X-Men vs. Street Fighter is an arcade game released by Capcom in 1996 and is the first game in the Marvel vs. Capcom series. It features the mutants from Marvel Comics' X-Men franchise and the world warriors from Super Street Fighter II Turbo in their Street Fighter Alpha 2 incarnations as well as Charlie Nash from the Alpha series.
It was the first game to blend a tag team style of combat with the well-known Street Fighter gameplay, as well as incorporating elements from Capcom's previous fighting games in the Marvel Comics franchise, X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes. It was also ported to the Sega Saturn in 1997 and the Sony PlayStation in 1998. However, the tag team system was omitted from the PlayStation version due to memory limitations.
Gameplay[]
X-Men vs. Street Fighter uses a system similar to the style developed in Marvel Super Heroes, and adds the tag team gameplay feature. Instead of the usual best-two-out-of-three round format, the game's matches consist of two-on-two battles between tag teams. The player controls one character at a time, while the other awaits off-screen. The starting character can tag the waiting one in at any time by hitting the Hard Punch and Hard Kick buttons, which activates the "Variable Attack"; the tag partner will jump in with an attack and taunt briefly. During their taunt, they are vulnerable to counterattack. The dormant character will able to recover a portion of their vitality, while the current character is fighting. If one character loses all of their vitality, then the tag partner will automatically come to play. A match is over when both members of a team are defeated.
There are other ways to bring the character's partner in; the "Variable Counter", which replaces the Infinity Counter of Marvel Super Heroes, breaks the player's guard to bring the teammate in with a counterattack at the cost of a level of super meter. Also, the "Variable Combination" is a two-character Hyper Combo (the super moves featured in the game) which costs two levels, and will switch the player's current character as long as neither character gets hit during their Hyper Combos.
The X-Men characters come largely unchanged from X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes, with the exception of Rogue, Gambit, and Sabretooth, who are new to the series. The Street Fighter characters uses their Street Fighter Alpha 2 forms and their moves were given upgrades to match the larger-than-life atmosphere of the Marvel games; for example, Ryu's Hadouken is much larger than it is in other games. This game marks the first appearance of "Shadaloo" depiction of Cammy, who would reappear in the console versions of Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold, as well as in Street Fighter Alpha 3.
Characters[]
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Boss character[]
| Sprite | Character | Summary |
|---|---|---|
 |
Apocalypse | Apocalypse is the final boss of the game, and thus lacks a tag partner. After defeating him, the character that defeated Apocalypse is forced to fight his or her teammate. Once the CPU-controlled teammate is defeated, the game will show the player-controlled character's ending. |
Versions[]
X-Men vs. Street Fighter Sega Saturn Japanese cover.
Version 1 (960909 in Japan, 960910 outside of Japan)[]
- Ryu and Akuma are able to recover from their hop kick in midair.
- Ryu's Hurricane Super will push the opposing player down, allowing the player to recover.
Version 2 (961004)[]
This is the most common version that can be found in arcades.
- Ryu and Akuma can not recover from their hop kick.
- Ryu's Hurricane Super pushes the opposing player up rather than down.
- Sabretooth's Jumping Infinite is now a bit more difficult to time.
- Dhalsim is no longer able to do a Yoga Drill the instant he leaves the floor. He actually has to jump a small distance before the Drill will come out.
Version 3 (961023)[]
Capcom released this version in an attempt to remove all the Infinites they knew of.
- Storm cannot use her Lightning Attack multiple times without landing between attacks.
- Cyclops' aerial Fierce and Juggernaut's aerial Fierce and Roundhouse pushes the player straight down.
- Wolverine's Drill Claw does not throw the opposing player across the screen.
- Storm's Lightning Attack no longer causes enemies to fall on their backs, so she cannot hit enemies with all three hits one at a time (separately), thus eliminating her Lightning Attack Infinite.
- Storm's Jumping Fierce, when used as an Air Combo Finisher, knocks her opponents in more of a downward arc rather than an outward arc, making her repeating Fierce-Roundhouse Air Combo currently impossible (though an equally effective alternate combo exists).
- Magneto can no longer throw the enemy upwards with his kick throws, preventing him from Air Throwing the enemy upwards and then Hyper Graving them on their way down.
- Chun-Li's recovery period from her Senretsu Kyaku is no longer invincible (she can be hit during her delay, whereas before, everything would go right through her).
- Dhalsim's Drills all now have a half second delay before they come out after the button is pushed. This delay was enough to eliminate his Drill Infinite Combo.
- Dhalsim's Teleport Recovery is no longer vulnerable at the end, preventing all of the Dhalsim-only Combos from occurring.
Home versions[]
North American cover of the PlayStation version of X-Men vs. Street Fighter.
X-Men vs. Street Fighter was ported to the Sega Saturn in 1997 and the Sony PlayStation in 1998.
For the Saturn version, the game required a 4 MB RAM cart which was packed with the game. This version is a 100% perfect arcade translation and retains all of the arcade's animation. Although only a Japanese version was released due to Sega's decision to discontinue support for the Saturn in North America and Europe, the Japanese version was one of the first import Saturn games sold by Electronics Boutique and other mainstream video game stores in North America.
For the PlayStation version, because of the PS1's poor sprite capabilities, as well as low system RAM, this version had to make sacrifices for the game to work on the PS1. Notable absences include several frames of animation being cut, slow gameplay, and the game's key feature, "true" tag-team gameplay, was removed, though a limited version of this appears via a code.
Reception[]
The PlayStation port of the game did not receive particularly favorable reviews, earning a "passable" 6.0 at IGN and a 3.6 at GameSpot. The Saturn version received better reviews, getting a 7.4 review at GameSpot.
Gallery[]
Promotional Art and Packaging[]
Official Art[]
- To view all official character artwork, see: Official Art.
Video[]
External links[]
- Wikipedia article
- Marvel Database article
- Marvel vs. Capcom wikia article
- Capcom Database article
- Sega Retro article