Countdown to MVC3: Marvel Super Heroes: War of the Gems
Sorry for the delay, the holidays, and the moving to a new apartment kind of got in the way, but now here is the next chapter in my video game review countdown to MVC3
In lieu of the impending release of Marvel vs Capcom 3 in a few months I'm doing an ongoing series of reviews of some underrated, time forgotten Marvel based video games.
Today:
Marvel Super Heroes: War of the Gems
With the success of X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel requested a follow up game, Marvel Super Heroes which was released in Arcades in 1995. However Marvel surely wanted something for the home console market that was being fought over by Sony's Playstation and Nintendo's Super Nintendo. Unable to port their successful fighting games to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System like they did to the PS, Capcom developed a completely different game titled somewhat similarly to the current arcade fighter. Use the fame of one to market the other even if they are unrelated in everything but the characters, smart huh?.
Marvel Super Heroes: War of the Gems follows, albeit quite loosely, the 6 issue Marvel story arc of The Infinity Gauntlet. In the game, Captain America, Iron-Man, Hulk (The Professor persona), Spider-Man and Wolverine are tasked by Adam Warlock to stop Thanos from using the Gems of the infinity gauntlet, (a big golden glove with 6 colored stones embedded onto it that grant unlimited power to the wearer) to conquer the galaxy.
Only the 5 Heroes mentioned above are playable. However you do get to fight evil versions of such heroes as Daredevil, Silver Surfer, The Thing, Iron-Man, Hawkeye, Wolverine, the Vision etc... 
You start off looking at a big map of the world where you can pick a location to go to and fight, or go to Avengers mansion and use the Training Simulator to acquire boosts, and helpful items by defeating virtual enemies. Once you select a location and a hero, the game is pretty much a side scrolling beat-them up platformer. If your hero dies during a level, he can only be revived by one of the special items of which will talk about a little further down.
The first set of available locations are: Boston Aquarium, The Amazon, The Arctic, and Dr.Doom's Castle. After completing those, a new set becomes available: SpaceShip, Asteroid Belt, Egypt and Mt. Vesuvius. After clearing those you get access to Thanos' Fortress.
Each hero has his own powers and abilities. However some abilities seem to be missing. Wolverine can't heal. Hulk can't jump very high, Cap can't use his shield to block, in fact none of them can actually block blows. Either you kill the enemy first or you take the blows head on. This is one of the more annoying aspects of the game, specially when you have a bunch of evil Pucks balling up on you. The levels are typical platforming beat them ups. You move a few feet, and encounter enemies to fight. Traverse some platforms and kill more enemies etc... Its not ground braking, but offers some interesting twists. Certain levels offer forks in the path. Depending on which hero you are controlling you may be forced down one path instead of an alternate path for another hero.
For instance in Dr. Doom's castle, Spider-Man and Wolverine must scale a wall and take the high ground, while Captain America and Hulk cannot take it, but in turn ar able to destroy the wall and take the low path. Iron Man on the other hand can take any path as he can hover/fly to take the high road or smash the wall to take the low road. 
You know they are evil, 'cause they're covered in spikes.
As you progress through and defeat bosses you'll pick up the infinity gems. These will offer our heroes boosts like extra health, faster movement, enhanced perceptions etc... There are also other pickups available through out the levels such as the power gems, revive tokens, and health canisters (small and large). Power Gems allow your heroes to perform their super moves. These are quite powerful and can damage most or all enemies on screen, however they are a complete pain in the butt to execute. Each gem is good for one super move, and you can equip up to three before leaving for a mission. Health Canisters restore your heroes health, and the revive tokens let you bring back a fallen hero. Engine wise, this game follows in the footsteps of another SNES Marvel game. X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse. Control Scheme and graphics are petty similar, game play is identical, and even certain sprites are taken from XMMA, namely Wolverine. Sprite recycling? Now where have I heard of that before.
Overall its an entertaining game for the SNES that delivers some fun without being overly complicated or long as some of the games of this genre tended to be. Though later stages can be quite challenging. The game has some replay value, in that you'll want to go back to cleared areas with different heroes to explore other paths that may be inaccessible to some.
If you can find one be sure to check it out, its a nice little "Gem" of the 90's that not many people care for though.
Next time, we'll be taking a look at an arcade Classic, and one of the few that's actually easy to come by now that's been released on Xbox Live Market Place and Play Station Network.
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