Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes

Iterating gameplay is a crucial part of the videogame design process to streamline the strong elements and improve the weaker, especially important for competitive genres where devs balance thousands of different aspects to make it fair. But with a game’s subsequent releases, a developer risks changing the base structure too much and making it unrecognizable. For a legendary game like Street Fighter II, which established fighting game’s rock/paper/scissors blueprint, balancing new ideas is incredibly challenging, even for a game notorious for its many revisions. The smart move would be to start with a fresh series to safely experiment with new gameplay, powered by new tech. In the mid 1990’s, Capcom branched out, resulting in more than a dozen games that would not only establish All-Star and Tag-Team fighting games, but create a new standard for a combat system’s actions-per-minute. These games would cultivate a lightning-fast subgenre that captured the spirit of Shōnen anime, complete with fast combat, air combos, and glorious super moves, with the beloved Marvel vs Capcom series its star.