When money is involved, theres always a way.
A similar thing happened a few years ago when we gotMarvel vs. Capcom: Infinite.
Marvel went with a new entry in a series thats been known to make them money.
Granted, it didnt work out for them, but it was still worth trying.
A crossover rivalry that may have seen its final iteration, sad to say.
The partnership began back in 1993 when Capcom made the side-scrolling arcade brawlerPunisher.
Ad content continues below
But our story doesnt truly begin until the end of 1994.
One-on-one fighting games were a fad that was truly catching on due to the success ofStreet Fighter IIandMortal Kombat.
The success of these titles created a fighting game free-for-all.
Many of these turned out to be blemishes on the house that Capcom and Midway built.
Luckily, Capcom was already hard at work on the next great fighting game.
13-year-olds around the world yelled, YES!
Characters could jump much higher and simple fireballs became beam attacks with directional control.
It felt more like a superhero fight than what Capcom had previously given us.
The game itself didnt have much more of a story than, Magnetos up to something.
Lets go stop him!
The roster wasnt huge, either.
You could choose from six X-Men and four villains, while Juggernaut and Magneto acted as the bosses.
Coincidentally, several of the characters came with samples from the voice actors who worked on theX-Menanimated series.
It was a design decision that would remain all the way intoUltimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
The game included an appearance by Akuma, the brand new mystery boss fromSuper Street Fighter II Turbo.
There was no story logic behind it.
This was the first step in the crossover rivalry and led to a sequel.
For its next Marvel game, Capcom decided to go much bigger.
Why settle for Silver Samurai when you might use Dr. Doom?
Iceman is neat, but not as neat as his amazing friend Spider-Man.
And so, less than a year later, we gotMarvel Super Heroes.
Certain character/Gem combinations caused cosmetic changes, like shadow effects or multiple versions of the character appearing on screen.
The game also featured Shuma-Gorath, which was outright weird.
Apparently, Capcom really wanted this obscure Dr.
Strange villain to appear in the game and Marvel shruggingly let them.
Not only was Dr.
The Japanese version of the game once again featured a secret character.
This time they went with Anita, the little girl from CapcomsDarkstalkers.
She would instead just stand around while Donovan Banes floating sword would attack for her.
One such move included having Akuma simply appear and stand next to her.
At the end of 1996, they built on the crossover even more withX-Men vs. Street Fighter.
Poor SNK, whose tag-team fighterKizuna Encountercame out the same month.
That game never had a chance…
In this new game, theStreet Fightercast visited the Marvel engine.
The tag gimmick also allowed teammates to hit their super attacks side-by-side, adding overkill in their offense.
On the X-Men side, they introduced Rogue, Gambit, Sabretooth, and sorta final boss Apocalypse.
With theStreet Fighterfolk, they reused lots ofStreet Fighter AlphaandAlpha 2sprites, with one exception.
Apocalypse came in his giant form, which would have made for a fitting final encounter.
Only then will you get to see your characters ending cutscene.
One of the endings actually had a lasting impact, oddly enough.
In future installments, Charlie reappears as the darkened palette swap Shadow.
Hes depicted as a brainwashed cyborg who breaks from his programming and targets Bison again.
If not for Capcom, nobody would ever remember her.
Even then, nobodys ever tried to bring her back or even reference her existence.
Due to the consoles technical limitations, the port was just a one-on-one fighter with assists.
A year later and itsMarvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter.
Again, why stop at just the X-Men?
This feature would become a big part of the games moving forward.
On the other hand, the game is incredibly lazy.
Nearly all the sprites and characters are from previous Capcom games.
Plus, Marvel wasnt especially happy with him being in there in the first place.
One thing thats always stayed with me about this game is the official poster.
Its a great image that brings in all the different playable characters.
Then early 1998 hit and Capcom wondered why it should even stop at JUST theStreet Fightercrew?
The result wasMarvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes.
Variable Assists were removed and replaced with something a bit more ambitious, though never again used.
There were other interesting gimmicks tossed in, too.
Ryu could switch his fighting style to play like Ken or Akuma.
The thing that makes me laugh about this game is the set of secret characters.
On the Capcom side, outside of Roll, theyre all palette swaps with different names.
Chun-Li became Shadow Lady and Morrigan became Lilith.
But remember how, in the previous game, Capcom had recolored Marvel characters renamed as other Marvel characters?
And so, we get Red Venom, Gold War Machine, and Orange Hulk.
Anyway, it was a fun game with a ton of personality.
Plus the hidden character theme is completely rad and overlooked.
Then came 2000 withMarvel vs. Capcom 2: A New Age of Heroes.
Not only did Capcom realize, Why stop at two-on-two?
but they also asked, Why stop at just over a dozen fighters?
They had a whole library of fully-designed characters on either side of the crossover.
It was time to shove as many characters as possible into one game.
The three-on-three fighting game featured 56 playable characters, gradually unlocked in the arcades via time release.
There were also two versions of Wolverine: one with adamantium claws and one without.
The whole thing came off as a final frontier for the Marvel fighting game engine.
Outside of the pesky single arcade ending (hey,Icared!
), it felt like the ceiling of what Capcom had to offer.
In a way, it was just as well that Capcom would go on to lose the Marvel license.
By early 2000, Capcom became notorious for no longer giving a shit.
Outside ofCapcom vs. SNKand its sequel, Capcom could no longer hide the stink of laziness.
Capcoms Marvel stuff used to beMadden-like in how they would come out on a near annual basis.
Then they went about a decade with nothing.
What happened in the series absence was interesting for all the parties involved.
Capcom mostly went silent for a while, occasionally re-releasing old fighters with slight updates.
In 2008, they finally started to get their asses in gear.
In this game, Capcom properties took on anime heroes and villains from shows such asGatchamanandYatterman.
The engine was a 3D cousin toX-Men vs. Street Fighter, going with the two-on-two tag style.
Capcom still did better than Marvel.
At least it did have a rad tie-in comic miniseries by Greg Pak and Renato Arlem.
I think people would have read that.
Well,GI Joeusedto be Marvel!
It was released in 2008, unfortunately just before theMortal Kombatgames figured out how to be good.
Sub-Zero and Raiden were in the sequel.
Part of the allure came from how utterly brokenMarvel vs. Capcom 2had become.
But that wouldnt be necessary.
As the months passed, more and more characters were announced through character trailers and even more cinematic trailers.
Still, the game delivered the same explosive goodness as past installments, only with modern graphics.
Most characters still played the same as always and we had 38 to choose from.
The less fighters remaining on the team, the longer the X-Factor would last.
This time the big bad was Galactus.
AKA, the dumbest plan.
Tieri was brought in for the game to give it a few doses of character and charm.
Most notably Iron Fist in Ryus ending and Ghost Rider in Dantes ending.
and some minor changes.
At the end of 2013, Disney let the Marvel/Capcom contract lapse.
As far as they were concerned, why go third party?
They had their own in-house stuff to make them money.
That didnt stopUltimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3from being one of the main events in every EVO after its release.
Then, several years later, they reunited once again.
Marvel and Capcom banded together for another go to makeMarvel vs. Capcom: Infinitein 2017.
The new installment went against the grain by moving backwards instead of forwards.
Its what theX-Men vs. Street Fighterconcept could have become if it zigged instead of zagged.
Er, Infinity STONES.
The X-Men (and less-importantly, Fantastic Four) were off-limits.
Man, mutants really do get a bum rap.
The game mostly reused old assets (did we really need Rad Spencer to come back?
), though we got a few new characters.
Interestingly enough, the announce trailers attempt to make the inclusion of Captain Marvel was met with mostly shrugs.
They mistimed that bombshell by a couple of years.
Other new characters included Jeddah, Ultron, and a new version of Thanos.
Other DLC characters included Black Widow, Winter Soldier, Black Panther, Monster Hunter, and Venom.
Though by the time they came out, people had long stopped caring.
Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinitewas a fun game, but it lacked any real staying power.
The most damning moment came with the announcement of Evo 2018.
For the first year since its inception, there would be noMarvel vs. Capcom.
Will we ever see aMarvel vs. Capcom 5?
Not in a while, if ever, I figure.
At least we wont have that bullshit to deal with in the potential next game.
