Marvel Super Heroes: War of the Gems

"A nice little romp through the Marvel Universe."

If I'm not mistaken, this was the last SNES game released. Make no mistake, this one's a gem. Loosely based on the Infinity Gauntlet/Wars storylines, you have a choice to play as 5 different Marvel Super Heroes - Captain America, Spider-Man, Iron-Man, Wolverine, or the Hulk in order to locate the infinity gems and save the universe.

Storyline: 9/10

It's some stuff straight out of the comic books and toyed with a little bit. For a SNES storyline, this is pretty good and you have other people on your tail that want the infinity gems like Dr. Doom. It has a great cast of characters including the 5 already mentioned, Adam Warlock, Dr. Strange, numerous villains, and evil clones of other characters.

Graphics: 10/10

This is top notch stuff for a SNES game. The characters are big and well-animated. All of them look like they're supposed to look and they're easily recognized. Even today, it still looks pretty dang good! There's some nice little touches like Iron-Man's armor shining every so often, and the background's look vibrant and colorful.

Sound: 9/10

It's great for a SNES game. It sounds right for a game like this, and when the ominous music hits when you have to fight a boss...oh man, it feels great. Nothing to keep bragging about, it's just SNES music.

Controls: 10/10

Sweet and simple. I love the way this game plays. B makes your character jump, Y makes your character attack, and with a little act taken from Street Fighter, a little movement of the control pad and the Y button lets you unleash a special attack. It's simplicity is beautiful. They're responsive and effective. Period.

Gameplay: 10/10

The gameplay is fun, it can be surprisingly addictive for a beat-em-up. One button lets you unleash many combos upon the opposition. You also have gem power-ups where you do a certain button press and your character does a specific special gem move. As you go through the game, you collect some of the infinity gems and after you have collected them, you have the opportunity to use one of them in battle - Power, Soul, Mind, Time, Reality, Space. As you go through each stage, you'll find that some characters are better suited for the stage than another might be. For example: I would suggest Iron-Man for the Boston Aquarium and Spider-Man for the Amazon. Some stages even have different routes for each character, so bigger characters like Captain America and the Hulk have to break through a wall and smaller characters who can't break through a wall, like Wolverine and Spider-Man, have to climb up a wall and take a different route. Iron-Man though, can do either because he's powerful enough and he can fly. The boss battles are challenging but not to the point that it's ridiculous. It's a fun game with a sensible difficulty.

Fun Factor: 9/10

It might get old once or twice, but not very often. It's a very fun game and a great beat-em-up.

Replayability: 5/10

Once it's been beaten, there's not much reason to go through it again except for the sheer hell of it. There's no secrets, at least none that I know of.

Rent or Buy? Well, you can't rent it, so shell out $5 and have a few hours of fun kicking the crap out of some Super Villains!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/05/03, Updated 03/05/03