Marvel Super
Heroes: War
of the Gems
System:
Super Nintendo
Publisher & Developer: Capcom
Released: 1996
Genre: Action
Capabilities: None
Review Written: July 31, 2001
The Game
Marvel Super Heroes is a Side Scrolling action game released by Capcom in late 1996. It allowed you to choose as either Wolverine, Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, or Spider-Man to take on a new brand of evil. Will this action game’s license make this game a memorable one? Let’s get onto the review and find out.
The Story
The world was peaceful when the six infinity gems were stored and safe. But the evil Thanos got a hold of the gems and gave them to his followers and hid them around the world. Now Warlock has recruited the best of the Marvel Comics Universe to help recover the gems and bring the Earth back to peace. Very good story here, except for the fact that I think Capcom could’ve been a little more original with the bosses. They got some regular bosses and villains from the Marvel Universe here like Magus and Dr. Doom. But for several bosses, they’re just “Evil” forms of other Marvel Super Heroes. Like we have Evil Daredevil, Evil Iron Man, and even Evil Thing as bosses for some of the stages. It gets very repetitive as you play through the levels.
Graphics
Actually, the visuals for this game are really good for the Super Nintendo. All the characters are huge and detailed down to the last notch so that they look like they came right out of the comic book. Also the stages are also very well done, and you have to interact with them to on several occasions, like breaking down a barrier to move on, for example. The game moves at a very solid pace, but one thing that really annoys me is that each time the hero you’re playing with takes a fall, he falls at the same slow rate that is the equivalent of the final fall of Capcom’s Street Fighter games. And it does get annoying right away. Slowdown is kept to a minimal and I’ve only noticed in the rare occasions when you’re fighting four or five villains at once. Also I was well surprised that there wasn’t even any flickering at all throughout the game.
Sound
The sound is really average in this department. I was looking forward to some digitized speech samples from our favorite Super Heroes, but we didn’t get a single voice. Instead the only thing we get for voices is just the “ugh” of a villain when they take there last fall. The music isn’t really all that bad, but it’s also nothing to remember either.
Game play
Controls are really easy. All you do is move around with the control stick, and you jump with one button, and attack with another (the buttons are customizable). A neat feature is if you press a combination of certain buttons, your hero will perform a special ability, like Spider-Man’s Web Moss, or Captain America’s Shield Throw. If you have trouble performing these moves you can always perfect them in the training mode where you duel off against a random villain. Just about all of the characters have there own strengths and weaknesses. For example, the Hulk and Iron Man are really strong, but both move slow. Wolverine and Spider-Man also have the ability to climb walls.
For the game modes we just got the training mode I mentioned above, and the game’s standard story mode. For the story mode you got ten levels, each one having a boss. In random levels the bosses have power gems. Once you collect these they allow your character a certain upgrade, like more attack damage, more health, or faster movement. You can only equip one gem per level. You also collect various other power ups you can save for later use in the game like extra life and life revivals, which you add on at the beginning of levels. The game ends once all five of the Marvel Heroes have been down for the count.
Replay Value
The game took me only about five to six hours to beat, and what really annoys me is there is no battery save feature to continue where you left off. There is a tricky password system, but I believe it is used for codes to my knowledge. The only extra thing here is the training mode which is similar to the Street Fighter games, but with Marvel characters. But that’s just not enough to keep me hooked in the long run.
In Brief
+: Characters look like they came right out of the comic, neat training mode, characters have different traits
-: Not much extra to keep you hooked, no voice acting, only about five to six hours to beat
The Final Ratings Rundown
Graphics: 8.8
Sound: 5.5
Game play: 7.4
Replay Value: 3.7
Overall: 6.3
Rounded to fit GameFAQs Score: 6
Comments
The game is fun to play just for a little while until you beat it, so I recommend you just rent this game, unless you are a die hard Marvel fan and need every game in the collection.