After a long hiatus (was the last article really in mid December? What is time?) we are once again back to the good, primo top shelf stuff: Marvel arcade games, baby. This is part of my very ongoing series I started as my second ever article here on RGT; gaze upon its awkwardness, like the guy writing it was learning as he went or something and didn’t even bother to properly size the images in it for some reason. Anyway, I’ve already covered the handheld licensed games and the 8-bit home consoles, so check those out if you want to read about largely terrible shovel-ware that just happens to have Spider-Man on the cover maybe.
Will we ever get through all the 616 different licensed Marvel games ahead of us? Eventually, but it may take so long that the MCU will become good again through the boomerang effect.
This specific entry is particularly blessed by the arcade gods; it's exclusively about Capcom fighting games. It doesn't get much better than this, thank god, as the journey here has been rough QA wise for sure. Well, not in the last arcade article as the lowest game there was a 3 out of 5; Captain America and the Avengers! was a surprisingly competent arcade game despite its atrocious console ports. I look back upon those early days of this series and laugh; Mutant Wars and the GBA Mutant Academy are now but distant memories, and I can't even remember what Return of the Sinister Six is anymore. I sure hope nothing terrible crosses my path going forward and brings them all back, making me relapse into the nightmare spirals of Uncanny X-Men again…
Anyway, I'm sure that won't happen; let's get into it. Today we’re looking at 4 Capcom classics, from Children of the Atom to Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, the beginnings of Capcom's legendary Vs. series.
X-Men: Children of the Atom
Year: 1994Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Platform: CP System II
Children of the Atom is the first of Marvel fighting games, and the one that started the whole series going forward. It’s a charming entry, still entrenched in the design style of the legendary SFII which is unsurprising given that it is the next fighting game Capcom made after that game (not counting the re-releases of that game), predating even the Alpha series of ‘95.
Why else is it charming? This game is busted as ****.
I love the character select screen where the sprites are standing around doing their idle animation, like they're waiting for you to pick them. It's cute.
The whole Vs. series is known for being unbalanced and downright broken at times, filled with ‘infinite combos’ and genuine glitches; and Children of the Atom is easily one of the best examples of this. It’s the third most busted game; we'll get to the others in time, of course. There aren't any infinites that I can recall in this, but there are a few cheesy 'touch of deaths'.
Omega Red, a whip wielding evil Russian man coated in adamantium, has numerous ways to do what’s called a ‘touch of death’ to you; this means that if he hits you once, and the player of course knows how to do it, he can essentially kill you. It won’t be one unbroken combo (though he still does have a few genuine unending infinite combos), but he will stun your character about halfway through, which then lets him kill you right after with another combo.
He’s not the only character to have one of these nasty things, but I think is just a good example of them; also, he’s cool as hell. He’s a really underrated Wolverine/X-Men villain, and one I’m kinda bummed hasn’t been utilized much after the 90’s.
Cal Dodd, Wolverine's voice actor from the 90’s cartoon, actually reprised his role for this game. This of course carried forth across all future Capcom arcade games as they just reused the voice lines; the Capcom classic ‘recycle everything’ development method.
The game is a six button fighter, and follows an identical control scheme to Street Fighter; you have a light punch/kick, a medium punch/kick, and a heavy punch/kick. It carries forth the at the time relatively new ‘super moves’ from Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, and so every character can perform one once the gauge underneath their health bar fills up for massive damage. Where the game differs from SFII is in a few choice ways. This was the first Capcom fighting game to feature dashes, letting you double tap forward or backward to clear distance quickly. It also likewise features super jumps (something that would carry forward into every Vs. game) that let you clear massive amounts of vertical screen space, and has the debut of another Vs. staple in chain combos for most characters, albeit far less important than later games. These let you cancel a normal move into another normal, character and move dependent; these are frequently called ‘target combos’ nowadays for you youngins, I say as someone who was nowhere near old enough to have even played this game when it was new.
There are also quite a few different ways to use your super meter other than dumping it into a super attack once it’s full. Most characters have what’s called an “X-Power”, which is a powerup state you can trigger by using about half your super meter. These generally buff your character in some fashion rather than being a singular flashy move; Colossus for example gets ‘armour’ on all of his moves after doing his, letting him take multiple hits without having his move be interrupted.
The overall combo system itself is souped up from SFII, letting you have much longer combos due to more opportunities to perform them. It has a much more open ‘juggle’ system than SFII where essentially any move can hit a character if they are in hitstun. This is also the grand debut of ‘air combos’ (called aerial raves in Japan) that let you jump after opponents when you launch them to continue the beatdown with aerial normals. It's also the first game I can recall that lets some moves ‘hit off the ground’ (OTG), meaning they can hit knockdown opponents; in SFII, once you’re on the ground, the combo is over. A very large amount of moves in this game can hit OTG, and you may honestly be surprised when something you thought had no chance of doing so does…like Omega Red’s super. Why was he so busted?
Rounds in this game are often over very quickly, as damage is pretty high across the board. It creates this frantic feeling of chaos that would go on to define the rest of the games going forward.
The graphics? Astounding of course. This was Capcom’s heyday of pixel art and animation, and every character has numerous little touches to them to make them stand out. Wolverine’s boots and mask floppin’ around in his idle animation, Colossus’s clenching fists, or literally just anything of Spiral; she alone is a masterclass of pixel animation. The sound design too is amazing, with clear and high quality voice lines going off and the announcer building hype, of course.
“Behold! Optic Blast!” Every time I see Cyclops, regardless of the media form, I hear that line in my head whenever he shoots something. Classic.
As the first entry in the Capcom Marvel fighting game legacy, Children of the Atom is a charming little foray. It’s a little rough around some of its edges, as they were still figuring out a lot of their fighting game design magic at this point, but it’s still an absolute banger for some casual fisticuffs, and deserves respect for launching the whole juggernaut of Capcom fighting games.
Score
3 ½ X-Genes out of 5.
Marvel Super Heroes
Year: 1995Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Platform: CP System II
Oh yeah, this is the real good stuff. Marvel Super Heroes took the same general game as Children of the Atom and applied it to the larger Marvel roster, while throwing in some more system gimmicks and tricks, of course.
The game is once again a six button fighter. The first major difference this game has from Children of the Atom is Capcom running fully with the chain combo system that was a fairly minor part of the last game. This time around, every normal is cancellable into another of higher strength, letting you go from lights>mediums>heavies. This lets you create easy combos, and is a integral aspect of the games combo system; this system is also carried into the rest of the games going forward, and is the most identifiable aspect of the Capcom Vs. games.
This may seem like a wildly mismatched power level fight for Cap, but in Capcom fighting games everyone is equal. Truly inspirational.
There are other major differences between the games, as Marvel Super Heroes gets a little gimmicky. The main feature of the game other than the chain combos is the use of the Infinity gems as in-game power-ups, as this is a very loose adaptation of the perennial Infinity Saga storyline…kind of? The gems are in, at least. As you smack each other around the beautifully drawn backgrounds, gems will periodically fly out of the characters and land on the ground until they are picked up. Each gem has a different effect that can vary from being ridiculous, to just sort of there. I’ve never really bothered with the gems much to be honest, and would much rather focus on using character’s movesets instead.
The game also adds in Alpha style counter attacks to the mix, letting you cancel your blocking animation into an invincible attack in exchange for some of your super bar (called ‘gem meter’ in this game). Overall the new things added into the game are significant, and I personally think put it slightly above Children of the Atom.
Mephisto’s illegitimate son giving you trouble? Proton Cannon!
Coming out in 1995, the game takes plenty of inspiration from contemporary comics of the time, even if just in the character designs. Spider-Man is very much inspired by the pre-MacFarlane era, while Iron Man is wearing his Model 13 ‘Modular’ armour suit that was the mainstay of his 90’s looks. The graphics are once again near perfect, what else needs is to be expected? ‘Nuff said.
Spoilers; this doesn’t end well for poor Spidey.
The improvements to Marvel Super Heroes put it above the previous Children of the Atom, at least in the eyes of this ocean cephalopod. It’s I think the first game that can be pinpointed as the ‘start’ of the Vs. series, being the introduction of full chain combos and opening the game up to the larger Marvel universe. One of my personal favourites, it’s entirely Octopus approved.
Score
4 Infinity Gems out of 5.
X-Men Vs. Street Fighter
Year: 1996Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Platform: CP System II
I know I just talked a big game about Marvel Super Heroes above, but X-Men Vs. Street Fighter? This is the real real good stuff, and my personal favourite of the non-MvC (patience) Capcom Marvel games. It marks another debut of a fundamental series feature on top of the being the first official crossover game, is broken as hell in the weirdest ways, and is just plain good chaotic fun.
I stopped the Juggernaut, *****.
The biggest feature of the game is the first appearance of the team fighter format; you select two characters to take into a match in this game, and can tag your other character in by hitting heavy punch and heavy kick together. This of course fundamentally alters the formula in numerous ways. There’s now only 1 round per match, since both sides have two health bars now, and it can also serve as a way to round out a character’s weaknesses since you can swap at any time. Mechanically it also has plenty of beef put into it; you can spend two bars of meter to have both characters pop out and perform a super combo attack, and the counter attack system from Marvel Super Heroes returns, only now you tag your character out when you do it.
There’s something to be said as well for just how broken this game is. It’s not the most broken Vs. game (that’s coming next article, but I think most of you already know which one it is), but I think it’s a very close follow up. There’s infinite combos all over the place, and some aren’t even reserved for only the most highly skilled of fighting game combo robots; Sabertooth has an infinite with two buttons in most revisions of this game, being his jumping heavy punch chained into his heavy kick and repeated. It’s a little tight as you have to jump again immediately after landing, but it’s not terribly hard compared to the more complicated others and is a true infinite.
Trust no one, not even yourself. If Rogue touched another Rogue, what would happen? Would they put each other in a coma, or would their power cancel each other out? I’m here asking the real questions. In X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, she just smooches herself which is a little uncomfortable.
Infinites hardly matter for 98% of the playerbase of course, and luckily the game is still great fun outside of them. It has a great roster that brings many of the X-Men characters from Children of the Atom (other than Omega Red, poor guy) as well as two from Marvel Super Heroes, and adds some new ones including Rogue, my beloved. Likewise the Street Fighter half of the roster is straight out of the first Alpha game, and has all the characters you’d expect and Cammy's best costume.
The game has some iconic character art by the legendary Bengus, a Capcom staple.
X-Men Vs. Street Fighter is an important game in the history of the Vs. series once again, being the introduction of the defining team fighting format. It’s also just pure fun, and like I’ve said previously is my personal favourite.
Score
4 ½ X-Genes out of 5.
Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter
Year: 1997Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Platform: CP System II
Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter is an unfortunate game, not because it’s bad; it’s just as phenomenal as the others in this esteemed series but just that it’s overshadowed by the others. It came out between the landmark releases of the previous XMvsSF and what comes after it, the true start to Capcom’s hypest franchise; no spoilers here, you’ll just have to wait another 4 months for part three…
It does have Omega Red again, though, so that’s deserving of a mention. Love this weirdo, even if he is significantly nerfed from his overpowered status in Children of the Atom.
It does provide the final piece of the franchise elements, being the debut of assist attacks. The game is once again a team fighter following the previous game, and now you can hit medium punch and medium kick together to call in your tag partner, who performs a specific attack then jumps back out. They don’t come out fast enough to really let you combo into them, and only a few really let you combo after them, but they are still great tools depending on the character.
Is there a more intimidating air attack than Hulk’s thunderclap? I don’t think so.
Another plus about the game? The announcer is arguably the best of the games we’ve covered. That guy puts such energy into every word, and it’s absolutely infectious. The art design and feel of the game is to the same lofty standard as the previous games, of course, as Capcom had fully hit their stride at this point.
Is there another game company with this iconic and amazing of an artists department as Capcom in the 90's? I don't think so.
The game offers no real changes or other mechanical additions other than the previously mentioned assists, other than removing some of the more egregious infinites and glitches from XMvsSF. It’s still the same great gameplay of course, but it’s ultimately why the game is so frequently passed over for the others; it’s more or less just XMvsSF with different Marvel characters, instead of a wholly different game than the previous entry. This is of course not a bad thing, as being too similar to XMvsSF is absolutely fantastic.
That's the the Summers' fighting spirit right there, charging headfirst into the wall of vodka soaked meat that is Zangief.
Score
4 Infinite Combos out of 5.
And there we have it, some absolute bangers of quality down. This was the ultimate era of Capcom’s arcade fighting dominance; alongside these games the Alpha series was also tearing it up of course. A part of these 4 games success I think was due to their tight release schedule, being always a year apart from the previous game. I won’t deny it, this was due to Capcom reusing many of the assets from the previous entries in each subsequent release; it’s the same Wolverine model in MSHvsSF as it is in CotA, and the character's even play fairly similarly across the games with only some getting major changes. They could get away with it as there weren't any significant graphical improvements in terms of technology to make them have to adapt, and they were absolutely delivering on every other aspect so some recycled assets weren’t even noticeable in the end. Going forward from here however, the old sprites start showing their age.
This leads me to my next point; it’s crazy how each game drastically improved on the previous and added in some wild and crazy new element that would define the series going forward. Marvel Super Heroes added in the full scale chain combos and ‘magic series’ system from Children of the Atom, then XMvsSF threw tag fighting into the mix; then MSHvsSF came in at the end and dropped a prototype version of assists into the formula (and not anything else really). It was a great experience to go through each of the games sequentially like this to see the changes as they happened, and I’m even more glad that I did this arcade article. Thank god there’s no bad games here. The next two games that are opening part three (the finale!) are some absolutely beloved classics that I’m sure many of you already are anticipating or know; I’m going to ‘take you for a ride’, as the kids say.
Oh right, there’s another game in there too, the final one. I forgot all about it after spending so long playing X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, honestly. Let’s remind myself what it is; Avengers in Galactic Storm? My, that sounds like something really radically mid 90’s. It also sounds like something that actually came out right after Marvel Super Heroes release-wise but I couldn’t bear to break up the Capcom games like that, so I cheated and threw it on the very end. Something like that, at least; I don’t know, I’ve never played it obviously, and maybe it’s good or som-
It’s terrible. I’ve played it, it’s atrocious and grotesque and terrible. I can’t keep up the act anymore. This isn’t a spoiler, it’s just foreshadowing.
Until next time, which hopefully won’t be in almost 4 months again.
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