Forgotten Worlds (Arcade, 1988)

 

The very first game developed for Capcom's CPS-1 arcade hardware, making this an important historical footnote. This is what would happen if SCAT and Bad Dudes cross-pollinated. It's an arcade shooter very similar to SCAT (to the point that at first glance I nearly thought it was a prequel/sequel, or made by the same people) where you play as these two rad dudes as they fight their way through space to save Earth.

It also looks REALLY nice for 1988. Arcade games were punching on a whole different weight class in the late 80's. I'm not kidding, this looks insane visually. I thought it was from the mid-90's until I checked the year.

As usual, I had no idea what I was getting into with this one. Capcom's been doing a really good job resurrecting their old arcade games and preserving them with modern systems. Arcade games aren't something you'll just find in the wild, so they might be the most important games to make ports of for modern systems. Just to keep them from ceasing to exist entirely. I wish someone would port over the Aliens vs Predator arcade game where you can play as Arnold's character Dutch, as well as various Predators, while bashing your way through a horde of Xenos. It's so, so much better than the SNES beat 'em up. And basically nonexistent at this point in time.

Anyway, time for Capcom's first arcade game. It's called Forgotten Worlds but thanks to them it isn't a forgotten game.

Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (Playstation 3/XBox 360, 2011)

 

This game took some work to get ahold of and a lot more work to get shots of. Sony REALLY didn't want people recording any clips of the PS3 for the new sensation Youtube. That would let people promote their games by showing off the gameplay!

This is the top-selling game in the series (though to be precise, the ultimate edition is, with this version in second place...if you combine the two on sales, "3" is even further ahead of the rest) and the one that launched with a wave of hype: This was the era of Avengers mania, with the MCU in full swing. Plus there was a decade since the last game for the legend of MVC2 to grow. That second game pretty much never stopped being a thing; I remember playing it a lot with friends in the late 2000's, even.

This one finally adds Thor, after all this time. They kinda had to at this point with him being one of the big four MCU heroes. Psylocke is still missing though. I think she's gone...or maybe she's one of the many characters they add for the ultimate edition. That version is practically a new game so I'm going to look at that too. With both of them released in 2011 (February and November, I believe) it seems to me like this version was just an incomplete version that they put out early to meet deadlines - deadlines which were probably hot and heavy at the time with MCU's movie schedule triggering spikes in consumer interest. Far as I can tell, Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 is the real MVC3.

Captain Commando (Arcade, 1991)

 

It's Capcom's team captain from MVC1. Who? Yeah I'm wondering that too.

Try saying this 3 times really fast.

"CAPTAIN COMMANDO.

CAPTAIN COMMANDO.

CAPTAIN COMMANDO."

Marvel Vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (Arcade, 2000)

 

It's Marvel Vs Capcom 2, the sixth Marvel Vs Capcom game! Well, it's safe to say this is the best of the lot by a mile. It's like the first five all Megazord-Combined and formed this one. It's got everything the others had, all thrown together in a big tornado of craziness. Like getting all of your favorite significant others from the past together for a big party on a waterbed, which is what I'm personally hoping for in the afterlife.

As for the game, this is it, the high point of the series. No more holding out on us. This one has everybody. Except Thor probably lol.

Watched the first trilogy of X-Men movies this week. They were all fun enough, and now I know who more of these characters are. I should have done that a few weeks ago before I played these. The X-Men are probably the most important superheroes, in the "it's okay to be different, you don't need to kill yourself" sense. Teenagers particularly need that sort of thing.

Best thing about the movies was Magneto, what a fantastic villain. Both he and Professor X make intelligence look cool...something else teenagers in particular needed to see more of. When I was in high school it was generally a requirement to "dumb yourself down" or hide intelligence. Being smart was NOT cool at the time. I used the word "theoretically" in class one time and it prompted guys acting like that was some sort of big word for the rest of the semester and saying stuff like "THEORETICALLY, DA FUMIGATOR OF DA PROPAGATOR" when I'd walk by. Well, at least none of them tried to stab me, that was some other guy.

And now... the Cheetamen.

Marvel Vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (Arcade, 1998)

 

Time for the fifth game in the series, Marvel Vs Capcom 1. This is where these games went mainstream as Capcom took things up to the next level. They're still holding out on the roster, though. Who cares though, we finally have MEGAMAN. This post is gonna be ALL MEGAMAN ALL THE TIME.

What's really weird is that Thor isn't playable in this OR the sequel. I hope he at least shows up in MVC3. Getting a feeling that, Avenger (and actual deity) or not, Thor wasn't actually a huge deal in the Marvel-verse until the 2010's MCU.

Marvel Super Heroes Vs Street Fighter (Arcade, 1997)

 

It kinda feels like they were holding out on us with the previous game. This one goes beyond the confines of X-Men and delivers a more stacked roster. I kinda think of it like the X-Men couldn't take on the World Warriors in the previous game, so they brought in other Marvel reinforcements to regain the upper hand here.

This would then prompt the 'Warriors to go and get more forces from the Capcom contingent for the next game to even things out again. They see Marvel's Hulk and raise him...Servbots or some shit! In the meantime, here's the sequel to Marvel Super Heroes. It's the 4th game in the series and it's the sequel to the second, but also the third.

X-Men Vs Street Fighter (Arcade, 1996)

 

The third game in the eight-game (eventually) MVC series, we finally get some company crossover starting now. It's the X-Men battling the World Warriors, though people would have to wait a bit longer to get the rest of Marvel onboard. Dammit, we had Hulk for ONE GAME and they've taken him away again!

The big innovation for this game is that it gives us tag team battles; you control a team of two characters and can switch between them. First player to lose both their characters loses the fight (one round). I really like the tag mechanic in fighting games; it varies things up when you can tag another character in and out.

S.C.A.T.: Special Cybernetic Attack Team (NES, 1991)

     

A jetpack-based shoot 'em up with an absolutely terrible name, this one has been on my radar for about 30 years. Seriously though, this has to be the worst-named game in the entire NES library. It's a pretty solid Natsume game, though, and deserves a bit of recognition.

Bad Dudes (NES, 1989)

Caution: Reading about the patriotic super-duo of BAD DUDES may cause spontaneous and uncontrollable arousal in women.

Originally posted in 2013, now it's back

The Art of Mana

This book launched in 2020 for around $40 USD (less on Amazon). Is it worth it? Let's jump into it.

Marvel Super Heroes (Arcade, 1995)

 

The second game in the MVC series steps things up. The first had the X-Men, while this has lots of Marvel characters in general. There's no Capcom yet, that would start with the third one. Of the ones I've played (at press time, half of the eight games in question), this is actually my favorite. More on why that is la...

...the hell is that purple thing?

X-Men: Children of the Atom (Arcade, 1994)

 

Another arcade game from the Marvel Vs Capcom Fighting Collection, this one's a fighter rather than a beat 'em up. I know very little about the X-Men except that they're mutants with super powers who other folks are afraid of, so they were all bound for tough lives until Professor Xavier took them under his wing and gave them purpose. Essentially turning their disabilities into super powers (as being different from everyone else IS a social disability, regardless of the context, and it's been well-documented by now that someone with say autism can potentially excel at life if steered in the right direction and able to find opportunities in the field that interests them... thus, being different can sometimes be turned into an advantage, and thus, the X-Men have a positive message behind them).

Pretty much all the other kids liked X-Men when I was a kid, so I heard about it all the time circa 1994. The advertisements for this game touted that it has five times the megabits of Street Fighter II, for smoother animation, so I've got high expectations. Also Psylocke is really, really hot. Let's go.

The Punisher (Arcade, 1993)

 

Another really good Capcom arcade beat 'em up, this one never got released in the U.S. back in the 90's. Eventually it got added to the Marvel Vs Capcom Fighting Collection as a bonus. It's the only non-fighting game on there. Not sure what to expect with this, but it has two-player co-op so that's what we're running.

This game is so violent, it's basically what my elementary school teachers thought ALL video games were back in 1993.

Magic Sword (Super NES, 1992)

(Originally posted July 2020; reposted to go with the Arcade version I just did)

Magic Sword is an arcade beat-em-up from early 90's Capcom. They went on to make other (better) medieval-themed beat-em-ups like Knights of the Round and King of Dragons, but this one was a good start. I played it in the arcade a couple times as a kid and it was fun, but I didn't get very far. The Super NES port is easier, so we'll see how I do.

The North American box art features a Big American Beefy Boi protecting a hot woman with his big American sword. That demon looks horrendous.