The Marvel vs. Capcom franchise is well known for its wild and crazy gameplay, but some people were surprised to hear that the developers once considered letting 6 players compete at once in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, but decided against it because of networking concerns.
The thing is, there’s actually some precedent for Capcom including such a mode that has everyone on-screen at one time, as they’ve done so previously in some of their major fighting games, and netcode has vastly improved since the February 2011 release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
In terms of Capcom fighting games, the first place many people saw this feature was in 1995 with Street Fighter Alpha, where two players controlling Ryu and Ken could take on M. Bison, which was a call back to the animated movie that had come out the prior year.
This feature would once again return in Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold, and Street Fighter Alpha 3, but in all of these instances, this mode involved a CPU controlled opponent battling against two human players.
However, in 2012, Street Fighter X Tekken had a Scramble Mode included in the game, which let 4 people play at one time. Fast forward more than a decade later, and you’d assume that with technology and netcode advances, Capcom’s ability to do a 6 fighter on-screen battle at once would be possible — but potentially need some additional system mechanics to make it all work.
There are concerns, especially with the over the top gameplay in the Marvel vs. Capcom series, that such a mode may make it extremely difficult to keep up with the action, and the gameplay screen might need to be zoomed out, and how the camera follows the characters may also need to change a bit.
Also, it might be possible to lock down the opposition with a flurry of offensive moves, so it’s possible a new defensive mechanic that allows players to evade pressure may also be in order, outside of pushblocking.
It’s also possible this mode would only allow two people to control the on-screen action at one time, so the other players would have to wait their turns or be tagged in. This would be less of a Scramble/Dramatic Battle at that point, and would play much more like a traditional Marvel vs. Capcom title, but with some added flair.
The bottom line is that the Marvel vs. Capcom franchise is well known for its unorthodox and crazy gameplay, so a feature like this making its debut in the next Marvel game could be a reality.
After all, it’s not uncommon for Capcom to revisit previously cut features or characters and add them into the next game.
While a new Marvel vs. Capcom game hasn’t been announced yet, the recent sales boost may mean it’s only a matter of time before we hear about the next entry in this outstanding series.
Source: Event Hubs