Game music of the day: Spider-Man & The X-Men: Arcade's Revenge

Game: Spider-Man & The X-Men

Song: Mission Briefing

Composer: Tim and Geoff Follin

Above: Mission Briefing from Spider-Man & The X-Men

After six years of open-world romps through Manhattan, Spider-Man returns to straightfoward action today with the release of Shattered Dimensions. While some may lament the loss of free-roaming gameplay, it's important to remember there are a few decent-to-great Spidey games from years past that put you on a direct path instead of a wide-open cityscape. One such title would be 1992's team-up extravaganza, Spider-Man & The X-Men, which also sports one of the most glamorous and funky soundtracks of all time.

This "Briefing" track perfectly exemplifies the full OST, as it starts out like porn music, then seamlessly blends into something akin to circus porn, then circus disco porn, then a totally legit bass groove. It's a grand musical journey, making for one of the weirdest Marvel experiences of the 16-bit days. Doubly so if you know your costume trivia - Wolverine and Cyclops were in different suits at this point (classic yellow and Jim Lee blue, respectively), while Storm is already in her new '90s attire seen in the Fox cartoon. It's a bizarre mishmash of spandex.

Above: Cyclops' level is more akin to a '70s variety show. Seven minutes of freakin' out, man!

Above: Wolverine's theme sounds a bit silly because the level takes place in a toy world. Yep

Just about every song is incredibly strong, which is thanks to the continued skill of Tim and Geoff Follin, two fairly well-known games musicians. Everything they touch is VGM gold, and you can check some of their additional work below.

Game music of the day: Plok!
A surefire cure for whatever ailes you, by Tim and Geoff Follin

Game music of the day: Incredible Crash Dummies
Level 2 by Tim Follin, the best part about the entire game

Game music of the day: Spider-Man vs The Kingpin
Face-shredding metal from Frykman and Strong