How to Unlock Every Secret Character in Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics

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Easy Secret Characters Access

Unique And Clone Characters

Marvel Vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics has lots of hidden characters. The collection includes six beloved fighting games, along with a beat ’em up based on the Punisher. For all of the fighting games, you can quickly toggle on fast access to these special characters. This allows access to several powerful bosses, along with guest characters from other franchises. This includes Anita, the future vampire hunter from the Darkstalkers series.

Marvel Vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is a celebration of the cross-over franchise. Marvel has even included Bengus’ Marvel Vs Capcom 2 designs directly on issues. However, many players are also coming to the franchise for its more serious fighting mechanics. Resorting to using bosses and secret characters may seem unsporting to your opponents. Consider waiting for these cheats until playing with the main roster, or as a side actively when training solo.

Easy Secret Characters Access

EX Settings Allow For Quick Customization

When normally starting up Marvel Vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, no hidden characters can be used or even unlocked. Instead, you must open the Game Settings menu and then the EX Settings tab. Scroll down and toggle Secret Characters to Easy.

You will have to do this individually for all six fighting games; The Punisher game has no additional characters outside of teaming with the deadly Nick Fury. In most cases, the characters will not be visible on screen. You will need to either scroll off the grid or hold certain inputs, depending on the title.

Game	Character	Menu Location
X-Men: Children of the Atom	Juggernaut	Above Cyclops
	Magneto	Above Omega Red
	Akuma	Above Wolverine
Marvel Super Heroes	Dr. Doom	Above Wolverine
	Thanos	Above Magneto
	Anita	Below Captain America
X-Men Vs Street Fighter	Akuma	Above Juggernaut
Marvel Super Heroes Vs Street Fighter	Norimaro	Visible Between Blackheart and Omega Red. Note: Only Accessible while playing in Japanese.
	Cyber Akuma	Hold Start when selecting Akuma
	US Agent	Hold Start when selecting M Bison
	Mecha Zangief	Hold Start when selecting Blackheart
	Armored Spider-Man	Hold Start when selecting Spider-Man
	Mephisto	Hold Start when selecting Omega Red
	Evil Sakura	Hold Start when selecting Hulk
	Shadow Charlie	Hold Start when selecting Dhalsim
Marvel Vs Capcom	Roll	Right of Mega Man
	Carnage	Above Chun-Li
	Red Hulk	Above Ryu
	Iron Man	Above Zangief
	Shadow Lady Chun-Li	Below Gambit
	Lilith	Below War Machine

Marvel Vs Capcom 2 does not have secret characters. However, you can still use the options menu to unlock all the normal characters right away. Instead of being named “Easy” for this game, it's labeled as “All Groups Enabled”. This will allow access to all characters like Jill from Resident Evil, Wolverine’s main rival Sabertooth, and many more.

In the past versions of Marvel Vs Capcom 2, you would have to acquire each character in a shop, using Points won via matches. Only three characters would appear at any given time, and any one of the slots could be “Sold Out”. This required lots of grinding and resetting your console. I found this system extremely tedious playing the game on Dreamcast back in 2000. Capcom’s modification to allow quick access is well appreciated.

Unique And Clone Characters

Only Some Secret Characters Have Their Own Moves

The vast majority of the secret characters are really just pallet swaps of existing fighters. Mephisto is just Blackheart but red, while Lilith is a clone of Morrigan. Others are given additional moves or buffs.

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YouTuber AcidGlow fully laid out the special properties of the hidden characters. Some, like Mecha Zangief and Armored Spider-Man, have added protection, making it harder to be stunned or interrupted. Others, like Shadow Charlie and Shadow Lady Chun-Li can launch projectiles that their standard counterparts can not.

You should not expect to play the secret characters full-time. Opponents in real life and online may view them as cheap or gimmick characters. If you want to play Marvel Vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics seriously, always train with the main cast first.

Easy access will allow you to play as bosses such as Magneto, Thanos, and Akuma. While they are unique characters, their status as computer-controlled enemies often means that they are extremely imbalanced. For fully fresh and not overpowered characters, there is Roll, Norimaro, and Anita. If you are unfamiliar with them, you can access their move list just like the standard rosters in Marvel Vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics.

Source: AcidGlow/YouTube