Spider: The Video Game

Bad Mojo 2: Rampage

I was about 9 when i watched an older kid of my mum’s friend play it, before he showed me the best parts of Predator 2.When i got the internet as an adult, i’ve found the name of this game and planned to play it since. I finally got around to it and i’ve used DuckStation 0.1-5624-g39e62ae9 (dev)

It’s an unusual action platformer game. As a spider you can walk on many surfaces, though the level designers put a lot of unwalkable things everywhere. And there are still bottomless pits and floating platforms. Platforming is not very precise and there are many traps which just take away your entire life instead of 1HP.

This is the first game i saw, where the gaympad knobs are necessary — it’s way harder to navigate the spider to the bottom of a platform with a D-pad. And while it is at it, you can attach a web and hang down. The string is super short, tho, so it’s mostly used only as means to reach a hidden bonus item.

You have four slots for weapons, two forward and two backward. You can find flamethrowers, bombs, missiles, etc. All with very limited amount of ammunition. Boomerangs offer a low-damage offensive option that is not reliable on ammo. The unarmed attack has no reach and it puts you in danger of being hit. With just 3 HP death comes easy in this game with low FoV. And there’s a number of enemies placed right on the tiny platforms you need to jump on.

You can use the annoying workaround of farming more lives on the first level, but that’s developers just not respecting your time. I used quicksaves in the emulator.

The game has the 3-star meta, in a way similar to Gex 3 — you need to explore the level three times and find three separate exits. Though, there are no corresponding minigames here, you just need to find them. The sections of the game also contain pieces of CDs. Collecting all three unlocks a secret level, the last section has two. Collecting all the stars unlocks an extended ending cutscene after the final boss.

Why are there PS2s in the first level of this PS1 game?

The music is pretty good.

Metal spiders in my body.

It’s a cool game, but the brutal difficulty kills all the pacing even with quicksaves. It needs a modern remaster with an option for infinite lives and checkpoints, like in Crash 4.