Dan Geeks Out: Video Game Review #387: Avengers in Galactic Storm

Avengers in Galactic Storm

Arcade

Nostalgia Factor:

I first became aware of this game a few months ago while scrolling through my RetroPie's arcade section. Up to that point, the only Avengers arcade game I had been familiar with was Captain America and the Avengers - the beat 'em up. This was a fighting game.

I added it to my queue with the intent of coming back to it "someday." Well guess what? Someday has come. Let's close out 1996 with my review of Avengers in Galactic Storm.

Story:

Don't expect to be blown away by this game's story. It is very basic. Avengers go to space. Avengers fight bad guys. Avengers are captured. Avengers escape! Avengers fight bad guys. Avengers go back to Earth. Avengers fight bad guys. Blah blah blah.

One thing that stands out is the composition of these so-called Avengers. When you think Avengers, you think Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, etc. What does this game give you? Captain America - okay that is a given. But the other three playable Avengers? Black Knight, Crystal, and Thunderstrike. Wait, who?

Some of the classics, such as Iron Man, Thor, and Vision do appear in this game, but only as "assist characters" that you can't actually control. It is funny how far Marvel has come since the introduction of the MCU. You can tell this game is heavily influenced by the comics of its time - which are very different from the version of the Avengers people know in present times.

Gameplay:

This is a fighting game. As you may or may not know, this is not my favorite genre. I tried to come into this game with an open mind, knowing that I don't really like fighting games. Let's just say that this game does nothing to change my mind.

There are two modes in this game - story and versus mode. Having no one to play against, I chose story mode. You choose one of the four Avengers playable to you. You fight your way through a series of battles as you make your way through story mode.

What is unique about this feature is that fights aren't your traditional best two of three rounds like in normal fighting games. All you have to do is deplete your opponent's health meter all the way to the bottom and you win, advancing the game's story. If you get defeated, you don't start the fight over again. You have two lives. If you die a second time, you can put in a quarter and continue - selecting a new character if you choose to do so. And then you jump right back into the fight where you died. Your opponent's health bar hasn't recharged, meaning all the damage you've already inflicted still counts against your opponent. This makes story mode very playable and not very challenging since you can just keep continuing mid-fight over and over again when you die.

After defeating story mode, the game becomes a traditional best two out of three round fighter, with no story sequences. You just fight random characters until you've defeated them all. This time you can pick from a full compliment of characters, the villains included. It's a very weird and sudden change of pace. I played through a few rounds of these fights and started to lose interest very quickly.

This game controls like a Street Fighter game. You move and jump using the joystick. You've got kick and punch buttons. Different button combinations launch different special attacks. There's really nothing special about this game's mechanics at all. This is where me not being a big fighting game fan comes into play. Let me repeat: I found NOTHING special about this game.

One of the coolest features of the game, the assist characters, I couldn't even get to work. You charge up a meter as you fight, and when it fills up it supposedly allows you to summon your assist character to damage your enemy. The game was telling me to use the button combo of "down, diagonal down-forward, forward, kick, kick, kick" to use these special attacks - but when I did that nothing would happen. And I tried. I tell you I tried. Dozens and dozens of times. I couldn't get it to work a single time. But the computer sure got theirs to work. One of the many reasons this game becomes irritating to play after a while.

Graphics:

This game has that shiny, 3D pixel look to it that was popular for an extremely brief period of time back in the late 90s. It's funny, I just made the same observation regarding Sonic Blast, my last game review. 1996 must have been the peak of this type of graphical style.

That said, the game looks alright. Sometimes I can nod my head and appreciate the comic book look and feel of things, while at other points the game can look somewhat ugly. I guess I'm leaning more towards thumbs down on this one, although it is pretty close.

Sound:

The definition of mediocre. Literally nothing stood out or made an impression on me.

Overall:

This game does absolutely nothing for me. I truly wanted to like it. I like the theme. I like the Avengers. But this isn't good. In any way.

It's a completely average, generic, run of the mill fighting game, the likes of which were being churned out in the late 90s in big numbers. If I had played this game back then, I still think I would have had the same impression I have now. It's boring. Maybe if I had been able to get the Avengers assist attacks to work, I would have liked this game a bit more. And I'm sure two player versus mode can be fun too. It is not like this game is completely devoid of merit. It's just not for me.

THE GRADE:

40th Birthday Mop Up Duty Celebration Tour:

1982 reviews:

1983:

1984:

Frogger II: Threedeep!