The Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin (also known as Spider-Man Vs. the Kingpin or simply Spider-Man) is a video game produced by Sega of America and developed by Technopop. It was released on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Master System, and Game Gear consoles an updated version was also released for the Sega CD.

All versions of the video game are side-scrolling platform games whereby the player controls superhero Spider-Man to battle various supervillains to obtain the keys needed to disarm a nuclear bomb that the Kingpin has not only framed Spider-Man for stealing but plans to detonate within twenty-four hours. In the middle of the game Spider-Man's wife Mary Jane Watson is also kidnapped by Venom. I wanted to talk about the Sega Megadrive manily since that was the version I grew up with.

The Sega Megadrive version was released in 1991 and was widely popular with comic book fans, helping to establish the success of the 16-bit Mega Drive/Genesis system. Critics noted that the game had superior graphics, sound and faithfully recreated the characters for the video game universe even allowing the player to take pictures of the major and minor enemies in the video game to sell at the Daily Bugle to buy more web fluid. I think in being able to take pictures was a really good idea to keep close to the character. I think its useful when you can go back to his house to refill your energy and have a breather if things get a bit intense. I really liked the music in the game as well although a bit dated now but still has that cool charm to it. I think all these things added to the game and made it more fun to play.

I found the gameplay really good and easy to control. I enjoyed sticking to walls and swinging from buildings. You had to be careful on webbing though incase you ran out. Some of the enemies were a bit tricky to beat mainly because they were in awkward positions. I was impressed with the levels which reminded me allot of the comics and the brilliant 90's cartoon they made. The game just seemed to have the right balance which made so fun to play.

The game had four different difficult levels and a contest was held to see who could successfully complete the game in the ultra-hard nightmare mode. The additional ultra-hard challenge was that at the end of each round the popular Spider-Man villain Venom would appear briefly and you had to fight him before you got to the actual boss. I thought Venom popping up now and again was a good idea since he's one of my favorite villains. In addition to Venom there are also many other popular Spider-Man villains that you have to fight such as Doctor Octopus, Lizard, Electro, Sandman, and Hobgoblin. All the villains resembled how they looked in the comics which was nice to see and great that most of them made it into the game even the hobgoblin which is over shadowed by the Green Goblin.

According to developer Randel B. Reiss this version was a huge commercial success two thirds of all Mega Drive owners at the time also bought the game and single-handedly convinced Marvel Comics not to cancel the licensing deal they had with Sega.

Sorry if this article was a bit short obviously I really enjoyed the game but there's not much more I can say about it. I hope there's other people out there that enjoyed this game to. It would also be great if they remade this game for consoles today. I think this is one of the best games not based on a film which makes it stand out for me considering how old it is.