Capcom’s Vs. series used to be one of the biggest fighting game franchises but all it took was one huge misstep to seemingly kill its illustrious lineage. That game was Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. This was a game that soured a lot of fans of the series not because the game was terrible; fans almost immediately dismissed the game for the simple reason that it didn’t include the X-Men, one of Marvel’s most popular group. But there are rumors floating around that an updated version of the game, aptly called Uncanny Edition, is currently in development and will, allegedly, include Marvel’s family of mutants. And the addition these character would be enough to revive the game as well as the franchise from the grave.
Now, it may sound silly that just putting in the X-Men in a fighting game would substantially make the game better. In order to understand why, you have to understand the franchise’s history and its roots.
I still remember when Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite was first announced over a year ago. There was a general feeling within the fighting game community that there was no way another entry in the Marvel vs. Capcom franchise was possible as Capcom lost the license to use Marvel characters in their games. The impossible still managed to happen during the PlayStation Experience of 2016 as it was even the very first game they showed and fans were hyped, to say the least.
Yet, here were are now, more than a year after the trailer was revealed and I can safely say that the game is dead. Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite was a huge disappointment for various reasons. While it isn’t a bad game, it controls really good and the actual gameplay is fun and energetic, this wasn’t the “next evolution” of the franchise. To some fans, like myself, MvC: I was a step down from the previous frantic action from Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Gone was the 3-vs-3 combat from the previous couple of entries, with the Infinity Stones granting characters with a special ability and power. The eye-popping colorful graphics from UMvC3 were replaced with rather bland textures and stiff animations.
But the worst sin MvC: I committed was the limited roster. More specifically, the omission of the X-Men from the game’s cast of selectable characters. This did not sit well with fans as the X-Men were basically the reason why we have the Vs. series in the first place when Capcom’s X-Men: Children of the Atom was released in arcades over 2 decades ago! This meant mainstays like Wolverine, Magneto and Storm, characters who were incredibly popular thanks to being included in the roster early on, we being cut out for people like Gamora and Ultron, relative unknowns in the Vs. games but characters that were featured in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The prominence of Marvel Cinematic Universe characters in MvC:I help fuel the rumors that the game doesn’t have any X-Men or Fantastic Four characters is because Disney and Marvel generally refused to give Capcom the license to them as 20th Century Fox hold the movie rights to those Marvel properties. This may seem like a silly reason for a lot of people because why would any company intentionally sabotage the quality of something that will potentially make them a ton of money? There is a certain twisted logic to the argument in that Disney has been looking for a way to get those Marvel characters away from 20th Century Fox and, if the proposed Disney buyout of the movie studio pushes through, they’ll get what they want.
This leads us to the current rumor regarding Capcom working on the Uncanny Edition of MvC:I. The story goes that Disney went to Capcom to make a new game in order to promote next year’s Avengers film. Capcom only agreed to it if they have control over the roster and they wanted to ensure the X-Men would be allowed. Rumored X-Men characters to be included to Uncanny Edition would be former mainstays like Wolverine, Magneto and Storm as well as a couple of Fantastic Four characters such as Dr. Doom and Super Skrull.
As much as I would like this rumor to be true, the story just doesn’t hold water. There are just too many holes in it to be believable. For one thing, Uncanny Edition is supposed to have both a higher budget as well as a longer lead-in development time. This doesn’t make a whole lot of sense as its supposed to be an add-on to the current MvC:I. Why would something described to be essentially a glorified DLC pack have a much longer development time than the base game? Another thing about the story that doesn’t make sense is that this is supposed to be a tie-in to the next Avengers film? If that’s the case, it doesn’t make sense to add other Marvel characters that have no links to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which does include the X-Men.
There’s also a little thing of this thing already being spread during the time when Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was a huge hit. Its version of Uncanny Edition wasn’t as ambitious as this rumor as it would’ve only included a handful of characters, including the most sought after Mega Man (original version). So the Uncanny Edition rumor of today is just a recycled rumor from 2012, which seriously hurts its credibility of being real.
So, as much as I would want this to be true so that we can have the X-Men return to the Marvel vs. Capcom fold, I’m pretty sure this rumor is what it is not true. With that being said, that doesn’t mean it can’t be true in the future. The main reason why the rumor has gained so much traction is because it’s something that everyone who played Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite would like to happen. The exclusion of the X-Men was a big letdown and it pretty much soured the games in the eyes of so many fans. It didn’t matter that MvC:I does have solid gameplay and/or uninspired graphics; the loss of the X-Men roster definitely hurt sales. Heck, we’d even go as far as saying that Uncanny Edition should’ve been what the game was from the very beginning!
There is currently a large clamor for the rumored Uncanny Edition so that the X-Men can return to the franchise that they started all those years ago. While this is all an unsubstantiated rumor as of now and it probably isn’t true, I do hope that Marvel, Disney and Capcom are listening because they are just sitting on a potential goldmine. All they have to do is swallow their pride and admit that it was a mistake of leaving the X-Men out of a Vs. game and do the right thing.
