If you grew up as an arcade lover in the ’90s, chances are you logged countless hours playing Capcom’s Marvel games. They were a staple of arcades around the world and helped define the fighting game genre. And now, a selection of those classic games have been brought back as part of one package, Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics.
It brings these games to modern consoles (which is particularly notable for one of the games) and adds lots of new features, some of which make them more accessible to new players than ever before. Here are what we think are the top 5 features of this collection:
A Journey Across Time
The collection consists of seven games from throughout the ’90s and early 2000s: The Punisher (1993), X-Men: Children of the Atom (1994), Marvel Super Heroes (1995), X-Men vs. Street Fighter (1996), Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (1997), Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (1998), and Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000).
Six of these are classic fighting games that show the evolution of gameplay over time, from the classic 1v1 battles of Children of the Atom to the 3v3 tag-team matches of New Age of Heroes. Plus, with each installment, you get access to a different roster of characters. There are dozens of characters in all — superheroes like Captain America and Wolverine, Street Fighter mainstays like Ryu and Chun-Li, and iconic characters from other Capcom franchises like Jill Valentine and Mega Man.
The Punisher on Console
You might have noticed that we said there are seven games in the compilation and six of them are fighting games. The seventh is The Punisher, a side-scrolling beat ’em up that is particularly notable because it was the first game in the partnership between Capcom and Marvel and this is the first time in 30 years that it’s been made available on home consoles.
It puts you in the shoes of the titular Punisher, with Nick Fury as the second character if you play co-op. Your goal is to take down Kingpin and his organization, and in classic beat ’em up style, you need to take down all the henchmen in a level before having a showdown with that level’s boss.
Online Functionality
The experience of playing in the arcade was always more fun with more people, and now you can emulate that experience at home with online play. In The Punisher, that means you can team up with someone online for co-op with the ability to drop in and out whenever you want. You can also spectate in other players’ games and take part in High Score Challenges, where you compete under set rules for the top spot on the leaderboard.
For the six fighting games, you can battle fellow players online. Casual matches are low stakes, custom matches let you set unique rules, and ranked matches will see you trying to climb the leaderboard as you amass League Points. And rollback netcode provides a smooth online experience across the board.
Quality of Life Updates
The compilation adds several features aimed at letting you experience gameplay how you want. If you’re a veteran player who’s feeling nostalgic about the original arcade experience, you can alter the display settings to fit your preference. You can adjust the display’s size to re-create the dimensions of an arcade screen and use filters to make your display look more like the original graphics.
For newer players, there are difficulty options for single-player content that can help you get the hang of combat. Plus, one-button specials allow you to pull off flashy moves without needing to input complicated button combos (one-button specials are not allowed in ranked online matches). In single-player content, you can pause and unpause, create quick save files, and quickly retry difficult boss fights.
New Content
There are lots of fun new pieces of content. There’s a music menu that allows you to pick any game from the compilation and listen to its original soundtrack. An image gallery gives you access to development docs and art that has never been made available to the public before. Plus, all the fighting games now have Training Mode, with options for opponent behavior, input displays, hit boxes, and damage numbers.
Whether you’re a veteran looking for some nostalgia or a newcomer who wants to see what the fuss is about, this is the best opportunity to play seven classic titles. Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is digitally available now on PS4, Switch, and PC, and the physical version will launch November 22. An Xbox One version will be coming in 2025.
