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.
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.
Source: Wikipedia, "Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six", available under the CC-BY-SA License.