SpiderHeck Review: So Good I Can Overlook The Spiders

I don’t like spiders. Never have. It’s not quite so bad that I need to turn on anti-spider filters in games that offer them, but I’ve thought about it before. Which puts any game so prominently featuring the little guys at a bit of a disadvantage. I almost passed SpiderHeck by without a second thought. That would have been a huge mistake, because it’s been awhile since I just got a game so quickly. Within a minute or so of messing around on the menu screen, which is designed as an actual level and is very cool, I was fairly certain I liked the game. After a few more minutes, I didn’t have any doubt. SpiderHeck is one heck of a game.

Designed primarily as a multiplayer title, you and up to three opponents can face off as spiders, fighting through a series of stages surrounded by lava. While each stage is different, there are all kinds of platforms and objects for your spiders to web to and use to swing on. You’ll soon be launching yourself around like your spider is actually Spider-Man, flinging yourself to safety, pulling yourself back from the lava, and trying to get to the latest items to spawn.

Could A Spider Wield Eight Lightsabers?

There are a huge number of weapons available in SpiderHeck. Everything from standard guns, to giant missile launchers, to proximity mines, and melee weapons such as laser swords. That’s right, these spiders have lightsabers. While some weapons are just better than others, I love the risk versus reward aspect of a lot of these weapons. Basic guns are reliable, and if you land a shot, they’ll kill just as easily as anything else, but they require a lot of precision, which isn’t easy when these spiders are swinging around like crazy. You’ll often fire a full clip off without hitting anything. Meanwhile, you have missile launchers which will lead to huge explosions. You don’t have to be all that precise to kill someone with one of those. If you’re not careful, though, you can just as easily end up killing yourself, and there’s a lot of stuff flying around which can get in your way. Even an opposing bullet hitting your rocket at the wrong moment can blow it up in your face.

Melee weapons are perhaps my favorite part of the game. Sure, a lightsaber is cool, but you also have staff with only the end doing damage, and double-sided lightsabers which you can swing around in all directions. You can even throw these weapons at foes, a risk, but one that created some super memorable finishes to levels.

One More Round

If you’re not interested in facing off against your friends (or randoms online), you can team up as well in a wave-based survival mode where increasingly dangerous waves of enemies come at you. If even a single member of your team survives a wave, everyone revives so you can take on the next set of enemies with your team. It’s a lot of fun, and can be played solo as well, though I’d likely recommend trying to find a group to play with online because it’s a lot more fun with a group.

There’s one more single-player mode, which is much better for the solo player. The Tiers of Heck are a series of specific wave-based challenges where you have to use a specific weapon or survive a specific level as computer-generated enemies attack you. Fair warning, these levels get hard, but the challenge is welcome, and the ability to start another attempt with only a quick button press and almost no loading time means it hits that one more try center of the brain brilliantly. There were some of these levels where it took me dozens of attempts and where I told myself I was going to be done multiple times before finally either beating the level or talking myself into putting the controller down.

Conclusion

The physics of movement and swinging around take some getting used to if you want to swing through the air like you don’t have a care in the world, but they’re also immediately intuitive just to move around. It reminded me of a slightly tighter controlling version of N+, mixed with the style of something like Geometry Wars, crossed with the combat you’d expect in Super Smash Bros, and no, I’m not talking about playing on Final Destination with items off. The randomness and insanity is a massive part of the appeal, but underneath it, all are tight mechanics that make SpiderHeck an absolute joy to play.

If you have people to play it with, SpiderHeck is an absolute must-play and a game you should be checking out right now. Even for solo players, though, I think there’s enough to keep you entertained for hours. For me, SpiderHeck is the surprise of 2022 and is so good that I can overlook the arachnids crawling around in it.

Final Verdict: 4.5/5

Available on:  Xbox Series X (Reviewed), Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, Switch, PC; Publisher: tinyBuild; Developer: Neverjam; Players: 4; Released: September 22nd, 2022; ESRB: E10+ for Everyone 10+; MSRP: $14.99

Full disclosure: This review is based on a retail copy of SpiderHeck.