It's 1996. X-Men vs Street Fighter opened up Pandora's box when Capcom's World Warriors crossed fists with the mutants from Marvel Comics, launching the Vs line of games under the Capcom umbrella. The games used the same CP-System II engine that many Capcom games utilized, including Super Street Fighter II Turbo, X-Men Children of the Atom and the Street Fighter Alpha series.

These Vs games blended fans of both the comic book and fighting game genre and were running white hot, even overshadowing the technically sound Street Fighter III (there was a period when that game wasn't popular. I remember publications complaining about while the extra frames of animation were beautiful, it made it too hard to telegraph projectiles. Or you could just play smarter and not carelessly Hadouken your way through life. Zone responsibly).

In 1998 came what I consider the big splash in presentation, pomp, and circumstance. Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes hits arcades and it was a blow-away game that brought some new faces to the roster. Comprised of 15 fighters with a six hidden selections, MvC introduces a few Capcom personalities that many American fan may not have known about, as their games were either very rare or Japan exclusives. Joining the MvC roster on the Capcom side are Captain Commando (his first and last name, when shorthanded, spells Capcom. They're clever), star of his own titular brawler for arcade and the SNES. Strider Hiryu, who is likely more popular in the Marvel vs Capcom series than in his own, joins the fray, and he was one of my mains. Jin Saotome comes from the fighting game Cyberbots: FullMetal Madness, a mech-based fighting game that plays similar to Street Fighter Alpha 2. And the blue bomber Mega Man, who uses several of his key powers from his series. Venom and War Machine (the latter plays like a variant of Iron Man) join the Marvel side of the roster. Hidden characters include Shadow Lady, a dark version of Chun Li that can shoot missiles, Morrigan/Lilith, an alternate coloring of the succubus that has a modified move set, and Mega Man's sister Roll. The secret characters more or less are palette swaps.

There's also a plethora of special guest characters that act as assists in the midst of combat that didn't make it as active roster members. Characters like Jubilee, Thor, US Agent, Sentinel, Arthur from Ghouls'n Ghosts, and Michelle Heart from the Capcom arcade shooter Legendary Wings. While in retrospect, Marvel vs Capcom isn't the massive playable ensemble that its sequel was, the cameos made this feel like a great deal.

Speaking of its sequel, and I don't mind being on record for this, while Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes was incredibly popular and one of the games that really ignited the competitive side of the fighting game community, Clash of Super Heroes is a technically superior game. It may only have one forth the roster, but there's better balance among the characters, better visuals, more frames of animation, and better music. Every character had their own individual theme, and I really appreciated that. Much better than the wacky free flowing jazz, that felt incredibly derailing. "I wanna take you for a ride!" Please don't. I get it, it's iconic, but I wasn't that much of a fan.

Not taking anything away from Marvel vs Capcom 2, I love the game, but it's essentially a polished MUGEN compared to the Clash of Heroes. Venom is an upper mid character with solid damage output and devastating normals. In MvC2, some of his attacks have noticeable frames of animation missing (his poor st.FP is rendered useless) and he's one of the worst characters. I also liked how Ryu played in this one. Rather than clutter the game with Shotos, Ryu could spend a super bar level and shift between his skill set, Akuma's (Evil Ryu) and Ken's fire-based, more speedy attacks with a little bit of a hit to his power. 

Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Heroes plays great on the Dreamcast (a six face pad or an arcade stick is how I'd prefer to play it. The Dreamcast controller has aged very weird) and is an arcade perfect port. The battle against Onslaught is as fun as pulling off hangnails with a pair of rusty pliers. The controls are great, I love the visuals, the stages were multi tiered and had breakable walls to expand the play field, the music is tremendous, and the very user friendly approach made this an easy gateway fighter that likely inspired a generation to pick up the sticks and lab up.