ARCADE'S REVENGE
Instigator: Arcade
Purpose: To destroy Spider-Man and the X-Men
Allies: Spider-Man (Peter Parker), the X-Men
(Cyclops/Scott Summers, Gambit/Remy LeBeau, Storm/Ororo Munroe,
Wolverine/James Howlett)
Opposition: Apocalypse robot,
Arcade, Carnage robot, Genoshan Magistrate robots, Juggernaut robot,
Master Mold, N'astirh robot, Obnoxio the Clown robot, Rhino robot,
Shocker robot,
Sentinels, Spider-Slayers, Subterranean robots
Location: Arcade's theme park complex
First Appearance: Spider-Man & the X-Men in Arcade's
Revenge video game (November, 1992)
History:
(Spider-Man & the X-Men in
Arcade's Revenge
video game (fb) - BTS) - As part of a revenge scheme against his
enemies, the X-Men, the assassin Arcade rebuilt his deadly theme park
with bigger and more deadly games, rides and traps. He then populated
the park with several different robot enemies, some specifically
designed to counteract the X-Men's abilities.
(The Amazing Spider-Man & the X-Men in Arcade's
Revenge Special (fb) - BTS) - Also anticipating that his old enemy
Spider-Man might get involved, Arcade built a robot modeled after
Spider-Man's arch-enemy Carnage.
(Spider-Man &
the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge
video game - BTS) - One night as Arcade prepared for the heroes'
intended final destruction, the unaware Spider-Man noticed the X-Men
Cyclops, Storm and Wolverine had all seemingly disappeared.
(Spider-Man & the X-Men in
Arcade's Revenge video game/The Amazing Spider-Man & the
X-Men in Arcade's Revenge Special (fb)) - Opting to
get to the bottom of the disappearances, Spider-Man
soon saw the silhouette of the X-Men member Gambit but by the time he
swung down to the
mutant, a tube emerged from a large garbage truck and slammed down onto
Gambit, capturing the mutant.
(The Amazing Spider-Man & the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge Special
(fb)) - The garbage truck then sped forward, forcing Spider-Man to
rescue a bystander who was playing his Game Boy portable video game.
(Spider-Man & the X-Men in Arcade's
Revenge video game) - Spider-Man found the garbage truck to be
very
familiar and he thought back on all of the foes he had encountered in
the past and quickly recalled the assassin Arcade. Attaching a
Spider-Tracer to the departing garbage truck, Spider-Man pursued the
truck into the night in an attempt to rescue the X-Men.
Tracking the truck to the perimeter of Arcade's newly rebuilt complex, Spider-Man found the entrance wide open but his Spider-Sense warned him about entering. Realizing that the entrance to the complex was rigged with flashing Security Eyes, Spider-Man used his Spider-Sense to guide him on the order in which to deactivate the Security Eyes, dodging Arcade's security robots and effectively disabling the complex's security system. Upon entering the complex, Spider-Man found the captive X-Men bound to the wall and a video of Arcade appeared on a screen behind them, welcoming Spider-Man and admitting that Spider-Man was a welcome bonus to his revenge scheme. Further claiming he hadn't planned on Spider-Man's interference (see comments), Arcade announced that there was plenty of fun for everyone before challenging each of his captives to two park scenarios designed to test a particular heroic victim's strengths and weaknesses.
Cyclops was sent into two challenges within the "The Ride of Your Life" scenario, which involved a mine cart rollercoaster with electrified rails and landmines on the track. During the ride, Cyclops was forced to periodically jump from the cart to avoid bomb-dropping droid orbs and robot Genoshan Magistrates and Subterraneans, which were designed to be resistant to Cyclops' optic blasts. Making his way through the mine cart coaster, Cyclops came upon a a smaller-sized Sentinel robot that fired waves of pure radiation at the mutant. Cyclops managed to destroy the Sentinel and venture further into Arcade's scenario, battling another Sentinel and more robots until coming face-to-face with a five-story high recreation of the Master Mold. Despite its arm and head being destroyed by Cyclops' optic blasts, Master Mold continued to attack until Cyclops ultimately destroyed the robot entirely.
Deposited into the "Dunk the Mutant!" scenario, Storm was trapped in an underwater maze, where she needed to raise the water level by destroying hatches in order to escape through the ceiling exit, all without drowning and while avoiding several marine-themed robot opponents. After escaping the first maze of the scenario, Storm found herself in another maze. Navigating the maze to Arcade's hydroelectric power plant, Storm destroyed the plant's glass spheres and escaped the underwater maze.
Gambit was placed in the "Checkmate!" scenario, in which he was
forced to battle Chess-themed robots while outrunning the gigantic,
spiked metal Doomball. After defeating a giant robot King playing card,
Gambit escaped into the second part of the scenario, where he was
trapped on a constantly moving metal girder that threatened to smash
him against the ceilings and walls of a gaming-themed room. Battling
still more Chess-themed robots, Gambit made his way to the top of the
room, where he was attacked by a large robot Black Queen. Destroying
the robot's arms first, Gambit then destroyed the robot's head, causing
an explosion that completely destroyed the robot.
Wolverine was sent to the "Laugh 'til You Drop!" scenario, a funhouse-like area where he battled his way through robot duplicates of Obnoxio the Clown hurling acid-filled pies, floor buzzsaws, exploding building block floor panels and more until being forced into a fight against a robot duplicate of Apocalypse.
(The Amazing Spider-Man & the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge Special)
- Attempting to aid Wolverine, Spider-Man ventured into Wolverine's
funhouse scenario and managed to save Wolverine from getting hit by one
of the Obnoxio robot's acid-filled pies. Before Spider-Man could
destroy the Obnoxio robot, a robot resembling the villainous Juggernaut
appeared, punching Wolverine. Watching Spider-Man and Wolverine from
afar, Arcade laughed at the idea of being able to destroy not only the
X-Men but Spider-Man as well, gloating that he had anticipated the
wall-crawler's arrival.
(Spider-Man & the X-Men in
Arcade's Revenge video game) - Wolverine squared off against the
Juggernaut robot, which began a constant charge toward the mutant.
(The Amazing Spider-Man & the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge Special)
- Bragging to himself that he actually had anticipated Spider-Man's
involvement, Arcade unleashed a Carnage robot against the wall-crawler.
(Spider-Man & the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge video game) - Keeping a pace just out of the robot Juggernaut's range, Wolverine managed to destroy the robot by slashing ropes holding up various heavy weights that came crashing down on the robot.
(The Amazing Spider-Man & the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge Special)
- Thinking the Carnage robot to be the true Carnage, Spider-Man thought
back on the lesson of responsibility taught to him by his Uncle Ben and
managed to draw enough strength to knock back the Carnage robot.
(Spider-Man & the X-Men in
Arcade's Revenge video game) - Spider-Man was then sent into
the "Hi Rise Hijinx" scenario of the park,
where Spider-Slayer robots hurled bags of exploding cement at an area
designed to resemble a construction site. Avoiding the various drones
and robots sent against him, Spider-Man was soon met by two robot
duplicates of his enemy, the Shocker. Venturing further into the
construction site area, Spider-Man encountered and ultimately destroyed
a robot of the demon N'astirh as well to emerge victorious from his
first challenge. For the second challenge, Spider-Man again battled
Spider-Slayers and other robots, this time at the top of the
construction site, until being forced to face a robot duplicates of his
foe Rhino and the returning robot Carnage, both of which he destroyed.
Once each of the heroes had escaped their respective trap scenarios, they made their way towards Arcade himself.
(The Amazing Spider-Man &
the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge Special) - When the heroes arrived at
Arcade's control room, Wolverine hurled the Juggernaut robot remnants
through the wall with Spider-Man and the other X-Men following shortly
behind. A surprised Arcade demanded to know how they had all escaped
his traps and when Storm replied that games were only as good as their
players, Arcade smiled and hit a button on his control panel.
(Spider-Man & the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge video game) - The X-Men were then each hit with stasis beams and Spider-Man quickly fought his way to his allies.
(The Amazing Spider-Man & the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge Special)
- Arcade responded by unleashing a giant robot of himself equipped with
gattling gun arms, a spiked chestplate, grenade launchers and the
smiling face of Arcade himself.
(Spider-Man & the X-Men in
Arcade's Revenge video game) - During the battle, as Spider-Man
damaged the robot, Arcade's stasis hold over the captured X-Men
weakened and the X-Men would periodically join in the battle as they
were able, hitting the Arcade robot with explosive cards, lightning
bolts, optic blasts and punches.
(The Amazing Spider-Man & the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge Special)
- The heroes managed to destroy the giant Arcade robot but another
quickly took its place.
(Spider-Man & the X-Men in
Arcade's Revenge video game) - After the heroes destroyed parts
of the second robot, more weapons were revealed from its damaged
locations including a pogo stick-like bottom portion that, once
destroyed as well, revealed more mobile wheels. When the robot was
entirely destroyed, numerous normal-sized Arcade robots leaped from the
robot's core, each equipped with handguns, but Spider-Man and the X-Men
managed to destroy almost all of the Arcade robots.
(The Amazing Spider-Man & the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge Special)
- Tired of playing by Arcade's rules, Spider-Man knocked out Arcade and
the remaining Arcade robot deactivated, leading Wolverine to believe
Arcade was controlling the robot using thought transference.
(Spider-Man & the X-Men in
Arcade's Revenge video game) - As the heroes prepared to leave
Arcade's park, a seemingly recovered Arcade appeared before them (see comments) on a video screen and
commended the heroes on destroying the Arcade robots. Gloating that he
still had one more surprise for the heroes, Arcade began a countdown
and the heroes, quickly realizing Arcade was going to blow up the
entire park, ran for the exit, narrowly escaped the blast as Arcade's
park exploded. Watching the smoldering debris from a safe distance,
Spider-Man asked if the X-Men thought Arcade survived the explosion and
Gambit replied that Spider-Man could count on it.
(The Amazing Spider-Man & the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge Special)
- Spider-Man returned home to Mary Jane Watson, who announced that she
bought a Nintendo with the new video game Arcade's Revenge. Groaning,
Spider-Man nonetheless got hooked on the video game, enjoying sticking
it to Arcade in video game form.
Comments: Created by Software Creations (see Appearances list for individuals involved).
The Amazing Spider-Man & the X-Men in
Arcade's Revenge Special comic book was a promotional comic book
released by Marvel UK exclusively as an insert in an issue of Total!, a UK video game magazine.
The Spider-Man & the X-Men in Arcade's
Revenge
video game was ported over to many other video game consoles following
its initial release on the Super Nintendo system in November, 1992. It
arrived on the Sega Genesis in 1993, the Sega Game Gear in March 1994
and the Nintendo Game Boy, also in 1994.
Other than the outdated costumes
(Cyclops in his blue & white X-Factor costume & Wolverine in
his brown costume), there is nothing continuity-wise that would prevent
the Spider-Man & the X-Men in
Arcade's Revenge
video game from being in Earth-616 continuity. Interestingly enough,
the comic adaptation of the video game has Cyclops and Wolverine in
their then-current costumes (Cyclops in his blue & yellow, Jim
Lee-designed costume & Wolverine in his blue & yellow tiger
striped costume). The instruction manual for the Super Nintendo version
of the game has Cyclops in his 60s-80s blue & yellow costume but
the skin of his face and his visor are oddly colored red. Despite this,
his bio in the manual shows Cyclops in his Jim Lee-designed costume but
with the yellow portions colored orange. In fact, most of the X-Men's
costumes were miscolored in the Super Nintendo manual, including Storm
being shown in her original costume (albeit with a blue cape for some
reason), Wolverine depicted in his original X-Men tiger striped costume
with all blue & yellow portions (except the mask) colored red, and
Gambit's headgear colored to match his skin.
The manual for the video game wrote small bios for the heroes and villains of the video game, giving conflicting info as whether the villains were the actual characters or not. For example, the bios act as if the villains are the actual characters (albeit getting some info incorrect) but then other parts of the manual (such as the rundown on Spider-Man's & Wolverine's challenges) suggest that the villains could be robot recreations of the actual characters. The comic book adaptation confirms that they are indeed robot recreations so perhaps the bios in the instruction manual are meant to just give the reader a brief background on the character and their history with the heroes, even if the actual characters in the video game are robots.
While the video game has Arcade claiming he hadn't counted on Spider-Man's interference, the comic book adaptation shows Arcade gloating that he had anticipated Spider-Man's interference and he hinted that the anticipation was the reason he populated his park with a Carnage robot. That does make sense because why else would Arcade have robots of perennial Spider-Man foes Carnage, Rhino and Shocker unless he had planned for Spider-Man's involvement? I figure the conflicting statements from Arcade can be easily explained away by simply saying Arcade was lying to Spider-Man about not anticipating his involvement in the video game for dramatic purposes. Arcade has always been known to have a flair for the dramatic (I mean, he builds entire theme parks for the purposes of assassinating people!) and by telling Spider-Man he hadn't counted on the hero's involvement, Arcade could lure Spider-Man into a false sense of security. He does state in the comic that he had anticipated Spider-Man's involvement but he does so from the comfort of his control room so Spider-Man wouldn't have heard Arcade's personal gloating.
The video game ends with Arcade appearing before the heroes on a video screen and blowing up his deadly theme park. However, we know from the comic book that Arcade had previously been knocked out by Spider-Man so either Arcade regained consciousness and escaped to safety without the heroes knowing, perhaps during the cleanup, or the video of a gloating Arcade was simply a remote-activated video and the self-destruct of the park had been pre-programmed. My vote is for the latter. It seems like Arcade's usual modus operandi to set his park to explode if he were to lose consciousness. He probably filmed the video of himself gloating ahead of time and part of the self-destruct plan was to play that ahead of the explosion as one last taunt before the heroes would "die." Obviously, the heroes escaped before the explosion and the game even shows Gambit remarking that they count on seeing Arcade again. Of course, Arcade showed up again in the comics after this so he obviously didn't die in the explosion. Heck, the Arcade that Spider-Man punched out could've been a robot too but since the video game and comic adaptation story have not been mentioned following its release in another story, we can only guess as to how Arcade survived the explosion. He next shows up chronologically in Alpha Flight I#121 with no explanation or reference to the video game/comic book story.
One has to wonder how the Earth-616 counterpart of the Arcade's Revenge video game was. Like, was it exactly like the video game we in the real world got or was it slightly different? Was it like the Earth-616 Marvel Comics, where it adapted an actual adventure into a form of media? I'd think it couldn't be an actual adaptation of Arcade's actual revenge scheme since Mary Jane had the game waiting for Spidey when he got home from his adventure against Arcade. There's no way the Earth-616 video game companies could have gotten the story together that quickly and plus, the video game was already out for sale before Spider-Man even got home...of course, I guess someone might argue that the Arcade's Revenge comic book is how the story occurred on Earth-616 with the real life video game story being the fictionalized version that Spider-Man was playing at the end of the comic. I personally choose to think that both the video game and comic occurred on Earth-616 and that's how I'm treating this profile. As noted above in the comic, there really wasn't anything in the video game that contradicted Earth-616 history, other than maybe the incorrect costumes, which could be attributed to an art error or simply the video game company not being made of the costume changes before the game had went into production.
I realize the scans of the comic book used in this profile aren't that great but I didn't have the comic personally to scan myself and these were the best images available I could find. I hope to someday acquire an actual copy myself and when I do, I'll gladly replace the images with better quality scans...
Gambit's real name is listed as
"Remy Beaudreux" in the video game but that makes sense, as it was the
only last name we knew at the time the video game made. Other products
around that time also listed that as his real name as well (see Gambit's 1992 Marvel
Universe trading card).
Profile by Proto-Man.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Arcade's Revenge has no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
The Amazing Spider-Man & the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge Special, p2,
pan1-4 (Arcade gloating about his revenge scheme, main image)
Spider-Man & the X-Men in
Arcade's Revenge video game (Arcade appearing over the captured
X-Men via video screen)
The Amazing Spider-Man & the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge Special, p5,
pan4-5 (Spider-Man & the X-Men vs. Arcade robots)
Appearances:
Spider-Man & the X-Men in
Arcade's Revenge video game (November, 1992) - Paul Provenzano,
Billy Pidgeon, Michael Arkin, Carol Albert, Joseph Mazziotto, James
Fink (developers), Anthony Anderson, Craig Houston, David McLachlan,
James Clarke, Jonathan M. Smith, Ste Pickford (art), Mike Follin, Kevin
Edwards, Stephen Ruddy, Michael Webb (programmers)
The Amazing Spider-Man & the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge Special
(December, 1992) - Simon Furman (writer), Richard Elson (art), Louise
Cassell (editor)
First Posted: 11/28/2022
Last updated: 11/28/2022
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
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