Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (Dreamcast)

Back in the 90s, Capcom was the king of 2D fighting games, and with the format they established in Street Fighter II, they’d go on to create many Marvel games that also drew in plenty of quarters in the arcade. After an X-Men and Marvel superhero fighting game though, the company started to lean into crossovers. The X-Men took on the martial artists of Street Fighter and then afterwards the broader Marvel universe had its heroes and villains face off with Street Fighter, but Capcom has many more franchises under its belt than just their flagship fighter. So, all limits were removed when it came to their next game, Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes pulling from whatever characters in the Marvel universe or broader range of Capcom video games they wanted in a 2 on 2 tag team fighting game.

 

Despite this new freedom to draw from whatever characters they liked, Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes still keeps its roster relatively restrained with only 15 standard playable fighters, 7 of which had already made playable appearances in previous crossover games. Despite the small spread, the range of their source material and the way they fight feels like it does provide you with a good mix of characters you’d wish to see and different fighting styles. The large wrestling Russian from Street Fighter known as Zangief and the huge Hulk of Marvel Comics are both incredibly strong characters that can quickly wear down other fighters with their heavy hitting moves, but the small robot Mega Man has plenty of easy to use projectiles for bothering opponents from afar. The martial artist Ryu serves as a good mid-range fighter who is effective in many situations, but he’s also given a fascinating ability to swap to the movesets of Street Fighter characters Ken and Akuma who aren’t present in the game, allowing you to shift his play style mid-match if you think it might serve you better. The ninja Strider Hiryu feels good at denying space on the battlefield while the web-slinging Spider-Man can catch foes in a web blast to keep them still long enough for him to set up a combo.

While you could say that most characters have at least a bit of overlap with at least one other in terms of their general strengths, the special moves they can utilize usually set them apart well enough for preferences to form and most importantly, the game’s battle system isn’t just about finding one character to excel with. Battles in Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes are 2 on 2 skirmishes where each player brings two heroes to a fight. During the match, you can swap in the back-up character with a quick and simple two button input, and to win, both characters on one side must be defeated. This means even if a certain character might have a pretty strong counter elsewhere in the roster, they won’t always necessarily need to stand and fight them. When you’re on the character select screen then there’s a bit more strategy involved than just going with the character you feel most capable with, fights more complex because you have the option to completely shift what advantages and disadvantages you have once you tag in the back-up. Also, in a nice touch, each character has a specific musical theme that can play when they enter the fight, leading to a shift in the background music that makes the arrival of your reserve fighter feel a bit more special.

 

Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes utilizes a six button combat system, three buttons assigned to different kicks and three more assigned to different punches. Naturally you’ll want to figure out strong sequences where you can land successive hits without the enemy slipping away from your attacks, but while this game declares it is a perfect port of the arcade version, the Dreamcast version does have the unfortunate problem that the Dreamcast controller doesn’t have six feasible face buttons to use in combat. Instead, the heavy punch and heavy kick are mapped to shoulder buttons, which is admittedly functional but not as fluid for stringing together quick attack strings or executing certain techniques. The special moves in this game are at least not too difficult to pull off, the directional inputs sometimes requiring some back and forth movement but mostly being quick quarter circles or short directional sequences that aren’t hard to remember. If they still feel tough, the game does offer an Easy option for special inputs, turning some attack buttons into dedicated specials. It does limit how long a combo you can put together and most specials are accessible enough without the option, but it’s fine to have for players interested in big hits with minimal time investment learning the ropes. The game’s arcade mode won’t take it easy on players looking to mash special moves to win, but with a short move list like that found in the manual you won’t have to do much work to be able to play with Manual specials and you’ll be able to mix up your attacking options between standard strikes and impressive moves like Captain Commando’s pillar of electricity or War Machine’s various heavy artillery options.

 

On top of the standard specials, all characters also have Hyper Combos which sound more involved than they truly are. Set to more inputs that aren’t too complicated, these expend a power meter that’s built up by attacking the opponent and taking damage, many of these incredibly powerful hits that cover a wide range. You can see the Hulk leap up into the air and slam a meteor down a foe, the alien imitator of Spider-Man known as Venom will cover the whole screen in a web in a bid to trap his foe, and Jin Saotome can call in the giant mech from his source game to smash its fist into the enemy. Not all supers are just a way to throw out a strong attack though. Zangief for example can turn his body into iron, meaning he won’t flinch when hit so he can push through enemy attacks and land some hits of his own. While throwing out certain Hyper Combos can be a nice way to earn quick damage, many can be defended against so finding ways to combo into them or figuring out how to utilize the more specialized one ensures these are flashy and fun to utilize but still require some effort and thought to be effective with consistently.

With enough power in your meter, you can even call in your partner character for a double Hyper Combo or more impressively, you can control both characters at the same time for a bit. However, there is another way to get a little help mid-battle, the player able to call on a guest character to quickly come in and execute an attack. There are twenty unique guest characters from both Marvel and Capcom who hop in to help when you press the right button combo, although there is definitely a range of effectiveness in terms of what they can do. The massive Juggernaut charges across the screen and can inflict heavy damage, but Arthur from Ghosts ‘n Goblins hops in place and throws some slow moving lances most people can dodge. The mutant Rogue’s flying punch is good for hitting fighters in the air, but Pure and Fur from a Japanese-only quiz game can cover a larger vertical range with their large falling dice. It is nice to see other characters from both halves of this crossover get to appear for a bit to join the battle, and they are balanced out by having the stronger or more effective ones have fewer uses per match compared to the weaklings, but one thing holds this system back a fair bit. Rather than being something you can strategically pick to cover options, the guest character is randomly selected for you pre-match by a roulette. If you hold down certain buttons you can guarantee a specific guest, but you’ll either need to experiment a lot or just look up a guide which pretty much makes it a system you have to do unengaging research to utilize who you’d like in a fight. They don’t often provide huge advantages since they’re kind of like a free extra special move with some conditions, but it still feels like the roulette was a poor idea that can inevitably shove less experienced players towards less helpful allies.

 

The fighting system here comes together nicely for some exciting battles with plenty of room for comebacks and impressive demonstrations of skill and technical know-how without being completely unapproachable for those just jumping in, at least when it comes to the multiplayer. As mentioned before, the game’s single-player arcade mode can put up quite a fight even on its easiest difficulty so game knowledge and quick reactions are key to conquering the game’s solo content, although it doesn’t offer too much in total. The arcade mode is a string of eight fights meant to basically have your pair of fighters go up against the rest of the roster, but every team eventually gets to a final confrontation with the game’s special boss character Onslaught. A combination of the mutant leaders Magneto and Charles Xavier, this powerful giant seems to be the reason the worlds of Marvel and Capcom are crossing over at all, although some details muddy that premise a bit. It seems like the intent is that Capcom characters were pulled into the Marvel universe, and yet battles can take place in levels with other Capcom characters in the background. The zombie guitarist Lord Raptor from Darkstalkers performs in the background of one, and another seems to explicitly be a base run by Mega Man’s nemesis Dr. Wily, not to mention some character-specific endings have other Capcom characters show up. The story is hardly a concern and some of the ending are fairly plain as well, but the reasons for the crossover hardly feel as important as the fighting itself.

 

Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes also offers a survival mode where you fight consecutive battles as long as you can, only regaining a little health between matches, and a training mode if you want to practice some combos in relative peace. There is standard multiplayer between two players as well as Cross Fever mode where four players can play together, the tag system still in place but each person gets a character of their own to control. Multiplayer does feel like the main draw here since the solo modes are so straight forward and without much reason to attempt them repeatedly, although there are unlockables and unfortunately they are fairly obtuse. There are seven unlockable secret characters in the Dreamcast version of Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, but the conditions are near impossible to intuit on top of being very difficult to achieve. For example, earning Roll requires you to play arcade mode and never lose a partner, use up every guest assist available in a fight, and finish matches with a certain mix of hyper combos, team hyper combos, and the super where you fight as both characters at once. There are no hints that tell you about these arcane conditions, but the good news is most the secret characters are light alterations to the standard cast. Red Venom is just a much faster version of Venom and Gold War Machine a heavier version of the armored hero, but some do have unique attacks still like Shadow Lady replacing some of the martial artist Chun Li’s moves with a drill arm and missile attacks despite looking just like her with a dark filter. These secret characters can be accessed with a long set of inputs on the character select screen and are often designed to be overly powerful so they’re more for fun than a real goal to angle for, but making the conditions so strange and difficult feels like a barrier to these novelties and the game doesn’t offer too much else to shoot for besides getting better at fighting against your friends.

THE VERDICT: Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes has a tight roster with a good range of battle options and easy to utilize specials to spice up the battles, but then it decides to make certain other elements a bit obtuse. Even discounting the secret characters, the guest character roulette is a strange knowledge barrier, but its impact isn’t too strong just like the Dreamcast’s unfortunate need to map two attack buttons to the shoulder buttons. Overall you can still get a zippy and stylish tag team fighter that will shine brightest in multiplayer, the single-player modes a bit basic but still able to pull from a strong fighting system with room for strategy, shifts in fortune, and super moves that provide some spectacle.

 

And so, I give Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes for Sega Dreamcast…

A GOOD rating. A fight stick controller can make the attack options a bit more natural in this Dreamcast port of an arcade game and eventually you’ll likely have an assist or two you’ll always want to use so learning their selection screen input isn’t the biggest barrier to having control over your fate. The lean single player offerings do lessen the motivation to play again and again on your own, the different endings sometimes discouraging when they have little thought put into them like War Machine’s bland finale where he just opines on there being more to do. With a roster this small it feels like more effort could have gone into strong payoffs and certain characters do have interesting or amusing ones, but with the individual character themes that kick in during battle there is still some love put into realizing this small band of heroes. Once you’re in a match there’s not much to complain about, the action quick and exhilarating as you’re trying to find openings, gain edges with your specials, and build up to those impressive Hyper Combo attacks all while still having an entire extra character in the back as an option to shake things up. The arcade origins are perhaps what holds the game back the most, the home port trying to hue as closely to it as possible instead of providing extra modes to extend its life like fellow Dreamcast fighter Soulcalibur did. The single-player offerings are slight, but get another player to sit down with you and thanks to some ideas like the accessible supers it probably won’t be too hard to find someone who’s enjoyable to go up against again and again.

 

While certainly an entertaining crossover fighting game, Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes does live in the shadow of the games that would come along later. Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes has an enormous roster by comparison, but the cast size here can be a boon. Characters won’t get lost in the shuffle or easily outclassed by others. Not too many systems or ideas were left behind with this entry though and every playable character besides the secret ones would return in the follow-up. There might not be much reason for fighting game fans to go back to the first Marvel vs. Capcom game as a result, but if they do, they’ll find a smartly curated roster of fighters who feel distinct and offer different advantages for your team of two, battles still able to be electrifying when players of similar skill levels clash in this loving embrace of Marvel and Capcom’s universes.