Don’t ignore this underrated game in the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection

By Tomas Franzese Published September 16, 2024

Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is out now, and it contains six excellent fighting games starring iconic comic and game characters. There is one oddball game in the collection, though: The Punisher.

Released in arcades by Capcom in 1993, The Punisher is a beat ’em up like Final Fight rather than a fighting game like Street Fighter 2. It plays quite differently than everything else in this new collection, making it the oddest inclusion of the bunch.

Don’t let that steer you away from it. I recommend that everyone who picks Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection up give The Punisher a shot. While the fighting games will take hours upon hours of practice to get good at, The Punisher is something players can pick up and almost instantly have a fantastic time with and feel powerful while playing. It’s an underrated arcade classic, so I’m glad everybody finally has a chance to check it out here.

The Punisher is one of my favorite “heroes” in the Marvel universe because he’s both an action star and a nuanced tragic character. Yes, he’s a cool gun-toting vigilante, but he’s also a family man with a strict moral code who would hate the kinds of people who co-opt his symbol in the real world. Capcom’s game does not delve into much of the latter outside of an opening cutscene showing that The Punisher’s family was murdered; instead, it’s a celebration of the machismo side of The Punisher that sees him teaming up with Nick Fury to take on Kingpin and his criminals.

This quest to defeat Kingpin is spread across eight stages in a familiar beat ’em up formula. The Punisher and Nick Fury must fend off wave after wave of enemies coming at them as they slowly progress through these stages, picking up items on the ground to use as weapons and occasionally facing a tough boss character based on villains from the comics like Bushwacker and Jigsaw.

Even though I’m a fan of The Punisher, I had never heard of this game until I stumbled upon an arcade cabinet of it at Galloping Ghost Arcade in Chicago. After doing so, I was disappointed that there wasn’t another easy way for me to play it. Thankfully, Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection makes it easily accessible, which is exactly what I love to see collections like it do for more obscure games. Once you boot up The Punisher, you’ll find it surprisingly approachable.

There’s nothing that outlandish about its mechanics, which might be why it fell somewhat into obscurity. Still, it’s one of the most satisfying beat ’em ups I’ve ever played. The Punisher and Nick Fury feel powerful, and you’ll even find guns in a level and be able to shoot enemies with them. The Punisher is also full of personality; you’ll see Nick Fury smoking a cigar during gameplay and see comic book onomatopoeia like “Blam!” or “Krak!” show up as you shoot a gun or get hit by a powerful attack.

A friend, who I played The Punisher with, described it as one of the dumbest games they’ve ever played, but said so with a sense of endearment. I had to spend almost no time introducing him to complex game systems or mechanics as I did with the other Marvel fighters in this collection; we had great time playing this game with each other right away. Sometimes, you just want to boot up a game and beat up some people, and The Punisher excels in doing just that.

So why include such a straightforward, and somewhat obscure, beat ’em up with a cavalcade of beloved and more intricate fighting games? I asked Capcom, and Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection producer Shuhei Matsumoto revealed he did so at the behest of his programmers. A similar kind of effort got Red Earth in the first Capcom Fighting Collection, and once the decision to include The Punisher was made, getting it up and running didn’t present any major challenges for the team.

“We were in a similar situation when porting Red Earth for Capcom Fighting Collection, but our legendary programmers, Kobuta and Muumuu, called upon me and said, ‘Hey Matz, we can get The Punisher in too!’ and that’s how we decided to include this game in the collection,” Matsumoto tells Digital Trends. “Honestly, we didn’t have any significant challenges [adding The Punisher]. But we’re excited that The Punisher is part of this collection, and we hope you give it a try!”

It’s a reminder that obscure games can get a second life so long as there’s someone passionate enough to revive them. Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection’s launch was a payoff to years of fan demand to bring these fighting games back, and within that process, The Punisher got a chance to be preserved on modern platforms as well. You should give it a shot to better understand why some programmers from Capcom (and I) believe The Punisher is a worthwhile inclusion within this collection even though it isn’t connected to the series that gives the package its namesake.

Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is available now on PC, PS4, and Nintendo Switch and comes to Xbox One in 2025.