Regardless of what anyone says, Spider-Man is always at his best when he is working alone, with no other costumed do-gooders getting in the way to cramp his style. With that in mind, maybe that's why the developers went the route they chose and have teamed Spider-Man up with not other local heroes, but instead have him reluctantly pulling together with his archenemies to bring down an even greater threat once and for all. Can Spider-Man and his enemies learn to just get along?

If the only videogame Spider-Man you're familiar with as of late is those found in the Spider-Man 2 and 3 videogames, you're going to be in quite a shock when you fire up Spider-Man: Friend or Foe (Spider-Man: FoF) for the first time. For that matter, the game even differs greatly from some of the other Spider-Man games we've also seen in the past. Instead of the larger exploration and puzzle laden areas, Spider-Man: FoF is all about going along relatively straight levels in a classic Double Dragon-esque beat-em up brawler.

The level for the preview build we saw had Spider-Man (of course) teaming up with one of two villain buddies – Green Goblin and Venom. It seems that your sidekicks actually start out as villains in the game, but after finding out how they've been used by some other villain, they reluctantly agree to band together with Spider-Man to stop the greater threat. The level in question had our two characters on several rooftops, fighting mechanical humanoid creatures that seemed to appear out of nowhere as if beamed in, and jumping across gaps, scaling the ledges of buildings, and extending bridges so that you can cross the gaps. The levels are built in a quasi-isometric perspective, so things aren't perfectly on a straight plane of existence, but have some depth to them; the depth, sadly, can make for some tricky platform jumping when it looks like you'll land, but you're actually going to fall off the edge instead.

Given its beat-em up nature, of course combat has to play a role in there somewhere. Combat is quite easy to get into as you've got your X-button for attacks, the A-button for jumping, the B-button for web based attacks (which you can change up from grapples to projectiles to stunners by pressing the right and left bumpers to cycle through them), and then of course the Y-button switches you between your two players (the game will be co-op, so if you aren't playing solo, you'll control one character while the other controls the other).

Attacks are pretty basic with X,X,X type combos, but there are chances to get more complex, such as popping a character into the air, jumping after them, laying in some attacks, and then slamming them to the ground. Given you're on rooftops for this level, you can also snag an enemy with a grapple and easily hurl them over the side. Our favorite move of the preview, however, was easily the little breakdance move Spider-Man does as he grabs an enemy with his webbing, and then swings them around to hit another nearby enemies.

Whether it's because it's just the preview remains to be seen, but the villain sidekicks seem to have got less attention in regards to combat moves and signatures. Venom pretty much works like his comic book character more than the one witnessed in the third movie, but he's not as sadistic as he can be. The Green Goblin also doesn't have his glider, which seems sacrilegious to the canon of the character; you'd also expect Green Goblin to use his pumpkin grenades, but instead he only has his razor birds as seen in the first movie.

We also got to partake in a boss battle against Doctor Octopus, which saw our two characters actually able to die this time around, making one automatically substitute for the other should they fall. In the boss battle Doctor Octopus has his machine from the movie sucking in debris, which you need to snag to throw at some laser guns, which are constantly firing rounds at you that you need to dodge. Once enough damage is done to the guns Doctor Octopus will lower his guard, jump down to fix the gun, and then is your chance to wail on him for some damage.

Based on the gameplay we saw and the simpler more Saturday morning cartoon graphics, Spider-Man: Friend or Foe seems to be geared a little less away from the mainstream hardcore gamers or fans of the Spider-Man license, and a bit more towards the younger section of the populace. Those expecting the styling of the last two games will be very disappointed; however, fans of Spider-Man and beat-em up brawlers should find a lot to look forward to with the game when it releases relatively soon.