In its heyday, Marvel Vs. Capcom’s crossover fighting series is everywhere. In each arcade—a concept that has become a relic of an era—MvC machines line the walls, and around each arcade are players immersed in X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 and more. It’s a bygone era, and for a while, fans believed that their beloved crossover series had been lost in time like the old arcade games.
Marvel VS. However, Capcom Fighting Collection brings together all six era-defining fighting games and the historic fighting games that launched Marvel and Capcom’s core partnership into a new era. Thankfully, this pack showcases each game in a way that celebrates their storied past while also breathing new life into them with modern features, creating a series capable of reintroducing these classic games to new audiences. player of the era.
The main focus of the series is fighting games. The six fighting games in the series are all arcade versions – there are no console ports. It’s certainly the right choice, as each game represents the purest form of gaming and essentially runs as it was intended in the 1990s – save for a few framerate issues here and there. However, it also exposes which of these games are outdated and which are still comparable to today’s modern fighting games.
Marvel VS. With its fast and frenetic three-on-three gameplay and massive 56-character cast, Capcom 2 – a cult favorite in the series – is as good now as it was when it first launched 24 years ago. Mix and match with your team to try and find big combos, and watching three people unleash their super moves at the same time remains fascinating. X-Men: Children of the Atom, on the other hand, is slower-paced, only offers 10 characters, and follows a more traditional one-on-one, first-to-two format. It might be considered unfair to compare two games released seven years apart, as COTA is by no means a bad fighting game. However, it is the most “basic” fighting game in the series, and the differences between it and the other games in the set make COTA less attractive than the others.
The other games included here aren’t quite enough to knock MvC2 out, but they provide a lot of fun in their own right. Marvel Super Heroes’ Infinity Stones mechanic brings an interesting twist to one-on-one match modes by powering up attacks, slowly healing damage, or adding projectiles to every basic punch or kick. X-Men Vs. Street Fighter is the foundation of Capcom’s tag fighting games, although its lineup is smaller than other games in the series.
Marvel Super Heroes vs. Marvel Super Heroes At the same time as Street Fighter and the original Marvel Vs., Capcom offered something even MvC2 couldn’t: secret warriors. Both games have additional options hidden on the character select screen – the same goes for X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, but Akuma appears in other games, and both games offer fighters not seen in other games.
MSHvSF added Shadow, U.S. Agent, and Mephisto, alternate versions of Charlie Nash, Captain America, and Blackheart respectively, while MvC introduced Vol. Super-powered versions of Venom, War Machine, The Hulk and Blackheart. These characters are undeniably game-breaking, and they don’t replace the MvC2 experience, but they give both games something worth booting up every once in a while.
One notable exception is Punisher, the aforementioned side-scrolling fighting game from 1993. A fun but short beat ’em up action game, the first game from the Marvel/Capcom collaboration. It’s mixed with the odd bit of over-the-top violence – the fate of the first boss is particularly shocking – but the brawling is fun enough, either alone or with friends via co-op. However, other than being a nice piece of history, it doesn’t add much to the collection.
Most of the modern perks these games receive are blessings, but there are also a few minor annoyances along the way. The quick save feature from other Capcom series returns, allowing you to instantly retain your progress, but the problem here is huge: only one Quick save slot for all seven games in the series.
Any deep runs in a single game are jeopardized if you decide to play a different game the next time you launch your collection, rather than each game having its own separate quicksave slot, making this a useful modern tool. The main annoyance comes when having to choose between quick save games. When the MvC run progresses all the way to Onslaught, the showdown with the Punisher final boss shouldn’t be forced to be removed because of confusing limitations like this.
Undoubtedly the best modern addition is the rollback netcode in all seven games. The advent of rollback has enhanced the entire fighting game genre, and this MvC Collection benefits from improved online functionality. Most of the online play went smoothly with few glaring issues. Granted, this was during the review period and there wasn’t a full base of consumer fans trying to log in, so it should be taken with a grain of salt. Still, playing online feels like my opponent is sitting right next to me.
The remaining extras in the collection are a trip down memory lane through the museum, which offers galleries of concept art and design files for each game, as well as a jukebox for listening to each game’s complete soundtrack. There’s some interesting tidbits for die-hard MvC fans, like the fact that the Japanese title cards for X-Men: Children of the Atom featured Cyclops and other heroes, while the American version turned them all into silhouettes. Obviously, these features don’t add anything to the core gameplay, but the history lessons are still appreciated.
Prior to this series, it had been nearly 12 years since the official release of these games: Marvel Vs. The Capcom Origins bundle launches on September 25, 2012. Pun intended – fans have no idea when these games will be released. Now, Marvel Vs. Capcom’s Fighting Collection opens the floodgates with aplomb, combining them all into a package fit for the modern era. While there are some issues and some of these games don’t perform as well as others, the fact that they’re all here is a great act of saving that deserves praise.
Whether you originally loved these games or are just playing them now, the Marvel Vs. Capcom Fighting Collection is a great place to experience them. In other words, it takes you for a ride.
