If you knew me a quarter of a century ago, you may have been aware that I was the owner of a full size, four player arcade cabinet which was proudly stuffed into the corner of my kitchen at the time. To date, it’s the only arcade machine I’ve ever owned (unless you count the Evercade Alpha, which isn’t exactly the same thing). So of course, you might be wondering which game featured on this beloved arcade machine.

The answer is that it was the 4 player variant of the X-Men beat ’em up by Konami. It was glorious, and it didn’t even matter that, having set it to infinite continues immediately after delivery, myself and my friends played through the entirety of the game on our first try.

It’s been a long time since I owned that machine, and many years since I’ve even played X-Men: The Arcade Game, so it’s fantastic to see it featured on the Marvel MaXimum Collection.

In fact, the whole collection, considering it features games licensed by a variety of companies and released on such a diverse number of platforms, feels like it shouldn’t exist. Yet here it is! So what else is here?

Beyond the excellent X-Men: The Arcade Game, which features up to 6 player co-op (and the wider, panoramic screen for the 6 player version), impressively supporting online play in this way too, there’s five more games: Captain America and the Avengers, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man/Venom: Maximum Carnage, Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety and Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade’s Revenge.

They’re a mixed bunch. I found that Captain America and the Avengers is far better than its critical reception at the time of release would have you believe. The same goes for Silver Surfer, but that’s only because the Marvel MaXimum Collection features turbo fire, rewind and save states; without these modern conveniences, the Silver Surfer’s NES shoot ’em up is a frustratingly tough, bizarrely overstuffed mess.

With these contemporary gameplay assists, it’s an enjoyably silly experience.

I was never a fan of the overly punishing Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade’s Revenge, but again it’s enlivened and made palatable by its modern features, where its impressively varied approach to level design and diverse character styles can really shine.

The biggest disappointments are the two symbiote-based Spider-Man beat ’em ups: Maximum Carnage and Separation Anxiety. Despite some variation in level design, they feel entirely too shallow and repetitive to be all that enjoyable, and having been a massive Spider-Man fan when they were released, and playing them an awful lot at the time, I don’t know how I convinced myself that they were good at all.

Now the real ace up the sleeve of the Marvel MaXimum Collection isn’t the CRT filters, cool selection of borders or the save states, but the various editions of several of the games included. For example, we don’t just have the SNES version of Arcade’s Revenge (the one I was familiar with), but the Mega Drive/Genesis version, as well as the Game Gear and Game Boy versions too.

It’s really cool to play the different versions and in some cases the game is entirely different, more than justifying their inclusion. For example, though we have the Sega 16-bit port of Captain America and the Avengers, which is an only-slightly adapted version of the arcade original, the NES port is an action platformer, with a map allowing you to choose your next level. The NES title is superb, and quite the hidden gem.

We haven’t even discussed the archives, which feature a ton of gorgeous, scanned print content including ads, box art and manuals (as well as production documents), or the music player (the SNES Arcade’s Revenge soundtrack is a particularly funky highlight). There’s even cheats such as infinite lives and more besides, for many of the games here.

Though Marvel MaXimum Collection has been a wonderfully nostalgic trip down memory lane for this particular old school comic book fan, it’s actually surprising how much fun I’ve had with these games once the rose tinted glasses have been removed. Though the 16-bit Spidey beat ’em ups aren’t the best (despite being favourites of mine at the time), the rest of the collection is well worth checking out.

The alternate, 8-bit versions of a few games might be weaker than the ‘main’ version (except for Captain America and the Avengers, with its great NES  title), but it’s interesting to check out how each game was handled on different hardware, at the very least. I’d love to have seen the NES and Game Boy Spider-Man titles which didn’t have 16-bit versions, or games such as Sega’s Spider-Man titles (arcade, Master System and Mega Drive/Genesis), but I know that licensing of those is likely to have been quite the challenge.

As it is, I’m definitely impressed, and very pleased, that Limited Run managed to get all of these titles together in one collection. It’s disappointing that the only game to get online support, despite simultaneous co-op play on other titles (why didn’t the arcade version of Captain America and the Avengers feature online play, at least?), however.

That said, overall, Marvel MaXimum Collection is well worth the price of admission, especially if you’re a gamer who grew up playing these titles at home and in the arcade.

Marvel MaXimum Collection is out now for PS5, Xbox and Switch consoles, as well as PC via Steam.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review key for Marvel MaXimum Collection.

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