To me, my X-Men?
Believe it or not, long before your detailed 4K Spider-Men and Wolverines, the domain of superhero games was largely confined to the world of arcades. Before many of these characters were ever popularised by cinematic universes, they lived in Saturday morning cartoons and side-scrolling beat ’em ups. So close to the recent release of throwback titles like Cosmic Invasion, it’s timely for these games to return, and thanks to Limited Run Games, 13 superhero games have returned all at once! It’s like the portals bit from Avengers: Endgame if the A-list actors were also joined by some dodgy 8-bit games. Indeed, compilations always run the risk of including the chaff with the wheat, so does this MaXimum collection eXcel or is it eXcrement?
Average games, Assemble!
As to be expected for the 90’s, it’s the X-Men, at maybe their peak popularity this decade, who receive the best package. Beautifully presented with a real synergy with the animated series at the time, this one is still a real winner. The diversity of movesets between the playable mutants massively increases replayability, and fighting Sentinels and Magneto gives it a blockbuster feel missing in some of the other titles offered. Case in point: Captain America and the Avengers.
With an odd selection of Earth’s Mightiest to play as (Cap, Iron Man, Hawkeye and Vision) coming up against underwhelming enemies (Living Laser? Really?), this is a strange artifact of an age when the Avengers were a borderline C-list team. Long before cinematic success! The game is still enjoyable enough, especially with friends, but there’s a gulf in production pizazz compared to the mutants.
It couldn’t be much of a Marvel collection without the iconic webslinger, though, and Spider-Man is here in force! Oh, wait, it’s the 90’s, so we’re stuck with the symbiote slop that plagued the era. Separation Anxiety and Maximum Carnage are both fun, if flawed, beat ’em ups with a vertical wall-climbing gimmick. Spidey’s team-up effort with the X-Men in Arcade’s Revenge is a weird Mega Man analogue that doesn’t really hold up, even in such odd company. Unfortunately, the Silver Surfer game is probably the wonkiest here. An insanely strict side-scrolling bullet hell that makes the herald of Galactus feel about as powerful as a gnat. Alright, so these games shouldn’t just fulfil a power fantasy, but in terms of adaptation, this is a bizarre title. Less Norrin Radd, more like pretty bad.
Herald of Galaga
The MaXimum Collection is another great example of video game conservation and should definitely be celebrated as such. With multiple games presented in multiple versions, a music player and archive materials to explore, it’s undoubtedly really cool that these games are preserved for posterity. It doesn’t seem likely that younger gamers will get much from these dated ventures, but for the nostalgic, this’ll provide a strong evening of co-op gaming.
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