Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage is a popular beat 'em up game for the Sega Genesis and Super NES based on Maximum Carnage, published by LJN. The game allowed players to control either Spider-Man or Venom, and featured the rest of the hero cast as summonable power-ups. A surprising amount of attention was paid to accurately recreating the comic, including levels modeled after scenes from individual issues, and villains' vulnerabilities or resistances to certain attacks.
Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage provides examples of:
- Abandoned Area: The final fight takes place in front of the condemned St. Estes Home for Boys.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Carnage is not the Bad Boss that he was in the comic book storyline, never being shown threatening or mistreating his underlings, so him breaking Shriek out, letting her keep Doppelganger as a pet after she asks him not to hurt him, and happily inviting Demogoblin to join him even after Demogoblin threatens him comes off as much more amiable (in an evil way) than it did in the comics since these moments are not subverted later on by him raging at or attacking any of the members of "Team Carnage."
- Adapted Out: The only hero from the comics not to make the cut is Nightwatch.
- Bar Brawl: One of the levels takes place in a nightclub, The Deep.
- Bombardier Mook: Demogoblin can fly around on his Goblin Glider, dropping Pumpkin Bombs.
- Bookends: The game begins after Carnage's escape, with Spider-Man pondering how his enemies never seem to stay locked up. At the end of the game, Black Cat tells him that she fears that "monsters like that have a way of returning," and he reassures her that she should have faith, and hopes that some monsters stay locked up forever.
- Boss-Only Level: Various levels just have you fighting the villains, like Rooftop, The Hall, Central Park, and Rooftop 2.
- Boss Rush: The penultimate level is a Boss-Only Level, where Spider-Man and Venom go up against the Rogues Gallery before fighting Carnage.
- Boulder Bludgeon: You can take out enemies by throwing a big rock at them in Prospect Park.
- Canon Foreigner: The Muzzoid, the big security robot that you fight in Fantastic Four HQ, was created for the game, and has no counterpart in either the Maximum Carnage storyline or any of the Fantastic Four comic books.
- The Cavalry Arrives Late: The Avengers only show up at the very end, to arrest the defeated Carnage.
- Degraded Boss: This happens after defeating the mini-bosses in the level that they are introduced in. These enemies later become regular enemies, but without a gray health bar that denotes their status as mini-bosses.
- Easy Levels, Hard Bosses: The game has simple levels that involve beating up rioters. The boss fights are either introductions to Elite Mooks or pit you against super villains with powerful attacks who are hard to beat unless you know their Assist Character weakness (even then, you're still in trouble if you screw up or forget them); Shriek's the only one who isn't immune to being snared by webs. And then there's Muzzoid, who is very difficult to beat without an exploit.
- The End... Or Is It?: "The end of Maximum Carnage! Or is it?"
- Evil Laugh: Carnage has a very Joker-esque one.
- Fission Mailed: The game has an inversion, starting the ending credits after a battle with Carnage... only to interrupt them when he stands back up and the True Final Boss fight starts.
- Giant Mook: The fat, club-wielding men who are surprisingly Acrofatic.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Carrion, unlike the other villains, does not get an introductory cutscene, merely showing up out of nowhere in Rooftop 2.
- Grapple Move: Both Spider-Man and Venom can pick up certain objects and even enemies and throw them.
- Guide Dang It!: In advertisements, there was a screenshot of Venom fighting inside the Statue of Liberty's crown. But you never see it, as choosing Venom partway through the game means he's stuck in a Cutscene Hell and only returns to gameplay before the final boss. Obviously a removed stage, right? Wrong. As it turns out, during that Cutscene Hell, you can actually get Venom freed earlier by rapidly hitting a button before the cutscene he actually gets freed in, thus getting the Statue of Liberty stage and a host of hero summons.
- Hearts Are Health: You recover HP by collecting big and small Hearts.
- Hopeless Boss Fight:
- At the end of the first stage, as Spider-Man, you'll fight a Giant Mook. Beat him, and then two Big Mooks, and then 4. The fourth one will have maximum HP, but it can be whittled down. If you win, you'll get the same event as if you lost, with Cloak and Dagger rescuing Spider-Man.
- The fight with Doppelganger and Shriek in Central Park is impossible to win, as no matter how much damage you do to them, it always ends with them knocking out Venom.
- It's All Upstairs From Here: The Climb level, which entails wall-crawling up a building while dodging attacks from Doppelganger and Shriek.
- Mecha-Mooks: You fight these, small floating spheres that fire short-range lasers, instead of people in Fantastic 4 HQ.
- Never Say "Die": Dialogue from the original comics is reworked to avoid mentioning death. Specific examples include Spider-Man thinking that Dagger is "gone" rather than "dead" when wondering how Cloak can still teleport, and the final lines of the game noting that some monsters stay "locked up" as opposed to "dead and buried."
- No-Gear Level: You lose whatever hero summons that you had on you during the final battle with Carnage.
- Parasol of Pain: There are enemies who use umbrellas as both weapons and shields.
- Pass the Popcorn: Carnage hangs out in the background, watching Doppelganger and Shriek brutalize Venom in Central Park.
- Personal Space Invader: Carrion attacks by latching onto the player, damaging them with his Touch of Death.
- Pre-Ending Credits: After the player defeats Carnage and his family, a cutscene will play where Spider-Man confronts an angry Venom and the credits start to play. However, part way through, an Evil Laugh echoes and the credits race upwards as Carnage surfaces in the nearby lake, kicking off the two-part Final Boss.
- Prehensile Hair: The female enemies can use their hair to whip Spidey or Venom.
- Primal Chest-Pound: In a variant, Doppelganger angrily pounds the ground as an Idle Animation.
- Prison Level: In the Spider-Man route, he goes to the police station to quell a prisoners' riot.
- Put Their Heads Together: Using webs while surrounded by two enemies will do this. The attack deals damage to both targets equal to the health of the weaker enemy, which means that it can actually One-Hit Kill some of the non-supervillain bosses in one hit if done right.
- Rescue Equipment Attack: Fire extinguishers can be chucked as weapons in the Secret Rooms.
- Rooftop Confrontation: Spider-Man fights Doppelganger and Shriek on Rooftop, and a bunch of the villains are all fought on Rooftop 2.
- SkeleBot 9000: The Muzzoid, a big security robot that you fight in Fantastic 4 Lab.
- Schrödinger's Player Character: Averted, as the player is offered a few times to play as Spider-Man or Venom, which determines the next stage, but the player must control both, Spider-Man and Venom, for the final stage.
- The Smurfette Principle: Not counting Shriek, there is only one type of female enemy, though they have Palette Swaps.
- Spider-Sense: The only time it gets used is when it (and flashing arrows) warn Spidey of incoming attacks from Doppelganger and Shriek in the Climb level.
- Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Defied, not only is Venom an optional playable character, there are several heroes who will join the duo in combating the threat posed by Carnage and the rogues gallery as summons — These are: Black Cat, Captain America, Cloak and Dagger, Deathlok, Firestar, Iron Fist, and Morbius.
- Super Special Move: If you manage to connect enough hits without being struck, the health bar will start to blink, going faster the more you attack. Once it fills up completely, the player character will let out a very powerful attack that can instantly defeat mooks and deal enough damage to instantly destroy the grey health bar of the mini-bosses
- Super Window Jump: Doppelganger smashes through a stained-glass window to get to Spidey in The Hall.
- Throw a Barrel at It: What look like steel kegs can be thrown at enemies in New York Street 2 and the final Secret Room.
- Throw the Book at Them: A heavy stack of newspapers can be thrown at enemies in the first level, New York Street.
- Victory Fakeout: Carnage returns to attack the player during the credits sequence.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: The Rogues Gallery bosses normally leave the premise upon defeat in other stages. The only exception is the penultimate level, where they go down for good.
- Violation of Common Sense: To get to the final Secret Room, you have to let Carnage hit you in the doorway of the Ruined Boys Home.
- Water Tower Down: In the first fight against Doppelganger, it's possible to instantly defeat him by throwing a nearby water tower at him.
