The Marvel vs. Capcom series is back and fans could not be happier. After making some of the most beloved fighting games ever made unavailable for direct purchase and download on consoles for over 10 years, the announcement of Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is a major start to the healing process for a lot of people.
When it was first unveiled, it was unclear whether or not we’d be seeing a physical release for this product on consoles. Thankfully, you will be able to buy a copy for yourself, and many of us likely will out of fear of these legendary games ever being taken away from us again…
Now, you might be wondering what I mean when I say “taken away from us” in regards to these titles. Well, back in 2013/2014, the Marvel vs. Capcom series of games were delisted from the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 stores.
Games like Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 were removed from the store and were made unavailable for purchase digitally. More importantly, though, was that the Marvel vs. Capcom 2 re-release and Marvel vs. Capcom Origins — a compilation game that included Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes with online play — were also part of this purge.
Unfortunately, this meant that these games were no longer accessible unless you were lucky enough to have downloaded them previously. And since then, we hadn’t seen another big release of the older titles on that list on consoles up until Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics.
As a result, players have had to resort to other means of playing these classic titles online including ROMs and Fightcade. But Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection is going to be a solution for all of that now.
Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics will include seven legendary titles: X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and The Punisher. Players will be able to jump into their favorites of the bunch and play against friends and rivals alike with rollback netcode, use updated training mode features such as a hitbox viewer in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and do all of this on the latest hardware with ease of access.
So, while it might be a little presumptuous to say that buying a physical copy of this compilation is a good idea for anyone who wants to ensure they keep these games forever… I’d say better safe than sorry. You can find listings for physical PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch copies over on Amazon right now, with each showing a price tag of $49.99 USD.
Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is slated for release on PlayStation 4 (which can be played on PS5 also), Nintendo Switch, and Steam. If you’re wondering why the game won’t be released on Xbox consoles at all and/or why it’s skipping PS5 natively, you can learn more about that in our previous story.
The Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection does not have a set release date yet, but it is scheduled for launch sometime this year.
