When you play a flash game, especially one with a superhero tie in, you expect at least a flashy introduction and decent presentation. Spiderman Dark Side at least offers a decent load up screen and expectation of a few fun filled moments. From one point of view, Spiderman Dark Side succeeds in providing this fun - but from another point of view it fails.
Spiderman Dark Side is almost a throwback to the Spiderman games of the 1980s that are coded by bored teenagers in their bedrooms. Your character, Spiderman - actually Spiderman dark as he is wearing a bland grey suit as opposed to his red and blue suit has a chance to navigate the cityscape. You need to co-ordinate Spiderman firing his webs at platforms so that he swings himself across the screen. Spiderman moves forward himself, and you only have the control of his webspinner - aiming where he shoots his webs. Depending on the angle you hit or miss an object, Spiderman will swing himself a certain distance - either to another platform, or doom into the city below. If he manages to swing to another platform, you get to repeat the process - and that is the concept of the entire game. There is no storyline here - no reason why Spiderman would be wandering across the city at night - no supervillans for him to chase. The entire point of Spiderman Dark Side appears to be to help Spiderman survive as long as possible.
The graphics of the game are very simple and won't win any design awards. The city backdrop is just a plain jpeg, with the main action happening on the colorful platforms that Spiderman needs to navigate. Spiderman is a collection of ovals, and his movements remind me very much of the athlete in the classic game QWOP. The simplicity of the graphics perhaps reflect the game, and perhaps add to its comical nature. Spiderman looks as if he is extremely drunk - which perhaps explains his wild webslinging and numerous accidents.
The soundtrack is for some reason hard rock music, that somehow suits the comical nature of the game. It is not at all Spiderman related - and there no other sound effects.
The gameplay is difficult to describe in a few words. If you liked QWOP, then you may like this game. The game is very tough - your Spiderman will no doubt fall to his death numerous times before you manage to last a minute into the Spiderman 3 game. If you can bear through the frustration, and master the webslinging, you may enjoy the gameplay, but for the majority the game is too hard and badly designed to offer any sustainable playability.
Overall if you are looking for a few minutes to kill, Spiderman Dark Side may well offer a few laughs and a few minutes distraction. If you are looking for a game that you can return to, or spend a lunch hour over, you may want to look elsewhere. It is certainly an original challenge, but it is not implemented particularly well.
The graphics of the game are very simple and won't win any design awards. The city backdrop is just a plain jpeg, with the main action happening on the colorful platforms that Spiderman needs to navigate. Spiderman is a collection of ovals, and his movements remind me very much of the athlete in the classic game QWOP. The simplicity of the graphics perhaps reflect the game, and perhaps add to its comical nature. Spiderman looks as if he is extremely drunk - which perhaps explains his wild webslinging and numerous accidents.
The soundtrack is for some reason hard rock music, that somehow suits the comical nature of the game. It is not at all Spiderman related - and there no other sound effects.
The gameplay is difficult to describe in a few words. If you liked QWOP, then you may like this game. The game is very tough - your Spiderman will no doubt fall to his death numerous times before you manage to last a minute into the Spiderman 3 game. If you can bear through the frustration, and master the webslinging, you may enjoy the gameplay, but for the majority the game is too hard and badly designed to offer any sustainable playability.
Overall if you are looking for a few minutes to kill, Spiderman Dark Side may well offer a few laughs and a few minutes distraction. If you are looking for a game that you can return to, or spend a lunch hour over, you may want to look elsewhere. It is certainly an original challenge, but it is not implemented particularly well.