For the longest time it kinda felt like that classic arcade side-scrolling 90s efforts X-Men: The Arcade Game and the underrated Captain America and the Avengers would never see a home release, and especially on current generation console platforms. Thanks to the folks at Limited Run Games however, what was seemingly impossible is now possible as the Marvel MaXimum Collection brings together those two fondly brawlers from yesteryear with a smattering of other Marvel licensed 8-bit and 16-bit fare to boot.
Put simply, if you’ve had any experience with the Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection which Limited Run Games released previously, you’ll have a fair idea of what to expect here – though arguably the quality of offerings in this particular compilation is much higher than the prehistoric awfulness rammed into its earlier Jurassic Park licensed counterpart.
Marvel MaXimum Collection PS5 Review
Before we get to the games themselves, the Marvel MaXimum Collection packs in some bonus material for those aforementioned titles, albeit an uneven and somewhat lacking library of behind the scenes materials. Really, it’s a shame there isn’t just more bonus material here. Of course, this isn’t a digital eclipse calibre effort, but just having a music player, some art books, manuals and design documents for Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage only, makes it feel quite like a let down, especially considering the fond place that some of these games hold in gamers hearts.
Onto the games themselves, they are largely presented in pretty decently emulated form, with no real input lag and each comes with a variety of different screen filters, aspect ratios, borders and rewind modes for players to leverage, so nothing especially ground breaking there. In addition, there are also multiple versions of four of the six games in the collection as well spanning arcade, 8-bit and 16-bit home platforms, allowing gamers to tap into a very specific vein of nostalgia depending on which versions of these games they happened to grow up with.
Starting with arguably the most high profile entry in the Marvel MaXimum Collection, just having X-Men: The Arcade Game available to play on PS4 and PS5 consoles is something of a delight, not least because in its previous digital form on PS3, it was discontinued back in 2013. Certainly, X-Men: The Arcade Game represents a decent time for the most part and a weapons-grade nostalgia hit for those old enough to remember it from back in the day, but there’s no denying that it hasn’t aged all that well compared to other genre stablemates with a lack of environmental interactivity in many of its stages and a lazy repeat of previous bosses in the game’s penultimate battle against Magneto. Nonetheless, the allure of co-op (including online play) and some otherwise solid brawling action, still means that X-Men: The Arcade Game is a good enough prospect for anyone looking to play out those halcyon days in 2026.
For my money though, Captain America and the Avengers is the better side-scrolling brawler. Though it lacks the massive sprites and more detailed backdrops of its X-Men counterpart, every level has all manner of bins, seats, chairs and other objects that can be destroyed, while each level also permits players to jump and scale structures in the background, unlike X-Men: The Arcade Game. Throw in a bigger arsenal of moves and skills, including a dash attack and the ability to pick up other weapons and power-ups and it’s clear to me at least that Captain America and the Avengers deserves the nod here over its mutant arcade brethren. There are even side-scrolling shoot-em up sections which bridge the gap between the different bouts of brawling action too, making Captain America and the Avengers feel yet more varied and arguably fresher than X-Men: The Arcade Game.
Elsewhere in the package, Silver Surfer is arguably the weakest offering. A painfully no-frills, hybrid side scrolling and vertical scrolling 8-bit shooter dragged from the dungeons of gaming yesteryear, Silver Surfer’s biggest plus points are its surprisingly accomplished soundtrack and a mechanic that allows players to switch the position of the Surfer’s offensive orbs, allowing him to shoot in front, behind and beneath him. Hardly riveting stuff then, but still, the presence of Silver Surfer in this collection could hold value for the small handful of folks that remember it from their formative years.
Stuck squarely in the middle from a quality perspective are the Spider-Man/Venom: Maximum Carnage and Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety games. A pair of side-scrolling brawlers with oddly clunky climbing sections, both of these titles have surprisingly snappy feeling combat, but the lack of enemy variety and moves on offer (both Venom and Spidey feel like palette swaps, rather than their own unique characters), repetitive environments and clumsy encounters which often have you just fighting sub-bosses from previously levels, ultimately fail to inspire.
Existing on a rung below those titles, is Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade’s Revenge. Eschewing the pugilistic pursuits of the Spider-Man/Venom games, Arcade’s Revenge instead has our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man engaging in some old fashioned side-scrolling platforming with some combat thrown in for good measure. The flaws however are myriad. From the insanely challenging level of difficulty to the awkward controls, poor visuals and generally dull platform-shooter gameplay that has aged like milk, Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade’s Revenge is perhaps best consigned to the waste heap of time (along with Silver Surfer).
Beyond the games themselves, there is also something of an odd issue tied in with the controls which can prove to be pretty aggravating on the regular. You see, for some reason touching R2 pauses the game and brings up the overall compilation options menu where you can fiddle around with the various difficulty, visual settings, save states and so on. The problem though, is that I found that I often triggered this screen during play by accident. A lot. And there’s no way to change it. Nothing a patch couldn’t fix certainly but in the here and now, it isn’t great.
Despite the lack of any substantial extra materials and the as-is presentation of the various mixed quality games in the package, I can still confidently say that it’s good to have playable versions of X-Men: The Arcade Game and Captain America and the Avengers in the here and now of the year 2026. Though this is an uneven package overall, older gamers who grew up with these superhero titles of yesteryear will still nonetheless find a rather potent and concentrated hit of nostalgia here. For everyone else, the Marvel MaXimum Collection provides a reasonable if uneven peek into the past of Marvel licensed video games.
Marvel MaXimum Collection is out now on PS4 and PS5.
Review code kindly provided by PR.