Few fighting games have proven to have the staying power of the Marvel vs. CAPCOM series. And while it's easy to hear that and be reminded first and foremost of Marvel vs. CAPCOM 3 (and for good reason), the popularity of the #FreeMVC2 movement is testament to how this applies to its predecessor as well, the also highly esteemed Marvel vs. CAPCOM 2. Prompted by the growing inaccessibility of this massively popular game, prominent fighting game streamer Maximilian Dood put a spotlight on how beloved Marvel vs. CAPCOM 2 is and how badly people still want to play it even now—more than 20 years after its initial release—when he started the hashtag #FreeMVC2 in 2021. Per an interview with MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics (MVCFC) producer Shuhei Matsumoto, it was around the same time that this movement was picking up speed that others at Capcom had been feeling similarly. “Yes, I was aware of the #FreeMVC2 movement that was getting a lot of buzz on social media. Whether it had an impact [on the release of MVCFC] or not is hard to say, but this is something that—the feeling was mutual,” Matsumoto told ANN, “We felt that we really wanted to re-release these games. We knew that everyone else really wanted to see these games come to life. So, yeah, it was something we've wanted to do for quite a while now.” This is all to say that the news of a Marvel vs. CAPCOM 2 port alone already would've been a huge reason to celebrate. So the fact that we're getting the other Marvel/CAPCOM arcade fighters (including Marvel vs. CAPCOM 2), as well as The Punisher, makes the release of MVCFC something really special.

If you're reading this review, then I'm guessing there's a pretty strong chance you have a history with at least one of the games in this collection—probably Marvel vs. CAPCOM 2 and possibly others. In fact, I'd be willing to place a hefty bet that the overwhelming majority of the people interested in MVCFC will fall into one of two camps: older players who have a lot of nostalgia for at least one of these games or younger players who heard about how cool Marvel vs. CAPCOM 2 is (probably by way of the #FreeMVC2 movement) and want to know what all the hype is about. I, for example, fell into the former camp with my fair share of time spent in the Marvel vs. CAPCOM games but little (if any) in the others. So to ensure that everyone gets what they want out of this review regardless of their experience or lack thereof with these games, I'll give a quick overview/review of the games in this collection, before moving on to reviewing how this is as a release.

With the sole exception of The Punisher (which I'll talk more about later), all of the games in this collection are fast-paced fighting games based around, well, Marvel and/or CAPCOM characters. Originally released between 1994 (1993 if we're including The Punisher) and 2000, they were all arcade games upon their launch, though they'd each get console ports as well. They share visual assets, and play sort of the same. They're all 6-button fighters, aside from Marvel vs. CAPCOM 2, which is 4-button (with assists). But even outside of that, the gameplay can differ between games—in particular, the later games would introduce team-building and assist mechanics.

For this reason, X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes are my least favorite titles in MVCFC—not necessarily because I think they're bad games (on the contrary, they're perfectly serviceable fighting games) but primarily because they have the smallest rosters in the collection and their gameplay feels like it's missing the extra oomph that teambuilding and assists would later add. Needless to say, the iconic Marvel vs CAPCOM 1 and 2 were easily my favorites of the collection.

One I hadn't played prior to the release of MVCFC is The Punisher, which is a bit different from the rest of the games in this collection. Unlike the others—which are all fighting games—this one's a side scrolling beat 'em up. Of the games I hadn't yet played, this was probably the one I was looking the most forward to giving a try; after all, in the aforementioned interview with ANN conducted at EVO, MVCFC producer Shuhei Matsumoto mentioned it when asked about his favorite games in the collection. So bearing that in mind, The Punisher is a mostly-by-the-books beat 'em up. While I was impressed by the level of the detail in the sprites given the age of this game, it didn't quite have the addictive quality I tend to associate with the genre. But the combat options prevented it from feeling repetitive, making for a fun way to kill time anyways.

But now, on to what's almost certainly the main reason you're reading this: how is MVCFC as a release? All the ROMs used are from the arcade versions of these games (you can verify this by cross-referencing the ROMs listed on each game's page on the collection's site), meaning that not only do players get what are widely considered to be the best versions of these games, but also, this is great news for game preservation. This is an especially big deal for The Punisher, which has a rocky history with being ported to console. Per MVCFC's website, changes have been pretty minimal—some images from the Japanese version of The Punisher have been removed, you can reduce screen flashing (but doing so might affect certain animations), “a number of stages have been altered” in the first Marvel vs. CAPCOM, and a number of previously unplayable characters are now playable (EX: you can now play as Cyber-Akuma in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter). The latter, in particular, is a great way to add some freshness to the game even for returning players, many of whom will have a blast with this. But of course, while the addition of one-button specials is something pretty interesting (especially for new players), it's the addition of online features—the rollback netcode—that's by far the most exciting new aspect.

So basically, MVCFC is all these arcade classic fighting games but with rollback—which to be clear, is exactly what everyone's been wanting. But it's also not much of anything else. Admittedly, this collection is pretty bare bones, having precious little to do aside from the training mode and arcade modes for the games inside it. There's a marquee card you can access from the menu, which is adorable. There's a jukebox which lets you freely listen to any game from any of the games' soundtracks, which is nice. And there's an art gallery as well, technically, but it's more like a slideshow. While it is cool to see the art for these games, I wish I could select the specific photo or photos I wanted to see, rather than only be able to select the game I want to see art from and infinitely scroll through a slideshow of images until I land on the one(s) I want—which is exactly what the art gallery is.

Admittedly, arcade, online, and training are the meat and potatoes of any fighting game. So the lack of additional, offline bells and whistles is more of a nitpick, and not even the kind of thing that would stand out to me so much if this wasn't a CAPCOM game. Take the Mega Man Legacy Collections for example. In addition to the games themselves, they include things like some really creative challenge modes, and more gameplay options. And I was hoping to see a similar spirit in MVCFC, which feels like it would readily lend itself to things like challenge modes and time trials in particular. That there's nothing of the sort feels like a massive missed opportunity.

Still, even if all there is to MVCFC is arcade mode, online play, and training, those are the most important things to have. And while I think casual players are more likely to feel affected by the lack of additional things to do in this game, I don't see it making a substantial difference to most of the competitive scene—most of whom probably wouldn't do much but lab and go online anyways. But on the topic of labbing, now's as good a time as ever to talk about the training mode.

You might not notice that training mode is even an option available if you didn't already know it was there, as there's nothing on the main menu clearly denoting it. In order to enter the training mode, you need to hit "start" while hovering over the game of your choice in the menu. Personally, I would much rather just be able to pick the game and then have a pop-up menu come up asking if I want to enter arcade mode, or training mode. Nonetheless, if you know how to enter the lab, competitive players will probably be thrilled to see new tools like hitboxes available to them. In fact, between the addition of hitboxes and the lack of other in-game things to do, I definitely feel like this release was intended primarily for the competitive scene. Yet despite this, it doesn't have other increasingly common competitive tools like frame data and robust recording options. That the training mode has these significant omissions is all the more noticeable since this game has come out after Street Fighter 6—which has one of the best training modes in all of fighting games.

But even if there's room for improvement, as a whole this release feels like a win for both the players, and game preservation. In particular, while MVCFC will undoubtedly provide plenty of casual players with nostalgic, arcade fun—and great tools to help them more quickly learn how to play these games—this release definitely seems more geared toward competitive players who just want to lab and go online. It's a pretty bare bones collection all things considered, allowing for what I'd call the bare minimum in a collection of fighting games (arcade, training, online), and not much of anything else. That being said, even if it's a bare bones collection, the fact remains that it's still a collection of great games that people have been hungry for. And the addition of rollback is, without question, a huge deal, and easily the best part of MVCFC. And as for the training modes, while definitely containing some marked improvements (EX: the hit boxes), they could still certainly be more comprehensive (and it's kind of surprising that they're not—especially in the case of Marvel vs. CAPCOM 2). But all things considered, it's still a perfectly solid release of great games that are sure to take you for a ride.