Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin (Mega-CD)

For the Mega Drive version, see Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin. For the Game Gear and Master System versions, see Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin (8-bit).

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Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin
System(s): Sega Mega-CD
Publisher: Sega of America (US), Sega Europe (EU)
Developer: Sega of America, Foley Hi-Tech
Supporting companies: Monkey Business (programming, project management). DMP Entertainment (voices)
Distributor: Ecofilmes (PT), Tec Toy (BR)
Licensor: Marvel Entertainment Group
Sound driver: GEMS (sound effects)
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code US 1993-09 4412 EU 1993-11 4412 DE 1993-11 DM 99.9599.95 4412 PT 1993 UK 1994-02 £49.9949.99 4412 AU 199x $109.95109.95 BR 199x

The Sega Mega-CD version of Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin is an updated version of the 1991 Mega Drive game of the same name. This game is also known as The Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin.

While this version shares similar gameplay to the Mega Drive game, it has re-worked levels and is less linear. It also has animated cutscenes and a CD audio soundtrack.

Story

Introduction

Crime boss Wilson Fisk, known as the Kingpin, has stolen a nuclear bomb and plans to detonate it in twenty-four hours, destroying New York City. Moreover, he has sent a broadcast framing Spider-Man for the deed, turning the city against him. Spider-Man must fight many of his deadliest adversaries, who have been hired by the Kingpin, to obtain the keys necessary to disarm the bomb before time runs out.

Gameplay

Map

Pause menu

The game is an action platformer where players control the superhero Spider-Man, who has 24 hours to collect the five keys needed to disarm the Kingpin's bomb. Time ticks down faster than real time during gameplay. Keys are dropped by some bosses when they are defeated. There are three selectable difficulty levels (Easy, Normal, and Nightmare) and a password system for continuing.

The player uses a map of New York City to choose the next stage to play. The player moves the cursor around the map with the D-Pad; holding speeds up the cursor movement. The player selects a stage with . There are 45 stages in the game total, but it is not necessary to complete most of them to finish the game; it is only necessary to defeat the bosses. Other stages can be played to replenish Spider-Man's web meter or to collect Comic Books. There are 21 Comic Books hidden throughout the game, and the player can display a gallery of the currently collected Comic Books by pressing on the map screen. Stages are ordinarily marked with a yellow X or (if a boss fight) check mark after completion, but a stage is marked with a comic instead if it contains a Comic Book that the player failed to collect.

Bosses appear as a portrait on the map screen surrounded by a cluster of three or four stages, one of which (which varies on each playthrough) ending with a fight against a Spider-Man supervillain. On Easy and Normal, the boss stage is highlighted in red; on Nightmare, the boss stage is not indicated. The story is progressed through animated cutscenes after each boss is defeated (and at certain other points in the game).

Spider-Man enters a crawling position with and stands up with . He walks or crawls with and (and moves faster while crawling). He jumps with and jumps off platforms with +. He automatically sticks to walls and ceilings and can crawl along them with the D-Pad. He can cling to walls and buildings in the background with . He attacks by punching or kicking with , which can be done while crouching or jumping. He shoots webbing with , which can be used to momentarily stun foes. He can web swing by pressing quickly after jumping; while swinging, he can kick with .

He has two special abilities, Web Shield and Web Bolo, that can be selected by pausing the game with  START  and used by pressing . Web Shield renders Spider-Man temporarily invulnerable to damage. Web Bolo can be thrown at enemies to envelop them in a heavy web. The player can also select Map from the pause menu to exit the current stage at any point and return to the map screen.

Spider-Man has a life meter that diminishes as he takes damage from foes. If he runs out of life, the game ends. It can be continue, but this costs two hours of time. If time runs out, the game ends and cannot be continued. Spider-Man also has a web meter; all web abilities cost web. The life meter is replenished at the start of each stage, but the web meter can only be replenished by collecting items.

Items

	Red Disc
	Restores part of Spider-Man's life meter.
	Red Cloverleaf
	Fully restores Spider-Man's life meter.
	Blue Disc
	Restores part of Spider-Man's web meter.
	Blue Cloverleaf
	Fully restores Spider-Man's web meter.
	Comic Book
	There are 21 Comic Books hidden throughout the stages. Collecting every Comic Book and completing the game on Nightmare difficulty gives the player a Secret Identification Number, which could be used for a contest.

Stages

Dr. Octopus and Electro are initially available. The Lizard, Sandman, and Vulture become available after they have been defeated; Mysterio's stage is played after defeating Vulture. Hobgoblin becomes available after they have all been defeated, and Venom becomes available after the Hobgoblin is defeated. Finally, Kingpin becomes available after all other villains have been defeated.

	Daily Bugle
	Dr. Octopus
	Electro
	The Lizard
	Sandman
	Vulture
	Mysterio
	Hobgoblin
	Venom
	Kingpin
	Spider-Man must fight Vulture, Mysterio, Hobgoblin, Electro, and Venom again. He must then disarm the bomb by inserting the keys into it. He then faces Bullseye and Typhoid Mary. After defeating them, he must defeat the Kingpin before Mary Jane is dropped into a pit of acid. The game has three different ending cutscenes depending on whether Spider-Man defeats Kingpin and saves Mary Jane, Spider-Man defeats Kingpin but fails to save Mary Jane, or Spider-Man fails to defeat Kingpin.

Music and sound

The soundtrack was composed by Spencer Nilsen. It has a rock theme song, "Swing Time," co-written by Eric Martin of the band Mr. Big, who also provides lead vocals on the track.

History

Development

“	The biggest thing for Sega was that it had the Mega-CD, which was not very commercially successful. So it was dying for content and asked what we could do that was quick. Spider-Man was a big title for Sega, and knowing that we had done levels and characters that had to get cut in order to fit the cartridge the producers knew we had more that could be put in as bonuses without a lot of time and effort on the creative side. A lot of enhancements were able to take advantage of having a little more horsepower, and the engine had matured quite a bit in that timeframe too. We had the Mega-CD, and we literally couldn’t think of things to fill it up with. We were going from kilobytes to megabytes, so anything you had you could throw at it. You could do a lot more moves because you had a lot more storage, so instead of a four-frame walk sequence you could put in an 18-frame walk sequence, and instead of having only one punch, you could have several different punches.	„
— David Foley

Production credits

• Producers: Steven Apour, Stewart Kosoy
• Design: Burt Sloane, Bridget McKenna, Douglas Herring, Lisa Sands
• Programming: Monkey Business Inc., Burt Sloane
• Additional Programming: David Foley, Rob Rummell
• Project Management: Monkey Business Inc., Lisa Sands
• Art Direction: Burt Sloane
• Art: Douglas Herring, Alan Murphy, Ian Murphy
• Cinema Animations: Gray Matter
• Voices: DMP Entertainment
• Level Layout: Don Isbell, Dean Sitton
• Additional Level Layout: Dante Anderson, Heather Meigs, Greg Becksted, Mike Pagendarm, Ken Chao, Stephen Patterson, Atom Ellis, Bill Person, Casey Grimm, Jill Schwartz, Keith Higashihara, Chris Sinclair, Jason Kuo, Ben Szymkowiak, Mark Lindstrom, Christine Watson
• Music Composed & Produced by: Spencer Nilsen, David Young
• "Swingtime" by: Spencer Nilsen, Eric Martin
• Lead Vocals: Eric Martin
• Guitars: Erik Frykman, Greg Strong
• Drums: Brad Kaiser
• Sound & Effects: Brian Coburn
• Marketing: France Tantiado
• Manual: Carol Ann Hanshaw
• Package Illustration: Dave DeVries, (Tom Lyle, Scott Hanna)
• Lead Testers: Ben Szymkowiak, Crisi Albertson, Roman Greco
• Testers: Rey Alferez, Richard Gangwish, Dante Anderson, Wesley Gittens, Greg Becksted, Casey Grimm, Srini Chandra, Richie Hideshima, Ken Chao, Keith Higashihara, Glen Cureton, Jason Kuo, Atom Ellis, Simon Lu, Alex Fairchild, Juklio Martinez, David Forster, Pete McNab, Heather Meigs, Tim Spengler, Vince Nason, Siegie Stangenberg, Vy Nong, Conan Tigard, Mike Palser, Kurt Tindle, Mark Paniagua, Jeff Todd, Andrew Podesta, Maria Tuzzo, Isaac Ramey, Erik Wahlberg, Kirk Rogers, Paul Walker, Jon Russel, Katy Weathers, Chris Sinclair
• Special Thanks: Dominique Adevereaux, Lisa Best, Trish Dunne, Clint Dyer, Alan Gordon, Frank McGinn, Justin McCormick, Dana Moreshead, Steve Patterson, Steve Payne, Mike Thomas, Katy Weathers
• This game is dedicated to the memory of: Patrick Lippert

Source:

In-game credits

Magazine articles

Main article: Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin (Mega-CD)/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Sega Visions (US) #15: "October/November 1993" (1993-xx-xx)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source GamesMaster (UK) 54

	54
Based on 1 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score Digitiser (UK) 85 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 90 Game Informer (US) NTSC-U 78 Hyper (AU) 73 Joypad (FR) NTSC-U 82 Mega (UK) NTSC-U 68 Mega Action (UK) NTSC-U 85 Mega Force (FR) 84 Mega Fun (DE) PAL 71 Mega Machines (UK) PAL 39 MegaTech (UK) NTSC-U 84 Mean Machines Sega (UK) PAL 87 Player One (FR) 45 Power Up! (UK) 73 Sega Power (UK) NTSC-U 69 Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-U 37 Sega Force (SE) 40 Todo Sega (ES) 84 Video Games (DE) NTSC-U 56

	70
Based on 19 reviews

Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin (Mega-CD)

Mega-CD, US
Cover
Disc Manual

Mega-CD, EU
Cover
Spinecard Disc Manual

Mega-CD, FR (Blister pack)
Cover

Mega-CD, PT
Cover
Disc Manual EU Manual

Mega-CD, BR
Cover
Disc

Technical information

Main article: Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin (Mega-CD)/Technical information.

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
?	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1	556,168,032	1993-11	CD-ROM (US)	4412
?	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1	556,168,032	1993-08	CD-ROM (US)	4412
✔	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1	560,037,072	1993-11	CD-ROM (EU)	4412
?	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1		1993-06-02					Page

External links

• Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin: How combat classic Shinobi inspired one of the best superhero games of the 16-bit era article by Rory Milne at Retro Gamer