Spider Man: Separation Anxiety

This takes us way back folks. Back when having 16bit graphics was considered -the bomb-. Yes, we are going deep into the 90’s guys. Now, I know this is a rather unpopular choice as it was -destroyed- in reviews etc. But this is one of my childhood favorites. Spider Man and Venom co-op. Nuff said. Ok not really

Official Reception

Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety is a side-scrolling beat ’em up video game and sequel to Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage, released for Mega Drive/Genesis and Super NES and then ported to PC. One or two players team up as Spider-Man and Venom to defeat the evil symbiote Carnage. The game boasts a large number of thugs that the player has to defeat: heavily armed Jury and Venom’s symbiote children. There is also cameo assistance from Captain America, Ghost Rider, Hawkeye, and Daredevil.
(Copy Pasted from Wikipedia)

Well, if you read the page you will know it was not very well received due to a number of reasons. But rest assured, they are all wrong, and only I the Gaming Wallnut am correct, for I have evolved to play video games when other wallnuts continue their plant life. Truly I -am- the superior being

Good Ol Arcade Co-Op

As a 90’s kid, heavilly leaning towards Marvel in the DC/Marvel spectrum, my love for Spider Man was as natural and predictable as was my love for Batman. Needless to say, the concept of Venom intrigued my little brain. A bad guy that was not a bad guy, but sometimes was a good guy, but at the same time fought the good guy cos he was not a good guy?
Mind. Blown

So when a game arrived at our house, that had Venom AND Spiderman, finally being friends and beating bad guys it was like Jesus himself handed me that cartridge.

Now, granted, I did not know or care much about whey they had to fight all the other Venoms, but my brother re-assured me they were bad guys friends of Carnage and should be destroyed.

Sure, as a 3 year old, the concept of Marvel’s symbiotes greatly eluded me, as did the general story of Marvel’s comic books, so it did not matter much. Game offered co op between two of my favorite characters, and you got to beat the lights out of people, much like another favorite game of mine, the Ninja Turtles for the SNES.

The drawback to this was also its strength. Sure, the two player co-op could not beat other games with 4 players, but back then, with only two players, and not enough ways to incorporate 4 players into a household console, you really did not need the option for more. The co op was nice, felt fluid, and did not make things -too- chaotic

When things got tough…

You could summon the aid of other marvel super heroes, like Captain America, Daredevil and other guys I did not know at the time (Ghost Rider, Arrow and some other guy I think). With graphics that were rather decent for the era, gameplay that was, not the best around, but it was like most beat em ups of the time, the amount of hours me and my brother sunk into that game were unbelievable.

With a number of pretty interesting boss battles, with variously colored Symbiotes, I always found that it was pretty awesome that the game offered that much variety in its enemies. Not to mention that unlike other games I had played at the time, this game added a block feature, for those pesky bosses that fired bullets at you covering all the map or something.

Objectivelly though

Well, like all games of the time, it is greatly outdated. Gameplay that is standard beat em up, nothing interesting when it comes to combos, moves or any form of co-op smashes that one could expect. Sure you get to web people, or do other basic moves with webs and such, but the graphics, even for the time were not exactly revolutionary, neither was the sound or soundtrack. All in all, even as a kid, I remember that the only thing that really made it different from the other beat em ups, was the Spiderman setting.

Regardless however, if you are a fan of old school beat em ups for the SNES or Sega Mega Drive, I would hands down reccomend this. Especially if you have some way to get a buddy or younger brother/sister to play with you.
Its not phenomenal, but it is entertaining enough to give you a few hours of entertainment. As it did to this Gaming Wallnut