Summary
- Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection brings back classic titles with beloved characters, ensuring players can experience them on modern hardware.
- Capcom’s producer Matsumoto notes Marvel’s interest in the vibrant community, potentially leading to new games in the future.
- Game character rosters have evolved over the series, with Marvel vs. Capcom 2 boasting the largest roster to date. Future games could aim to surpass this.
The Marvel vs. Capcom series is returning this year with the recently announced Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics bundle, 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, with Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds being released in 2011 and updated in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 in 2017.
While Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite are easily accessible on modern platforms, the new Fighting Collection bundle focuses on bringing the earlier entries to these platforms after various licensing expirations resulted in past digital versions being pulled from storefronts. The collection features crossover titles such as Marvel vs. Capcom Clash of Super Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 New Age of Heroes, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, and X-Men vs. Street Fighter, along with more standalone Marvel titles such as X-Men Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes and Capcom’s first collaboration with Marvel, the 1993 side-scrolling beat ’em up game, The Punisher.
Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics
is 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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Marvel Is Aware Of The Franchise’s Popularity
In an interview with Dexerto, the producer of both Street Fighter 6 and the Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection, Shuhei Matsumoto, pointed out that Marvel is aware of the vibrant community of Marvel vs. Capcom players 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 Classics
is 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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Despite Newer Consoles Being Able To Handle More Content, Recent Entries Ended Up With Less
Alongside implementing online play and other features, the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics bundle has already expanded some character rosters in its games, with Magneto and Juggernaut now being playable in X-Men: Children of the Atom rather than only appearing as boss characters as they did in the original. One of the best things about Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was 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’s Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, this more than doubled with the release of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 in 2000, which featured an impressive 56 characters. This has remained the largest character roster to date, as even the 2017 re-release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, titled Ultimate 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 of Marvel 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: Clash of Super Heroes (1998) |
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (2000) |
Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (2011) |
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2017) |
Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite (2017) |
||
|
20 Characters |
56 Characters |
38 Characters 36 in base game + 2 DLC) |
50 Characters (38 from MvC3 + 12 new) |
36 Characters (30 in the base game + 6 DLC) |
||
|
Marvel |
||||||
|
Captain America |
Captain America |
Captain America |
Captain America |
Captain America |
||
|
Hulk |
Orange Hulk |
Hulk |
Hulk |
Hulk |
Hulk |
|
|
Spider-Man |
Spider-Man |
Spider-Man |
Spider-Man |
Spider-Man |
||
|
Wolverine |
Wolverine |
Wolverine (with bone claws) |
Wolverine |
Wolverine |
– |
|
|
Venom |
Red Venom |
Venom |
– |
– |
Venom (DLC) |
|
|
Gambit |
Gambit |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
War Machine |
Gold War Machine |
War Machine |
– |
– |
– |
|
|
– |
Iron Man |
Iron Man |
Iron Man |
Iron Man |
||
|
– |
Doctor Doom |
Doctor Doom |
Doctor Doom |
– |
||
|
– |
Magneto |
Magneto |
Magneto |
– |
||
|
– |
Sentinel |
Sentinel |
Sentinel |
– |
||
|
– |
Shuma-Gorath |
Shuma-Gorath (DLC) |
Shuma-Gorath |
– |
||
|
– |
Storm |
Storm |
Storm |
– |
||
|
– |
Thanos |
– |
– |
Thanos |
||
|
– |
Blackheart |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Cable |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Colossus |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Cyclops |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Iceman |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Juggernaut |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Marrow |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Omega Red |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Psylocke |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Rogue |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Sabertooth |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Silver Samurai |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Spiral |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
– |
Dormammu |
Dormammu |
Dormammu |
||
|
– |
– |
Thor |
Thor |
Thor |
||
|
– |
– |
Deadpool |
Deadpool |
– |
||
|
– |
– |
MODOK |
MODOK |
– |
||
|
– |
– |
Phoenix |
Phoenix |
– |
||
|
– |
– |
She-Hulk |
She-Hulk |
– |
||
|
– |
– |
Super-Skrull |
Super-Skrull |
– |
||
|
– |
– |
Taskmaster |
Taskmaster |
– |
||
|
– |
– |
X-23 |
X-23 |
– |
||
|
– |
– |
– |
Doctor Strange |
Doctor Strange |
||
|
– |
– |
– |
Ghost Rider |
Ghost Rider |
||
|
– |
– |
– |
Hawkeye |
Hawkeye |
||
|
– |
– |
– |
Nova |
Nova |
||
|
– |
– |
– |
Rocket Raccoon |
Rocket Raccoon |
||
|
– |
– |
– |
Iron Fist |
– |
||
|
– |
– |
– |
– |
Black Panther (DLC) |
||
|
– |
– |
– |
– |
Black Widow (DLC) |
||
|
– |
– |
– |
– |
Captain Marvel |
||
|
– |
– |
– |
– |
Gamora |
||
|
– |
– |
– |
– |
Ultron |
||
|
– |
– |
– |
– |
Winter Soldier (DLC) |
||
|
Capcom |
||||||
|
Chun-Li |
Chun-Li |
Chun-Li |
Chun-Li |
Chun-Li |
||
|
Morrigan Aensland |
Morrigan Aensland |
Morrigan Aensland |
Morrigan Aensland |
Morrigan Aensland |
||
|
Ryu |
Ryu |
Ryu |
Ryu |
Ryu |
||
|
Strider Hiryu |
Strider Hiryu |
– |
– |
Strider Hiryu |
||
|
Captain Commando |
Captain Commando |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
Jin Saotome |
Jin Saotome |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
Mega Man |
Mega Man |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
Roll |
Roll |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
Zangrief |
Zangrief |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
Lilith |
– |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
Shadow Lady |
– |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Akuma |
Akuma |
Akuma |
– |
||
|
– |
Jill Valentine |
Jill Valentine (DLC) |
Jill Valentine |
– |
||
|
– |
Tron Bonne |
Tron Bonne |
Tron Bonne |
– |
||
|
– |
Amingo |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Anakaris |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
B.B. Hood |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Cammy White |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Charlie |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Dan Hibiki |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Dhalsim |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Felicia |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Guile |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Hayato Kanzaki |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Ken Masters |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
M. Bison |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Ruby Heart |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Sakura Kasugano |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Servbot |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
SonSon |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
Tron Bonne |
– |
– |
– |
||
|
– |
– |
Arthur |
Arthur |
Arthur |
||
|
– |
– |
Chris Redfield |
Chris Redfield |
Chris Redfield |
||
|
– |
– |
Dante |
Dante |
Dante |
||
|
– |
– |
Mike Haggar |
Mike Haggar |
Mike Haggar |
||
|
– |
– |
Nathan “Rad” Spencer |
Nathan “Rad” Spencer |
Nathan “Rad” Spencer |
||
|
– |
– |
Zero |
Zero |
Zero |
||
|
– |
– |
Albert Wesker |
Albert Wesker |
– |
||
|
– |
– |
Amaterasu |
Amaterasu |
– |
||
|
– |
– |
Crimson Viper |
Crimson Viper |
– |
||
|
– |
– |
Felicia |
Felicia |
– |
||
|
– |
– |
Hsien-Ko |
Hsien-Ko |
– |
||
|
– |
– |
Trish |
Trish |
– |
||
|
– |
– |
Viewtiful Joe |
Viewtiful Joe |
– |
||
|
– |
– |
– |
Firebrand |
Firebrand |
||
|
– |
– |
– |
Frank West |
Frank West |
||
|
– |
– |
– |
Nemesis |
Nemesis |
||
|
– |
– |
– |
Phoenix Wright |
– |
||
|
– |
– |
– |
Strider Hiryu |
– |
||
|
– |
– |
– |
Vergil |
– |
||
|
– |
– |
– |
– |
Jedah Dohma (DLC) |
||
|
– |
– |
– |
– |
Monster Hunter (DLC) |
||
|
– |
– |
– |
– |
Sigma (DLC) |
||
|
– |
– |
– |
– |
X |
||
Hopefully, whenever a new Marvel vs. Capcom is 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 that Capcom’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: Infinite seemed to suffer 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 of Fantastic Four and X-Men back at their disposal and has already seen success with the nostalgic X-Men ’97 animated series, is introducing characters from the mutant team to the MCU through Deadpool & Wolverine, and has announced a Fantastic Four movie 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 of Marvel 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.
Source: Dexerto
