Marvel Maximum Collection

Although film-based games from the past were almost always nothing more than dreadful shovelware that left no one happy (with the possible exception of crafty bosses), games based on comic books and cartoons were an exception. Here, on the other hand, there is a wealth of classics, but the Marvel Maximum Collection is missing several of the best Marvel games from this era as they were developed by Capcom, who are keen to release their own collections. There are still a couple of gems, however, and to make things even better, several of them are available in multiple different editions, allowing you to compare and play the version that best matches your nostalgic memories.

For my part, I took the opportunity to do the exact opposite, and have finally had the chance to enjoy the versions I DIDN'T play back in the day, such as the Mega Drive version of Spider-Man/Venom: Maximum Carnage, which I owned and played on the Super Nintendo back then.

So which games are included in this collection, and in which versions? Let me start by telling you what you get for your money, in chronological order:

• Silver Surfer (NES, 1990)


• Captain America and The Avengers (NES/Arkad/ Mega Drive, 1991)


• X‑Men: The Arcade Game (Arkad, 1992)


• Spider‑Man and the X‑Men in Arcade's Revenge (SNES/Mega Drive/GB/GG, 1992)


• Spider‑Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage (SNES/ Mega Drive, 1994)


• Venom / Spider‑Man: Separation Anxiety (SNES/ Mega Drive, 1995)

All games also offer features such as the ability to remap controls or rewind time. It's effective, but of course it comes at the expense of challenge and engagement. On the other hand, it does make Silver Surfer a little more bearable, given that it's one of the absolute hardest games of all time, and in many ways virtually unplayable without cheating. Strangely enough, it is nonetheless a well-crafted title with graphics that were impressive for the era and good music, but I doubt anyone will regard this as anything other than a curiosity.

Captain America and the Avengers is the second-best game in the collection, a fairly classic beat 'em up featuring four different characters (Captain America, Hawkeye, Iron Man and Vision) and co-op mode, where the aim is to beat up Red Skull. The arcade version is by far the best, but I really like the other versions too, as they clearly show how things could be in this era when multi-platform releases could sometimes be entirely separate games (the best example being Aladdin). Here, Data East made the game for the Mega Drive, whilst a lesser Super Nintendo version was made by Mindscape - whilst the NES version is, broadly speaking, a separate title.

Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge is, in many ways, a slightly frustrating action platformer, though I find it interesting because it includes four versions of the game - including Game Boy and Game Gear. This once again offers a glimpse into the diversity of multi-format titles, and demonstrates just how different Nintendo's and Sega's handheld options were in terms of performance. You can play it using Rewind, but as I said, it's not exactly a showstopper, even if the 16-bit version does offer some rather smart pixels.

Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage is the game I played the most back in the day out of all the titles in this collection. I played it to death on the Super Nintendo and seem to recall actually managing to beat it, something that feels completely incomprehensible when I play it today. It's based on the legendary Marvel crossover of the same name, and is, quite simply, about defeating the madman Carnage. Unfortunately, it only features single-player, and would have benefited from co-op, but it's actually still quite fun today

Venom / Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety I missed this one when it came out; the PlayStation and Saturn had been released and 16-bit was as hot back then as fidget spinners and Damn Daniel are in 2026. It got pretty rubbish reviews when it came out, and I can see why. It really is a beat 'em up of the lowest common denominator, and there's nothing about it that stands out. You can play with two people, mind you, but it's really lacklustre.

Finally, we have the real gem of the collection: X-Men: The Arcade Game. It actually supports up to six players online, though I haven't been able to test this as I don't know anyone else with the collection. Fortunately, that's not necessary, as it's great fun even in local multiplayer. This is a pure arcade game developed by Konami, drawing inspiration from the Turtles games. It doesn't quite measure up to Turtles in Time or The Hyperstone Heist, but it's a solid beat 'em up that's easy to recommend.

Ultimately, X-Men: The Arcade Game single-handedly saves the score to a six, because without it I would have given it a five. Silver Surfer is, at best, interesting as a stylistic exercise, and the other four are rather mediocre and, at times, too similar to one another. It's as if Limited Run Games had plucked them from a bargain bin, where Sega's Marvel titles, Capcom's X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse and The Punisher, among others, had already been snapped up. As mentioned, the aforementioned X-Men stands out with its fury, gorgeous pixels and genuine entertainment value, but otherwise it's too little, too late.