MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics

There was a time where people thought Capcom had thrown it's last hadouken. When Street Fighter V first released, it was unfinished and featureless. Dead Rising 4 was released, and it received good reviews with timed releases, but it still wasn't enough. People were calling Capcom "Crapcom" siting that Devil May Cry reboot, Resident Evil 6, and the Marvel VS Capcom 3 vanilla, even though the latter was the result of a natural disaster. However, this cames after an extended period when Capcom was king, and when they were down, no one necessarily stepped up to assume the throne. Capcom has been staring at that throne for a while, releasing Street Fighter 6, Resident Evil 7, and Village, and all the Monster Hunters you can muster. I have to say, from a fan perspective, Capcom is triumphantly back on the throne, and they stuck a flag in everything with the release of Marvel VS Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, released under a LOT of pressure. 

Let's take a trip in the time machine, because the history here is complex. In 2019, Disney finalized the Fox acquisition, and now owned the rights to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. I'm not entirely sure if this was the spark that we needed, but it was definitely a start. In 2021, Maximilian Dood started a campaign to free Marvel VS Capcom 2 specifically from obscurity. Capcom had lost some of the licenses from Marvel, and couldn't get any of the X-Men in Marvel VS Capcom Infinite. As Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3 was still doing great in the community, Max's campaign was on fire, getting full support from the Fighting Game Community, and the internet in general. Max conducted multiple interviews, and put out plenty of content supporting the campaign. Fightcade, an app dedicated to online fighting, also raised the popularity of the game itself (probably not the most ethical way, but still).

The first win came via the leaked release of Marvel VS Capcom 2, but in the form of an Arcade 1up cabinet. It would come with multiple games, all of what you'll see in this home version, but at a hefty $600 price tag. Still, it was the first time Marvel VS Capcom 2 became available to play online for home users in over 20 years. People were excited, and though it wasn't exactly affordable, there was hope. It was part of EVO 2024, and speculation started making it's way through the internet. Then everything went very quiet. Until a very strange Nintendo Direct announced the impossible. This game was announced during a Nintendo Direct. How?!  

Marvel VS Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics was touted as a 2024 release, on a Nintendo Direct, and everyone lost it. The internet and fighting game fans won. And this is not a light victory; every person who wanted this to happen gets everything they ever wanted in this collection.  It comes with 7 games; X-Men Children of the Atom, X-Men VS Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel Super Heroes VS Street Fighter, Marvel VS Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, Marvel VS Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, and controversial The Punisher, which is a beat 'em up, and Marvel's very first partnership with Capcom. Later, the announcement comes out that this collection will be released on every platform, even last generation. The retail cost will be $49.99, and will come out physically in November. The physical copy will definitely sell out, but I digress. Let's see what we have here. And if you are familiar with all these games, skip to the technical section. Thanks.  

I have to say that I must've forgotten about The Punisher. The Punisher is extremely good, and sort of violent, akin to the comics. With similarities to Final Fight and Captain Commando, The Punisher lets you select between 2 characters, Nick Fury, and the titular character. You have your basic attack button, but this is The Punisher. He can grab and throw the lowest level grunts with ease, even into each other. He's got your life draining specials and can pick up dropped weapons like knives and flame throwers. The best part, is if any enemy enters the field of play with a ranged weapon, The Punisher pulls out his own "ranged weapon", and lays waste to anyone on the screen, with infinite bullets no less. I completed the game rather quickly, with unlimited credits, of course, and it was worth every second. And yes, like all the games here, you can play this co-op online with a friend, however, only via the lobby, and as The Punisher does not include matchmaking like everything else.

Capcom's first foray into the Marvel fighting genre was called X-Men Children of the Atom. This game introduced the flashy system everyone came to love. High jumps, air combos, and everything. This is also the first game that introduced us to to fan favorites Sentinel, Storm, and of course, Cyclops and Wolverine. Some players, like Sentinel, can even fly in all directions. The 6 button game also used different directional fireball inputs. Light punch would make projectiles shoot downward, while the fierce would make them shoot diagonally upward. Street Fighter Alpha would take some cues from this, using the combo counter, and a 3-tiered super meter, as this game precedes it by one year. Also, this game is very hard. And a pro at this game will wipe the floor with any novice immediately. Of course, that goes for most of the games on this list. Children of the Atom is also the first time we see on the ground attacks in a Capcom fighting game. This occurs when a player gets swept, and doesn't roll out. You can get an extra, brutal hit. Magneto is the big bad on this game, and of course, Akuma is "hidden" in the game.

Marvel Super Heroes: War of the Gems would follow the success of X-Men, seeing returning X-Man Wolverine, a playable Magneto, and Psylocke. War of the Gems would introduce fans to a more complete Juggernaut. We would also see Captain America, The Hulk, Iron Man, and the extremely quick Spiderman for the first time in a fighting game. This game focused more on the air combos, and introduced the Gem system that is similar to Marvel VS Capcom Infinite. The gems add power to your attacks, can revive your life, and even shoot out projectiles to your normal moves. Though we wouldn't see the gem system carry over to future games, we would see more of the combo system. The big bad in this one, is Thanos, with the full power of the Infinity Stones. 

The crossovers round out the collection, beginning with X-Men VS Street Fighter. I'm not going to make the joke, but Gambit's debut is also here. Sabertooth and Rogue also make their way in, with Rogue having power-stealing moves, just like in the comics. Both crossovers saw 16 characters, (17 including Akuma). Marvel Super Heroes VS Street Fighter also introduced Sakura and Dan to the fray, which were the only new characters new to the series at the time. These games are the first to introduce a tag team element. In the middle of a match at any time, you can tag in your other character. There is a caveat, for if the character takes damage, there is some they can recover while they're out, but they'll lose that if they're tagged back in too early. While both games let you use double hyper combos, MVSF adds the ability to call in your partner for a quick in and out attack. Your partner can take damage if they're on screen and get hit while you do. 

Marvel Vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes takes everything you learned from the previous games, and turns it up to a 10, adding actual Capcom stalwarts, like Mega Man, Captain Commando, Jin Saotome and Strider, and Marvel vets Venom and War Machine, who is not a palette swap. You have the same feel as the previous two, but it seems more solid and concise. With 15 characters, and some hidden, broken others, there are 20 other characters from both universes that you can bring out a finite amount of appearances. These characters are side characters, and can be chosen using different button combinations. You can then bring these characters out to start, continue, or even sometimes end a combo.  This also introduced the "dramatic battle-esq" super team up move, where you can bring both characters to the screen, and just unleash supers using a timed meter. To me, this is the most solid, but to most others, that would be it's sequel. 

Marvel VS Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes turns the 10 from the previous version up to a 58. 58 characters, from all the games mentioned above, a handful of new characters never before seen in a crossover series, like Thanos and B.B. Hood, and some brand new characters, one being named Ruby Heart. They've added two more meters to the game. MVC2 also added a third person to the team, and took away a medium attack button. Once you pick your character, you'll also pick the way they will assist you, as your fierce punch and kick buttons are now assist buttons. This was rumored to make it easier for Dreamcast players to go right into the arcades and play. You can also super cancel into a partners super at anytime during your current player's super combo. This game is chaos controlled. I am bad at this game, not because the game is hard, but because you're either bad or great at the game. This is the overall star of this collection, and the very reason why we're here. Congratulations, Max. You did it. 

When you open the package that is this game, you are treated to brand new art, which is stunning. With a push of a button, you have two different modes. Offline Mode has access to all 7 games, and you can play the English version or the Japanese version of each game. From here it lets you set the settings of the game, including difficulty, attack power if applicable and then some quality of life options. A lot of these games use a flash when hits occur, or when supers are activated. You can choose to reduce this flash, if you wish. You can also make the secret characters easily accessible, which is on by default. You can also choose to turn certain secret characters off. Finally, you can turn them to be manually selected, or completely off. You can choose what side you want to start on, because yes, there are people who are better based on the side they start on. You controller settings can also be set here, and you can even set some buttons to special moves if you want to get your special on. I'm going to just tell you that if you are playing with a PS5 controller, turn the middle touchpad OFF. Unfortunately, you'll have to map the menu button to something else. You have two custom settings, and two default settings. But seriously...maybe a fight stick is better for this game. (It is. Don't kid yourself.)

Tucked into each fighting game is a training mode, complete with hitboxes and input data. You can fully customize what your opponent will do, including throw recovery, safe falls, and even game specific mechanics, such as which reality gem you want to use in MSH. You can also turn on a network delay to make your battling a little more efficient, even though the game has rollback. The training mode is sufficient, though I would've loved to see some combo training. But I can't have it all, can I? I'll just roll with this. I'll look up some old guides or some how to play videos from the 2000s. I'm not complaining. I'm NOT!  

The Online mode is snappy. It has full rollback, but please understand there is no cross-platform play, so if you have this on Steam, you'll play people on Steam. You can choose which games you want to be challenged in, whether casual or ranked. You can even choose which version, whether Japanese, English, or both. Finally, you can choose if you want to standby in a loading screen, in game in any game, or in the museum, which is super cool. The ranked system gives you points for winning, but you don't lose much for losing, so that's refreshing. Please note that people have been waiting a VERY long time for MVC2 to become available, so a lot of your first matches will be in that game. I had to turn it off to get some XMVSF, and MVC1. There's also a meter letting you know how strained the network is, though there's no way of telling if it's me (it wasn't), or them (or was it?). You can also play private matches through a lobby, even creating a lobby ID. I'll reiterate that the only way to play the Punisher is through a lobby, but please please please play The Punisher.  

The museum is glorious. It has a full gallery for each game, and even contains a full look of that previously mentioned new art. This museum is filled with diagrams, specific game art and even animations. You can remove the UI, zoom in and out, and scroll through. It's truly an added bonus to these collections. The music from every game, from every stage is here. There's even a little easter egg in the MVC2 music menu. You can play these by going to the game specifically, or playing them in the music menu in a shuffle. I don't know if these songs are remastered or not, but they sound crisp and clear, if not like the original arcade tracks. 

The options menu lets you set overall buttons, network speed for online games, and filters. All the games are in their original format, and by default come with a filter on them. You can choose between four filters, or completely off. You can also stretch the screen to a full screen, if you're crazy. Finally, there are fighter awards. Most of you would call them achievements, and that's totally fair. I can agree with that. These are just challenges that you can complete through your gameplay. Such as "use a infinity gem" or "call a partner in". There are more elaborate ones, and you can receive hints on how to unlock them. I don't think you get anything for them, as with any achievement, so it may just be a pat on the back, as with any achievement. Sorry people, but hey, the game thinks that you did so good when you made Dan roll out with his secret intro. You're special! 

I don't worry about the longevity of the game. I don't worry about the servers being taken down. I DO worry about it being taken from us again, so you might want to consider investing in one of those physical editions before they are gone. I also worry about the amount of advanced players (you know who you are), as you can turn off all the advantages to let a newbie in. I guess this is one of those collections that may not be for you, online, until you play it for months. These games have been around since starting in 1994, so there is someone who has been playing COTA for 30 years. Capcom Fighting Collection is already barren land, so I'm just hoping that we take care of this win that we have. With this release, Capcom has given us the what we always wanted. We now have all these games on a home system, and I hope we play them forever. Another collection is coming. I'm ready to get absolutely destroyed online. And I wouldn't have it any other way.