REVIEW: The Amazing Spider-Man Rescue Game (Bandai America; 1980)

Over the last year or so, I’ve found my childhood love for comic books reignited somethin’ fierce. Not that I ever stopped liking them, mind you, but for something that was one of my primary hobbies as a youngster, a long, long stretch went by where I would only pick issues up here and there, if they really struck my fancy. That has since flipped considerably, to heights previously unseen since my formative years. Actually, since I’ve got real money to goof around with now (even when I probably shouldn’t), I can and do exceed whatever constituted said previous heights. ‘Course, now collecting comes with the caveat of my general rule of thumb of “’94 and before,” which applies to pretty much anything I collect (though there are always exceptions), which wasn’t the case back in the day, since it was, uh, already before 1994.

Nowadays, stops at my longtime local comic shop are a regular thing again – and I always purchase something. And what’s double-cool is that this probably isn’t a bad investment, either; much of the 1960s and 1970s stuff I’ve been snapping up is still fairly affordable, but when you think about it, those comics are now over the 60 & 50 years (!) old marks – it’s not hard to imagine them going up even more in price as the years roll on. (Indeed, some of them are already pretty pricey online, though luckily the in-person buys at my local spot are, for the most part, still entirely reasonable, while still being fair to the proprietor – which makes sense, since the dude’s the one pricing them and he’s been doing this sort of thing for decades.)

Some things never change though: my interests, as in superheroes of choice, are largely the same as they were back in the day. Namely, Superman, Batman and Spider-Man, in that order. Not that I wasn’t fond of others, I was and am, but those were the main guys for me. Said order was probably a little different during my earlier years; as I recall it, it was mostly Supes and Batguy battling for supremacy in my lil’ mind, but with the Tim Burton films, the Kenner toy lines and the animated series all coming at me full force, I’d say Bats probably got the ultimate nod back then. Today, I’m still a Batman Batfan, but when it comes to this sort of thing, I’m more of a Superman, uh, man.

Admittedly I’m more DC than Marvel, but I like Marvel, and Spidey, plenty. In fact, what we’re going to look at today, it’s something that had been on my mental want list for years, well before this full-fledged comic love resurgence, and it’s firmly Marvel/Spider-Man. (Also, I’m well aware that my tastes are considerably mainstream. I also don’t care. If preferring some ‘extreme’ underground comic inked by a homeless guy in an alley that only sold three copies would give me more street cred, well, I think I’m good with where I’m at.)

Dig this: it’s The Amazing Spider-Man Rescue Game handheld! Put out by Bandai America way back in 1980 (a whopping 44 years ago as of this writing!), this may very well be the first electronic Spider-Man handheld ever released. Don’t quote me on that, I’m not positive, but I’ve certainly never seen an earlier one. I mean, there were handheld pinball and slide puzzle games beforehand, but as far as I know, there was nothing electric and/or electronic about those. Not unless you count the kinetic energy created by the sheer force of my slamming a slide puzzle against the wall, that is. (I’ll buy old slide puzzles as advertisement/promotional pieces, but the idea of actually playing with one is… not entrancing.)

Yes, I totally used a disposable plate as my background for these pics; hey, it was clean and clear and readily available. You call it silly; I call it ingenuity.

Like I said, I’ve wanted one of these for quite some time; I’m not gonna bother linking to any of the posts, but longtime readers should know I love me some old handhelds. And this one has legitimate pop culture clout to boot! Cool winnins! So why did it take me so long to obtain one? Because, given its age, it tends to be relatively obscure, and when you factor in the licensed superhero aspect, sometimes pricey as well. And of course, since these things were primarily owned by kids and are now a thousand years old, condition, both cosmetic and functioning, also comes into play.

Finally, one popped up with a price that didn’t make me turn to an imaginary camera and shed a single tear, and while I wasn’t quite sure if it was fully tested and working, the price was right enough that I decided to take a chance. Did I ultimately prevail? Read on! (Hint: I wasn’t unhappy. Not about this, anyway.)

The Amazing Spider-Man Rescue Game is certainly electronic, but in practice, the best way I can describe it is as a battery-powered, handheld board game. The idea is to push the play button, which will set a red LED light in motion, eventually stopping on one of the spots on the board. It’s a real “two steps forward, one step back” kinda deal; you want to land on spots that’ll move you upward (“Leaps +4” and so on), but since there needs to be some kind of challenge, there are also spots that’ll move you backwards, or keep you in place. After each turn, you move your little Spidey-Guy token backwards or forwards (or no-wards) accordingly. It’s sort of like Press Your Luck, except after hitting the play button the game itself randomly picks what you land on.

The goal is for you, as Spider-Man DUH, to reach the top of the burning building and rescue J. Jonah Jameson. Of course, he’ll probably just find a way to blame Spidey for the whole mess, but no one ever said being a superhero was easy. Talk about a Whammy!

Here’s a closer look at the controls at your disposal. There, uh, ain’t much – but then, you don’t really need much.

As you can see, there’s the expected on/off switch, the play button that sets everything in motion (naturally once the game is powered and on of course HAW HAW HAW), up top you’ve got your little Spider-Man levers that keep track of how far you’ve progressed up the building, and at the bottom, the scoring dials.

The scoring dials bring up an important point: you can play this by yourself, but it’s a sad, lonely, yet fast-moving, existence. I know this from experience; it’s not like I could get anyone over here to play this thing with me. (Aw shucks, I just gave away the answer as to whether the game works or not, didn’t I?) The Amazing Spider-Man Rescue Game is really meant for two players, as the set-up on the game here, not to mention the old TV commercial for it (more on that in a bit), made abundantly clear. As a single player, there simply aren’t enough negative/neutral spots to land on to keep you from advancing up the building in short order. With two players though, I can see this all being competitive, albeit mildly

Here’s the back of the game, providing handy instructions and a battery compartment for your required battery. See how that works?

The Amazing Spider-Man Rescue Game demands one 9-volt battery of the user, which was a bit of an issue for yours truly, since I rarely have the need and/or use for a 9-volt battery. I did find one, but it was pretty old, and pretty much the opposite of a name brand. I’m not even sure why it was here, but I figured if it kept me from having to obtain a new 9-volt battery I’ll never ever use again, hey, I’ll give it a try.

In short, it didn’t work. Not really, anyway. It did power the game up, as far as giving me an LED to gawk at, but it wouldn’t actually play. This was undesirable, to say the least. FINE, guess I’ll be a responsible blogger and get a brand-new name brand battery to try my little Spider game out.

Luckily, that did the trick. The game fired right up and allowed me to play. Victory is mine! There I was, playing The Amazing Spider-Man Rescue Game, all by myself, on a disposable plate. You know, when I word it like that, my unwarranted ego sounds even more unwarranted.

As for the instructions, I’ve already given you the gist of the game, though I’m a little unclear on the “shots you’ve taken” part. Do they just mean turns? Or, like, punches, when a two-player game naturally devolved into fisticuffs? Spider-Man wouldn’t approve of that.

Okay, let’s play!

It works! It works! I know I’ve already established that, but now you can see the bright red flashin’ LED, thus proving my honesty. Did you think I was laying? I wasn’t.

The revelation that this thing worked just fine was cause for celebration, so much so that I had to fight the urge to march around my neighborhood shouting “Spider-Guy! Spider-Guy! The amazincredible Spider-Guy! Yo man, that there’s the Spider-Guy!” whilst obnoxiously pumping my fists.

(That’s how the song went, right?)

Anyway, I was off to a good start! +1! Sure, I can do that!

D’oh! Two steps back! Never before had I so truly known the sadness and heartache of Bruce Springsteen’s “One Step Up.” I’m not positive, but I think he just may have written that song after a fast, furious round of The Amazing Spider-Man Rescue Game. I’ll be sure to ask him when/if I’m ever granted an interview.

By the way, did I mention this game is LOUD? It’s pretty loud. The game emits a high-pitched tone upon powering up and darting around the board, and when it lands on a spot, it doesn’t stop. Until you press play again, it just ‘sits’ there, driving your dog nuts. And guess what, plucky? Ain’t no way to turn the volume down, neither! Kids hoping to quietly sneak out of bed late at night to give this game a quick play without alerting their parents were in for a rude awakening! So were their parents, come to think of it.

Continuous play saw my lil’ Spido-Mang steadily make his way towards to the top. Hold tight Jonah, I’m-a comin’! I wonder if his ever-present cigar is what caused the building to catch fire in the first place? He’d probably find a way to blame that on Spider-Man, too.

You know, for as simplistic as the game is, for the time, it really did give kids the option to ‘be’ Spider-Man. After all, you can only run around outside in a sad, homemade Spider-Man costume for so long before you start getting concerned looks from the neighbors. Do I know that from recent experience? I’m not tellin’!

That reminds me: one time I was in a thrift store, and some little kid was in the toy section. Evidently he had just found a Spider-Man mask (unless he wore his in, who knows), and at one point, I looked over, and he was standing completely silent and still, doing that web-slinging gesture at me. It was strange, and I can’t help but feel such shenanigans could have been avoided if he had had his own Amazing Spider-Man Rescue Game to keep him occupied. Luckily, the tale now serves me well as filler this very moment.

I did it! I did it! You’re safe, Jonah! I await your accolades! Hey, why are you calling the cops?

I wasn’t jivin’ before; it didn’t take me very long to reach the top at all. You can play this by yourself, but since there’s really no way to lose, this pretty much has to be a two-player game. Otherwise, it’s all just kinda pointless. And loud.

It’s a pretty simple game, and obviously not much graphically, but given the time period, you couldn’t reasonably expect a whole lot more. LCD handhelds were just beginning to make the scene, namely with Nintendo’s Game & Watch titles, but LED was still the order of the day where this sort of thing was concerned.

I will say this though, the game certainly looks cool. The bright shiny red LED, sure, but also just the molding and sticker and red-and-blue color scheme. It’s cosmetically attractive, is what I’m saying.

By the way, you may have noticed that I’ve referred to this as The Amazing Spider-Man Rescue Game throughout, yet the sticker on the game merely calls it Spider-Man Rescue. So what’s the deal? Well, the sticker may say otherwise, but the packaging indeed identified this by the full title I’ve been going with.

In fact, so did the advertising. Not so much the comic book ad, which I can’t find a decent scan of to link to right now (it refers to J. Jonah Jameson as Spidey’s friend, which I hope was just them being sarcastic), but the television commercial certainly did. Here, see for yourself if you don’t believe me!

It was kind of a goofy spot, again noting Jameson simply as “friend” while a jingle + voiceover briefly gave the run down on how the thing operated. Like any good commercial, they made the game look a whole lot more exciting than it actually was, but then, it was a simpler time; maybe it was genuinely exciting back then?

The ad also made a point of showing two kids (see, told you it’s ideally two-player!) battling for Spider-Man supremacy, before one raises his arms enthusiastically and then starts annoyingly doing victory clasps while his (now former?) friend exaggeratedly displays his crushing defeat. It’s the kind of behavior that could potentially result in punches being thrown in real life, but like I said, it was a simpler time; maybe this was how kids genuinely reacted back then?

The Amazing Spider-Man Rescue Game is a neat artifact on several fronts. As a piece of comic book/superhero paraphernalia, as a handheld video game (well, maybe not technically the video part…), even just as an example of late-70s/early-80s kid-based pop culture in general. I’m not sure how well it has held up gameplay-wise, but then, I was playing by my lonesome; maybe some good-natured trash talk whilst playing against a buddy would change my perception. Or maybe you had to be 10 years old in 1980 to get the most out of this, I dunno. At any rate, I’m certainly happy to have finally obtained this one after too many years of wanting it. I like it!

By the way, if you’re a Marvel fan but Spider-Man isn’t your cup o’ tea, there was also an Incredible Hulk-branded version! I don’t have it, but apparently it plays exactly the same; only the stickers and color scheme are different. Maybe I’ll go after that one at some point. Provided I can find it cheap enough, that is.

For the time being, I’m just wondering how long it’d take me to get kicked out of the comic shop by loudly playing this in there, whilst standing in everybody’s way and not buying anything. Worth a try? Maybe if I was dressed up as Spider-Man while doing so?

Nahhhhhh….