MARVEL MaXimum Collection from Limited Run Games and KONAMI brings us six classic arcade and console games in a variety of versions. Check out our MARVEL MaXimum Collection review!
MARVEL MaXimum Collection from Limited Run Games and KONAMI brings us six classic arcade and console games in a variety of versions. We’re getting a bunch of games to take for a spin, including X-Men: The Arcade Game, Captain America and The Avengers, Spider-Man/Venom: Maximum Carnage, Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety, Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade’s Revenge, and Silver Surfer. There are arcade, 8-bit, 16-bit, and even portable console versions of these games from the 1990s, so there’s definitely going to be something for you to enjoy.
First up is X-Men: The Arcade Game, which was originally released for arcades way back in 1992. For this classic-style but fast-paced beat ’em up, your mission requires you to defeat boss after boss as you make your way to Magneto, all while you also save Professor X and Kitty Pride on your way to Asteroid M for that final battle. The bosses include villains such as Pyro, Blob, Wendigo, Juggernaut, and Mystique. X-Men: The Arcade Game can be played either offline or by going online to take on this mission alongside gamers from around the world. This can be played with up to 6 players while taking advantage of Rollback Netcode.
You’ll be taking control of one of the included mutants – with your options being Cyclops, Colossus, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Dazzler – as you make the most of their attacks and special mutant powers. For example, Cyclops will be able to punch and kick his way to victory as he uses the energy beams from his eyes to deal a ton of damage. As you probably know, Wolverine has mighty adamantium claws that can slice through enemies with great ease, and he can use them to unleash a powerful energy attack that travels through the screen. Mutant powers will first use up some of your HP bar before consuming the mutant power icons you might have collected.
Captain America and The Avengers is another beat ’em up that was released in arcades in 1991. You’ll be going up against classic Marvel villains such as Klaw, Juggernaut, and Ultron, as you aim to reach the Red Skull, who, as expected, is trying to take over the world. You’ll be able to choose between playing as Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, or Vision.
Each one of them will be able to battle at close range, as well as attack from a longer range, thanks to their special weapons and abilities. This is when you’ll put to good use Captain America’s adamantium shield, Hawkeye’s bow and arrow, Iron Man’s repulsor rays, or the Vision’s energy beam. When compared to X-Men: The Arcade Game, you’ll quickly notice that this release features smaller sprites, which it makes up for by having some shoot ’em up-style levels that take place from a 2D sidescrolling perspective.
Along with Captain America and The Avengers for arcades, we’re also getting a port of this experience for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive – dialed back to two players max while still offering a similar mission – as well as a game that shares the same name while offering a different type of action experience featuring Captain America and Hawkeye.
The next game on the list is Spider-Man/Venom: Maximum Carnage, which was released for 16-bit consoles – a.k.a. the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the aforementioned Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in 1994. The game is based on the same comic book story arc, and it will have you battling through the streets of New York City as Spider-Man and Venom team up to take on the titular evil villain, Carnage. It follows the mold of the classic beat ‘em up formula of ages past, and the same goes for its follow-up, Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety.
Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety was also released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Genesis/ Mega Drive a year later, and it once again had Venom and Spider-Man working together in what still seemed like an unlikely alliance. As the name suggests, it was released as a tie-in to the Separation Anxiety comic book event, but it also mixes in events from the Venom: Lethal Protector limited series. It offers a similar experience to Spider-Man/Venom: Maximum Carnage, which is why it was not as favorably received as its prequel, since it felt like “more of the same,” since it was released less than a year after Maximum Carnage.
Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade’s Revenge is a 2D action game that has Spider-Man, Cyclops, Gambit, Storm, and Wolverine trying to survive through the deadly traps in Murderworld, which were created by the evil Arcade, who somehow managed to trap all of them. The game was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Genesis/ Mega Drive, as well as for the Game Boy and the Game Gear back in 1992 and 1993 for the aforementioned home consoles, and in 1994 for the two portable consoles.
The last game in this release is Silver Surfer, a 2D sidescrolling/overhead action game for the Nintendo Entertainment System released in 1990, in which you take on the role of the titular character. The game had a cool cover and a solid soundtrack… and it sucked. Your hit box is massive, and enemies love to trap you as you try to move toward the only path ahead in each level. It’s good that we have it in this collection since it’s part of Marvel’s video game history, but that’s about as positive as one can be.
Trophy-wise, this release features a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy. It’s a long list that is split into 38 Bronze trophies, 10 Silver trophies, and 2 Gold trophies for you to work on. What will you need to do for that shiny Platinum trophy? Some of the objectives to complete include completing X-Men: The Arcade Game on your own, doing so on the highest difficulty setting with two players, defeating each boss in the game, getting an extra life in Silver Surfer, defeating Ultron in the NES version of Captain America and The Avengers, completing each level in the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive version of Captain America and The Avengers, beating each level in the arcade version of Captain America and The Avengers, getting 25,000 points in Spider-Man/Venom: Maximum Carnage, or completing Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety with Spider-Man, to name some examples.
You can take advantage of some quality-of-life elements added for this collection. Selected games include an integrated cheats menu that will allow you to, say, enable infinite lives. You can also rewind the action at the press of a button so that you can fix any mistakes you make along the way. On top of that, you can also use a save state to save at any time, so that you can carry on exactly from where you left off. There’s also the option of adding different filters for your screen that can end up giving it that old-school look.
MARVEL MaXimum Collection brings us six classic arcade and console games in a variety of versions. We’re getting a bunch of games to take for a spin, including X-Men: The Arcade Game, Captain America and The Avengers, Spider-Man/Venom: Maximum Carnage, Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety, Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade’s Revenge, and Silver Surfer. There are arcade, 8-bit, 16-bit, and even portable console versions of these games from the 1990s, so there’s definitely going to be something for you to enjoy.
I have to say, I’m quite pleased with this release. As was my case, X-Men: The Arcade Game is going to be the main attraction for most of you, and I certainly spent more than the collection’s $24.99 asking price thanks to the many, many quarters I dropped into that game. I also got to play Captain America and The Avengers on the arcade back in the day, as well as on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Ditto for Silver Surfer on the NES and Maximum Carnage on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, so all of the other games and versions were just icing on the cake. Add the archives section that includes manuals, box art, advertisements, official artwork, and design documents for the games, and this is a collection that is easy to recommend.
Disclaimer
This MARVEL MaXimum Collection review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by Limited Run Games.
