The Super Nintendo was home to several Spidey games, some better than others. Some of the best offerings came from LJN (yes, that LJN…), with Maximum Carnage and Separation Anxiety among the most notable. There was one however that never made it out of Japan, and as luck would have it, it's a rather good one.
The Amazing Spider-Man: Lethal Foes is a 1995 offering from Epoch and it shows, boasting great comic book-style presentation, lovely graphics and smooth animation, all rounded off with tight controls, making Spidey feel exactly how he is supposed to in a platforming environment. Web swinging? Check. Web tossing? Check. Crawl on walls and ceilings? Double check.
Since it's a platform beat 'em up hybrid, it is a rather import-friendly game, with the dialogue between allies and foes standing as the only barrier to western Spider-Man fans.
That is, until a few days ago when ROM hacker Kepeb released the first full complete English translation, finally revealing the game's plot two decades later for us non-Japanese fluent retro gamers. Here is a preview of his work:
Worry not, none of us remember who The Beetle was either.
Note that you can use Hyperkin's Retron5 to play this game using the patch, since the hardware supports soft IPS patching.
On a curious side note, Epoch was also responsible for producing the Barcode Battler range of toys. The popular device allowed players to unlock extra content in this game. Just think about it: 1995 DLC!
[source romhacking.net]
Comments 21
The Beetle and an alien invasion? That's rough, Spidey.
Oh I remember playing this one back in the day. Can't remember if I beat it though. This one and the genesis game gave me heck. (darn you kingpin!)
That is nice!
Ugh. That music is aggravating me though. Looks nice. I love Spider-man games!
Cool, but not interested. Can't believe there was a Japan exclusive Spiderman game.
Speaking of translated games, I wish Shin Onigashima would get an english translation. I mean, I can see why it be difficult, but I still hoping for one one day
@Spacey I have been hoping for this one to get some hacking love for way too many years to even remember. Never stop believing.
I don't mean to downplay Kepeb's efforts, but I don't really see how this is newsworthy. I mean it's a Spiderman beat-em-up: Anyone inclined to play such a thing isn't going to miss much without the text.
Still, thumbs up to Kepeb. The more translated games, the better.
I enjoyed the lethal foes story back in the day. This would've been a day one buy for my SNES.
I hope that a Japanese-exclusive Thunderbirds SNES game gets translated.
I'm not a Thunderbirds fan but I want to see translated.
i didnt even know there was a japan only spiderman game
Stuff like this that makes me glad ROM Hackers, and roms for that matter exist. People can downplay them and call them piracy all they'd like, but some pretty awesome things can come out of it too. Things that all too often get glossed over, such as translations that official companies will never do. Another awesome thing that came out of the community is a bugfixed edition of Final Fantasy on the Nintendo Entertainment System,as that game was definitely a deeply flawed masterpiece. And they even added sprites from Final Fantasy III and increased the character name limit to boot!
I'm still waiting for the day the JP-Exclusive version of MegaMan Battle Network 4.5 on GBA and Bahamut Lagoon on the Super Famicom get full-on, accurate fan translations.
Wii U wins!!
@Chaotic_Eevee Good summary. People often forget how many games we miss out on here in the West. I just know without the Mother 3 translation I would be a different gamer than I am now.
Why does Doc Conners have both his arms in his human form?
Why is there a typical elevator sound effect when you jump? What where they thinking there?
Apart from irritating sound effects, this looks pretty fun
I am a nut when it comes to Spider-Man games. Heck, the SPIDER-MAN VS. THE KINGPIN was the reason I bought my Genesis/Mega Drive. I can't believe this has missed my radar. The animation looks great. I will be downloading this ASAP.
He forgot the hyphen.
Cool it's finally translated. I didn't know this even existed. That being said the gameplay doesn't look like much fun at all.
Also, I know who The Beetle is.
@Chaotic_Eevee
Bahamut Lagoon was such an amazing JRPG. Way ahead of its time. If there was a way for me to play it legit, I'd pay full price. I'm glad someone took the time to make this game accessible to English-speaking audiences that otherwise would have no way to enjoy this masterpiece.
Is it translated? Yes. But is it localised to look like an official release? After looking at the video for a few minutes, that's very far from the thruth, I'm afraid.
@Shiryu
"Worry not, none of us remember who The Beetle was either."
I certainly hope you're kidding!
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