Marvel vs. Capcom (series)

Marvel vs. Capcom (マーヴルVSカプコン) is a series of fighting games developed and published by Capcom featuring characters from Marvel Comics and Capcom's own video game franchises. While it was the first Vs. series involving Capcom, the Marvel brand exists to distinguish it from Capcom's other Vs. series with SNK Playmore (SNK vs. Capcom) and Tatsunoko Production (wikipedia:Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars).

The Marvel characters depicted in the earlier games were often based on their appearances in various 1990s animated series, particularly X-Men, and were often voiced by the same voice actors. Similarly, the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 cast bear similarities to and share voice actors with their late 2000s animated incarnations, such as those seen in Wolverine and the X-Men, The Spectacular Spider-Man, and The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

Video games
Capcom's partnership with Marvel began in 1993 with the release of The Punisher, an arcade Beat 'em up based on the comics. Capcom then created their first Marvel-based fighting game, X-Men: Children of the Atom, in 1994. Marvel Super Heroes soon followed in 1995. Many of the gameplay mechanics used in the Marvel vs. Capcom series were first developed and refined in these two fighting games, serving as precursors to the series. Former Capcom USA Strategic Marketing Director of Online and Community, Seth Killian, stated that many fighting game aficionados, including himself, consider them to have laid the foundation for the Versus series.

X-Men vs. Street Fighter was released for arcades in 1996, introducing the series' signature tag team action by combining Street Fighter-style combat with tag team features. The game was succeeded by Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter in 1997, expanding the character roster to the larger Marvel universe. Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes later debuted in 1998, including characters from numerous Capcom video game franchises. The sprite-based games culminated in 2000 with the arrival of Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, which featured a cast of 56 playable characters.

Shortly after the release of the PlayStation 2 and Xbox ports for Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Capcom lost the use of the Marvel license after a string of legal issues put the series on hold. After a decade-long hiatus, the franchise was revived with the 2011 release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. The series' traditional sprites transitioned into 3D character models while retaining the 2D-style combat. An updated version of Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, was released later in the same year with additional characters, stages, modes, and other gameplay enhancements. A compilation of Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, called Marvel vs. Capcom Origins, was released on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade in 2012, featuring high-definition visuals, online multiplayer, challenges, and unlockables.

Related media
On July 2, 2012, Udon Entertainment announced the release of Marvel vs. Capcom: Official Complete Works, an art book consisting of promotional artwork, sketches, and bonus material from the many video game collaborations between Marvel and Capcom, from the 1993 arcade game The Punisher to Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The book made its international debut at San Diego Comic-Con on July 11, 2012, in an exclusive hardcover edition. A standard-format softcover was released in October 2012 by Diamond Comics.

Gameplay
The conventions and controls for the Marvel vs. Capcom series have evolved over its near two decade-long run. Following the same gameplay mechanics from Street Fighter II, the series initially began with the standard one-on-one, best-two-out-of-three rounds format as seen in X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes. Players would select a character to use in battle and use various attacks to exhaust their opponent's health meter or have the most cumulative health when time ran out. X-Men vs. Street Fighter limited each match to one round, but added two-on-two tag team features. Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter later introduced the concept of the "assist" by allowing the player to summon their offscreen partner to perform a special move without switching characters. The feature was tweaked in Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, which randomly selected an assist character before each match and only allowed the player to use their assist a limited number of times. The assist features from Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter were used instead in the following sequel, Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, once again granting players the ability to call in their offscreen characters at any time during the match without constraint. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 also increased the number of characters per team by one, providing the series' current three-on-three battle format.

As Capcom's design philosophy for the series changed to expand their user base and reach a wider audience, the control scheme has been repeatedly modified to accommodate people unfamiliar with fighting games. The first five games utilized the same configuration of an eight-directional joystick and six attack buttons that was previously established by Street Fighter II. In Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, the controls were cut down to four attack buttons and two assist buttons in order to make the game more accessible. The control scheme was further simplified with the release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, which included three attack buttons, two assist buttons, and a "launcher" button. In addition, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 included two different control scheme options: Normal Mode and Simple Mode. Simple Mode, tailored to casual players, allowed players to perform combos and special moves more easily at the expense of limiting a character's available moveset.

Marvel

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Capcom

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Reception
In 2012, Complex ranked Marvel vs. Capcom at number 37 on the list of the best video game franchises, commenting that "a frenetic pace and over the top effects work together to make this franchise stand the test of time."