Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics

Today saw the physical release of Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics. The game debuted digitally in September, but now Capcom diehards can take seven arcade classics home in tangible form (with a bonus mini comic book to boot). The value of this collection is immediately obvious, as buying the six versus fighters alone in their PlayStation, Dreamcast, or Xbox iterations would cost something like $200 per disc. Moreover, The Punisher, the lone beat-em-up rounding out the collection, hadn't seen a home release to this point, rendering the value of the collection inestimable. But how do the fighting games hold up today, especially when compared against their prior home versions?

X-Men: Children of the Atom marks the first Marvel fighting game made by Capcom, and it is essentially a straight-up Street Fighter clone, albeit with super-jumps. Your correspondent played this game last night on PS1 on a CRT TV and must attest that the resolution is impressive on that game. In this current edition, Children of the Atom looks overly pixelated, no matter which of the eight available display filters you choose to run it with. Accordingly, the game looks better on PS1. Also like the PS1, this new edition of Children of the Atom does not spare on difficulty level, presumably putting it in fidelity with the arcade edition.

Marvel Super Heroes delivers as advertised in terms of roster, placing your standard Jack Kirby classics alongside a smattering of X-Men. Your correspondent also played this game last night on a PS1 connected to a CRT TV and must again report that the resolution is clearer and better-looking on that earlier version than on the present. Also, your correspondent was able to beat that PS1 version of Marvel Super Heroes using only a few continues on the default difficulty. That was not the case with the current version, which maintains an arcade-level difficulty. That said, the PS1 version of Marvel Super Heroes plays as if submerged in an ocean, demonstrating considerable lag and slowdown. This has been rectified in the current version, which runs as smooth as Silk Spectre (who is, unfortunately, not in the game).

Marvel Super Heroes sans filter.

X-Men vs. Street Fighter brings Ryu, Ken, and friends into the fray against the X-Men in tag-team crossover action. Arcade games were meant to swallow your quarters, and this game follows in that mold. You'll be facing a stiff challenge as soon as you advance to the second pair of computer-controlled opponents.

Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter brings the entire Marvel cast in to face the Street Fighter pantheon. In the present version of this game, you'll once again be in for a real fight against the second pair of CPU challengers.

Marvel vs. Capcom is really what the prior two games were building toward. Now you have a host of beloved Capcom licensed characters in the mix, such as Strider and Mega Man. Again, the action is far more pixelated than the smooth display on CRT TVs running the PS1 and Dreamcast versions of the game. Your correspondent played both of those earlier versions in the prior weeks, and he was able to get to the final boss on the PS1 version using no continues on the default difficulty (though he eventually gave up trying to beat the pesky Onslaught after double-digit losses). This was not the case with the present version of Marvel vs. Capcom, which displays an arcade-level difficulty early on. Of course, that PS1 version does not allow tagging but instead has a watered-down assist system. Thus, the present version presents a major upgrade for home console gamers.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 improves mightily upon its predecessor, which was already exceedingly good. The sequel boasts almost 60 selectable characters, pitting them against one another in screen-melting 3-on-3 battles. The graphics look fantastic in this present version, with filter and pixelation presenting no issues. The default difficulty, meanwhile, is challenging, but not nearly as prohibitive as the aforementioned games in the collection, meaning you'll be able to make it past the first two opposing trios with ease. One downside to the collection as a whole is that once you get into the swing of Marvel vs. Capcom 2, it's hard to go back to the earlier games. Nonetheless, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is worth the cost of the collection by itself. 

The Punisher stands as the highlight of this collection, your correspondent is truly surprised to say. Although it could be consigned to afterthought status, as the lone beat-em-up on this collection, The Punisher is anything but. The Punisher delivers a high-gear, nigh R-rated imagining of Final Fight. Playing as the lone vigilante or teaming with Nick Fury, you exact hard vengeance on Kingpin's assemblage of toughs and cyborgs via knives, pipes, axes, handguns, and AR-styled firearms, as well as your fists and feet. Dealing out this brand of rapid-fire retribution results in a deeply satisfying gaming experience, and so The Punisher prevails as one of the best beat-em-ups your correspondent has ever played.

The Punisher wields a hammer worthy of Thor

All told, The Punisher and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 make Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics a must-buy title. Though the other five games suffer a bit from inexorably pixelated graphics and uninviting difficulty levels, they still represent important nodes in the evolution of the creative partnership between Marvel and Capcom, and are worth trying out. There's limitless replay value for all these games in multiplayer, both local and online. And if you buy the Switch version, you can play online multiplayer wherever you can get Wi-Fi. All this is rather incredible, seeing how at the dawn of 2024, most of us had made peace with the presumption that the Marvel vs. Capcom games would forever be confined to unaffordability. Both of the eponymous companies deserve praise for realizing this marvelous capstone to their collaborations.