MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics Review

 I am a huge fan of fighting games, I’m not necessarily a pro who memorises all the different combo attacks that each character has, but I thoroughly enjoy playing them! The last time I checked out a Capcom fighting collection was back in 2022, and now, two years later, I’ve had a chance to check out the newest addition to the library that focuses on games that were released in the arcades. Though the one I am most familiar with is Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, my cousins who owned a Dreamcast had rented this game when my family went to visit them during the summer so that classic character selection music is forever burned into my mind.

The Arcade Classic collection is made up of seven titles: X-Men Children of the Atom, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, and The Punisher, which is a 2D beat ‘em up title. A lot of these games were released on home consoles along with arcade releases, but here you can enjoy them all without having to switch consoles or find a game centre (that still exists) and happen to carry them.
As soon as you begin playing, an announcement is shown on screen to let you know that all the games in this collection have been mostly unaltered to preserve the original titles, making each one exactly the same as you remember. By default, all the games have the scanline filter turned on, making them look just like they would if you were in the arcade. However, if the lines bother you, there is the option to turn them off, making the games look more modern.

In each of the titles you can go into the game settings to change the game difficulty, default is four out of eight stars, the attack power and timer speed are both four (which is considered normal in the game). The amount of rounds in a battle is three, with the fighter who is first to two rounds winning. Along with this the player can select if blocking will be done automatically or in manual mode. It's always nice to be able to select the difficulty settings if you are inexperienced and want a few easier matches to learn the ropes before jumping into more challenging matches. You can also select if your “machine” is set to Free Play mode where you never run out of quarters, one coin is one credit, or two coins for one credit.

Each title has its own training mode that can be accessed by hitting start before you begin the main game. The top face button lets you see the controls and make any changes that you want before jumping into battle. Choose from Type A, or B, and there are also two slots available to set your own custom controls. You can also customise your training mode by selecting the behaviour of your dummy from: stand, crouch, jump, record, play, human, CPU, and spectate. They can have an infinite amount of health, or you can limit it to a normal HP bar's worth of health so that they can be defeated.

Light, medium, and hard punches and kicks are here, so string them all together for crazy combos. These attacks are easy to learn as they are the same for all the games until you get to Marvel vs. Capcom 2 when you have a team of three characters. One of the buttons is used to call Partner A and the other calls Partner B to swap who is currently fighting. With these additional moves, the medium attacks are now absent. The Punisher game is totally different as this title isn't a traditional fighting game, so your buttons are to use for an attack, jump, and a jumping attack combo.

The music in the MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection is great, it's the upbeat, high-energy music you love from the arcade that fits the non-top action in the games. It instantly transports you back to the arcade when these games were first popular. Along with the pumping soundtrack, we have seven titles with pixelated graphics that still look great years later, Marvel Super Heroes came out in 1995! This is part of the reason why I am such a big fan of retro-style pixel visuals, they don’t age as badly as some of the other art styles that were popular in the early 2000s. Mixed with the comic book-style drawings in the game intros, these games bring the characters we know to life.

No matter which of the fighting games you choose to play, you always have the same core characters, like Wolverine, Cyclops, Captain America, and Psylocke. There are also more obscure ones that fans who have only seen the Marvel movies may not recognise, like Blackheart and Shuma-Gorath. As we progress through the games, each iteration adds more characters to the roster, so there's always someone new to try out or face against in battle.

This is another stellar collection from Capcom that is a must-own title for fans of the MARVEL vs. CAPCOM series of games, and the addition of The Punisher is great to play when you need a break from the constant brawls. Pick up a controller and find a friend locally or online to battle with and bring the arcade right into your home, you are sure to have a great time!