Capcom's VS Series: The Making Of a Legend

A look at how the iconic fighting game series was created
On
April 15, 2013
Everyone has pretty heard of the VS series by Capcom. In case you don't, here's what you must know: It's a series of fighting games featuring characters from the Marvel and Capcom universes.
But it sure didn't start that way. It all goes back to 1993 when Capcom had signed a deal with Marvel Comics to produce a fighting game based on the very iconic comic book series called "X-Men". Once 1994 hit, their 1st game X-Men: Children Of The Atom was released in arcades everywhere. Now this was an amazing game from what I understand. Your basic mission in the game is as follows: Defeat the evil Magneto. As one of ten playable characters from "X-Men", you'll have to fight off many foes who are also playable as well as Juggernaut.

X-Men: Children Of The Atom was so successful in the arcades that it was ported to the PlayStation & the Sega Saturn a few years later.



Since X-Men: Children Of The Atom was a success, Marvel allowed Capcom to make another fighting game but with more Marvel characters rather than just the X-Men. So in 1995 Capcom released Marvel Super Heroes. The general story of this game is that Thanos (a villain from "Iron Man") is planning to use the power of The Infinity Gems to take over the universe and it's up to the super heroes of the Marvel universe to take him down.

The main thing of the arcade mode is the fact that you can use The Infinity Gems like power ups that serve as an advantage.
Much like X-Men: Children Of The Atom, Marvel Super Heroes was ported over to the PlayStation & Sega Saturn.

Now with two hits on their hands, both Marvel & Capcom pretty much had everything made but what to do next?

In 1996, Capcom made their first crossover called "X-Men VS Street Fighter"

The story in this game is that the X-Men show interest in Ryu's powers but when Apocalypse appears stronger than ever, both the Street Fighters & X-Men team up so they can crush Apocalypse and save the day. It's also worth noting that this was the first game in the VS Series to feature tag team action. But that was omitted from the PlayStation port due to memory limitations. X-Men VS Street Fighter also got a port on the Sega Saturn but that was only in Japan.

There's also one minor thing about this game that I want to point out: WHAT IS WRONG WITH DHALSIM's VS portrait?
I mean look at it.


Anyways, Capcom went all out again and released Marvel Super Heroes VS Street Fighter in 1997.

The story is pretty much unchanged from the last game except that there are more characters from Marvel than just the X-Men.
Much like X-Men VS Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes got a port on the PlayStation and the tag team feature was actually its own mode called crossover mode. There was also a Sega Saturn port released only in Japan with an exclusive character called Norimaru.
After 4 successful arcade games, Capcom would wow gamers everywhere with the next installment of the VS Series and that game was: Marvel VS Capcom: Clash Of The Super Heroes. Released in arcades in 1998. The general plot of this game was that Magneto turned into the all powerful Onslaught and it's up to the heroes from the Marvel and Capcom universes to take him out.

This marked a turning point in the series because for Capcom, they would have a lot of other noticeable characters that they created like Megaman, Strider Hiryu & Captain Commando. But this game was SO Successful that it was ported to the Sega Dreamcast and the PlayStation.


After the big success of Marvel VS Capcom: Clash Of The Super Heroes, Marvel and Capcom made a sequel called Marvel VS Capcom 2: New Age Of Heroes which was released in the year 2000 and is considered by many the best in the series.

The plot here is that a French pirate named Ruby Heart discovers a mysterious abyss. Upon her discovery she summons are the heroes(and some villains) from the Marvel and Capcom universes to take down the abyss. In this game you have 56 playable characters (55 if you don't count bone claw Wolverine.)

3 of which were made for this game along with the main villain Abyss. Just like the previous game, Marvel VS Capcom 2 was ported to the Sega Dreamcast but it was also ported to the PlayStation 2 and Xbox as well.


After over a decade of waiting, fans were treated to Marvel VS Capcom 3: Fate Of Two Worlds for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The story this time is that Doctor Doom and Albert Wesker join forces to rule the Marvel and Capcom universes with the hit of Galactus. Unlike the other games, this one didn't come out in the arcade. It went straight to the consoles and give us some new fighters fans had long been hungry for like Deadpool and Mike Haggar.

Less than a year later, Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom was released for the PS VITA,Xbox 360 & PlayStation 3. This is pretty much the same game but with 12 additional fighters including Firebrand, Ghost Rider, Frank West & the return of Strider Hiryu.

Above all, The VS Series has had its ups and downs over the years. Let's just hope that we get a Marvel VS Capcom 4 sometime in the future.
That's it. Feel free to leave a comment below.
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