Here is your legally obligated “I’m gonna take you for a ride”.
Capcom is the architect of the modern fighting game. The Street Fighter series blew up thanks in part to the arcade fighting scene of the ‘90s, endured through lulls in popularity, and in the modern day resurgence still stands as the biggest institution of the genre. In the late ‘90s, they ran up the tally by inventing a new sub genre – the tag-team fighter. Collaborating with Marvel, they first produced games based on their storied superheroes and slowly integrated them with the Capcom cast of characters to create some of the most frenetic player-versus-player experiences to date. I spent a shameful amount of quarters in my youth playing the likes of Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, often negotiating with my parents to spare a few dollars and leave me there rather than me acting like Sadness from Inside Out being dragged along by Joy. Now thanks to Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, I’m able to experience the history of this genre to the fullest.
Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is the latest compilation of another arcade fighting game series. Featuring six arcade fighting games (and The Punisher beat-em-up!), the focus this time is on the lineage of tag battles and the cooperation between the two companies that made it possible, including X-Men: Children of the Atom (1994), Marvel Super Heroes (1996), X-Men vs. Street Fighter (1996), Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (1997), Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (1998), Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000), and The Punisher (1993)
Before I dive into the breakdown of individual games, it’s worth noting some pretty extensive features. Each game can be played in their respective English or Japanese versions. Settings include attack power, timer speed, Coin Mode or Free Play, Boot Display, Button Assignment, Choice Between P1 or P2, and Light Reduction. Every game has a training mode, with hitboxes, damage counters, and button inputs on screen. If you struggle to remember combos and how to activate the special moves, each game has a marquee card like the old arcade cabinets had, which is a very cool feature. There is also a museum with galleries of key art and advertisements, and a jukebox containing each game’s soundtrack. There are achievements (in this case called Fighter Awards), and each award includes a medal with a neat little picture inside. While I was not able to find a match online prior to launch, there will be casual, ranked, and custom queues, and each game has online leaderboards. I was happy to see the option to be on standby while playing the game of choice. I’m overall satisfied with what they offer.
There are various CRT filters offered, and the games default to using one of them. There’s several options available with different shades and attempts to recreate the old CRT scanlines. You can also choose not to use one at all if the attempt to emulate screens of the past doesn’t suit you, just know that the games default to option D and they can be changed in the in-game options.
When it comes to the games themselves, I found most of them enjoyable, even if one was superfluous. X-Men: Children of the Atom is ground zero for the collection, but some muddy visuals and sluggish movement makes it hard to return to. The slight improvements from X-Men vs. Street Fighter to Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter made the former redundant. Marvel Super Heroes is where those characters’ traits were honed-in and the Infinity Stones add a random element that is equal parts exciting and infuriating. Marvel vs. Capcom 1 and 2 are the stars of the show, the former refining the formula and the latter blowing it out to ridiculous proportions with a huge cast and 3 vs. 3 combat. I reveled in playing through each one, even if just as an exercise in genealogy for some of them. I’ve been pulled back into standing at an arcade in the mall next to the food court, figuring out how to make the screen flash with maximum lasers. The swap from 1 v. 1 to 2 v. 2 was a revolutionary step, and it was an exciting time to be a fighting game fan with the manic energy this series brought. Being able to bring that back home has been a joy in a world with arcades largely dwindled down to barcades that usually have the old standbys of Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat 3. And then you have The Punisher, an enjoyable and uncomplicated beat-em-up with a little more focus on realistic weapons than I’m comfortable with.
Controllers are the elephant in the room for the Switch version. All of these games rely heavily on the quarter circle forward motion on the controller, and the standard joycon buttons are not well equipped for a Hadouken. The Pro Controller has a squishy feel to it that never feels precise enough to consistently hit attacks. The Hori Split Pad Pro is a meaningful improvement if something closer to an Xbox controller is what you’re looking for. If you’re someone who’s invested enough to have a fight stick, you’re all set. Personally, I compromised with a pro controller when docked and used a Hori Switch D-Pad Controller when playing handheld. Ultimately it’ll be up to you what your level of investment should be for the right hardware.
Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is appealing to a very specific audience. Part of that audience are the arcade nostalgiacs who will feel warm and fuzzy with every Shinku-Hadouken. The others are fighting game fans who are curious about this series that hasn’t seen an update since 2017. I’m the former, and this is the most fun I’ve had all year. This is a great addition to the recent efforts to make important arcade games accessible on current platforms, and I’m overjoyed that it’s available at my fingertips. I think the compilation is excellent, and anyone with an affinity or curiosity of the genre owes themselves to tag-in with this game.
