PixlBit

Earlier this year, Capcom released a collection of their Marvel licensed arcade games.  It was pretty surprising that they did this, seeing how Marvel is owned by Disney now and all.  But they made it happen!  I got the physical release of this recently, so I thought I’d ‘take you for a ride’ and check out all the games on this collection.

But before we do, I wanted to point out that the physical PS4 copy I bought came with a little comic book.  And by little I really mean it.  It fits in my hand.  I kind of wish it was bigger, but I guess they had to fit it in the box.  It would be cool if they made a bigger version for conventions or maybe Free Comic Book Day.  Not that it matters since I don’t really collect comic books or go to comic book stores.  But at least this one had Mega Man in it.

X-Men: Children of the Atom

I think this is the first one on one fighter Capcom made with Marvel characters.  X-Men was pretty big at the time in the early 90s, what with that cartoon and all.  I liked playing as Psylocke on this one because she wears purple and has purple hair and shoots purple stuff.  She has purple powers!  Honestly though, I never really paid much attention to this game in arcades, as I pretty much ignored fighters until they became more accessible in the late 90s.

Marvel Super Heroes

Even though they used a lot of the X-Men characters from before, this still felt like a proper sequel rather than a version 1.5.  Capcom hadn’t entered their ‘lazy phase’ yet I guess.  So now they’ve added other characters besides the X-Men like Spider-Man…uh…The Hulk…and I forget who else.  Honestly my knowledge of Marvel characters really only comes from these games, the LEGO games, and the movies, and I don’t really get into comic books so I really don’t pay attention to Marvel stuff as a whole.  I couldn’t beat Juggernaut in this game, he’s just too big!

X-Men vs. Street Fighter

When I first saw this game in arcades I thought to myself, “Man I feel sorry for the Street Fighter cast having to fight people with super powers.”  But then I remembered that the Street Fighter characters can shoot fireballs from their fists, breathe fire, stretch out their arms and legs, teleport, generate electricity, and spin their legs around like a helicopter and fly around.  So I guess it all evens out.

Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter

I think this is when Capcom entered their ‘lazy phase’ because this feels more like a version 1.5 than a sequel.  Sure they added some new characters, but the stages and final boss are all the same.  Yeah I don’t really have anything else to say about it.

Marvel vs. Capcom

OK this is when I really started paying attention to the Vs. series.  Mainly because Mega Man was in it.  But a lot of other long dormant classic Capcom characters made appearances in this one, too.  Like Strider and Arthur.  I love how the joke character here is Mega Man’s sister Roll.  She’s so small a lot of the other characters’ attacks go right over her!  I really like a lot of the music and stage backgrounds, too.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2

This game is worth the price of this collection alone.  I think this is my number one favorite Dreamcast game and probably one of my top five fighting games overall.  I have so many good memories playing this with my little brothers and friends.  It’s very accessible and has so many characters, too!  Almost too many!  I love how Tron Bonne is a character you can play as.  And they even upped the ante on the joke character because not only can you play as Roll, but a solitary Servebot as well.  And he’s even shorter than Roll and more useless, too.  But I love him anyway.  My only problems with this one is the stage backgrounds and music aren’t as inspired.  And this was still Capcom’s lazy phase so they re-used a lot of sprites from games with lower resolutions.  Morrigan’s DarkStalkers sprite looks especially bad.  And I don’t notice stuff like that too often.  But otherwise, this is a GREAT game.

The Punisher

All the other games on this collection are one on one fighters, this is the only side scrolling beat ‘em up.  It says it came out in 1993 and looks the part.  Kind of has that similar feel to other games at the time like Captain Commando.  I remember The Punisher being really popular at the time, seeing kids in high school reading the comics and wearing shirts with that skull insignia.  Player two is Nick Fury, and the name sounded familiar to me so I asked my brother Jeff about it and he said that was the guy who was the leader of the Avengers in the movies.  Seems odd he’d hang out with the Punisher, but I don’t know a lot about Marvel so there you go.  The game is no Captain Commando or Final Fight, but it’s all right.  A nice surprise for this collection anyway.

You know what Capcom comic book beat ‘em up I’d like to see on this collection?  Aliens vs. Predator.  It’s not Marvel so I guess that’s why it’s not on here.  But it was really good.  It came out a few years after the Punisher game.  It would’ve been neat to see some of Capcom’s SNES Marvel games on this collection, as I hear they were pretty good.  But I guess they just wanted to focus on the arcade stuff.  It’s probably also why we don’t see Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 and Marvel Vs. Capcom Ultimate.  Mvs.C 3 was neat because it had She-Hulk in it.  I didn’t know who she was at the time.  I was like, “Aw, the Hulk has a girlfriend!”  But Phoenix Wright is in her ending so I decided that she would be my favorite Marvel character.  Too bad her show on Disney+ sucked.  Marvel Vs. Capcom Ultimate wasn’t as good as the other games, but I don’t think it was bad, just different.  They tried to make it feel more like the movies, which were popular at the time.  I liked how the Dr. Light hologram from the Mega Man X games teamed up with Iron Man’s computer to help the good guys.  I think it would be neat if they made a Marvel Vs. Capcom movie.  At least I’d know who half the cast was!  Anyway, that’s all I have to say about that.  This is a pretty good collection overall.  Later!  --Cary