Marvel Arcade Games

Spider-Man: The Video Game

Sega’s Spider-Man: The Video Game, is seen as one of the greatest arcade titles of its time. Based on the popular Marvel comics character Spider-Man, the plot drives the character to retrieve mythical artefacts from the evil KingPin and Doctor Doom. With this, Spidey recruits three of his avenger friends (Hawkeye, Black-Cat and Namor the Submariner) to join him on his mission.

One strange, though innovative, aspect of the game-play is how it changes from a side-scrolling beat ’em up to a platformer. This is due to the camera often changing from side-scrolling, to a zoomed-out and far away view of the action, to later on, a closer and more detailed image of the scene.

As Spider-Man is a four player game, each player can choose a character from each of the heroes, who all carry their own style of attack. Spider-Man’s attack revolve around the web-attribute of his character such as swinging from webs.

Black Cat’s game-play focuses on her athletic and cat-like ability. With a combination of claws, grappling hooks and cables she can defeat any enemy.

The mainstay of Hawkeye’s character is his trusty bow and arrow and his attack in Spiderman: The Video Game supports this.

Namor’s background and training from Atlantis show in the game-play, as he has water-based projectile attacks.

Interestingly, the high scores were saved by each character in this game, so you were not only battling your friends for who could get the highest score, but also taking on a personal goal to bet that characters’ best score!

The game itself was split up into four acts, in which the player would encounter bosses in the form of the greatest Spider-Man (and Marvel) villains including: KingPin, Venom, Doctor Octopus, Electro, Lizard, Sandman, Green Goblin, Hobgoblin and Doctor Doom.

Captain America and the Avengers

This side-scrolling, brawling and shooting arcade classic takes the player on a journey with the Avengers to stop the wrath of Red Skull and his criminal gang. Players could choose between Captain America, Iron Man, Vision or Hawkeye, as well as bringing three other friends along to play the other characters. The team must assemble as Red Skull has created an army of supervillains in an evil plot to take over the world.

Each character had their own strengths and weaknesses according to the nature of their character; these including their ‘Avenger Attacks’: Captain’s shield and Hawkeye’s arrows serving as projectile weapons, whilst Iron Man and Vision using energy beams.

Within the levels of the game, special power-ups can be collected which can make Quicksilver, Wasp, Wonder Man and Namor appear to temporarily aid the player in battle.

Some of Marvel’s greatest villains appear in Captain America and the Avengers, including the likes of: Klaw, The Living Laser, Whirlwind, The Sentinels, Wizard, Grim Reaper, Mandarin, The Juggernaut, Ultron, Crossbones and Red Skull.

The game-play can take the player into the skies as Iron Man and Vision’s flying powers can be used to defeat in-flight enemies. Captain America and Hawkeye can also join their teammates in the skies through using powerful flying machines.

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