The Immortality of Marvel VS Capcom 3

That’s right! We talkin’ ’bout Mahvel, baby!

To an outsider looking in, few pairings in the world make less sense than Marvel and Capcom. But video games are a wild, unpredictable landscape. If Donald Duck can meet Sephiroth and Mario can throw hands with Minecraft Steve, then who is to say Ryu couldn’t shake hands with Cyclops?

Rewind the clock a few decades, however, and the pairing begins to make more sense. Capcom was the king of arcades back in the 90s. They put their stamp on tons of beat ’em ups and fighting games, from obscure IPs to licensed franchises. Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, Alien VS Predator, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, they did everything.

One such franchise was the at-the-time extremely popular X-Men franchise. Thus was ‘X-Men: Children of the Atom’ born. It was a simple enough fighting game, but it laid the foundation for everything to come. After it’s success, Capcom got to work on a sequel, and another game that broached not just the Mutants, but Marvel heroes in general.

It was around this time that Capcom decided to start experimenting. It started small with ‘X-Men VS Street Fighter.’ Then it became ‘Marvel Super Heroes VS Street Fighter.’ Then they decided to go all-in on both sides.

Thus began the legend of Marvel VS Capcom.

For those of you more familiar with the MCU than with comics and their history, understand this: Marvel was not the inescapable multi-billion dollar monolith we know today. Comics were still considered niche. They had their hits, sure, but largely with children and cartoons. Beyond Spider-Man and the X-Men, Marvel was fairly small.

Getting back to our story: Marvel VS Capcom was a huge success. Simple controls, fun characters, flashy combos, killer music, it had it all. Few games laid a better foundation for a franchise than this one. It’s still fun, even today!

Naturally, a sequel is put into works. A few years later, we were graced with what many consider to be the greatest fighting game of all time: Marvel VS Capcom 2.

This game took the FGC by storm! Justin Wong made his name as an indomitable champion! People learned how to do a motha fuckin’ infinite with Iron Man! The character select screen music became a fighting game player’s go-to shower song! Marvel VS Capcom was at the top of the world and it had no intention of leaving its throne any time soon!

But no king can last forever. Especially not when his kingdom falls to ruin.

In the early to mid 2000s, fighting games came dangerously close to dying out. Profits were down, new games were rare, and player numbers were dwindling. The most dedicated fans kept on going, keeping the small competitive scene alive, but even their devotion could not stave off the doom to come.

Or so it seemed. But it was not to be. For in the year 2008, a savior came to deliver the FGC from ruin. And that savior…

…was Street Fighter IV.

This game almost singlehandedly saved the genre. Players new and old flocked to it in droves, both casually and professionally. Tournament numbers were at an all-time high. Early online content creators shared the game with the internet. Not since Evo Moment 37 have fighting games seen a comeback this dramatic.

All the while, people still played Marvel VS Capcom 2. But it, too, was beginning to grow weak and weary. Fans had grown tired of the same stages, the same music, the same game-breaking strategies and combos. They wanted more. They wanted something new.

In 2011, Capcom would answer those prayers. In 2011, Marvel VS Capcom 3 was released. And later that same year, they would release it again, this time perfected and content complete with the Ultimate edition.

UMVC3 had it all. Lightning fast matches that could end in the blink of an eye. Flashy combos. Unbalanced and overpowered characters with wild and wacky mechanics. Sound effects and music that got your blood pumping. A diverse roster of absolutely insane characters, from Deadpool to Phoenix Wright, from Viewtiful Joe to Rocket Raccoon, to the all-powerful, completely busted Vergil.

Remember: he’s not OP, he’s lore accurate.

The community was more lively than ever. Maximilian Dood made a name for himself with his ‘Assist Me’ series, helping teach new players how to play the game. Woolie declined every straight male’s dream to make the midnight launch. Justin Wong fought his way tooth and claw back to his championship. Mahvel was back, baby!

It wasn’t going away any time soon, either. From 2011 all the way to 2017, this game was a mainstay in the FGC. No tournament was without Marvel. People did not stop training, and they sure as hell didn’t stop fighting.

But time stops for no game. Sooner or later, the old must make way for the new. Even with a game as monumental as this one. After several years, people began to wonder: when would we get the next Marvel VS Capcom?

The answer came with the reveal of Marvel VS Capcom: Infinite.

However, things had changed dramatically since the series first began. With the explosive growth of the MCU, Marvel was now a multi-billion dollar franchise. There are actual countries that are worth less than those movies!

Capcom, meanwhile, was only just starting to find its footing again after nearly going bankrupt. The power balance in the partnership had completely shifted. Capcom wasn’t just restricted on which characters they could use, they were also forced to release the game in time before ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ in order to push marketing.

Worse, the franchise now had something it never had before: competition. Another tag-team fighting game was on the way. One also tied in with a beloved classic franchise. The very game that made me a fighting game fan: Dragon Ball Fighterz.

Unfortunately, it quickly became clear which game was the favorite among consumers. Infinite suffered from lackluster graphics, an downright obnoxious story mode, and a lackluster roster missing several fan favorite characters. Remember: this series all started with the X-Men. Now, thanks to Disney, the very root of the franchise had to be removed.

Meanwhile, Dragon Ball was fast, flashy, explosive, and downright gorgeous! It was packed to the brim with Dragon Ball’s most beloved characters, and they all looked like a ton of fun to play! More than that, major tournaments all picked up Dragon Ball, but abandoned Marvel; neither UMVC3 or Infinite would appear. Disappointed fans saw which way the tide would flow, and they abandoned ship with all haste.

I’m not saying there weren’t fans of Infinite. Alas, they were a quiet minority. After only one season of DLC, Marvel VS Capcom Infinite was abandoned by the developers, leaving their small but loyal fanbase on their own.

In any other story, that would be the end. An inspiring rise and a devastating fall for one of the greatest fighting game franchises of all time. A tragic piece of video gaming history.

But that is not where the story ended.

People still wanted to play Marvel. If the new one didn’t live up to the hype, then the solution was simple: go back to what they already had. The immediate thought was MVC2. Unfortunately, the game is no longer available unless you wanted to go hunting down a Dreamcast copy. Luckily, Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3 had been ported to Steam and modern consoles. Thus the game was decided.

So they played. And played. Then played some more. In 2020, fans put together their own online tournaments, using third-party software to help make up for the outdated netcode. New players were coming into the game for the first time in years. It got so big that in 2023 that EVO brought it back to the main stage! The hype was back! Mahvel had been resurrected!

Yet it wasn’t enough. Fans wanted more. New stages, new characters, new game to play. But with the disastrous launch of Infinite, chances of that seemed slim to none. So once again, they put on their Infinity Gauntlets and declared, “Fine. We’ll do it ourselves!”

Enter the heroes of our story: the modders.

At first, they were satisfied with modding in skins and stages for a few goofy laughs. But they grew ambitious. They set out to do the impossible: to break the game’s limitations and implement brand-new playable characters. Not reskins; whole new characters with unique animations, mechanics, and voice lines. And against all odds: they succeeded!

Cyclops. Gambit. Guile. Venom. Carnage. Sakura. Iceman. Rasheed. Leon Kennedy. Monster Hunter. Cammy. Ultron. Captain Marvel. All of these and more have been modded into the game by fans. With these mods and more, you could double the game’s playable roster!

It’s not over, either. Modders are still hard at work adding even more characters. We even got a trailer showcasing their work, which has dubbed their work as: UMVC3 Community Edition. The amount of love, passion, talent, and dedication that has gone towards this game from its fans is downright insane!

To really hammer home how crazy this is: there are no open modding tools for this game. Nor is the engine designed to be opened and played with. This isn’t like Bethesda modding. To make this happen, the modders had to reverse-engineer the entire game! Making games is already hard enough, and these guys basically had to do it backwards!

Why did they do it? Not for money. Not for attention. Not even to put something on their resume. The reason is simple: they love the game.

Marvel VS Capcom gave so much to so many people over the years. For casual players, it was chaotic fun with friends. For pros, it was a career. For spectators, it was spectacle. For everyone, it was a community. What better thanks is there for such a community than to give back to the game?

Thanks for taking us on this ride, Mahvel. This next one is on us.