Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter is the sequel to X-Men vs. Street Fighter and the second instalment in the Marvel vs. Capcom series. The game was first released as an arcade game by Capcom in 1997. It then received ports to the Sega Saturn in 1998 and the PlayStation in 1999.

It features 17 playable characters and ‘Tag Team’ battles. The Marvel characters are: Blackheart, Captain America, Cyclops, The Hulk, Omega Red, Shuma-Gorath, Spider-Man, and Wolverine; the Street Fighter characters are: Akuma, Chun-Li, Dan Hibiki, Dhalsim, Ken Masters, M. Bison, Ryu, Sakura Kasugano, and Zangief. The game also has six secret characters. These are ‘palette swaps’ of existing fighters with different movesets, such as “Dark Sakura” and “Mecha Zangief“. Captain America and Blackheart’s palette swaps are renamed “U.S. Agent” and “Mephisto” respectively.

The game carries over features from its predecessors, such as manual or auto blocking; normal or turbo speed bouts; Super Jumps; Air Combos; breakable scenery (including breakable or moving floors that extend the fight to lower levels), and the “Hyper Combo Gauge” which fills up as the fighters slug it out and can be used to pull off insane special moves.

Like before, the game can be played either single-player or with two players in Versus Mode. In single-player mode you fight waves of computer-controlled teams, culminating in a double boss battle against Apocalypse (who previously appeared in X-Men vs. Street Fighter), and then the final boss character, Cyber-Akuma.

Probably the most notable new addition to Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter is the introduction of the “Variable Assist“. With this the player can summon their off-screen character to perform a special move – without changing their currently-controlled character – opening up new possibilities for combos during battle and significantly expanding the role of the resting character. The ability to use assists would later become a signature gameplay element used in future instalments of the Marvel vs. Capcom series.

The background graphics in some levels are incredibly complex, varied and dramatic. The ‘hangar’ level, for example, starts off with the fighters in combat on top of what looks like a futuristic jet bomber at sunset, but after a minute or two the aircraft starts to move downward on an elevator that takes it into some sort of air base. As the aircraft (and the stage you’re fighting on) continues downward the lighting and colours change, and the background scrolls up to indicate the elevator’s movement. Eventually the aircraft stops inside a huge underground hangar, where the fight goes on until its conclusion. It’s a very impressive and atmospheric arena that helps give Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter top-level production values.

This is another classic 2D fighting game in the Marvel series from Capcom and is arguably one of the best beat ’em ups ever made. It demonstrates just how far the series has progressed since Children of the Atom, in just three short years, and is still well worth playing in this day and age. Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter is over 25 years old now, but it certainly doesn’t look or play like it. It’s still a fantastic game.

More: Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter on Wikipedia