I’ve never seen Spider-Man this, uhmm, clumsy

Or maybe I’m the one who’s clumsy. I’ve recently downloaded an old Spider-Man game, expecting to play a sorta choose your own adventure type of game—you know, the one that we all used to spend countless of idle time on the Apple II or Commodore? You never had an Apple II? Not even a Commdore? Aww, pooh!

Anyway, I felt like a total idiot playing the game, especially with my fingers nearly numb from the sudden biting cold that has beset our usually warm, tropical country.

Here’s an excerpt of a review I found on the DOS game Amazing Spiderman:

Have you ever dreamt of being a superhero? Dreamt of taking on the bad guy and rescuring the damsel in distress while you’re at it? Then this game could be the game for you. You’ll take the role of a really famous hero in this one. Yes, really famous, for we all know this hero to come out of Marvel’s forges; the man who was bitten by a radioactive spider and turned into one of the most awesome superheroes to date: The Amazing Spiderman.

As the game starts, we find Spiderman’s girl, Mary Jane, in trouble as the evil Mysterio kidnaps her and takes her to his hideout, Rockwell Studios. Of course, Spiderman is hot on his trail. So now you take the role of Spiderman, guiding him through his most dangerous adventure yet! You’ll have to follow Mysterio deep into his lair to free Mary Jane.

So what can Spiderman expect down there? Well, a lot of puzzles mostly. In fact, you’ll be puzzling all your way through this game, trying to get to that button, over that gap, or past that monster. These puzzles can be challenging, but most are not all that difficult.

Luckily, Spiderman has some skills to help him. His most trusty feature is the ability to launch webs. You can use these to swing from surface to surface, activate switches or tie down monsters. Be careful, though, as monsters immobilized by webs can still hurt the webslinger, and if you just ignore them, your superhero will die more quickly than a fly in a spider’s web. Spiderman is also able to walk on walls and even on ceilings. But again, beware. Some surfaces are too difficult even for Spiderman to hold on to, and you don’t want him to fall into a burning pit now, do you?

When this guy says “a lot of puzzles” believe him. The game is full of ‘em. From the time you enter the foyer of Rockwell Studios until the bitter end when you finally face off against Mysterio.

Personally, this isn’t the Spiderman game for me. I’m more of the text-based Spiderman gamer, which is why Questprobe is still for me. But if you’re into puzzles, you may want to check it out … again. Here’s a link to the download.

I don’t know about you, but I still prefer text-based hero games than adventure-type games.