We would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for the meetings that made the Marvel vs. Capcom series possible, but we do know there were challenges between the companies communicating over the ocean in the ’90s.
While Capcom certainly did its best to stay true to the comics source material (or make the Marvel characters even more iconic in some cases), it’s not surprising to hear there were some mistakes made along the way too.
The preservation of the secret Marvel vs. Capcom website from 1998 has provided a real treasure trove of inside information about the game that had likely once thought to have been lost.
These special pages contained a Producer’s Essay portion written by Kenji Kataoka for the development of the first MvC title, which featured a ton of stories dating back nearly 30 years.
We’ve already covered most of its contents including Capcom’s want to use Howard the Duck, how the Fantastic Four and more were rejected, and a group of characters Marvel demanded be included, but there’s still a bit we haven’t touched upon.
One such story in particular is connected to the final boss of the first Marvel vs. Capcom, Onslaught.
The controversial X-Men villain, who is the amalgamation of Magneto and Professor Xavier, was not on Marvel’s radar at first to be the pick for their fighting game.
“‘So, what about Fin Fang Foom? He’s big, and he’s a dragon’, said Marvel. I don’t know if they were aware that I had worked on Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara, but to me it was an enticing proposition. (If you know it, again you’d be quite the connoisseur).
“‘But for Japanese people, sure we know of dragons… But just having ‘a dragon’ doesn’t feel that exciting.’
“So then Marvel said ‘Don’t worry, in the world of Iron Man he’s famous. He’s his biggest boss enemy.’
“I went ‘………..’
“I totally understand what you’re saying, but when we asked you if we could use Iron Man you said no, you did that just now. Why can’t the main character Iron Man be in, but his boss can?
“As I tried to constrain myself from saying this, I said ‘Onslaught’… I knew it’d be rejected as I said it, but Marvel were silent. At this point, I was desperate. I’d just keep throwing out famous names until I got one to stick!!
“‘Carnage!!’
“… We looked at each other… We turned our heads to each other.
These were the only two names I could think of at the time.
“We left Los Angeles with a feeling of ambiguity over where we’d ended up. So, time to talk to the team about the results.
“Onslaught really does fit as the last boss. A boss that exceeds Apocalypse, there’s only Onslaught for that. He makes you think ‘whoa…’, he’s strong, he’s cool, he has style…
“I asked Shaky Akitomo if he could do another petition and ask Marvel for Onslaught. And then, the answer came. ‘We’ll think about it.’
“Oh, did we actually find a loose thread to pull on? And then, several weeks passed.
“Unbelievably, ‘OK’ came back as a response…
“They sent us reference materials. You’re amazing, Marvel. And so, the Marvel side characters had been decided.”
And so the development team moved forward with Onslaught, but it seems the Capcom side made a small error with him.
But it was a mistake apparently so small that not even Marvel noticed.
“Another story from another day.
“One of our character designers told me ‘We’re already passed the deadline, so I’m going to say this… we actually put the wrong color on one part of Onslaught’s legs. It’s supposed to be purple.’
“‘W– WHAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?!?’
“‘However, when Marvel checked it, they didn’t say anything, so… If it’s so small that Marvel aren’t bothered by it, then surely it won’t be noticed by our players either?’
“‘Well, that’s… Probably true…’
“The peaceful days continue. I wish from the bottom of my heart that these peaceful days will continue on…
“Warning: Don’t compare our game to the American Onslaught comic that’s been published here in Japan by Shogakukan Production. However, if you buy the comic and read it before playing the game your fun level will increase twofold or even fourfold!!”
When looking at the comic Onslaught next to MvC’s Onslaught, we’re having a hard time ourselves seeing where the “mistake” is.
It could be that the boss was missing part of the purple armor coming off of his waist or the red accents on the mechanical boots.
Or perhaps it’s that there is no purple around Onslaught’s waist in his final and even larger form.
Either way, thinking about the Capcom developers panicking a bit because they missed / changed one detail is pretty funny.
And how all of that apparently amounted to nothing since no one outside the office seems to have never really noticed or cared that Onslaught was slightly different in the game.
Source: Event Hubs
