Friday marked the official release of physical Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection copies to the public, and to commemorate, PlayStation has rolled out a special interview video with three of the project’s key developers: Marvel Games’ Brian Marquez (Product Development) and Capcom’s Shuhei Matsumoto (Producer) and Hiroyuki Nara (Designer).
The trio offer commentary on a breadth of topics concerning the nostalgic bundle, but hone in on one particular character to tell the tale of how challenging he was for Capcom’s staff to animate. It’s a good thing they took the time to figure out the right approach, as this character would wind up being one of their most iconic.
Designer Nara spearheads this subject of the interview as he recalls some of the unique struggles the Capcom animation team faced when creating Marvel character Venom.
This Spider-Man adversary is one of the most beloved characters in the comic book world as he retains many of Spidey’s powers, but does so via the use of a symbiote alien that engulfs muscular host Eddie Brock in what amounts to a suit.
This suit lives and breathes right along with Eddie, and while much of their movements are in unison, there are plenty of animations that see the pair detach in partial ways. When Venom takes damage, for example, the suit often wigs out as if being shocked or trying to temporarily detach from its host.
On top of this, Venom has a trademark white spider logo across his chest and back, and Nara recalls how difficult it was for the team to illustrate and then animate this in a way where it wouldn’t look distorted. Of the many characters that would be in the Versus series, Venom took special attention from the entire team.
“At the time, a lof people on the development floor had a Venom action figure on their desks,” he explains. “…So everyone knew the figure and understood what we had to aim for. That made things stressful when it came to create the character,” said Nara.
There’s a bit more to the Venom story, and plenty more as the developers answer questions for a full 10 minutes in the full video below. Give it a watch and let us know if you’re enjoying the Marvel vs. Capcom: Fighting Collection now that it’s out for both physical and digital release.