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Review: Marvel Superheroes |
I swear I had an almost religious experience playing this game …. I was Captain America vs. Iron Man, and I was mashing away and suddenly everything just fell perfectly into place – the graphics; the music and sound; the characters and the engine were all of a sudden so incredibly beautiful and perfect that I actually gasped in ecstacy. Or maybe I was sitting on the joystick.
Either way, Marvel Superheroes is an absolutely godly game that I demand everyone who reads this goes and plays immediately. I’ll continue when you get back.
……
Done?
You see what I mean? How every facet of the game approaches perfection? MSH is the greatest of Capcom’s Marvel games by several light years; and also one of their best fighters ever. It’s the perfect balance between 50-hit beam combo insanity and proper, measured fighting that does it for me. While later VS. games focused on filling the screen with as many characters and as much crap as possible – here the fighting is one-on-one, mano a mano – simple, but blindingly awesome.
MSH builds on Capcom’s original X-Men Children of the Atom game – taking several of the features that are now synonymous with VS. games; and improving on them, as well as adding a few new ones. The basics are recognisable – the chains, dashes, super jumps and easy-to-active hyper combos (’Infinity combos’ as they’re known here) – but there are also Infinity *cough Alpha* counters, and the superb inclusion of the Infinity Gems. As well as providing basis of the storyline, these gems also play an important part in the actual game. In single-player mode, a certain number of opponents possess a gem, hit them with a certain attack and they’ll drop it. And beating them adds it to the number you start the next fight with. There are 6 of them altogether, Space, Time, Power, Soul, Reality and Mind – each with its own distinct property when activated. Power makes you stronger for a short while, Time speeds you up, Soul replenishes your life bar a little, Space gives you super armour, Reality uh .. reality makes these little fireballs and icicles come out when you attack and Mind fills your infinity (super) meter. Just this addition adds fathoms of depth – low on health? Kick the Soul gem out of the other guy, activate it and then fly away for 10 seconds. Need meter? Mind gem. Can’t keep up? Time gem. And as if this wasn’t funky enough, each character has a specific gem which, when activated, does something “special” for a short time. Spiderman gets a mirror image that attacks with, Magneto gets an impenatrable forcefield, Captain America’s specials all do more hits … stuff like that. So just who gets what gem is something else to think about while you’re fighting.
And the actual engine itself is paced just right so you can use them without fear of Colussus charging out > combo into Dual Hyper Combo or 80% block damage with War Machine or whatever. Despite the huge infinity (not infinite) combos and chains, it’s restrained enough to allow thoughtful, strategic gameplay and proper counter-countering. It’s this feeling of watching the enemy and reacting and countering whatever they do that is missing from later VS. games where the way to win is put as many assists and projectiles out as possible. It’s SF-like gameplay, but with the speed and action of a VS. game. It’s a perfect mixture that has yet to be matched.
The aesthetics are hard to beat too. The character sprites are nothing short of perfect – just the way they’re drawn and animated; I really can’t imagine the Marvel characters looking any other way – incredible details, superb animation, absolutely tonnes of personality. It’s wonderful. It’s all so hyper-kinetic too … if a character superjumps, or when they’re falling after being hit – when they descend, the way they sort of “ripple” as they fly through the air is excellent. There are frames in the “hit recoil” animation where the characters are nothing more than blurs of colour – the same with certain moves, it’s all so fast and furious, yet at the same time easy to follow and incredibly fun to play.
The backgrounds are lush too. Detailed and colourful, and in several cases relevant to the character. The greatest are the ones where things happen as rounds progress – like Magneto’s glass-bottomed spaceship, which glides gracefully through the cosmos, and at the end of the second round, warning lights start flashing and then the immense sight of the sun, complete with solar flares slowly fills the bottom of the screen! It’s such an impressive moment, reminiscent of some of the more “WHOA!” moments in Cyberbots.
Some of them get damaged too – a big combo or super will smash machinery, a carousel, and in another awesome case, gradually break the supports on a wooden bridge (Wolverine’s) until the bridge collapses and you fall into a raging river – a sight that just blows me away even in today’s CPS3/Naomi climate.
Sadly the music sucks. Just kidding, the music is as awesome as the graphics. Composed in the “classic” Capcom style (ie before they began using lounge jazz [MvC2] rap and techno [SF3:3s]) – it’s a varied and incredibly impressive array of tunes. Iron Mans’ theme just so gets me in the mood to fight it’s untrue. Wolvies’ is appropriately angry sounding, Magnetos’ is menacing, Blackhearts’ nightmarish and so on. They’re basically perfect for the game. Psylocke’s sounds a bit too Darkstalkers-like for comfort (that synth piano), but other than that I can find no fault with them.
The voice acting is typically awesome. Some of Dr. Doom’s phrases are now my Windows start-up/error/shutdown sounds – that’s how damned cool they are. Everyone just sounds so right.
An area I suppose I could be harsher on is the number of characters. 10 selectable, (with Doom, Thanos and Anita from Darkstalkers also selectable with a code in the arcade and Saturn versions). But there’s a fine mix of heavy-hitters, all-rounders and small, weak-but-fast fuX0rs. Getting into a new character is surprisingly easy too, given the simple, intuitive nature of the engine – it’s easy to start building combos and strategies and the better you get the more of them reveal themselves to you. The inclusion of Marvel comics weirdos Shuma-Gorath and Blackheart is still a little strange — and they’re both a little *too* keep-away for my liking – but variety is variety, no matter what. Psylocke is hot as hell too … a lisp, an English accent and a rubber costume. Oh. My. *fans self*
I’ve thought of another near-fault: Thanos is gay. Well, maybe not (he has a wife) – but he’s just not that impressive as a boss. He’s tough yes, a little cheap and incredibly well-armed in terms of attacks. It’s just … well, he’s a fool. Magneto was a cool boss, Apocalypse, Onslaught and Abyss were all visually impressive … Thanos is a buff purple man with a metal glove on. Bah. The little pre-fight chats are quite cool, as are all the win quotes and the endings are … well, they’re there, which is good enough.
I’m tired of telling you how fucking amazing Marvel Superheroes is — if you don’t own this, be it the bastardised PSX version, less-bastardised Saturn version or the arcade rom (SSSSSHHHH!) – I hate you.
And now I will give the game a ridiculously high mark, just so our top-rated game is no longer WWF No Mercy. Although MSH still deserves this mark for being the greatest thing ever. I thank you.
