Game music of the day: Spider-Man vs The Kingpin


May 4, 2010

Game: The Amazing Spider-Man vs The Kingpin

Song: Track 10

Composer: Erik Frykman, Greg Strong

Above: Track 10 from Spider-Man vs the Kingpin

Talk about a clustershart of technology. Spider-Man for Sega CD was a grab-bag of audio and video inconsistency, so much so that it routinely appeared as if the game was designed by four different people who never met nor discussed a single second of game design. The 16-bit visuals don't match the MS Paint-style cutscenes, the voiceovers sound like daytime soaps and the music is some of the most severe guitar noodling you've ever heard. Thankfully, that last part is actually amazing and better than the rest of the game.

When you think Spider-Man, you don't think "guitar solos that would make Joe Satriani proud." You think... something sillier, perhaps. But for whatever reason, the devs went with expert-level shredding instead of typical VGM, so you end up with a game that looks and plays like something from 1991, yet sounds like a sold-out arena rock tour.

Above: That's partly because Eric Martin(Mr Big) was behind this song

Never heard of Mr Big? Don't worry, you didn't miss a thing. It's an '80s rock band that, according to ActivisionTwitterer and GamesRadar palDan Amrich, "had a lot of talent and not a lot of taste." We ripped that song up way back in TalkRadar 20 (one of our best), so definitely check that out if you've denied yourself the pleasure.

Here's another thing - the in-game music is all freakish guitars, but all the cutscenes have this weird-ass coffee bar/ametuer poem night background music that sounds more like a '40 mystery film than a superheroic journey through Manhattan. It all adds up to a beautiful mess, one that's still better than Spider-Man 3. The movie or the game, take your pic.

Game music of the day: Crash Dummies
Impossibly bouncy tunes from Tim Follin

Final Boss by Muramo, Kodaka and Hara

More face-melting guitars from Miyashita