Spider Man: Return of the Sinister Six (NES)

Comic book week comes to a close!

Difficulty - ***1/2
Controls - **1/2
Graphics - ***
Sounds - **
Overall - 11 stars out of 20

Doctor Octopus plans on dominating the world! If that weren't bad enough for our favorite web-head, he's brought back the Sinister Six to finish off Spidey for good!

You have six stages, one life, and one continue to finish this game. On top of that your energy does not replenish after each stage! This one may take some persistence to crack. In order to face off against the boss character you have to find some sort of item to be able to pass an obstacle. Once you find the said item, it will always be in the same place you're next go around.

Controlling Spider Man is a little awkward. He runs and jumps almost a little off pace when you input the commands. A frustrating point, when you're pressing the punch button rapidly you'll usually take off and do a side kick (and hoping over your enemy which you wanted to waste!) Slinging your webs while tricky, can be overcome with practice. There's nothing more satisfying like saving yourself from perils below!

The sprites are nice looking. Nothing exceptional, but nice. Spider man looks the part and its pretty cool seeing him do a somersault. The title screen looks good as well. The intro scenes look amazing though! You would think that the programmers ripped it right out of a comic book! The stages are also nicely detailed (the factory stage with Mysterio looks really cool).

Now comes to the sounds. There's nothing much to cheer about. The same two themes are used in every other stage. The sound effects are severely lacking in some areas (no electric noises in the Electro stage? C'mon!) The title theme is pretty catchy (very super hero-ish).

Spider Man: The Return of the Sinister Six is an above average game with awkward controls, great stage detail, and has sweet comic book intros. Although the sound effects are lacking, the music while limited, won't get on your nerves. If you find a cheap copy, give your favorite neighborhood Spider Man a try!