The Nintendo and Capcom announcement of Marvel Vs Capcom Fighting Collection is a much bigger deal than I initially alluded to in the Nintendo Direct reveal. You see, if you ask any fighting game player what their most beloved game is, be they casual or an Evo regular, it usually comes down to three titles. Mortal Kombat II, Street Fighter III: Third Strike and Marvel Vs Capcom 2.
MVC2 was a hugely popular title, being ported to a few select systems and appearing frequently in fighting game tournaments. Boasting over 50 characters, there were almost infinite team combinations with arguably the best character-select music. The game was so popular it made its way onto the digital storefronts of the Xbox 360, PS3 and IOS featuring online play for the first time outside of Japan.
However in 2012, shortly after the release of Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3, Disney, having acquired Marvel some years earlier, opted not to renew the licensing deal with Capcom. This meant the publisher had to remove all products from stores. It wasn’t a malicious move on Disney’s part, just that they wanted to produce their games “in-house”.
So for years, there was no way to buy the game that fans loved legitimately. They had to rely on old arcade boards, old consoles or emulation. Computer programs like Parsec and Fightcade had to be used to play opponents online, but this was limited to PCs and meant sharing your desktop with your opponent. Not exactly ideal.
Then a glimmer of hope. In September of 2017, Marvel Vs Capcom: Infinite was announced. Disney had decided to switch back to licensing their properties out again and Capcom jumped at the chance. However, something was off.
Fans began to notice certain characters were missing from the roster, most notably there were no X-Men and no Fantastic Four characters. No characters that weren’t in the MCU at the time. While there was no official statement saying this was a mandate from Marvel, speculation ran riot. There was also a heavy reliance on the Infinity Stone/Gem storyline which the MCU was currently going through as well, not helping with the rampant speculation.
Overall, MVC:I split the fanbase down the middle. It had its defenders who found fun with the title but the drastic changes to standard gameplay (teams were two instead of three, a gem-style power-up system) were too much for some. Capcom had brought UMVC3 from their back catalogue so that became the standard but fans still wanted their beloved back.
In 2021, eight years after MVC2 was pulled from storefronts popular YouTubers and fighting game enthusiasts started the “Free Marvel Vs Capcom 2” campaign https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APU1zko9RA0&t=321s, making #FREEMVC2 the third most tweeted hashtag in the US. The website is still available and getting visits https://freemvc2.com/.
During the 2022 Evolution Championship Series, Arcade 1up revealed a Marvel vs. Capcom 2 replica cabinet with wifi compatibility for online play. So MVC2 was back but was not exactly on the affordable side being currently available at £600.
So time went on, and the fans had all but given up. Many speculated that the MVC2’s unique style was just too difficult to emulate or it wasn’t cost-effective for Capcom to release. This was due to the 2D graphics on a 3D rendered plane all running on the Sega NAOMI board, a board Capcom had not used before.
That was until June 2024. Nintendo and Capcom shocked the fighting game world. If you look up reactions on YouTube you will find people in absolute joy and disbelief. One comment said, “It was like a friend returned from the dead”.
While the collection will be skipping Xbox and PS5 (most likely due to budgetary restraints https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2024/jun/20/marvel-capcom-skip-xbox/) and not supporting crossplay, the host of upgrades and QOL improvements will finally bring the beloved game to the current generation.
Now we all just have to decide which platform to buy it on.
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