Game Revolution Sega Saturn Review Page

More fun than a piggy-back ride on the Hulk, through the Hall of Justice

All of your favorite Marvel comic book stars are here and ready to do some serious battle in Capcom's Marvel Super Heroes. This game provides an good collection of characters combined with some earth-shattering graphics and explosive action. The format of the game is identical to any other head-to-head combat fighting game, but Marvel Super Heroes takes the best aspects of those games and overloads on them, discarding the more mundane features that usually detract from other fighting games.

Marvel Super Heroes looks a lot like its predecessor, X Men: Children of the Atom. The moves and graphics are almost identical. In fact a couple of your old favorites made it to the sequel: Wolverine and Psylocke. The gameplay is the same also, with big cartoony fighters and big flashy moves.

Most fighting games, Marvel Super Heroes included, give the player many character options to choose from. It tends to be the case, of fighting games, that some of the characters are very similar and in some cases are only differentiated by color or some nominal trait that really has little effect on game play. The very premise of Marvel Super Heroes prevents it from being susceptible to this kind of criticism. By employing the various preexisting Marvel super heroes they have incorporated ten uniquely individual characters that each have their own powers and traits to bring to the game. With such a strong variety of characters to choose from the player is sure to find a character to match his fighting style. This kind of choice also gives the player a fantastic variety of opponents to combat in the one-player mode.

Unlike the coin-op, the console version allows the player to choose from two different modes that can both be played either normal or turbo. In the one-player mode, you can fight their way through eight computer opponents. This is a great way to see the many special moves possessed by the various characters. In the two player mode you can match your skills up against a friend (or potential enemy). With control of the turbo speed, time limit, and number of rounds, you can set up the ultimate battle of your choice. And believe me these are battles...

The controls in this game are designed so well that a player can begin fierce combat on even their first match. Unlike other games where characters' signature moves require an obtrusive combination of D-pad and button combos, Marvel Super Heroes allows a character's special moves to work in alignment with how the battles are fought.

There are too many fighting games where just to deliver a super punch you have to press up, up, down, left while holding L1, X, O and start (with your nose). The character's moves in Marvel Super Heroes are activated by simple D-pad movements (which are not complicated, but actually facilitate combat in their direction) in a natural configuration with one of the buttons. This can make all the difference. There is nothing greater than being able to start, almost naturally, delivering the big time moves that make the game so much fun. This also gives the player the opportunity to compete as many of the different characters in the game, without being constricted by worries about not being able to use that character's special moves. The moves, of course, do not just happen, but they can be remembered after just one look at the manual.

Finally, the graphics in this game are the icing on the cake. The moves and the characters are larger than life to begin with, but the great animation, fluid character movement, and dynamite battle moves really round out a solid game. Apart from all the technical aspects of the game, which I have already mentioned, the most important one has not been mentioned yet. The game is, really, a lot of damn FUN. You do not even have to be a comic book fan or a fighting game aficionado. Anyone with a desire to have a good time with a video game can find fun in Marvel Super Heroes.

Revolution Report Card

B

Excellent game play Great controls Fun for anybody Fantastic cast of characters