The arcade cabinets from Arcade1Up have consistently combined nostalgic gaming experiences and faithful recreations in affordable packages, as well as their release of beloved video games including NBA JAM, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Mortal Kombat. Fans were excited to learn about the new installments to the Arcade1Up lineup coming soon, especially the reveal of the X-Men vs. Street FighterandMarvel vs. Capcom cabinets that boast a strong lineup of fan-favorite crossover titles from the developer. While both cabinets will feature the two aforementioned titles, they’ll also have their own unique offerings to cater to the X-Men fans and the wider Marvel fans.
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ComicBook.com caught up with David McIntosh, the marketing director for parent company Tastemakers LLC, and managed to learn some new details about the upcoming release of Marvel vs. Capcom and X-Men vs. Street Fighter, which are on track to be released this holiday season.
When asked about changes to any of the games, McIntosh referenced the forthcoming NBA JAM cabinet that will feature WiFi connectivity to allow players to connect with other players across the world.
“If you use NBA JAM as a point of reference, we’ve been really working on some development to make these games a lot more immersive, as well as sharing the arcade experience outside of just your home,” McIntosh teased. “So I’ll leave it at that, but we definitely have a few tricks up our sleeve still. Closer to presale, we’ll be releasing that information.”
So while Arcade1Up stopped shy of confirming WiFi capabilities for their release of X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom, it sounds like it could be a major possibility for the new cabinets.
Both products will also feature SNES exclusives in the form of classic Beat-‘Em-Up games X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse and Marvel Super Heroes In War of the Gems. These single player offerings were included to help flesh out the storyline that began in X-Men: Children of the Atom, making these cabinets a cohesive narrative experience as well.
“Interestingly, our contact, our head of licensing [John Diamonon] came from Capcom. He’d been there for 11 years, so he worked on a lot of the Marvel vs. Capcom storyline in a lot of the games surrounding those titles, as well as just a lot of the modern version of those titles,” McIntosh explained. “So for us, it’s the first time we’ve added a console game to one of our Arcade1Up machines, as you mentioned from the SNES console. For us, it was just about capturing the whole storyline between the Marvel vs. Capcom universe. It really completes the story, but also closes the gap for any missing detail, as well as we just thought it was relevant fit.”
He added, “We could’ve released a game without the title. We thought it was a strong enough cabinet. We didn’t add it in as filler by any means. It was more so just completing the storyline for us. So, we are really excited and we think it’ll fit right into the existing titles on there.”
McIntosh said that pre-orders would be made available in the coming weeks, with expectations to ship the cabinets in time for the holiday season.
Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for more details about Arcade1Up’s latest products, as well as more from our conversation with McIntosh.
