Little known fact: I was more excited about the re-release of Marvel Super Heroes than Marvel vs. Capcom. Yes, sacrilege I know. Marvel Super Heroes holds a special place in my heart for one very important reason: it was the last Capcom fighting game released in which I didn’t actively try to compete with others. Yes, it was like that at some point. I just cared about finishing the game with every character, always treating every infinity gem as an awesome bonus, instead of of a balance breaking piece. So to coincide with the release of Marvel vs. Capcom Origins, here’s another installment of Fun & Facts: Marvel Super Heroes.
One thing before we start. I always thought that the overall quality of this game is through the roof. There is a good amount of fan service and little touches here. That being said, here are some fun facts on Marvel Super Heroes:
- This is the first game in the cross-over series that features a character’s comic book title icon as their name. The next game was Marvel vs. Capcom.
- This is the only game in the cross-over series that has a variable amount of super meters for each character. Blackheart and Shuma-Gorath got the short end of the stick with one meter each, while some characters like The Hulk has three.
- Wolverine’s healing factor is represented in-game. Whenever he takes damage, a tiny bit of that damage is returned immediately after. Capcom claims this has no real bearing on character balance, it’s just a nice touch.
- The character portraits next to the life bars are used to represent stun state. It starts with a blue background, then goes to a yellow one with the character looking more ragged after taking a good amount of damage, and then it goes to red when stun state is reached. Needless to say, you try to avoid damage once your portrait goes yellow.
- These portraits also represent other…”states” the characters enter. For instance, when an infinity gem is activated, your character portrait blinks. For Shuma-Gorath, whenever he does his Down MK attack in the air and turns to stone, so does his portrait image, and his eye changes color when he wins, same in his portrait.
- Each character has a gem that grants them a unique property. If Spider-Man uses the Power gem for instance, he gets a damage boost and a clone a few steps in front of him, so it looks like they are ganging up on the enemy. If Juggernaut uses the Space gem, he gains total invulnerability. The lamest one is Iron Man’s. Him using the Soul gem lasts longer than the other characters, and green orbs circle his body.
- Blackheart says “Blackheart Rises!” when he wins and doesn’t laugh. Good luck in trying to really hear that though. It just sounds like gibberish.
Interesting no? There are probably a few more I missed, but these really stand out in my mind. Once people started getting used to the game, the infinity gems were used to do infinites and easy stun combos, so a lot of people turned them off. Since I wasn’t really competing, I didn’t really figure out little nuances and advanced combos. This game isn’t exactly the pinnacle of balance, but I kind of remember it being better than X-Men vs. Street Fighter…but that’s a story for another day.