP version,[11][18] 60.35% and 60 out of 100 for the Xbox 360 version,[12][16] and 61.52% and 59 out of 100 for the Wii version.[10][17] IGN gave the game a score of 4.9 out of ten, complaining of how incredibly easy and repetitive the game is.[37][38]

• Spider-Man: Friend or Foe at MobyGames
• Spider-Man: Friend or Foe at GameFAQs
• Spider-Man: Friend or Foe at IMDb