Remembering How Street Fighter Characters Were Revamped For The Marvel VS. Capcom Series

Way back when Capcom was still cool - I remembered some of the classic crossovers. Such was the Marvel vs. Capcom series which actually started with X-Men vs. Street Fighter followed up with Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 series, and Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite. So far, I hear MVCI sucks so I wonder if I should even buy it just to play as Megaman X and Zero? I thought about how characters from the Street Fighter series were revamped when they were brought over to the MVC universe. 

I remembered Street Fighter started adding Super Combos which were super moves that required at least ONE LEVEL of the super bar. They could be performed up to three levels while others were strictly Level 3 only. One level determined the strength of the Super. However, these Street Fighter characters that were added into the Marvel vs. Capcom non-canon universe were not given just aesthetic changes but a serious boost. Some projectiles were made bigger (but the same level of damage) such as hadoukens while other charge-based characters were no longer charge based characters. For example, M. Bison in the Marvel vs. Capcom series could easily fire his fireballs using a half-circle motion. However, other characters like Charlie still needed to charge a certain direction.

The big change happened with the Super Moves department. They were not only renamed as Hyper Combos but were given a huge boost. Not only were most super moves now easier to execute (for example, doing Bison's Psycho Crusher was as easy as QCF+3P/2P) but they were also that devastating. In fact, some projectile-based Super Moves of the Street Fighter characters are no longer just charged up projectiles. Instead, they have become BEAM projectiles. A good example is how Ryu's Shinkuu Hadouken is now a Kamehameha or Chun-Li's Kikosho becomes a damaging barrier. Others also had Ken do the Shoryuu Reppas instead of two or how these moves may not cause that much damage as Level 3 Supers but were easier to connect.

Why the soup-up? It's because they're facing characters stronger than themselves. For example, who can remember Cyclops' Mega Optic Blast from X-Men Children of the Atom or Ironman's full-screen Proton Cannon from Marvel Super Heroes? So, giving Ryu a Kamehameha-type Shinkuu Hadouken as well as beefing up other super moves gave a better advantage. The idea of combined Super Moves also would be idiotic if Ryu's Shinkuu Hadouken were just that powered-up projectile in contrast to a super beam. Cyclops' Mega Optic Blast combined with a beam-type Shinkuu Hadouken would put both Cyclops and Ryu at a perfect team. Sadly, MVCI no longer has the team-up attacks like the previous titles. So, it's really all about balancing as to why Street Fighter characters were made as cheesy as the Marvel characters.