Marvel VS Capcom is Coming Back

It’s Mahvel, baby!

Marvel VS Capcom is one of the most respected names in the fighting game community. It doesn’t matter if you play Tekken, Street Fighter, King of Fighters, an anime game, or Smash Bros. Everyone loves MVC.

Which made the series downfall all the more tragic. It began when its legacy titles disappeared from digital store fronts. Then it spiraled out of control with the disastrous launch of ‘Marvel VS Capcom: Infinite‘. In a sad bit of irony, the game titled Infinite died after less than half a year of release. After that, it seemed that Mahvel was dead and gone forever.

But even in this dark time, the series was not forgotten. Back in 2021, fighting game YouTuber Maximilian Dood started an online campaign: #FreeMVC2. His objective: to show the powers that be that Marvel VS Capcom still has an audience by unifying his community in their desire to bring back one of the most beloved games of all time: ‘Marvel VS Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes‘.

To say the movement gained traction was a bit of an understatement. It would be more accurate to say it exploded like a nuclear warhead. It was trending on Twitter for days, and even celebrities like Michael B. Jordan showed their support! Whatever doubt there may have been, after this movement, there was none. People wanted the old MVC back.

In the time since then, the series fell largely silent. The closest we got to a freed MVC2 was an Arcade 1UP cabinet with all the MVC games on it. Want to play these beloved Capcom fighting games? $600 dollars, please! Awesome as that cabinet was, it wasn’t accessible for most people.

Yet the thing still sold out instantly. Just in case you still had doubts.

Then, on June 18th, 2024, slipped between indie games and RPGs, an announcement was made. One that would send tremors throughout the entire FGC. A new Fighting Collection featuring classic Marvel VS Capcom games, from ‘X-Men: Children of the Atom‘ all the way to ‘Marvel VS Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes‘. Mahvel was back!!

More than that, it promised just about everything we could have wanted. Rollback netcode for smooth online play. Secret and boss characters made playable. A music player and an art gallery. Everything that made the previous Fighting Collection worthwhile has returned for MVC. Capcom went above and beyond, giving fans all they were asking for and more!

And in the distance, if you listened closely, you could hear Maximilian’s shriek of delight.

This collection doesn’t just promise to resurrect a dead past. It also opens a door of opportunity to the future. As stated earlier, MVCI put the franchise in the ground. Any hope the community has for a proper MVC4 died with that release. Particularly because, at the time, Marvel was one of the most profitable brands in the world with the MCU, while Capcom’s fighting game division was in utter ruin.

But now, the tables have turned. The MCU is dying, and Capcom has entered a new golden age. If the MVC collection succeeds – and given the overwhelmingly positive reception it’s already received, I would be shocked if it doesn’t – than a brand new game in the series isn’t so far off the table!

Miracles like this don’t happen every day. So many developers and publishers ignore what their fans want. Just look at Sony; Bloodborne fans have been asking for a new game, a remaster, or even a simple PC port for nearly a decade now, and all of their cries have gone unheard. Movements like #FreeMVC2 usually amount to nothing.

We demanded this from Capcom. And they listened. If we want this franchise to continue, then it’s time to put our money where our mouths are.

And I, for one, am more than willing to do my part.

Just be sure to buy a physical copy or two. To be safe. In case history repeats itself.