Review: Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics

Scoops. Pringles. Where yo’ curly mustache at? etc.

They said it would never happen. Who said it? I don’t know. Maybe nobody. But they did. They said it. Them. But they were wrong, weren’t they? Because it’s happened, hasn’t it? Now they’ve got egg all over their face and we’ve got Marvel and Capcom all over our hands, eyes and ears. Every arcade game that Capcom ever Marvel’d is now available here, in this astonishing compilation with a slightly silly name; Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection Arcade Classics. A bevy of brilliant fighting games (and one brilliant belt scroller) await you.

Here’s the full contents of this outstanding collection: X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and The Punisher. Seven bangers for seven bang-rothers. I’d have bought Marvel vs. Capcom 2 by itself, but here it is. Every game, every character, all unlocked from the start. Rollback netcode for every single title so you can play online nice and smoothly. Added training modes for every game with hitboxes and frame data and all that absolute piffle you fighting game lunatics enjoy. There’s a ton of high-res art in the galleries, with marquee cards, concept art, key art, you name it. All of it is there and all of it is fabulous. Not to mention the option to utilise simpler controls, so you can bust out hyper combos with a single button like in the old Xbox and PS2 ports.

In fact, that brings me to a more personal appeal of this game. I freely admit I am not in the “FGC”. I am not good at fighting games. I am not particularly interested in becoming good at fighting games. When I was a kid I was unexpectedly given Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for Christmas, the PlayStation 2 port I had coveted after seeing coverage of the Dreamcast release in my beloved CVG magazine. The sheer number and eclecticism of the character roster just sang to me, and I spent hours playing through arcade mode over and over in order to accrue enough points to unlock everybody. In a way, I feel like it’s a bit of a shame that all the characters are available from the start, because I can’t recreate that experience. But, crucially, that’s stupid and makes no sense. I loved revisiting Marvel vs. Capcom 2  for this review. Like I said, I’m not good at it, but the memories of simple combos came flooding back as I’d rocket Tron Bonne all over the screen until Abyss was sent back to, erm, well, the abyss, I suppose.

Everything else here is gravy, because for me, MvC2 will always be the absolute king. The climax. All roads led to that absolutely maniacal six-fighter mega-tag full of colours and explosions and generally hyperkinetic insanity. The relative simplicity of X-Men: Children of the Atom holds little appeal to me, but charting the evolution of the entire series becomes something fascinating. Like all Capcom’s recent collections – and the forthcoming SNK-tastic Capcom Fighting Collection 2 – everything is here for enthusiasts to have the best possible experience playing and replaying these games online in ranked matches, which is what fighting games are for. My perspective is, effectively, irrelevant. All I can do is tell you that this set couldn’t be better whether you’re a tourist or a committed Hit Box-owning Daigo-worshipping seasoned kicker of punches. And they threw in The Punisher, in which Frank Castle and Nick Fury kick the living shit out of wave after wave of hapless goons. Something for everyone. It’s another assured winner from Capcom, as they continue to treat us to their back catalogue with outstanding respect and blinding quality.