Marvel vs Capcom History: Marvel vs Capcom Clash of Super Heroes

Marvel vs Capcom History: Marvel vs Capcom Clash of Super Heroes

Robert Lewis Knuckles

“Ultimate Dream Matchup”

Now this is a versus game that people had to predict was coming. For the past couple of verses games we saw the crossover of Marvel and Capcom characters but we never had the official title of a Marvel vs Capcom game and we finally get that with Marvel vs. Capcom Clash of Super Heroes. Marvel vs Capcom was released on Jan. 23 1998 for arcades, the Dreamcast and Playstation. I think you know what I think about the Playstation version of this game.

Marvel vs Capcom is the dream crossover that obviously features characters from the Marvel and Capcom universe. Now the roster size is smaller than the previous games but added a lot new character sprites. Street Fighter characters Ryu, Chun-Li and Zangief return. Ryu has a new move where he can obtain Akumas and Ken’s moveset. Morrigan from the Darkstalkers series makes her Marvel vs Capcom debut. We also see legendary Capcom characters making their fighting game debut such as the blue bomber Megaman,  ninja assassin Strider Hiryu, Jin Saotome from Cyberbots and Mr. Capcom himself Captain Commando. Already this Capcom side is amazing and it's great to see these characters in a fighting game.

The Marvel side has a lot of returning characters. Spider-Man, Captain America, Wolverine, Hulk and Gambit from X-Men vs Street Fighter returns. Iron Man’s best friend War Machine makes his fighting game debut and he plays a bit similar to Iron Man. Spider-Man’s arch nemesis Venom makes his fighting game debut and he’s a blast to play. This roster is very diverse and it caught a lot of attention from the intro to the character select screen and by the way the character select music is amazing.

The secret characters return in this game and just like the last game they are character palette swamps. The original secret character is Mega Man's sister the house keeping robot Roll and she’s quite honestly not the best character but it's still pretty cool to see her.

The gameplay is the same tag team battles. The assist is removed with the Special Partner system. After players select their characters they randomly choose a special character from the Marvel or Capcom universe. On the Marvel side most are from X-Men like Psylocke and Magneto. The Capcom side has legendary characters such as Arthur from Ghost and Ghouls. These special partners are used like assist but are limited. The best ones are Colossus and Psylocke because they can rush the opponent leaving them opening for a big combo opportunity.

A cool new feature is the Variable Cross. This new feature has the players use their super gauge to bring in their partner and control both characters at the same time and has unlimited amount of Hyper Combos until the gauge runs out. Now the computer never does it but if you play against another human player you’ll see 2 on 2 madness and that's what Marvel vs Capcom is all about.

The boss in this game is Onslaught from the X-Men comics. He’s basically the anger conscious of both Magneto and Charles Xavier. Onslaught is an annoying boss as well. He has two forms and both of them are equally annoying.

Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes is a fantastic game. The roster, the gameplay and the must is awesome. Even the stages are awesome. You have stages from the Avengers base to the Daily Bugle to Dr. Wily’s base you see the best from both worlds. Some might even say that this game is their favorite Marvel vs Capcom game and there’s nothing wrong with that. I mean sure there are some broken things that lead to infinite combos but overall it's still a fun game. If you ever have the chance give this game a shot.