Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage

Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage is a side-scrolling beat 'em up video game for the Super NES and Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, developed by Software Creations and published by LJN (a subsidiary of Acclaim) in 1994. The game, based on a sprawling comic book story arc of the same name, featured numerous heroes, including Spider-Man, Venom, and their allies from the Marvel Comics fictional universe like Captain America, Black Cat, Iron Fist, Cloak and Dagger, Deathlok, Morbius and Firestar, all teaming up to battle an onslaught of villains led by Carnage, including Shriek, Doppelganger, Demogoblin and Carrion.

The game featured a colored cartridge. Both the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and Super Nintendo versions were red. They were later released in the normal cartridge colors (black for Genesis, gray for SNES).

The game was followed up by a sequel called Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety.

Universal Studios Orlando used Maximum Carnage as the theme for a haunted house at Halloween Horror Nights in 2002.

Gameplay
In this single-player side-scrolling beat 'em up (with a format similar to Final Fight and Streets of Rage), the player controls Spider-Man and Venom through various levels to stop the supervillain Carnage and his team, as well as hundreds of criminals they inspire in their wake, from taking over the city. The two 16-bit versions are virtually identical.



Other Marvel heroes can be summoned by collecting appropriate items hidden within certain levels. Their effects vary greatly, and some of them have different effects depending on who the player is. Of note is the rarity and set locations of the power-ups necessary to summon aid, and that each character has a unique set of music to accompany their appearance. In order of appearance: Cloak, Black Cat, Dagger, Firestar, Spider-Man/Venom (depending on the player character), Morbius, Deathlok, Iron Fist and Captain America.

Development
Maximum Carnage is one of the first video games to be directly based on a comic book story, rather than simply using comics characters in a standard video game "action/adventure" plot. Many of the game's cutscenes feature semi-animated versions of art taken directly from the comics. It was also the first Spider-Man video game to receive a teen rating (while the SNES re-release version had a rating of K-A, the Genesis version was rated MA-13).

Reception
The game received mixed reviews, with many reviewers commenting on its repetitive, generic gameplay. It was given a 5/10 from Electronic Gaming Monthly and a 3.45/5 from Nintendo Power.

Soundtrack
The game's soundtrack was provided by American rock group Green Jellÿ. The title screen theme song appears as the first track on the band's 1994 album 333 as "Carnage Rules". However, due to the state of video game music technology at that time, the soundtrack was not recorded music, but a computerized rendition of the songs.

The boss battle music, Super Villians, is a mashup of several popular heavy metal songs. It includes slightly altered renditions of Black Sabbath's The Mob Rules, the intro riff of Dokken's Kiss Of Death, and a guitar solo originally performed by Randy Rhoads in a live version of Children of the Grave which appeared on Ozzy Osbourne's Tribute.