Sometimes dreams really do come true.
Mere hours ago, Nintendo dropped their big June Direct, and while it was firmly focused on the current Nintendo Switch and not its successor, it was still full of huge announcements. The biggest, of course, being that Capcom’s Marvel games are finally coming to modern devices.
Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics will collect the following titles into one package:
The Punisher
X-Men: Children of the Atom
Marvel Super Heroes
X-Men vs. Street Fighter
Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter
Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes
Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes
Even before X-Men ’97 blew up early this year and brought with it nostalgic memories of these beloved games, players have been begging for these games to be collected for years. None perhaps more passionate than fighting game enthusiast Maximilian Dood who spearheaded the “FREE MVC2” movement in 2021.
Expected to be released later this year on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Steam – for some reason the Xbox faithful are left out here – it will be the first time in over a decade that some of these games will have been for sale on any place other than the secondary market and pricy, not to mention space consuming, Arcade 1up cabinets. The Punisher, outside of a Sega Genesis port, has never had an arcade faithful conversion to either consoles or PC. In North America at least, the only ports released for both X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter came in the form of the well meaning, but ultimately comprised, PlayStation 1 versions .
The collection of Capcom published Marvel games is sadly missing X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse and Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems, both of which have been included on Arcade 1up machines, but bonus features make up for their absence. Rollback netcode being the most desired for those who play online and extras like soundtracks for each game, behind the scenes art and customizable training modes.
For those who subscribe to the Nintendo Switch Plus Expansion Pack, it was announced that the Nintendo 64 version of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter is also being added to the service sometime today. While it’s always great to have licensed games show up on services like this, the enhanced port of Turok from Nightdive Studios is still the ideal way to play that game and has been on Switch for sometime now.
Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is coming later this year to the Nintendo Switch, the PlayStation family of consoles and Steam. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter is a free add-on to those who subscribe to the Nintendo Switch Plus Expansion Pack.