Maximum Carnage is one of those games that tried to do too much. It wanted to be based on a comic, but it also wanted to be a side-scrolling beat-em-up. Neither of these are done well at all, and what we're left with is an astoundingly mediocre game.

Maximum Carnage came in a red cartridge with a big picture of the titular character plastered on the front. I'm pretty sure that red color alone was enough to get kids to buy it, but the red cart was discontinued after the game didn't sell and it switched back to the standard grey.

As a young boy, I had no idea about the reputations of various game developers. Thirteen years later, looking at the bright red cartridge in front of me and seeing LJN's awful rainbow of ruination on the cover, I realize it was truly impossibly for this game to come out well. And believe me, it certainly did not. So here we go.

-Graphics- (5/10)
For the Super Nintendo, Carnage's graphics aren't bad. Everything looks like what it's supposed to be, and the characters all animate pretty fluidly. The problem is that the presentation is just boring. Aside from the hero characters and the bosses, the thugs you fight are just palette swaps of a few different models, which gets old. Besides a few strange robots in one stage, the enemies never really change. The levels aren't much to write home about either, with thrilling names like "Manhattan Street 2" and "New York Street" and environments that largely stay the same. You're either fighting in a city street or a park most of the time, which can get pretty old. The city backgrounds do show noticeable deterioration as the game progresses, which I thought was a nice touch.

-Sound- (6/10)
The music for Carnage was recorded by a rock band called Green Jelly, perhaps in an attempt to get their name out there with the Super Nintendo crowd or something like that. While the music sounds good enough, like the graphics, it's largely nondescript. The same four or five tunes play in most of the levels, so you start to ignore them after awhile. The character noises are just a collection of grunts that aren't worth mentioning, and the allied heroes have little jingles that play when you call on them for help. Some of these are suitable while others, such as Black Cat's, are so ridiculous that they detract from the experience.

-Plot- (4/10)
As this is a beat-'em-up, you shouldn't expect much story, and Carnage doesn't exceed those expectations. Carnage gets out of prison, rounds up a posse, and then starts making trouble. As the amazing Spider-Man, you've got to stop him. You can switch to Venom part of the way in, but it doesn't change how the story turns out, and most of the time the cutscenes seem to assume you're playing as Spider-Man. To the developers' credit, the story is largely told in animated cutscenes, some of which were supposedly taken from the comics the game is based on, which was a new thing for its time. The reason the story gets such low marks is that it forces you to lose numerous times to keep with the plot. Sometimes you have to lose at specific times though, so you can still get killed and lose lives, even though the ultimate objective is still to get your teeth kicked in.

-Gameplay- (3/10)
Oh boy here we go. I've been going easy on this game until now, but the gameplay is where everything just falls apart.

When you think of Spider-Man, what do you think of? Epic battles with Green Goblin? That one good scene in the third movie where Spidey kicked the tar out of Sandman in the subway tunnel? How about 50's throwback women hair-whipping the webslinger to death and fancy boys with umbrellas poking him into oblivion? No? In Maximum Carnage, this is the norm. You spend the majority of the game fighting hooligans who, for some inexplicable reason, have nothing better to do than beat up on Spider-Man and his pal Venom. They come in relentless waves, and the plot barely touches on why every Tom Dick and Coley wants our heroes dead. In fact, the first boss you face isn't even a supervillian, but a pair of women who are faster than you, do more damage than you, and have more health than you. Can someone explain that, other than the fact that LJN needed extra bosses? Last time I checked, fat guys with billy clubs, goofballs with umbrellas, and the cast of Miami Vice weren't part of Spidey's rogues' gallery.

Also, let's talk about those boss fights. When you're not beating on random thugs, you're fighting Carnage and his cronies. Again and again. You may not know who in the world Shriek, Doppelganger, Demogoblin and Carrion are, but by the end of the game you will. MC's definition of "hard" involves throwing these guys at you in waves of two and making them faster and stronger each time. I'd like to have some of what they've been eating, because by the end you can barely even touch them. It seems like every other level you're once again taking on Shriek and Doppelganger, who are only as hard as the level design is atrocious. Near the middle of the game you can start calling other heroes in for backup, and you'll need all the help you can get. To make matters worse, some bosses can only be hurt by specific allies. Carnage can only be hurt by Firestar or the Sonic Gun, but at the end of the game the gun doesn't hurt him anymore. And unless you have someone who can shoot Demogoblin out of the air or take care of that flying nuisance Carrion, you're basically out of luck.

Another glaring omission is the lack of a two-player mode. Maximum Carnage is singleplayer only, despite having both Spider-Man and Venom as the main characters. A game this hard begs for a second player to join in, but you don't get to. I don't see why this was omitted, except perhaps to keep to the plot, which isn't exactly necessary in a beat-'em-up like this.

Another thing that gets annoying is your health. Most of the time, you get a full health bar at the beginning of every level. Sometimes though, whenever the game feels like it I expect, your damage carries over. Beat a boss with a tiny sliver of health to spare? Sometimes that pitiful sliver will be all you get in the next level.

-Control- (3/10)
Gameplay and control often share each other's successes and failures, emphasis on the failures. In MC's case, the controls aren't terrible, except for one heinous flaw: the grabs. Other Carnage reviews have mentioned the Force Pull esque grabs, and it wouldn't be fair if I skipped over them. Have Spidey or Venom walk anyway near an enemy, and you'll grab that enemy. This wouldn't be a problem if punch combos weren't far more effective than grabs, which also have the added effect of leaving you utterly defenseless. When five guys are pummeling you into submission (something this game frequently does) the last thing you want to do is accidentally grab someone so the thugs can get some more free hits in.

Spidey and Venom have all of their usual abilities, but besides one level in the beginning, you never use them. Most of the time you just walk right and punch things. The webslinging mechanic (used by pressing X) is mostly an afterthought, and it's incredibly clumsy to use. Prospective webswingers will mostly find themselves falling back to the ground, so it's not really worth it. Pressing A will get you a shield that protects you from a very select group of attacks, (the umbrella guys have no trouble going through it) and tapping it allows you to shoot a strand that webs garden variety thugs up. Pressing A and hitting forward allows you to shoot out a webline that pulls enemies to you so you can grab them, and it can be useful. The special moves (used by hitting Y and B) only seem to work sometimes, and have the added bonus of hurting you. I guess it's not an LJN game unless something you do hurts you for no reason.

At least the differences between Spider-Man and Venom aren't merely cosmetic. Spider-Man is faster than Venom, but Venom is stronger. Also their power hits, which they gain from hitting enemies in a row without missing, are different, Spidey's being a powerful kick and Venom's being a ground pound that hits everyone on screen. Personally I prefer Venom, because by the end of the game everything's outrunning you anyway.

-Overall- (4/10)
While Maximum Carnage was an interesting attempt at porting a comic book story to the Super Nintendo, it just didn't work. The game sticks too closely to the plot at times (forcing you to lose and fight the same bosses again and again) and some of the cutscenes are just filler material. The gameplay is rage inducing, with endless waves of generic thugs that surround you and eat your lives like candy, and the graphical and sound departments are largely uninteresting. The lack of a multiplayer feature also hurts, because this game is asking for another player to join in. If you're looking for a two-player Spider-Man beat-'em-up, play Separation Anxiety. It fixes some of this game's glaring problems and adds in a multiplayer feature. Avoid this one unless you enjoy losing

Reviews on Vizzed must be exclusive to Vizzed so I'll have to close this:

Original review:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/snes/588683-spider-man-and-venom-maximum-carnage/reviews/review-142263