In the game the player controls Spider-Man through six side-scrolling levels, with a member of the Sinister Six at the end of each level as a boss. The famous super-hero could jump, punch, kick, climb certain walls, shoot unlimited webs to swing on and collect web fluid to shoot square, web projectives. Players can also duck, and perform a jump kick.

The levels were generally pretty straight forward side-scrolling action, although occasionally a particular item such as key or a detonator would have to be found. Each level started out with a graphic illustration of Spider-Man battling the supervillain that the player would fight as a boss.

• Level One: New York City Streets and Power Plant with the boss being Electro.
• Level Two: New York City Sewers with the boss being the Sandman.
• Level Three: New York City Secret Labotory with the boss being Mysterio.
• Level Four: New York City Streets and Rooftops with the boss being the Vulture.
• Level Five: New York City Park with the boss being the Hobgoblin.
• Level Six: New York City Castle with the final boss being Doctor Octopus.

After successfully completing each level, the ending is a scene of all the supervillains sitting together in a large jail cell, with the on-screen message, ""VICTORY! Spider-Man triumphs over the Sinister Six..."

Spider-Man has only one life (in the NES version), although you do receive one continue. While there are web cartridge icons scattered throughout certain levels, (allowing Spider-Man to shoot ten web projectiles) there are no icons available to restore energy. However, defeating several enemies can restore Spider-Man's power bar.

Most video game critics felt that the game seemed underdeveloped and overly difficult. Also, for one of the last of the 8-bit games it did not demonstrate how far the system had come in terms of graphics or sound. The game has been described as typical of many early Spider-man games, with them being "unreasonably hard due to poor level design, difficult controls, cheap or unbalanced enemies, or a combination of problems."

The NES version of the game was given a rating of 3/5 by GamePro Magazine in their November 1994 issue.