For more than 85 years, Marvel has been a media giant in not only comics but also action figures, various animated and live-action series, video games, and the film industry. They have also played a big part in arcade history working with Sega and then later Konami, before beginning their partnership with Capcom, starting with 1993’s The Punisher, before entering the fighting genre with 1994’s X-Men: Children of the Atom. It capitalised on the success of X-Men: The Animated Series, making it an instant classic with its unique, innovative, and exciting gameplay never seen anywhere else.

The partnership between Marvel and Capcom only grew stronger when the X-Men crossed over with Street Fighter while also introducing a tag feature, later adding other Marvel and Capcom characters to the mix, eventually leading to 2000’s Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, featuring the largest fighting game roster at the time with 56 playable characters, becoming one of the most popular games at major esports events in the early 2000s and even today. Now, in 2024, all seven arcade games from this iconic partnership have made their way to modern consoles, as Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics has been unleashed on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PC digitally, with a physical release on November 22nd, and coming later to Xbox One in 2025.

This massive compilation includes X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, and The Punisher. There have been many reasons why we were convinced we would never see these games again, from Disney now owning Marvel, failed console ports, both companies focusing on other projects, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite’s criticism and disappointing sales and much more. When it was announced during the June Nintendo Direct that these era-defining games were finally coming back, fans worldwide lost their minds, rejoiced, and celebrated, ready to be taken for a ride.

Every game included is the original arcade version and can be switched between the English and Japanese formats. The earlier console versions had to downgrade many things, such as removing the tag feature and various changes to gameplay, so combos that worked in the arcade version may not work on home consoles. In this collection, everything looks, feels, and plays just like it did on its original hardware, allowing players to enjoy the best versions of each game and pull off their best combos. Infinite combos are still possible, but many of the glitches seem to have been fixed, with the biggest one being Iceman in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 with his heavy chip damage and taking no damage at all while blocking special moves and super combos.

All seven games are ready to play from the get-go. Players can create a save state at any point in each game, so they can continue later or retry from a specific moment as many times as they need, which is handy when taking on tough boss battles, while The Punisher also has a rewind feature.

Switching between the English and Japanese versions not only changes the language of the text in-game but also makes an extra character, Norimaro available to play in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, who’s based on real-life Japanese comedian, Noritake Kinashi. Hidden characters such as Cyber Akuma, Mech Zangief, Mephisto, Shadow Lady, Anita and more are now easily selectable instead of inputting the cheat code. Players can still enable the cheat code in the settings if they prefer the original experience.

Various filters are also available to give that feel of playing on an arcade cabinet or smooth out the pixelated graphics, but most longtime fans seem to prefer having no filter at all. The graphics may be outdated by today’s standards and don’t have the little visual upgrades on some console ports, but they still look fantastic, especially in action thanks to its smooth and detailed animation. The game looks just as good on any TV, monitor, and the Switch in handheld mode, including other handheld devices, so players can take MvC on the go. Longtime fans will feel that nostalgia hit.

On top of Capcom doing what was seemingly impossible by bringing back these arcade classics, the other big selling point is the online play. Some console ports did include online play, but it performed so poorly that it didn’t feel worth it. The input delay was dreadful, making it almost impossible for players to time their moves properly and achieve combos. In my personal experience, the online play in Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics has been

excellent thanks to its rollback netcode. The controls are incredibly responsive, I barely noticed any input delay. Matching up with opponents closer to home usually performs best, but taking on people further across the globe has also provided smooth online play. Occasionally there might be some lag or whole matches suffering from a bad connection, but the online functionality is the best it has ever been.

The six fighting games can be played online in Casual or Ranked and players can select which of them they prefer. After matching up with an opponent, the game will randomly select from the chosen games between both players, creating excitement as players anticipate what game they’ll be playing next. Players can also create or join lobbies with up to nine players, or two players if playing The Punisher since it’s a 2 player beat ‘em up game. A minor gripe with the lobby matches is that the host must initiate the next match every single time, even if they’re not in it themselves, so they can’t leave it unattended. It’s a little inconvenient, so hopefully Capcom will change this in a future update.

This epic compilation gets so many things right, especially the online play. The biggest drawback, however, is that there is no crossplay, meaning players can only match up with opponents on the same console. Crossplay is something that should be standard at this point and it’s something that Capcom has been able to do with their recent games, so it’s a wonder why it wasn’t included in this collection, but hopefully, it can be added soon.

This game is also jam-packed with extra content in the Museum, which longtime fans will certainly appreciate. The Gallery features over 500 pieces of promotional art and concept sketches with descriptions written in Japanese. Players will see the process behind character moves and stage designs, with some interesting bits of trivia if they can translate the writing. The entire soundtrack from all seven games can be enjoyed in the Music section and there are also various tasks to complete known as Fighter Awards, which works much like Trophies and Achievements.

Marvel vs. Capcom has a strong and dedicated community. In later years, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and its follow-up Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 were huge successes and are still being played at esports events today. Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite was the series’ biggest downfall for several reasons and due to its failure, it felt like the end of the franchise. In 2021, #FreeMvC2 began trending, created by fighting game influencer, Maximilian Dood, then out of nowhere, Capcom announced this epic collection, and we couldn’t be happier. Whether this will lead to a new (and proper) Marvel vs. Capcom game remains to be seen, though it’s certainly looking more promising now, but only time will tell.

It has been a long time coming for MvC fans to finally get their hands on these genre and era-defining arcade games from decades past. We all felt this would never happen, but here we are. Seven games from Marvel and Capcom’s iconic partnership are now available on modern consoles with smooth online play. This also marks the first time these games have been playable on a Nintendo console.

This is the third collection by Capcom, featuring arcade classics from their extensive library and more on the way with Capcom Fighting Collection 2 due out sometime in 2025. It feels so good to know that Marvel vs. Capcom is finally back! Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is ready to “take you for a ride!”

Written by: Sammy Hanson