The Marvel Vs. Capcom Collection Is Bringing Back Classics In A Great New Light - Gamescom 2024

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Of all the appointments I had at Gamescom, there were a few publishers I looked forward to above the rest, and Capcom was one of them. Their lineup has been incredible, and my excitement for their upcoming games, like Monster Hunter: Wilds, has been extremely exciting. Wilds was the appointment I was most looking forward to for various reasons, but I also wanted to take some time to try out the publisher’s upcoming Marvel Vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics. The games are iconic, and I have fond memories of playing them in arcades, but having them all in one place with some extra additions will make this essential for fighting game fans.

At my demo, I had access to every game except The Punisher and checked each out! It was surreal heading back into Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, but I got to try out X-Men Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter for the first time. There isn't much to report on the games; each of them is fantastic, and having them all in a collection is wonderful. Controller support is great, and with great multiplayer modes using rollback netcode, the online versus and co-op experiences should be a blast.

I went into the appointment without much prior knowledge of this collection, mostly because I already knew about each of the games, as they are all iconic arcade titles. However, a couple of features that really surprised me.

Each of the seven games included has both offline and online play, as well as local/split-screen multiplayer and training modes, but they all have their own Japanese versions included! While some of the games don't have much of a difference, there are some that do, and it's nice to have that option. Funny enough, my favorite game of the collection that I played at Gamescom was actually the Japanese version of Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter. That version has one exclusive character, Norimaro, and for whatever reason, I was crushing it as him and Captain America.

You can also use multiple display filters to make the game look different. Whether you want to make it look smoother in a newer style or give it that classic arcade look with the small horizontal lines going through the screen, it's awesome having that option. There are multiple of these, so customizing the way you want the game to look is nice. I liked being able to see the move list for each character easily as well, but being able to bring up the original arcade marquee card was also awesome.

I didn't look much at the Gallery and Song choices, as I got too sucked into my constant domination with Norimaro, but the Marvel Vs. Capcom Collection had everything I wanted. It gave me an arcade-esque offline mode for each game, casual and ranked online modes, and multiple ways to enjoy some of the most iconic fighting games. I even appreciate the ability to do one-button specials and change the difficulty levels if I chose to, which could make it a great entry point for beginners. $50 may seem really steep for older games like this, but after my experience, the extra features added, The Punisher making a return, and the addition of cool co-op and versus modes with rollback netcode, it's hard not to see this as a good deal.

MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics will be released digitally on September 12th and can be pre-purchased on Steam for $49.99. There's also a cool physical edition that launches a bit later, November 22nd, and pre-ordering it can get a 32-page comic with characters from the games within the collection! The comic is exclusive to the physical edition, and it's only for PS4 copies of the game, but I do wish there was a PC version since I want that comic. And I see no reason why the PC version would not be playable on the Steam Deck!

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