Okay, so as I understand it, the Marvel Comics Universe was created in 1939. Over the years, new Heroes and Villains were created and destroyed in an ever-lasting battle between Good and Evil. Then in 2006 Marvel, with the help of Hasbro Toys, released the Marvel Super Hero Squad action figures. These 3-inch high, cartoon-ish-style action figures were intended for ages 3 and up with the ‘up’ making-up a large percentage of the market-share. And then just this past September (2009), the Marvel Super Hero Squad show premiered on the Cartoon Network. On its heels comes the Marvel Super Hero Squad video game for the Nintendo Wii from THQ.

A Mighty Hammer

Now I’ve not actually watched an entire episode of the Marvel Super Hero Squad Show, only catching a brief snippit of it as I surfed past the Cartoon Network during a commercial break from the show I was actually watching. But from what I’ve been able to gather, the video game storyline follows closely with the one presented in the television series. The evil Doctor Doom has transported the all-powerful Infinity Sword to Earth, where he engaged in a massive battle with Iron Man. During the battle, the blade of the Infinity Sword was shattered, scattering dozens of Infinity Fractals all over Super Hero City.

Each Infinity Fractal holds great power, so the Super Hero Squad, which consists of Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Falcon, Silver Surfer, and Wolverine, under the direction of Ms. Marvel of S.H.I.E.L.D., battle forth to seek out and collect the missing shards. Facing them in an attempt to collect the wayward shards for their own nefarious goals are the Lethal Legion, which consist of M.O.D.O.K., Magneto, Mole Man, Abomination, Juggernaut, Loki, and Sabretooth, all under the leadership of Doctor Doom.

Adamantium Claws

Game play for Marvel Super Hero Squad is broken down into two modes, Adventure Mode and Battle Mode.

In Adventure Mode, you play through the story. The action is broken down into 8 chapters, which includes the Opening Battle, 6 Infinity Fractal-seeking chapters, and then a Final Battle against Doctor Doom. During the 6 Infinity Fractal-seeking chapters, you get to play one of the members of the Super Hero Squad and battle against a member of the Lethal Legion while trying to find one of the elusive Infinity Fractals. During this time, you can have a friend help you in your quest by playing another ”surprise” Marvel Hero like Nightcrawler, The Thing, Storm, Invisible Girl, or Captain America, just to name a few.

During Battle Mode, you, with up to 3 other friends, get to battle Hero against Villain,Hero against Hero, or Villain against Villain in a one-on-one melee or team match. By playing the Adventure Mode and finding Collector Tokens you can unlock some of the ”surprise” Marvel Heroes.

Silver Surfboard

From what I’ve seen of the Marvel Super Hero Squad television series, the look and sound of the game is very much modeled after the show, including the goofy remarks by some of the characters. The Heroes use basic hand-to-hand combat (called Melee Attack) to fight their enemies as well as using their superpower for distant attacks (called the Reach ‘Power’ Attack). The game also takes advantage of the physical attributes of the Wii remote helping Falcon to fly or Wolverine to climb using his claws.

There are a couple of drawbacks to the game, one of which has become a pet peeve of mine: this game lacks the ability to have two Heroes share the screen without one of them falling off the side when the main Hero moves too far stage left or right. I think the Lego video games are the only ones that I’ve played that have handled this problem satisfactorily. Another downfall for this game is that the Adventure Mode story plays through rather quickly and has very little replay value. I suspect that is why THQ included the Battle Mode.

Overall Impression

The best way to sum this game up is: as Marvel Super Hero Squad is a kinder, gentler, kid-friendly version of the Marvel Comic Universe, the Marvel Super Hero Squad video game is a kinder, gentler, kid-friendly version of the ultra-violent comic book hero video games. So with that in mind, Nikolai (age 8) has decided to give the Marvel Super Hero Squad video game 99 Thumbs Up out of 100, because “it got boring after a while.” As for me, well sometimes I’m not into the kinder, gentler thing, so I’m giving it 5 Dancing Elephants out of 8.

Parting Thought

Given a choice between Marvel Comics and D.C. Comics, I’d have to give the nod to Marvel… Yeah, definitely Marvel.

In the Interest of Full Disclosure: We received a free copy of this game for review purposes.