It’s time for Capcom to take us back on a ride with Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection Arcade Classics. A very classic one at that which, for the last couple of years, you couldn’t buy digitally, probably because of licensing reasons. If you‘ve played it, you know which game I’m talking about. And if you haven’t, then now’s the time to get acquainted with only one of the finest 2D fighting games ever made! And the catchy jingle that plays when you start it up. That’s right, Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes is back baby! And it’s brought a collection of friends along for the ride.
Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection Arcade Classics Classic Revived
Those friends just happen to be the rest of Capcom’s classic arcade fighting games that features a bunch of Marvel characters and Capcom characters, sometimes in the same title! This rather successful and beloved run of games actually began with Capcom’s side-scrolling beat-em-up, The Punisher, before transitioning into the fighting game market with X-Men: Children of The Atom. This was followed by a successful series of titles with Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes and Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes.
And here they are, those seven games, collected into Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection Arcade Classics, for you to geek into. Now I stress the “Arcade Collection” section of the title because this doesn’t encapsulate the entire Marvel vs. Capcom franchise as Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite aren’t included in this collection, what with them being home releases and all. Would it have been nice to have that entire run in one, easy-to-play package? Sure.
But I can’t fault the absence since the seven games here are already true stunners and, as much as I love Street Fighter 2 Turbo and the recently stunning Street Fighter 6, my favourite collection of Capcom fighters.
If you play these games in the order of their release you’ll notice, as with Capcom’s previous fighting game collection, the evolution of the gameplay mechanics and speed across the titles. The fluidity of gameplay and animation only gets better, which is a pretty high bar when you consider that Children of The Atom has some stunning spritework, to begin with. Some character moves get refined, some get ditched while the supers simply get better.
Character assists were added to Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection Arcade Classics and when Marvel vs. Capcom came to town, tag-team battles came into play. And New Age of Heroes topped it all off with both character assists, three-on-three team battles and the ability to activate every character’s super at the same time for one lengthy, melting blast of pure awesome.
The Punisher is the only outlier here in terms of game type. As a side-scrolling brawler, it has more in common with the Final Fight series and plays just as well. You take out your rage on the underworld as either Frank Castle or Nick Fury by kicking and shooting the crap out of every goon in your way across multiple stages. You know how these play by now.
A variety of moves at your disposal, weapons and health to pick-up while special moves can clear the screen at the expense of your health. All in all, it’s a traditional coin chewer in the best way possible. And now far easier to finish thanks to difficulty settings, a free play mode and, best of all, both online and offline co-op.
With Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection Arcade Classics Capcom has strived to bring these games up-to-date with minimal changes to preserve them as they were originally. Previously unplayable characters in Children of The Atom, Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel vs. Street Fighter now are, while some of the screen lighting effects can be reduced in intensity.
The bulk of the changes instead home in on the quality of life side and extras. First off each game comes with its Japanese and US versions and the arcade board dip switches are now available to customise the game’s difficulty, round times, attack power and the enabling of secret characters. In the case of The Punisher, you get to adjust the amount of lives you have and the bonus score at which you accrue more.
You can also change your controller settings as well. Full online play is also available across all titles and you can change the input delay as well. Quick save functionality has also been added, which is a boon if, for some reason, you need to stop playing halfway through a series of matches.
And for those looking to get deeper into the game’s systems, the training mode provides a frame counter and a pretty nifty toggle to enable the character’s collision boxes. Make no mistake, while you can button mash your way to victory on the easiest setting, on higher difficulties or when playing against human opponents, you’ll quickly learn that not getting to grips with the game’s basics will come back to whup you. These games are just as complicated as any of Capcom’s other fighting games from the period.
The final icing on the top of this wonderful retro cake is the museum mode incorporated into Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection Arcade Classics. Here you have access to a jukebox to listen to each game’s soundtrack and, more importantly for me, a gallery full of behind-the-scenes materials which includes artwork and design documents. I love these kinds of additions and it’s great to see that more games are adopting this approach.
The Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection Arcade Classics packages a fantastic group of games together in one easy-to-use, easy-to-navigate package. These games have aged wonderfully, standing the test of time with gorgeous 2D spritework and animations and addictive, satisfying fighting mechanics. It’s a collection you need in your collection.
Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection Arcade Classics Trailer
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