The three new see you returning to the Forest, Ponds and Caves levels but much more difficult obstacles and enemies to halt your progress. The levels will take an equal measure of cunning and determination to bypass as you’ll come across floating spores, wind tunnels, stalactites that don’t like you and other obstacles. Check out the DLC today on Xbox Live.

Alien Spidy was developed by Enigma Software and follows the chronicles of the alien Spidy as he travels to Earth to find his lost friend Virgi. Of course, given that Spidy crashed on the planet, he’ll need to also locate pieces of his space ship, while also avoiding hostile wildlife.

lien Spidy is a platforming arcade title that features a cutesy spider that traverses many challenging levels where it must collect as many items as possible throughout his journey. How does his adventure turn out in the long run? Well, let’s find out.

Presentation:

The game is presented in a charming and a cute alien-like personality. The small spider is an alien and all he wants is just to travel the worlds and collect items to score points. The music is appropriate for the game and it was never annoying to listen to it as you play. The graphics is a mix of 2D/3D, 2D backgrounds and 3D spider. It’s not a gorgeous looking game, but it does the job done and fits with the overall theme of the game.

Gameplay:

Alien Spidy consists of very simple mechanics. The core of the game is to platform through the level as fast as possible, have least amount of deaths and collect as many items as you can by the end of the level. If you die or take a long time to finish a level, you will be deducted a certain amount of points.

The first few levels in the game act as tutorials. One tutorial teaches you the jumping mechanics, while others tell you how to use your spider web to create a rope and be able to swing from one place to another. The tutorials give a pretty good idea on what to do and how the game works.

Alien Spidy has 3 different worlds. Each world has many difficult courses; every course also has a certain platforming rhythm to it. The later levels get really challenging, but hopefully by that time you’re used to the flow of the game and the player is good with timing of his/her actions.

In one of the levels I was going through a cave with many dangerous objects that could kill me on contact, so I had to be very careful. In another level, I had to be precise and quick with the rope swinging mechanic in order to go with the flow.

The later levels mix all of the mechanics together to create more of a challenging and unique experience. Checkpoints are provided throughout the levels, so if you mess up you will respawn at a certain point of the course.

Throughout the game you come across power-ups. One power-up allows Spidy to do super jumps; another one can provide him with a magnet. These power-ups break up the pacing of the levels and make the game more fun.

The scoring system is a core part of Alien Spidy. Players have to travel as quickly as possible if they want to nail that high score. The higher score you get the more stars you earn for the level.

The player can earn to a total of up to 5 stars. If you manage to get 5 stars in every single level in the world you will earn an achievement. There is a separate achievement for getting 5 stars in the entire game.

The game is addicting and a lot of fun, especially when you’re going through the levels in a perfect manner. It gives you that hyper adrenaline rush once you’re done with a level and have scored 5 stars after going through the difficult platforming course.

Gamers who love to perfect levels will be spending a long time in each of the challenging platforming courses.

The Problems

Thankfully, Alien Spidy is not filled with glitches or a crazy amount of issues. However, the controls of the game can be very unresponsive at times and can lead to a frustration. One of the levels I had to jump of a platform at the right time to avoid something, so I press the jump button and Spidy doesn’t jump.

At the moment, I thought it was me being bad with my timing, but it wasn’t. This happened many times all throughout the game and it was annoying. This is a platforming game and having unresponsive controls can make/break the game. I hope there will be a future patch to fix this issue.

Overall

Alien Spidy is actually a good game. I love the concept of racing through a level, collecting as many items as possible, failing as least as you can and achieving a high score by the end. It provides a fun and fast paced platforming arcade style gameplay. However, the unresponsive controls of this game can really bog down the gameplay experience.

If it wasn’t for the controls then the game would be much more addicting than it already is. However, I would personally give this game a chance and hope that the developers will appreciate the support and fix the issue in a patch or a future sequel if there is ever one.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

Billed as an action platformer and created using Unity 3D, the game centers around Spidy who needs to find his friend and also rebuild his space ship to get home after crashing on Earth.

Jonathan Hales, managing director, Kalypso Media stated that, “Alien Spidy is the quintessential platformer for the modern gamer. Gamers of all ages and skill levels can jump in and will instantly feel its charm and appeal, while hardcore gamers and perfectionists will be delighted with the challenges designed within each level, offering progressive difficulty.”

The game boasts 69 levels, leaderboard support, non-linear level structure that lets you complete levels in whatever order you want, tons of NPCs and even secret levels that can be unlocked when you collect enough stars.

Kalypso Media has sent out word that their upcoming downloadable title Alien Spidy will be landing on shores on March 20th on XBLA, PC and Mac.

Alien Spidy is a single-player 2D action adventure with a mix of side scrolling platforming. It tells the tale of well, an Alien Spider, who has crash landed on Earth in search of his friend Virgi. In his quest to find his friend and also scattered parts of his damaged spaceship, Spidey will make his way through rich and vibrant environments including forests, ponds and caves, filled to the brim with deadly insectoid, mammalian, and amphibious enemies, not to mention several thought provoking physica puzzles. The game will feature over 69 levels,  and more than 350 collectibles and achievements.

“Alien Spidy is a new take on the classic side-scroller, but with all sorts of modern twists,” said Jonathan Hales, Managing Director, Kalypso Media Digital. “The game is filled with colorful characters, beautiful animations, and just the right balance of pick-up-and-play accessibility and ramps up the challenge in later levels, making it perfect for all types of gamers.”

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Kalypso’s line-up thus far for Gamescom 2012 includes:

Legends of Pegasus (PC)
The Dark Eye: Demonicon (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC)
Dark (PC and Xbox 360)
Omerta: City of Gangsters (PC and Xbox 360)
Port Royale 3 (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3)
Alien Spidy (PSN, Xbox Live and PC)
Dollar Dash (PSN, Xbox Live and PC)

Of these titles, Omerta: City of Gangsters and The Dark Eye: Demonicon will be playable via consoles and PC during the Con.

They may sound relatively unknown but Kalypso has been behind quite a number of titles since it’s inception in 2006, either as publisher or developer.

These include Tropic 3 & 4, Sins of a Solar Empire, Theater of War, Disciples III, The First Templar, Boulder Dash XL, Galactic Civilizations and much much more.

It’ll be interesting to see what they unveil at this year’s Gamescom.