MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics Review – Taking You For a Ride

The MARVEL vs. CAPCOM series is a fighting game franchise that needs to introduction. It was the culmination of a long collaboration between the two companies which began back in 1994 with X-Men: Children of the Atom and continued with Marvel Super Heroes the following year. With the release in 1996 of X-Men vs. Street Fighter, the world of fighting games changed forever, thanks to the game's tag system, which allowed players to swap between two different characters at almost any time during a fight and unleash super moves together, a system that was further refined in Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, paving the way for the proper MARVEL vs. CAPCOM series in 1998. The MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics celebrates this fruitful collaboration by including every game mentioned above alongside the side-scrolling beat'em up The Punisher and what many still consider the very best entry in the series, MARVEL vs. CAPCOM 2: New Age of Heroes.

As every game included in the MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics collection is not available on modern gaming platforms, even their barebones release would have been welcome. CAPCOM, however, went the extra mile and provided some additional goodies that die-hard fans of the series will appreciate, such as the artwork included in the Gallery, which lets them delve deeper into the history of the franchise and its creation and the ability to listen to the entirety of the soundtrack of each game. Each title also sports its marquee card, including the basic controls for each game, for an authentic recreation of the arcade experience. Those who prefer a more modern touch can bring up the command list in any game to learn every unique normal and special move their characters can perform.

Like in previous CAPCOM fighting game collections, such as the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection and the Fighting Collection, the MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics lets players pick which version of the game they want to play, set the difficulty, attack power and timer speed, unlock secret characters and colors and so on. Every game also features a training mode that covers all basics, with the exception of frame data, different wallpapers, display filters, and the ability to change the display size between different options. As such, when it comes to new options and additions, the MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics definitely does things right.

Unfortunately, the same hasn't happened with online play. Due to the limited player population during the review period, I wasn't able to find a single online match in any of the games, so the review will be updated once the collection is officially released and more players are around. Even like this, however, I have no doubt that, at least on PC, online play will be far from being optimal due to the lack of cross-platform play, which feels like a major oversight. Many of these games, MARVEL vs CAPCOM 2 above all, aren't exactly dead games on PC, thanks to Fightcade, which allowed the communities of many classic fighting games to continue enjoying them online with an excellent implementation of rollback netcode. As such, I really don't see many of the players who already play these games daily on Fightcade make the switch, as the ranking system, which employs the same League system seen in Street Fighter V and Street Fighter 6, is not a very good incentive to do so. On consoles, on the other hand, I expect things to be slightly different, given there's no other way to play these games, either offline or online. Even so, the lack of cross-platform play is a major issue that will inevitably impact the popularity of the collection in the long term, diminishing the collection's appeal. Speaking on PC, the collection also has a small issue that prevents the correct saving of resolution settings upon quitting, which is, honestly, a minor problem, given that these settings only affect the menus.

No matter the online play issues, if you have never played any of the games in the MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics and are a fighting game fan, you are in for a threat. While the games have aged differently, and some of them don't feel as good to play in 2024 as they did back when they were released, X-Men: Children of the Atom chief among them, they can still be a ton of fun. Having been developed back when CAPCOM was working on the Street Fighter Alpha series, all of the Marvel licensed games in the collection, with the exception of The Punisher, share a lot of similarities with the series, such as the anime aesthetics, the flashy super moves, the ability to block attacks in the air and so on. Things started going wild with MARVEL Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, which expanded the tag system introduced in X-Men vs Street Fighter with the introduction of assist attacks that opened up some new combo possibilities, culminating in MARVEL vs CAPCOM 2: New Age of Heroes.

The second entry in the series is undeniably the best game included in the collection, thanks to its massive character roster including 56 characters, the three-character teams, the ability to pick between three different Assist Types, the unique visuals combining masterfully designed sprites and 3D backgrounds and the amazing soundtrack. While the game retains many of the features that made the MARVEL vs. CAPCOM tag fighting games unique, such as the flashy moves and combo system, which allow players to chain together normals of increasing strength and perform aerial combos that often lead to touch of death situations and infinite, it's also the game that plays the most differently, as the traditional six-button control scheme of CAPCOM's fighting games was changed to allow for quicker access to assist attacks, which are more important than in any other game that came before it. Needless to say, it's the game that aged best and feels as great to play now as it did 24 years ago.

Among the games included in MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, The Punisher is the one that stands out the most, as it is, as already mentioned, a side-scrolling beat'em up in the vein of Final Fight and Captain Commando. While fun for a short while, the game is obviously very dated for today's standards and gets a little repetitive after a short while, mostly due to the game featuring a single playable character since both The Punisher himself, Frank Castle, and Nick Fury have the same moveset, but its inclusion in the collection is wholly deserved, given its cult status and its popularity in arcades back in 1993.

At the end of the day, despite the lack of cross-platform play that is inevitably going to impact the collection's popularity, the MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is a worthwhile purchase for most fighting games players, especially if they are console players. All the included games play like their arcade counterparts, and the fact alone that CAPCOM released it confirms the publisher hasn't abandoned the series after the disastrous Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite. The release of a proper fourth entry in the series is not a guarantee, but for the time being, the community can finally say the sentence it has wanted to say for a long time: Mahvel's back!

PC version tested. Review code provided by the publisher.

8.0

WCCFTECH RATING

MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics

The MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is a fantastic celebration of the series, showcasing some of the best fighting games released by the Japanese publisher in the late '90s and early 2000s. Although the lack of cross-platform play reduces the collection's appeal, the additional options and extras are welcome enhancements that make playing these timeless classics on modern hardware even more enticing, especially on consoles.

Pros

• Arcade-perfect porting of some of the best fighting games ever released
• Decent amount of additional optionsand extras
• MARVEL vs CAPCOM 2: New Age of Heroes feels as great to play as it did at release

Cons

• Lack of cross-platform play
• Some of the older games haven't aged too well

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