It was hard to find a bigger comic book fan than me back in the 1990s, as my dad instilled in me a love of superheroes. Like many children of the time, I inherited the bright colors and heroic stories set within the sci-fi soap opera genre. To that end, video games based on comic books became an important part of my fandom at the time, and no one was doing it like Marvel back then.
Marvel’s video game dominance in the ’80s and ’90s was truly something to behold, and if you have a catalog of games from the past era, there’s a good chance these days that a tie-in title is in your future. Enter a new competitor, known as the MARVEL MaXimum Collection.
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Featuring some of the company’s best 8 and 16-bit games, the MARVEL MaXimum Collection feels like nostalgia reaching a certain part of my soul. These games were essential in forming a part of my childhood and youth, as well as being some of the most revealing, authentic experiments in Marvel’s interesting evolution in the 1990s.
The Marvel Way
The MARVEL MaXimum collection includes six games from this truly iconic era of comic book gaming. In total, you get X-Men: The Arcade Game, Captain America and The Avengers, Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety, Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage, Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade’s Revenge, and Silver Surfer. If you played any of these games as a kid, seeing them restored on modern hardware is an absolute treat.
The memories I created playing Maximum Carnage and Separation Anxiety with my dad are burned into my skull. All of these games are absolute gems, and getting the chance to play them again is great. Each game is also lovingly cared for, as it includes multiple versions of each game, as well as cheats and basic undo features. If you’re a die-hard fan, that might sound like a blasphemy, but having an option is always good.
It’s also great to get a decent port of the timeless X-Men: The Arcade game for modern hardware. It hasn’t been available on home platforms since 2013, when it was unlisted on Xbox Live Arcade and PSN. It continues to be one of the best arcade beats, and replaying it in this collection shows just how good it really is.
There are also a few that I never had the chance to play as a kid, including the Silver Surfer game. It’s much smaller than the others, playing more like a side-scrolling shooter like something like Gradius. Probably the weakest game in the collection, but still worth checking out. It has great music and sprite work, too.
All of these games are absolute gems, and getting the chance to play them again is great.
Much of the visual language of each game feels memorable. You can almost feel where you were while playing these games, and feel the same emotional hook from back in the day. Conversely, if you haven’t played it yet, and consider yourself a Marvel fan, there’s just so much to enjoy here.
Overall, the games feel like a microcosm of a certain era of Marvel. There was no MCU, no great empire of film and television. It was a bunch of weird comic books and a few offshoot movies. The characters speak for themselves, and the beauty of each game is like the 1990s in a time capsule.
My only caveat is that, while I think the game selection is outstanding, I would have liked to see more niche games like Spider-Man: Web of Fire and The Incredible Hulk. It’s not that big of a deal, and there’s always room for more collections on the floor, but it would be nice to see something less well-known.
Turn up the volume
In addition to the main attractions of the games, the MARVEL MaXimum Collection also has many great additions. The games are the star of the show, and surprisingly each one also has multiple versions, but MMC is also packed with a ton of bonus content.
My favorite was the music player, which allows you to listen to the complete soundtrack of each game. This era of video game music was very exciting and challenging, as well as impressive when you think about what composers and composers were doing with the still limited sound chips inside consoles.
Not only is the music available and accounted for, you can change which version of the song you’re listening to at any time. I always appreciate it when a hybrid title allows me to see games from every angle, and MMC does exactly that.
The MARVEL Maximum collection doesn’t stop there, as it also offers artwork, design documents, and box art. The scans are incredibly high quality, and if you grew up with these characters and this era, it’s a fun nostalgia to look at these. The preservation of the game is important, but I think the preservation of the game design is equally important.
The games are the star of the show, and surprisingly each one also has multiple versions, but MMC is also packed with a ton of bonus content.
A lot goes into making a video game, and when developers are reminded of their work, that’s always a good thing. Compilation articles are always a good place to do that, as you can use these types of experiences to show what makes these games special. MARVEL MaXimum Collection is dedicated to that. You can really see how much the team here respects and appreciates the work of the developers who made these games.
Mutants, Mayhem, and Co-Op
The games in the MARVEL Maximum Collection all run at full speed. There are little or no frame drops of any kind, and each game is remarkably smooth. I encountered zero issues when it came to performance, and while that may seem like a low bar for 2D side-scrollers in 2026, we’ve all seen the dire situation in which some retro game collections have been shipped.
Switching between games and menus is fast too. The UI and menu design is really nice, with bright, bold colors and fast, responsive transitions. I always appreciate when these compilation titles handle this well, and it’s good to see MMC follow suit.
MMC also has cool frames and wallpaper, so if you don’t like the dark background, you can reduce that. It’s also worth noting that the MARVEL MaXimum collection is a rare example where a CRT filter looks really good, and while I’ve been turned off by most of my experiences, having one that looks good is a wonderful surprise.
While each game in the MARVEL Maximum Collection can be played alone, X-Men: The Arcade Game is also playable online. This sounds incredible except the internet seems to be down, no work to speak of. It’s a shame, as it would have been nice to meet people online and reduce the Sentinels.
The MARVEL MaXimum collection features heavy hitters from the 1990s in terms of comic book video games. Featuring six titles across thirteen editions, this epic collection is a wave of nostalgia worth the price of admission if you’ve ever been a fan of Marvel Comics. The games are hot, and include some great bonus content. The internet seems to be dead, unfortunately, so keep that in mind before you log on.
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