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Marvel vs Capcom has been a fan favorite crossover fighting game for at least two decades. The same fans, however, are now fighting for the game's revival after years of inaction from the developers.
Recently, fighting game content creator, Maximilian "Maximilian Dood" Christensen, uploaded a video that can only be described as an open letter to Capcom.
Maximilian's intent behind the message was to make Marvel vs Capcom 2 a purchaseable title again, 8 years after it was pulled from the Playstation network & Xbox Live Arcade due to licensing issues.
By doing so, he launched an online Twitter campaign for Marvel vs Capcom under #FreeMvC2 and stirred up the pot quite a bit.
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Hours after the release of the video, pro players and fans of Marvel vs Capcom helped fuel the trend to a large degree, even bringing it to the attention of Mike Mika, the head of the studio responsible for developing the last playable version of Marvel vs Capcom 2 on XBox 360 and PlayStation 3.
The problem, however, is that Marvel vs Capcom 2 is just one of many victims of Capcom's terrible decision-making when it comes to preservation of their classics across platforms.
The issue isn't that there aren't modern versions of Marvel vs Capcom, but that their distribution is horribly flawed.
Marvel vs Capcom 2's limbo is only one tragedy in the disastrous shipwreck of Capcom's classic re-releases
Let's put into perspective the timeline of Capcom's pursuits with their classic re-releases.
In the early 2010's, Capcom released improved-modernized versions of many of its legendary fighters, including the Marvel vs Capcom fighters.
Some of them were released with physical copies, but all of them were mainly meant to be purchased digitally on PS3 and 360's marketplaces.
Some of these fighters included:
- Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition
- Darkstalkers Resurrection
- Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes
- Marvel vs Capcom Origins
Each of these games included different modes, the earliest implementations of rollback netcode and were optimized to make the most out of modern hardware.
They were improved and ported by an elite group of developers under Iron Galaxy studios and Capcom pushed an incredible amount of ambition and production into their creation.
Even going as far as making Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition playable without an internet connection, going directly against Sony's DRM mechanism, just for the sake of supporting tournament play.
This was the first ever set of re-releases that Capcom made.
Of the games listed above, both Marvel vs Capcom games were removed from the store due to licensing issues in 2013, so only two of the four are now available.
But there was a second time in 2018 when Capcom wanted to re-release all the Street Fighter games for its 30th anniversary. This time with a different developer, Digital Eclipse, they released a compilation collection of all the Street Fighter games.
The problem with this release was that many of these games did not feature training modes or online. And the few games that did support online were cursed with horrible netcode.
This, combined with the horrible interface and the lack of other modes, or any additional content, made this compilation one of the worst ways to experience classic Street Fighter.
And that begs the question. What is the best way to legally play Street Fighter 3 or Vampire Savior online today?
Well, it's early 2020s now and only a few folks have preserved their old PS3s. While the PS5 is having a slow rollout, the Xbox is dying out (if not in terms of sales, but in terms of relevance) and most of today's fighters are played either on PC or the PS4.
So what that means is to play Street Fighter 3 legally online today, folks either have to purchase one of the worst compilation collections ever released and deal with its many miserable drawbacks.
Or plug in their PS3, buy Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition and then experience the dread of realizing that the game is dead and match-making is empty.
The same applies to Darkstalkers: Resurrection, and as for Marvel vs Capcom 2 (and every other Marvel vs Capcom classic), nothing applies as there isn't a single feasible way to play it online legally.
But wait?! What about Playstation Now?
For those unfamiliar with PlayStation's services, PlayStation Now is a cloud-gaming subscription service that allows users to access the entire PS2, PS3 & PS4 catalog and play games on the device of their choice (even the PC).
However, the catch is that cloud-gaming, being in its early stages of development and all, is horrendous.
Players will complain of constant lag, unresponsiveness, and inconsistent texture loading, on literally any game they play. Applying this to a fighting game, especially in a multiplayer session, can make the player's gaming experience a nightmare.
But there is yet another catch.
Owners of the PS4 & PS5 can download and store the games they want to play locally, removing the entire cloud-gaming aspect. However, this is only allowed for PS2 & PS4 games.
While this does mean that the original Marvel vs Capcom 2, and other classics with PS2 ports, can be downloaded, online play for these PS2 games is impossible.
Therefore, the string of wonderful PS3 re-releases that Iron Galaxy has made for Marvel vs Capcom, Street Fighter & Darkstalkers can only be accessed via cloud, and they are far too inaccessible for the modern console owner.
How Capcom can revitalize their classics & the fate of Marvel vs Capcom
There are way too many factors in today's online space that have led to the boom in fighting game communities, tournament organizers, and most importantly the need for a good online netcode and matchmaking.
And with this boom, opportunities for older or forgotten games like Marvel vs Capcom to once again spawn communities have risen.
In the upper section of the article, the various barriers that stop a player from playing a game like Vampire Savior & Street Fighter 3 have been described.
But Marvel vs Capcom had an even worse fate, and is simply un-obtainable digitally today.
For Marvel vs Capcom to see at least some light at the end of the tunnel, Capcom and Disney will have to work out their licensing issues first, and hopefully the Twitter campaign and enthusiasm from the fanbase will help bring the classic Marvel vs Capcom games into the light again.
But assuming that the licensing issues for Marvel vs Capcom do get sorted out, there is another quest to fulfill to truly make the best out of these classics, and that is to revitalize the forgotten Iron Galaxy ports by bringing them to modern consoles and PCs.
These games are loved, so much so that a Vampire Savior team tournament hosted by Game Newton recently threw Twitter into a frenzy.
People are going through extraordinary lengths just to host something as simple as a tournament they can broadcast to the world.
Capcom must acknowledge that there is no point in making good games if they are ridiculously hard to acquire and play in the first place, and that this is especially true for Marvel vs Capcom.
SNK has acknowledged this by ambitiously bringing fantastic ports of their old King Of Fighters & Fatal Fury titles to PC & PS4 in recent times.
Arc System Works has done the same, and even went as far as continuing support for Accent Core Plus R to add new features alongside the newly implemented rollback.
The only games people will love and talk about for years to come are the ones that they can purchase and own in the first place.
One can only hope that Marvel vs Capcom 2 doesn't get forgotten as an old gem that was lost only because it was beyond people's reach.
Note: The article reflects the writer's own views.
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