Summary
TheMarvel vs. Capcomseries is returning this year with the recently announcedMarvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classicsbundle, and according to a recent statement from Capcom’s Shuhei Matsumoto, there’s the potential for more entries in the beloved crossover fighting series. The last entry in the franchise,Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite,was released in 2017, withMarvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worldsbeing released in 2011 and updated inUltimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3in 2017.
WhileUltimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3andMarvel vs. Capcom: Infiniteare easily accessible on modern platforms, the newFighting Collectionbundle focuses on bringing the earlier entries to these platforms after various licensing expirations resulted inpast digital versions being pulled from storefronts. The collection features crossover titles such asMarvel vs. Capcom Clash of Super Heroes,Marvel vs. Capcom 2 New Age of Heroes,Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, andX-Men vs. Street Fighter, along with more standalone Marvel titles such asX-Men Children of the Atom,Marvel Super Heroesand Capcom’s first collaboration with Marvel, the 1993 side-scrolling beat ‘em up game,The Punisher.
Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classicsis also receiving a physical release with a disc copy, offering console players a way to ensure they can keep these titles should they ever get pulled from digital storefronts again.
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Capcom’s Shuhei Matsumoto Said There May Be An “Opportunity” For More Marvel Vs. Capcom Games
Marvel Is Aware Of The Franchise’s Popularity
In an interview withDexerto, the producer of bothStreet Fighter 6and theMarvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection, Shuhei Matsumoto, pointed out that Marvel is aware of the vibrant community ofMarvel vs. Capcomplayers and even pays attention to competitive tournaments all these years on. This seemed to be a key component in bringing the earlier entries in the series back to modern audiences.
As for future titles, Matsumoto noted that there may be “an opportunity for a new Marvel vs Capcom game” as “the development team at Capcom has big dreams.” He did point out that it does take some time and effort to create and release these kinds of games, but in the meantime,Capcom is looking to reintroduce these past legacy games to a new audience who may not have had the opportunity to play them where they might not be as readily available on modern or current platforms.
Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classicsis releasing on PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC, but is currently skipping Xbox at launch. There’s currently no word on whether there will be an Xbox release at a later date.
It seems clear from Matsumoto’s reply that Capcom and Marvel love the games they’ve created and want to bring them back to as large of an audience as possible, and that if this is successful, then there may be opportunities for either more retro releases or completely new titles in the future.
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A Future Marvel Vs. Capcom Game Needs A Character Roster Like MvC2’s
Despite Newer Consoles Being Able To Handle More Content, Recent Entries Ended Up With Less
Alongside implementing online play and other features,theMarvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classicsbundle has already expanded some character rosters in its games, with Magneto and Juggernaut now beingplayable inX-Men: Children of the Atomrather than only appearing as boss characters as they did in the original. One of the best things aboutMarvel vs. Capcom 2was the roster of playable characters, with a huge collection of Marvel favorites going toe to toe with characters from some of Capcom’s most iconic IPs.
While the franchise started off with its lowest number of playable characters, with only 20 appearing in 1998’sMarvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes,this more than doubled with the release ofMarvel vs. Capcom 2in 2000, which featured an impressive 56 characters. This has remained the largest character roster to date, as even the 2017 re-release ofMarvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, titledUltimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3,had 50 due to carrying over the characters from the previous version along with 12 new additions. However, this plummeted with the release ofMarvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, which only had 36 available when including the DLC and only 30 in the base game.
A breakdown of each game’s playable character roster is as follows:
Marvel vs. Capcom 2(2000)
36 in base game + 2 DLC)
(38 fromMvC3+ 12 new)
(30 in the base game + 6 DLC)
Wolverine (with bone claws)
-
Venom (DLC)
Shuma-Gorath (DLC)
Sigma (DLC)
X
Hopefully, whenever a newMarvel vs. Capcomis released, both Marvel and Capcom will look at these rosters and make the biggest one to date, especially as modern hardware can certainly handle so many characters. The fact thatCapcom’s been able to offer a mostly different line-up each time- with fan favorites such as Chun-Li or Ryu appearing across every entry - shows how vast its potential is to make a huge roster combining many of the favorites from each previous title.
As for Marvel,Marvel vs. Capcom: Infiniteseemed tosuffer from the lack of X-Men, as the company also seemed to sideline them in the comics due to Fox’s ownership at the time before Disney acquired the studio, hence why the game largely used faces audiences would recognize from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now Marvel has the likes ofFantastic FourandX-Menback at their disposal and has already seen success with the nostalgicX-Men ‘97animated series, is introducing characters from the mutant team to the MCU throughDeadpool & Wolverine, and has announced aFantastic Fourmovie shows the studio has big plans for these characters.
Therefore, a new game has the potential to have a roster that rivals and even surpasses that ofMarvel vs. Capcom 2. It may be commonplace these days to add many characters post-launch, but having a solid base roster would give players plenty to work with from launch, and there’s still the potential to expand upon this further with DLC should they choose to make the most impressive line-up in the franchise to date.
