Alien Spidy puts players in the body of a small, curious spider from the planet Aracnia, sent to Earth to find a missing companion named Virgi. That premise is simple and effective. The game asks for quick reflexes and steady hands, and it delivers a visual world that rewards patience even when its systems don’t.
Spidy’s World
The game mixes 2D and 3D views across its stages, moving between forests, ponds, dark caves and outer space. Players move Spidy through each level, shooting a web to grapple onto objects and swing from one point to the next. The look of the game is its strongest feature.
Orbs and Stars
Levels are packed with orbs, and collecting them, finishing quickly and finding score multipliers raise the player’s total. Losing points comes from dying, picking up certain orbs that lower the score, or going too long without collecting an orb. Players earn between one and five stars per level, and stars earned across stages let Spidy move from one area to the next.
Difficulty and Control
Critics praised the game’s look but found the controls imprecise and the difficulty unforgiving. Progress through the game suffered because of this. Levels are short, most taking between 90 seconds and three minutes, yet death often costs players dearly.
Power-Ups
Scattered throughout each level are special orbs that grant temporary powers. These let Spidy travel underwater and jump to great heights. They open paths that were otherwise closed off.
The Stages
The stages are organized around a few distinct settings:
- Forest
- Pond
- Cave system
- Outer space
Each setting brings its own hazards, and the variety keeps the early hours fresh.
A Short Story
The plot is thin. Spidy, a spider from Aracnia, crashes on Earth while trying to save Virgi. He must find her and gather pieces of his broken spacecraft to return home. That is the whole story, and it does not get much bigger.
Alien Spidy is a physics-based platform game.
Verdict
Alien Spidy is a game with a strong identity in how it looks and a weaker one in how it plays. The web-grappling moves are clever, the stages are varied and the presentation is striking. But the controls are rough and the difficulty punishes players who make a single mistake. Players who enjoy fast, rewarding platform action will find plenty to like here. Those looking for a fair challenge may walk away frustrated.
The game was announced on 8 November 2011 and published on 20 March 2013 for Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and Macintosh, followed by PlayStation 3 on 8 May 2013. It received mixed reviews upon release, with critics praising the game’s aesthetics but finding the gameplay frustrating due to imprecise controls and an unforgiving level of difficulty that hampered progression through the game.
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