Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes
Release Date - January 12, 1998 (JP)
Developer - Capcom
Publisher - Capcom
Platform - Arcade (CP System II)
A game like Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes can’t really be talked about in a vacuum. The game is both a culmination of a long line of fantastic fighting titles from Capcom, and simultaneously the genesis for a new series.
Capcom created a phenomenon of gaming with Street Fighter II: The World Warrior in 1991, not only one of the most popular fighting games of all time, but one of the most popular games of all time, period. It spawned a number of sequels and by 1998 had become an institution with multiple beloved titles under the Street Fighter name. In 1994, Capcom had partnered with Marvel Comics to create X-Men: Children of the Atom. This would be their first Marvel branded fighting game, and stood out from the Street Fighter franchise by turning the action up to appropriate comic book levels of spectacle. Marvel Super Heroes would follow in 1995, broadening the roster to include not just the X-Men but other Marvel heroes and villains such as Iron Man, Captain America, Dr Doom, and even Thanos. In a bold move, Capcom would cross over the Marvel fighting series and their own Street Fighter franchise with the first of their crossover titles; 1996’s X-Men vs Street Fighter. X-Men vs Street Fighter is generally regarded as the first of what is sometimes known as Capcom’s ‘versus’ series, and introduced the now standard ‘tag team’ format whereby players choose a team of characters and can switch between them mid-fight. It also was the first game to see the Street Fighter characters receive significantly more powerful abilities to bring them in line with the super-mutants that make up the X-Men.
Just look at that roster, it’s not the huge size of later games, but features some dream team ups.
The following year Capcom would increase the scope of the ‘versus’ games by releasing Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, which as the name implies, broadened the Marvel cast to include not just the X-Men but more characters from the Marvel Universe (many of which are taken from Capcom’s Marvel Super Heroes fighting game title such as The Incredible Hulk, Captain America and Spider-Man). While this game expanded the roster, it was generally seen as a very incremental update to the previous title.
Finally, in 1998 Capcom would release Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, the most ambitious of the ‘versus’ series to date, incorporating not only the broader Marvel roster, but also bringing in franchises beyond just Street Fighter and drawing on many of Capcom’s history of games. Characters like Captain Commando, Mega Man, and Strider were brought into the world of fighting games for the first time, retaining many of their signature moves from their respective titles. Morrigan and Jin Saotome were brought in from other Capcom fighting games Darkstalkers and Cyberbots. Notable for his absence however was Ken Masters, a staple of the Street Fighter series and a playable character in both X-Men vs Street Fighter and Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter. Such an iconic character couldn’t be left out completely, as Ryu was granted a new ability to change his styles (along with his wardrobe) mid fight to take on the move set of his longtime friend Ken! Ryu would be able to then perform Ken’s signature moves like the flaming shoryuken, in a concession to include at least the spirit of Ken. This could also be used to take on Akuma/Gouki’s moveset too, another series mainstay who was absent for this title.
Strider battles Captain America on top of the Daily Bugle’s building. Spider-Man even left a handy web-bridge behind!
As with the previous titles, battles in Marvel vs Capcom are over-the-top affairs befitting the comic book characters within. The two on two tag team format returns, with the ability to switch between characters at will, and the requirement to defeat both characters to win a match. For the first time in the series however, the player could control both characters at once (albeit briefly) and had the ability to use special and even super moves in tandem with impunity for a short window. This feature was even accompanied by a nice graphic with both character’s faces coming together in the centre of the screen!
The game features some beautiful character art. Here’s Morrigan being sultry as usual.
The madness of the action was complimented nicely by a very energetic announcer, indeed as soon as you enter a coin into the machine she would yell “Let’s go crazy!”. A catch-cry that pretty much sums up the series perfectly. Along her announcing the game features a stellar soundtrack, featuring iconic tunes from Street Fighter and Marvel games. It’s impossible not to get chills down your spine when a character is defeated, only for their team-mate to jump into the action, complete with their theme-song blaring! Ace!
Iconic moves return, like Zangief’s extremely dangerous spinning piledriver! Being demonstrated here on Mega Man.
While players would still be selecting two characters to play with, a new ‘Special Partner system was added as well. In essence this was something like a third member of the team, although with a limited capacity. Rather than being a fully fledged playable character, one of 20 unique characters could be selected before the fight, and they could be called in a limited number of times during the match to perform one attack and then leave. With another 20 characters available, there was plenty of room for even more Marvel and Capcom cameos! With some well known faces like Magneto from Marvel comics and Arthur from Ghosts n’ Goblins making appearances, through to deep cuts like U.S. Agent from Captain America comics and Michelle Heart from Legendary Wings.
Super moves are preceded by this cool close-up shot of the character performing them. Everything about the game is over-the-top.
The game was as beautiful to look at as one would expect from Capcom at this point in time. The company had been consistently making some of the best looking 2D games on the market and this was no exception. Marvel vs Capcom had some of the best graphics ever seen on the CP System II board, surprisingly a board that first debuted in 1993 with Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers! Indeed, Marvel vs Capcom would be the final ‘versus’ game to appear on this board, and the second last new fighting game (the last CP System II fighting game being 1998’s Street Fighter Alpha 3). Marvel vs Capcom featured gorgeous new spritework for the new characters, and some spectacular backgrounds to house the fighting. The stages are packed with references to both Marvel and Capcom franchises, with players battling it out in places such as the Avengers Headquarters, Dr Wily’s military base, Neo St Petersburg (from Strider) and the rooftop of the Daily Bugle (from Spider-Man)! Some stages also feature some impressive stage transitions and changes. For example in a bathhouse stage reminiscent of E-Honda’s stage from Street Fighter II, a character can be knocked through the wall into the women’s baths on the other side! In the ‘Cliff of Desolation’ stage the lighting will go from a clear midday, to evening and finally to night-time as the battle rages.
Marvel vs Capcom would see release on Sega’s Dreamcast and Sony’s PlayStation 2 consoles the following year in 1999 with an arcade-perfect port, and later being re-released digitally on Playstation Network and Xbox Live Arcade in 2012. While the game followed a number of ‘versus’ games, it also was the first of several ‘Marvel vs Capcom’ games, spawning sequels Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000), Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (2011) and Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite (2017). Few series can elicit such a passionate response from the playerbase, with the franchise still being a mainstay in the competitive fighting game community to this day.
It’s always a good time to check out classic fighting games. But can you handle the madness of Marvel?
Let’s go crazy!