Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection is just the start for Capcom’s retro revivals

By George Yang Published July 22, 2024

Capcom stands out from other fighting game developers by constantly bringing its old games to modern audiences for both new and veteran players. Following 2022’s release of Capcom Fighting Collection, Capcom is releasing its second compilation, Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, later this year. The hotly anticipated package includes seven games from the Marvel vs. Capcom subseries from the 1990s.

It’s easy to see why old fans are so excited about the news. At Evo 2024, Digital Trends played one hour of Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, and also spoke with producer Shuhei Matsumoto. The producer explained how the collection came to be and shed some light on whether or not we’ll see more like it in the future. Based on what we’ve learned so far, the ports are incredibly faithful to the originals, yet offer just enough new features to make new players feel welcome.

The Evo demo build I tried had three of seven games available to play: Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, X-Men: Children of the Atom, and X-Men vs. Street Fighter. Those three games feel exactly like I expected them to. They may not have all the bells and whistles of modern fighting games like Street Fighter 6, but Matsumoto and his team implemented some new tricks into the collection to buff up the retro offerings. The most noticeable and immediate change is X-Men: Children of the Atom’s new expanded roster, which already gives it a leg up in terms of content over its original 1995 iteration.

In the original, Marvel characters Magneto and Juggernaut were only nonplayable boss characters, while Street Fighter’s Akuma was a hidden character only unlockable via a cheat code. For this expansion, however, all three are now readily playable. Matsumoto says that the reason for their inclusion is because previously hidden secrets are now wide open. Anyone with an internet connection is able to discover them, so there’s not really much use in hiding things anymore.

“We just wanted to make them as accessible as possible,” Matsumoto tells Digital Trends. “We know that people have limited time to be able to fulfill certain requirements and unlock these kinds of characters. We wanted to lower the hurdle and the challenge to be able to do that and just make it as friendly as possible to get hands on with that content.”

As the video game industry put more focus into accessibility, Street Fighter 6 came with its own set of accessible button configurations called “Modern Controls,” which simplifies the number of button inputs needed to perform complex attacks. Capcom introduced something similar in the Capcom Fighting Game Collection called One Button Specials. As the name suggests, it allows players to execute special attacks with the press of a button, helping those who struggle with inputs. The option has been carried over to Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics. Matsumoto clarifies that One Button Specials can only be used in offline play, and not during ranked online matches.

“We just wanted to make sure that a younger audience, maybe some kids who might be playing with their parents, could feel good when playing these classic games that they might not be super familiar with,” Matsumoto says. “The decision to not incorporate [One Button Specials] into online matchmaking is because it’s more geared towards a competitive audience who wants to be able to compete and play the way that they’re familiar with.”

So far, the three games included in the collection demo that I tries are familiar, retro fun. Their controls feel responsive and are exactly how I remember them growing up. I felt a wave of nostalgia when hearing the funky jazz music in the Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes character select screen. As I played, I suddenly remembered how Rogue’s annoying grab and kiss attack drove my four year-old self up a wall back then in X-Men vs. Street Fighter. I’m excited for new players to experience those feelings for the first time.

Capcom’s commitment to its ports is commendable. Matsumoto, who was also a producer on Street Fighter 6, says that Capcom’s developers have a mutual interest in working on both new titles and bringing legacy games onto newer platforms. Even director Takayuki Nakayama is involved, though he isn’t directly on the development team of these collections.

There’s a possibility that Capcom will release more collections in the future, but a big factor is where the games originated from. The first two collections have consisted of arcade games, which aren’t huge hurdles during the porting process. Rereleasing more sophisticated games, like ones from the PlayStation 2 or PS3 era, are a bit more difficult. The benchmark that Matsumoto sets for himself when creating a collection of past fighting games is that he wants them to be playable online.

We’ve had talks about the possibility of creating a brand new SVG Chaos game.

With SNK surprise dropping SNK vs. Capcom: SVG Chaos onto modern platforms over the weekend, there’s a real appetite for these retro fighting games that will  perhaps lead to rereleases of other SNK vs. Capcom games.

“We’ve had talks about the possibility of creating a brand new SVG Chaos game, or re-releasing more past [SNK vs Capcom] titles for modern platforms,” Matsumoto says. “These are all things that we want to do and are very optimistic about it. And now it’s just a matter of: ‘When can we do it?’”

It seems like Capcom wants the Street Fighter IP everywhere. Matsumoto has already stated that Capcom wants to create a new Marvel vs, Capcom game, and both Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui from SNK’s Fatal Fury are joining Street Fighter 6’s playable roster as the series’ first-ever guest characters. There’s also the possibility of returning the favor to SNK when Fatal Fury: City of Wolves launches in 2025.

“That idea has come up during ongoing conversations on just about everything, and we’re just trying to throw the kitchen sink,” Matsumoto says.

Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics launches later this year on PlayStation 4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC.