X-Men vs. Street Fighter is Capcom‘s third fighting game to feature Marvel Comics characters, following X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes, and is the first instalment in the Marvel vs. Capcom series. It was originally released as an arcade game in 1996, and was ported to the Sega Saturn in 1997, the Sony PlayStation in 1998, and Windows PCs in 2001.

As the title implies, it’s a ‘crossover‘ that combines characters from Marvel‘s X-Men franchise, with a cast from Capcom‘s Street Fighter II series. X-Men vs. Street Fighter features a roster of 17 playable characters. The X-Men characters are: Cyclops, Gambit, Juggernaut, Magneto, Rogue, Sabretooth, Storm, and Wolverine, and the Street Fighter characters are: Akuma, Cammy, Charlie Nash, Chun-Li, Dhalsim, Ken Masters, M. Bison, Ryu, and Zangief.

A major introduction to the series are ‘Tag Team’ battles, meaning that you pick two playable characters before you begin and fight them individually, but can ‘tag’ the fighter waiting in the wings to swap and bring them into play. The fighter waiting off-screen slowly regains their health while they’re resting. Only when both of your opponents have no more health left do you win (or, conversely, both of your fighters are defeated, in which case you lose). Instead of the typical ‘best-of-three’ round format, matches consist of a single round instead. It’s an interesting concept that adds a touch of spice to the series.

If the timer runs out before either team is knocked out, then the team with the most combined health is declared the winner.

X-Men vs. Street Fighter also includes a meter system similar to the one in Marvel Super Heroes, called the “Hyper Combo Gauge“. When a character performs moves and receives damage, the gauge will gradually fill. Players can then expend this built-up energy to perform various special moves, such as the “Hyper Combo“, which unleashes high amounts of damage; the “Variable Combo“, where both characters use their Hyper Combos simultaneously; and the “Variable Counter“, which transforms a defensive block into an offensive counterattack by tagging-in the off-screen character.

One really nice touch is that some areas of the 2D backgrounds deform if they’re damaged, although this feature was also seen in Marvel Super Heroes – its predecessor. It’s not particularly noticeable, unless you’re very observant, but I noticed it and thought that it was both unusual and also very cool. Another feature, relating to this, is that some locations have floors that can be broken, causing the fighters to fall to a lower level to continue the fight.

X-Men vs. Street Fighter is an exceptional beat ’em up and was a commercial success in video game arcades worldwide, which is understandable considering the appeal of the two popular franchises coming together. Other than the occasional spelling mistake, there’s very little wrong with it (for example: I noticed the word “uncanny” spelled as “unccany” in the intro sequence, which is unfortunate. Especially as “the uncanny X-Men” is the well-known tagline of the Marvel Comics series, so there’s really no excuse for it).

More: X-Men vs. Street Fighter on Wikipedia