No matter how iconic a video game or series is, there’s going to be plenty of characters, ideas, and content that never gets to see the light of day in the final releases — though there may still be traces left behind to uncover.
Marvel vs. Capcom is certainly no exception with its 30-year history and plenty of cut content across the franchise that most fans have never seen or heard about before.
Khanage just released a new video taking a look at said the cut content in said Marvel fighting games as a follow-up to his Street Fighter 3 scrapped ideas we previously looked at.
Things of course go all the way back to the very beginning with X-Men: Children of the Atom where there appears to be some leftovers of an unused idea where the player could choose to join Magneto or reject him at the end of the Arcade Mode run.
Colossus has a sprite painting a portrait of the X-Men if he stays with Professor X, but there’s also unused dialogue appearing to show what happens if he abandons them.
Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter has a lot more changes that have been uncovered including the initial test footage of joke character Norimaro playing a good bit different than the final Japanese release — though he is in the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection too.
That includes an apparent “kancho” throw where Norimaro would shove his fingers into the opponent’s rear end like the Japanese prank, but Marvel may not have been a big fan of that one.
What’s perhaps most interesting is Capcom may have been working on a prototype of Karin since a sprite can be found in the files showcasing what looks to be Kanzuki’s head on Sakura’s body before her debut in Street Fighter Alpha 3.
As for the first actual Marvel vs. Capcom, they apparently worked on a cartoon version of the game’s planner Atsushi “Tomichin” Tomita, who looks almost like a Muppet and could punch with his nose.
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 doesn’t have a ton that’s been discovered aside from some alternate design ideas for Amingo, changes to how the unlocks worked and a note on how air combos were originally aerial raves in Japan — which is a term that would carry over to Devil May Cry.
And then there’s of course Marvel vs. Capcom 3 where Doctor Octopus was famously cut from the roster, and modders were able to recover some of his files including his character portrait just last year..
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 had its own slew of characters that never made it in though not all of them were actively worked on either past the idea phase.
We highly recommend checking out Khanage’s new video below to learn and see a lot more about Marvel vs. Capcom that normally goes unseen to players.