Friend or Foe is a beat'em up that gets tiring fairly quickly.
You play as Spider-Man of course, and can switch between him or your sidekick of which there are 14. I only played SM because he was the most interesting, I just chose my favorite villains to fill in as side-kick. The story doesn't matter, as we all know. All you have to understand is that there are 6 worlds, each world featuring 4 levels, and the same enemies over and over.
It offers easy pick-up and play combat, a fair amount of variety as far as moves go, and the option for a second player to join in at any time. Add in upgradeable moves and memorable bosses from the comics/movies/etc. and you have a 6-7 hour game. If you crunch the game in a small amount of time, you'll find it very repetitious. That's why I recommend playing a world or so each day so you don't get too bored of it.
The real downer is the enemy variety. Your enemies are Phantoms. You have small, medium, and large Phantoms; all of which are easy to defeat. Occasionally you might confront a Phantom with an actual life-bar, who I just avoid all his moves and kill him just as easy. And lastly you have your bosses, who are each different in their own way and simple to understand.
Whenever you die, it's also very friendly. All you lose is a bit of coin (the same coin used for upgrading called Tech Tokens), and it's a very very small amount. Add in the fact that every level of every world is pretty much the same, and someone as young as 6 years old can play this competently. That's all I really CAN say, it has nothing else going for it.
The graphics and sound is okay, nothing spectacular. The replay value is nil, offering nothing except a versus mode. And the achievements challenge you only to your patience of dealing with repeating the same activity over and over.
I recommend a rent if you don't have a kid, and a possible buy if you do have one. What it does do with the Spider-Man universe it does well enough not to hurt the reputation, but not amazingly well to make this game more memorable than a one-night stand.
[I originally reviewed this game on GS May 25th, 2008.]
