Marvel VS Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics - Switch Review

The fighting game community has been screaming towards the sky, hoping the gods will answer their cries. They’re on their hands and knees every day praying, “When's Marvel?”. Then one day the CapGods looked upon the fighting game community and answered “NOW!”. Marvel VS Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is a collection of Capcom’s greatest hits with their collaboration with Marvel Comics, including games such as The Punisher, X-Men: Children of the Atom and of course Marvel VS Capcom.

The Good

Let's get the biggest one out of the way. This collection includes Marvel VS Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics includes Marvel VS Capcom 2, which is a BIG deal. For those of you out of the loop, Marvel VS Capcom 2’s last release was on the Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network for the Playstation 3, both of which have shut down, meaning that if you didn’t buy them previously, the only way to play Marvel VS Capcom 2 legally was to own an actual arcade cabinet of the game or get a physical copy on the Sega Dreamcast. This is a massive win for game preservation.

Collections of older pixel art games tend to have a CRT filter option to help the artwork pop better and give a more accurate experience of what the original games were like, and Marvel VS Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is no exception. However, a lot of the time, these filters can be a bit hit or miss. The filter used for Marvel VS Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics might be the best implementation of a CRT filter I have ever seen; it feels like I’m actually playing on an arcade cabinet.

And of course I can’t talk about a fighting game without mentioning the online play. Fear not for Marvel VS Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics has Rollback Netcode, making online matches an absolute pleasure to play. Heck, you can even use it to play co-op in The Punisher; that's a pretty cool inclusion. Remember, kids, if you’re making an online game, always add Rollback Netcode; it is literally free.

TL;DR

• Marvel Vs Capcom 2 is finally available on modern consoles
• Visuals look just as good as they did in the arcade
• Online matches are buttery smooth with Rollback Netcode

The Bad

Now with a collection like this, a lot of these games are pretty similar, but as it always is with fighting games, even the smallest changes make the biggest impact. If you are experiencing these games for the first time, you may find swapping between games to be a bit confusing. For example, one character’s heavy punch might be faster or slower depending on what game you’re playing, or for those more experienced in fighting game lingo, a move might be safe on block in one game but not the other. The biggest change is Marvel VS Capcom 2 being a four button fighter while the others are six button fighters. As someone who plays Hulk, it feels really bad seeing my Gamma Crush super miss most of the time in Marvel VS Capcom 2 as opposed to the other games where it was way more accurate.

Included in Marvel VS Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is The Punisher, which, if you weren’t aware of it being the first game Capcom made in collaboration with Marvel Comics, you’d probably be really confused as to why this collection of fighting games has a random side scrolling beat ‘em up in it.

TL;DR

• Minute changes between games could confuse newer players
• The Punisher feels out of place if you don’t know the history

Final Score: 9/10

Marvel VS Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is everything Marvel VS Capcom fans have been wanting for years. Even as a more casual fighting game fan, I cannot recommend this game enough. If you’ve never played any of the Marvel VS Capcom games before, this is the perfect place to start.

Thank you for checking out our Marvel VS Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics Switch review, thank you to Capcom (via Five Star Games) for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:

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