Platform: Windows PC/Xbox 360/OSX
Developer: Enigma Software Productions
Publisher: Kalypso Media
# of Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Official Site
Score: B+ (85%)

Remember the days of those bright, colorful but tough as nails platformers on 8 ans 16-bit consoles? Enigma Software Productions’ Alien Spidy does a mostly stellar job of recapturing those glory days with a long and challenging game that while not flawless, is well worth playing and keeping in your library. If this were on a cart or CD back in the day, it would be a solid entry and possible new mascot platformer many would be jumping for joy over. Of course, in this era of easily forgotten digital releases, the question is “can Alien Spidy keep up the the best indie games out there?” My answer would be a two-parter, as in “Sure it can!” and “Where’s the sequel?”…

You play as Spidy, yes, an alien spider who needs to track down his cute partner as well as parts of his spaceship after it crashes on Earth. Par for the platforming course, this indeed means fast-paced side-scrolling, item gathering and defeating of many enemies and a few bosses must commence verily and forsooth, so having a deft mouse (or even better, Xbox 360 controller) hand will come in VERY handy in your mission. What’s great about the game (and will be to some less patient players, not so great) is that Spidy controls a wee bit unlike a Mario or Sonic. Movement is the same, but as Spidy can web-swing and jumps a bit uniquely, both of these skills will need to be mastered in order to succeed. Speed and accuracy along with how many points you can collect are key here, as the game deducts points if you’re too slow.

The game gives you more than enough tutorial levels to practice in before the going gets tough, but even after some heavy play, once in a while Spidy might not respond to a button press or you’ll feel that you missed a jump that wasn’t all your fault. Granted, the game is still a huge amount of fun to play, but the challenge should come first and foremost from the solid stages and not the controller response grief. That said, once it gets rolling, the game is fun, funny and quite tricky when you need to pull off some risky jump, web, jump action as doom is all around and waiting for the chance to muck up your mojo. Those of you who remember some of the harder platformers out there (or the more tortuous sections of some favorites) will appreciate the harder sections of this game where you need to whip out perfect jumps and pinpoint pickup usage in order to nab all five stars in each stage.

Visually, the looks great with its cute characters and highly stylized 2D/3D art style throughout and there’s some great sound effects and music here to keep things nicely bouncy and relatively happy. As noted, the art style and general tone of the game is super light and fun (note the “E” rating), so there’s nothing shocking or offensive here at all. Of course, if you or your kids are controller stomping mad people, some of the harder sections will have you wanting to do just that until you realize that new controllers aren’t cheap. Besides, the best thing about tough games is that zen-like moment where your brain and hands “get” the game and levels flow by until you hit a wall (or get hit by one in the form of a bad jump or boss with extra good aim). There a a raft of achievements to snap up, some of which will take a few replays to nab (and you WILL be back for them once the game has its hooks into you), but this is always a good thing in this modern era of easily forgotten “freemium” games that rely far too much on micro-transacting players’ wallets to death for every whisper of content.

Other than the control issues, the lack of a PlayStation Vita version is a bit of a pain. But I say that about every obvious indie game I play that somehow never seems to get a Vita trip for whatever reasons (or shows up late to the party after everyone has played it to death on other platforms and thinks they’re getting nothing new when that’s not generally the case). Hopefully, that will be rectified sometime soon, but if you’re a Steam account user and like the old school vibe and modern visual polish this game gives off, Alien Spidy will be right up your alley.

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