Review: Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Game Collection — An Important Step
October 1, 2024
A collection that many have wanted has finally been released. Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Game Collection: Arcade Classics features six classic arcade fighting games, and a wicked fun beat-em up, with rollback online functionality and a great bundle of art and music from across all games. It is the complete package for those who love the MvC franchise. This collection is a perfect opportunity for anyone to jump in and experience the addicting gameplay of the Marvel vs. Capcom series.
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Enjoyability: 14/16
Each game in the collection was a blast to play through. Even against the old-school arcade AI, it is a great time. I enjoyed every game in the collection. All the games felt smooth to play, offline and online. If there was any bit of lag in online matches, you could easily change the input delay in the character select screen to see if it improved. Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (MvC2) is the easiest to find online matches in — for good reason. It is one of the best fighting games of all-time — the main star of the collection without a doubt.
On PC, I had a great variety of skill level within my games (thankfully, I never ran into Justin Wong/Wazzler.) Though, with a hardcore community that has been grinding the collection's included games through Fightcade ROMs or arcade machines, you are bound to run into insanely good players. Infinites are in the games, and they can be extremely discouraging; however, that is part of the fighting game experience overall so it's no big deal. Casual provided the best matchmaking experience, in my opinion, and I encourage newcomers to play casual matches to get a grasp of playing others.
The Punisher was a great surprise. It's a fun beat-em up game that was deemed too violent upon its first release, and honestly, it does pack a lot of action within the fifty minutes it takes to beat it on normal difficulty. With eight stages, two extra (one mystery, no spoilers) fun weapon pick-ups, and a cool story of revenge, The Punisher, was an entertaining game to play.
Gameplay: 16/16
Finding that balance between chaos and patience is what the Marvel vs. Capcom franchise does best. Being able to pull off those crazy combos and hyper moves in-game is a blast. With the addition of mapping buttons and one-button specials, it is a great time to jump into this franchise as you can definitely pull off these combos with greater ease. These will help you with the insane number of inputs, particularly in the games that feature assists. All but Marvel vs. Capcom 2 feature a six-button attack layout, which I found to like even playing on a controller.
The two first games in the collection are 1v1, with Marvel Super Heroes using the Infinity Stones like in Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite. The next three are 2v2, with MvC1 adding an assist partner to your team of two. It is, then, the beloved Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes that introduces the 3v3 system. This is where, if you are not hitting your assist buttons, while doing that crazy air combo or string, you will run into difficulty.
Like all fighting games, there are tiers to progress through with regards to skill. Each game will have their busted characters and infinites to pull off; though, with a good mentality, all of that will only fuel a desire to get better. The great part of the collection is having multiple games to play when a specific one just isn't hitting the spot. The right balance of fun, competition, and accessibility provides all spectrum of fighting game lovers, a chance to give it their all and have fun.
Atmosphere: 6/6
Some of my favorite stages in the collection stem from X-Men: Children of the Atom. Danger Room with the changing environments, Genosha, The Deep, and Magneto's Space Base are dazzling. The animations, especially in the older games, are breathtaking. Wolverine entering rage mode and Cyclops' muscular body breathing are a couple standout examples. Limited hardware really pushed these animators to their very limits. Plenty of filters are available to adjust the game's visuals to your liking, as well. CRT or pseudo-HD, you can go with anything. There are a few side-panel art pieces that you can select as well that appear if you are not in full-screen.
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The same can be said about the music. Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Game Collection: Arcade Classics is one game where I do not mind having the music on full blast. Hearing Captain America's theme playing as he jumps in to save the day or the jazz fusion in Marvel vs Capcom 2: A New Age of Heroes will always sound good, even with me dying in the corner. The sound effects are also pretty solid. The sound design teams for these games really got things right.
Design: 6/6
On the game selection screen, you can select between the English and Japanese versions, enter training, and change the difficulty of the AI. No matter the game, the training mode has the same hitbox view with inputs showing up on the side. The in-game menu gives you the option for stage select, move lists for all characters (while in training), filters, and other various options.
For online, you can queue up for any of the games, plus additional options such as: the version of the game, cross-region matchmaking, and one-button specials enabled. While waiting for an online match, you can view the museum, play the story (arcade story), train in any of the games, or play The Punisher.
The museum addition is a very welcome one. As a big fan of the series, being able to see all that detailed art of character portraits and various stages, captured in HD, is so fascinating. Overall, the museum adds to the hype and love to the collection.
Direction: 12/16
Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Game Collection: Arcade Classics does not have much to offer outside of its fighting game gameplay. The Punisher is the only unique entry, really. There are some achievements that you can hunt for. And there's the museum, of course. But that doesn't really add much variety. Besides wanting to improve your skill through the training offered, there's also not much to work for in the collection, other than the arcade stories. Marvel Super Heroes features character endings in relation to the Infinity stones, for example.
One will not be able to escape the madness of skilled players in Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Game Collection: Arcade Classics. As long as you know that going in, you should be fine. You're going to lose. Badly. That's natural. And even if you are not in the mood to test your ability in ranked matches, causal is a nice environment to get accustomed to the games. The training mode addition really does help a lot.
