#bits studios

Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six, 1992

Toxic Waste Dump - Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six (1992) Developer - Bits Studios Publisher - Acclaim Entertainment

Found in the sewers of New York City, the waste dump serves as the hiding place of the Sandman, the second member of the Sinister Six Spider-Man must defeat. The sewers are patrolled by armed hoodlums and oversized rabid rats as enemies, with dripping acid serving as a damaging level hazard. There area introduces floating crates that explode when jumped on, ropes and chains to climb up. The player must collect the TNT and an explosive detonator to destroy the false wall obstructing the path to Sandman.

‘Rogue Ops’

[GCN / PS2 / XBOX] [USA] [MAGAZINE, SPREAD] [2003]

GMR, December 2003 (#11)

Alien 3

During heavily promoted build up to Alien 3’s premiere, a video game was produced as part of its marketing campaign for several systems courtesy of Probe. The game initially seems to follow the plot of the film, with Ripley and an alien surviving a crash landing into an all but abandoned foundry-turned-prison.  Rather than a game chronicling how the movie plays out from there, however, Probe has produced something with more action, but not quite as interesting. Instead players get to control a heavily armed Ripley as she searches around convoluted levels to save the planet’s inmates before aliens explode out of them. But by not committing to either focus on the potential intensity of the game’s premise of action packed shooting, Alien 3‘s game adaptation firmly implants itself into unbalanced mediocrity. 

‘Constantine: The Video Game’

[PC / XBOX] [UK] [MAGAZINE] [2005]

Official Xbox Magazine, March 2005 (#40)

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

The legend of Robin Hood and his Merry Men has inspired tons of games over the years, but one of the more interesting is Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves released for the NES and Game Boy in 1991. Based off the film from the same year best known for Kevin Costner's dodgy accent and Alan Rickman's scene chewing, the game combines action, RPG, and horse riding gameplay into a "movie game" that's hard to forget. Many lines of dialogue are lifted straight from the film, and the music by Paul Webb has a nice medieval flavor. This is no slapdash side-scroller in the vein of Cliffhanger or Total Recall. Instead, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves mashes up genres into a fun adventure whose sum is greater than it parts.