Spiderman: Friend or Foe attempts to turn the superhero genre on it's head by subverting the traditional roles of the antagonists in the face of our heroic, lycra-clad arachnid impersonator. The story is somewhat confusing and doesn't appear to follow logic - instead choosing to provide a reason, however odd, that Spiderman is fighting alongside his mortal enemies. You're presented with a tale regarding some higher power controlling all the slightly-less-high powers that Spidey's fought in the trilogy of films, a meteorite that has kindly distributed itself across the globe - in five geographically-varied locations, naturally - and an army of minions controlled by the evil bloke that's taken control of your sworn enemies.

It's a brainless and tacked-on plot at best, and just serves as a conceit to present you with co-op gameplay and allow Spidey - for he's constantly referred to that instead of his birth name, Spiderman, presumably to appeal to the younger gamers this title is squarely aimed at - to fight alongside a decent range of traditional enemies.

All of the main bad guys from the films are here, and there's also plenty included who won't be familiar unless you're a devotee of Marvel's universe beyond the cinema screen. Familiar faces like the Green Goblin, Doc Ock and The Sandman line up alongside slightly more obscure characters, such as Lizard, Prowler and Silver Sable. There are also two extra PSP characters exclusive to the console, which might be the only time a PS3 owner is jealous of its portable cousin. If you're under 12 years of age, anyway, especially given the neat system whereby two PSP owners can connect and play together, much like console owners do with Lego Star Wars. In fact, exactly like they do with the Lego games.

There are 2 characters playable at a time and this theme of devastating duos continues throughout Friend or Foe - seeing as the combat is decidedly 2D, too. Each area you visit - these include Tokyo, Cairo and Nepal, all of which are used to wheel out some pretty typical gaming environments - technological city, sandy desert and tropical jungles all get a look in - and, sadly, don't have much of an effect on the actual gameplay. Levels are divided into small sections that you play through, beating up bad guys and collecting tokens. It's pretty linear, pretty repetitive and, sadly, pretty insulting - even bearing in mind the game's potential audience.

There's no need to patronise younger gamers. Sid Meier's Civilization may be beyond them, for example, but they're not all brainless enough to be sucked in by Spiderman: Friend or Foe's combat. The sections are split up by long loading times, and each time a group of bad guys pops up out of the ground to challenge you, the game pauses and makes you watch them emerge. You then bash buttons and dispatch the identical soldiers, hoping that along the way you happen to make some combos and score a few more points. The areas are usually divided up into two or three strands of different heights, reachable by pressing and holding the jump button to make Spidey swing, but the rigid camera makes platforming difficult and discourages you from finding another area full of generic troops, crates and boxes.

Graphically, it's decent, with the darker tones of the most recent Spiderman film being dashed away in favour of brighter and more colourful worlds and characters. Everyone has been designed with the iconic comic strips in mind, so the environments are evocative and colourful - if lacking a little detail - and slip right into a fine platforming and adventure tradition populated by games like Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot. The character themselves are all superbly rendered, with exaggerated features and colourful personalities that shine through their well-designed exteriors. It's worth noting that this professional look and feel is carried through to the voice acting - James Arnold Taylor, the voice of Tidus in Final Fantasy X and Ratchet from the phenomenally popular Ratchet and Clank series, provides a typically polished performance.

Despite these attractive looks, the gameplay lets Spider-Man: Friend or Foe down. It's simplistic, repetitive and requires little skill to master - the kind of gameplay one would imagine would work perfectly for the young demographic that this cute and endearing title would appeal to, especially given the blockbuster success of the film trilogy. Except that the design doesn't appear to have ever been tested on children, because if it had, no one would have ever tried to pass semi-decent sludge like this onto them in the guise of a 'children's game.'