It’s Acclaim’s oldschool beat-’em-up/brawler, Maximum Carnage! Released in 1994 on both the Super NES and the Genesis, this is one of the most hyped comic-based games of its day, and with good reason.
Maximum Carnage was a fourteen-part story arc that took place over the summer of 1993 in the pages of Spider-Man’s five titles (The Amazing Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man, Spider-Man [later re-titled Peter Parker: Spider-Man], and Spider-Man Unlimited). As the name implies, crazed serial killer Carnage has escaped from the Ravencroft mental institute, and is spreading mayhem and death among the streets of New York City. It’s up to Spider-Man (and a few friends) to put a stop to this madness.
In 1993, another Spider-family character had finally gotten his own series as well – Venom! Starting with the “Lethal Protector” six-issue series, Venom had monthly books on a consistent basis, each story arc recieving a new subtitle, and a resetting of the issue numbers. Due to the lack of an ongoing series, replacing it instead with shorter stories, video game companies didn’t feel Venom could support his weight as a stand-alone title. But to make him a major, non-villain character in a Spider-Man game was groundbreaking.
So you start the game as Spider-Man, where you have to go through the streets of New York, beaing down generic, palette-swapped punks and thugs who have been influenced by Carnage’s violence and killing spree. Playing is pretty standard for a brawler title – Spidey can kick, punch, run, jump, grab, and throw. Spidey can also use his web-shooters to do a variety of things – Climb a web rope, swing across large distances, create a webbing shield, and even pull punks in closer, for a good thrashing. Four buttons are used, which fits the Super NES’ controller fairly well. Things get pretty tricky with a three-button Genesis controller. I highly recommend using one of the six-button variety. Otherwise, the controls are quite responsive, and pretty easy to get down. There are a couple of slightly trickier moves that will take some time to master, such as the backflip-kick or the Double Smash!, but they certainly aren’t essential to play the game.
After a few stages of fun as your friendly neighborhood wall-crawler, you can choose to play as the Lethal Protector himself, Venom. Venom has all the same moves and abilities as Spider-Man, and there’s really no advantage to playing as one over the other, except that in some points, you’ll fight in different stages. Most of the time, though, the story just follows the parts of the comic where Spidey and Venom are fighting together, so playing as either one doesn’t make much difference. The addtion of panels drawn by Mark Bagley and other then-current Spidey talent between levels helps the story flow better, but can be quickly skipped through if you just want to play the game.
Power-ups are fairly plentiful throughout the game, if a bit hidden. It’s definitely no problem to find a heart or an extra life, if you’re willing to look in alley ways, in tree branches, or to climb slightly higher up than it appears you can go. In addition to the hearts (which give your character more health) and the extra lives (which are black spheres with your characters’ logo), there are also extra continues (black spheres with an exclamation point in them), and Super Hero icons. By collecting the Super Hero icons, and hitting the R (SNES) or Z (Genesis) buttons, you can have a hero jump on screen and do a massive attack that’s more damaging than anything Spidey or Venom can dish out by themselves. Toggle through the icons you’ve collected by using the L (SNES) or X (Genesis) buttons. Characters that appear include the Sentinel of Liberty, Captain America; the enigmatic Cloak and Dagger; the New Warriors’ resident hothead, Firestar; martial arts master Iron Fist, and others.
The soundtrack to the game was done by alternative band Green Jellÿ, most noted for their “Three Little Pigs” music video, in ’93. In fact, on Green Jellÿ’s album, “#333,” the game’s theme song, “Carnage Rules!” is present in all it’s hard-rocking glory. This helps give the game a totally bad-ass feel, and you may find yourself humming along to the recurring, between-level riffs.
Other sound effects in the game are fairly generic smacks, whacks, grunts, and some minor screaming. The sound of Spidey’s webbing, or Venom’s symbiotic attacks are accompanied by appropriate “splurt”-ing sounds. Nothing too special, but certainly nothing out of place.
The game itself is pretty damn tough, though. I still have troubles going through the game all the way. There are many times in which you’ll have to go through gauntlets of supervillains including Shriek, the Spider-Doppleganger, Demogoblin, and Carrion. Fortunately, most are easily taken out by one of the collected Super Hero helpers. But if you’re low on heroes, you’re low on luck – Some of these guys are damn tough!
One nice touch, I felt, was that some of the Super Hero helpers reacted differently, depending on who you play as. For example, if you’re playing as Spider-Man and you call in Firestar, she’ll come in and take out just one opponent. However, if you’re Venom and call in Firestar, she’ll blow through the screen, injuring every enemy around. Were Spider-Man to call in Iron Fist for help, ‘Fist will heal Spidey up to full health. When Venom asks for help, Iron Fist executes a mighty jump kick that clears out anything in its path. And, with a bit of experimentation, you’ll also find that each Super Hero helper works especially well against a particular villain. Black Cat will take out Shriek, Cloak will decimate the Demogobline, and Firestar will burn Carnage like there’s no tomorrow.
The graphics are bright and colorful, and the sprites are nice and big, on both versions – though, in comparison, the SNES’ superior color palette is certainly apparent. You’ll never experience any slowdown or clipping, and hit detection is quite accurate. Other than some bizarrely out-of-proportion limbs here and there (particularly while web-slinging as Spidey), each character in the game is represented excellently.
Overall, this game was done very well. It’s stood the test of time long enough that I still care about it, nine years later. There’s even a “sequel” available, in Seperation Anxiety. And, past the difficulty being a bit too hard, it’s still fun to play every now and then. I’ll give it an 8 out of 11.
Also, if you’re not into emulation and you want to pick this game up from your local used game store, be on the lookout for the limited-edition, “Carnage”-red cartridges!
Written August 03, 2003
Bonus Protips:
Before facing the bosses in the Alleyway, climb up the side of the church and find this continue!
Sometimes, you’ll find a hidden room filled with hearts and 1-ups.