Venom • Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety is a side-scrolling beat 'em up video game and sequel to Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage, released for Sega Mega Drive and Super Nintendo and then ported to PC. One or two players team up as Spider-Man and Venom to defeat the evil symbiote Carnage. The game boasts a large number of thugs that the player has to defeat: heavily armed Jury and Venom's symbiote children. There is also cameo assistance from Captain America, Ghost Rider, Hawkeye, and Daredevil.
Plot[]
Though the game is titled after the comic book series Venom: Separation Anxiety, the story more closely follows the events of Venom's first limited series, Venom: Lethal Protector. The game's plot loosely follows Lethal Protector in the following ways:
- Appearance of Spider-Man (in Lethal Protector #1.)
- Confronting the digger in San Francisco (as seen in Lethal Protector #1.)
- Discovering the underground city (as seen in Lethal Protector #1.)
- Appearance of The Jury (as seen in Lethal Protector #2.)
- Removal of five symbiote seeds to create five new symbiotes (as seen in Lethal Protector #4.)
- Spider-Man and Venom's escape from the Life Foundation (as seen in Lethal Protector #5.)
- Confronting the five symbiotes at the Life Foundation Headquarters (as seen in Lethal Protector #5.)
Reception[]
The game received mixed to positive reviews. GamePro magazine gave the Genesis version an 8/10, stating "With all it's faults, Separation Anxiety still delivers rock 'em-sock 'em action. It's well worth playing through the next time your spider sense begins to tingle. However, Electronic Gaming Monthly only gave the Genesis port a 4.75/10, while Sega-16 rated it 4/10. The SNES port has an overall rating of 61.50% on Game Rankings.com, while Nintendo Power gave the SNES version 3.25/5. Average gamers have generally rated the game higher, with the game holding a rank of 8/10 on GameSpot