Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes

About Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes

Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (1998) is Capcom's CP System II tag-team fighter that first opened the crossover to its whole back catalogue, pitting Mega Man, Strider and Morrigan against Marvel's heroes.

Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes in Depth

Each player picks a team of two and can swap between them at any time; the resting partner slowly recovers health off-screen. A team wins by knocking out both opponents, or by having more health left when time runs out. In place of the previous game's Variable Assist, a randomly assigned Special Partner can be called in a few times per round, from 22 characters such as Colossus, Cyclops, Jubilee, Arthur from Ghosts 'n Goblins and the Unknown Soldier from Forgotten Worlds. The new Variable Cross, or Duo Team Attack, puts both fighters on screen together for a limited time with unlimited use of the Hyper Combo Gauge, letting the player chain several Hyper Combos in quick succession.

There are 15 regular fighters, drawn from Capcom series such as Darkstalkers, Mega Man and Strider rather than only Street Fighter as in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter. Codes unlock six secret characters, mostly palette swaps with changed moves, such as Shadow Lady from Chun-Li; Mega Man's sister Roll is the exception, with her own sprites. The arcade mode ends with Onslaught, the villain of Marvel's crossover comics storyline of a year before.

Making Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes

Capcom built the game for its CP System II arcade board and showed it at the AOU Show in February 1998, releasing it in Japan that month and in North America in March. Game Machine listed it as Japan's second most successful arcade game of March 1998. The Dreamcast port followed in 1999 and was praised by Game Informer as a "flawless" translation of the arcade game, while GameRevolution felt it lacked depth. The PlayStation port, released as the EX Edition in Japan in November 1999, also lost animation frames to fit in memory; GameSpot's Jeff Gerstmann faulted the loss of tag battles, though GamePro accepted the trade-off for speed. Capcom announced Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, with three-on-three teams, on 1 December 1999.