Marvel MaXimum Collection (PC) - Review

by Daniel Parker , posted 3 hours ago / 366 Views

Marvel MaXimum Collection is unfortunately a weak package, without an ounce of joy to be had. Not a single game featured in it was considered a hit during its original release, and today you’d likely have more fun listening to someone reminisce about these titles than actually playing them yourself. Simply put, there's nothing you could add to this lineup of archaic games to make it feel like a worthy product. Much of what’s here doesn’t look, sound, or play well; not because of the emulation, though, which is actually excellent, but because it's just a poor collection of games.

In the ’90s, the only consistently good Marvel games were the ones Capcom made, and Capcom has already released all of its arcade Marvel titles in their own collection, called Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, which is anchored by Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes. By comparison, Marvel MaXimum Collection contains little of value. The best game you’ll find here isn’t even the front‑and‑center, Konami‑produced X-Men: The Arcade Game, but rather Spider-Man/Venom: Maximum Carnage. Both the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis versions are included, though they’re only labeled “Super” and “Mega” versions, since all Nintendo and Sega branding has been scrubbed from the ROMs. Maximum Carnage's rushed sequel, Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety, is also included, alongside the mash-up Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade’s Revenge.

Admittedly, the two Spider-Man games were childhood favorites of mine (I still have the original cartridges), which is the only reason I had any interest in this collection. However, I also understand that my attachment to them is purely nostalgic. There’s no combo expression, barely any usable items, and there’s almost no reason to pick Venom in Separation Anxiety. Spider-Man is less likely to grab‑and‑toss enemies, which is a problem when more than two are on screen, and he has access to several secret rooms that Venom can’t even step foot in. The first and easiest secret room is on the first screen of the first level, and it gives you five extra lives. As a kid, once I discovered that, I never picked Venom again, even though he was my favorite Spider-Man character. He became the character I’d let a friend use while I went into the secret areas alone, scooping up all the extra lives. Venom’s only unique ability in Separation Anxiety is that his shield damages enemies on contact. At least in the sequel - Maximum Carnage - he gets a few unique stages, which gives that game a bit more replay value.

Growing up, I played these Spider-Man titles more than Streets of Rage; I was so young that I didn’t realize Separation Anxiety was rushed, and at the time it didn’t matter. It had Venom, and that was enough for me. But today? There’s little to redeem any of the titles in this collection, not even nostalgia, especially when there are games like Marvel: Cosmic Invasion and Streets of Rage 4 on the market. X-Men: The Arcade Game, for example, looks great and the art style is fantastic, but everything else about it is subpar. The gameplay is enough to make your eyes glaze over after a few minutes of pressing the same attack button. Unlike modern beat‑’em‑ups that give players more actions and expression, this one offers such a limited range of attacks that it kills any desire to keep playing.

That being said, there are some additional features within these games in the form of rewinds and dipswitches, which the collection refers to as "Cheats." The rewind feature works across all games, and functions as you'd expect, although it does sometimes cause issues with music playback. The "Cheats" are simple dipswitches for toggling infinite lives and/or health. However, because the featured games are such a chore to play, they don't salvage the collection; suddenly having such options doesn't fix the underlying issues that plague these games.

Equally lackluster is the digital archive of promotional art and manuals for all of the games, albeit with company logos and branding for Super Nintendo and SEGA Genesis missing (as if they were never there), which is understandable in the circumstances. However, the archive isn't very expansive, feeling like the bare minimum required, and it's all a quick Google search away anyway.

The other games in Marvel MaXimum Collection - Silver Surfer, Captain America and The Avengers, and Spider-Man & X-Men: Arcade's Revenge - are all so bad they barely qualify as video games at all. They feel like filler added just to inflate the number of titles in the collection. In short, there’s no mistaking it: there is absolutely no reason to add Marvel MaXimum Collection to your library.