Middle Age Punk's Top Ten Capcom Fighting Games

VOL 3 ISSUE 022 20.06.2025

NOTE: It's summer here in Prague, and maybe it is where you are as well, so if the kids get a summer break, why shouldn't I? Middle Age Punk is on summer break, set to return the 29th of August. If'n you're interested, you can follow me on Substack's social media tumor, or the empty expanse of Bluesky for my daily fighting game character sketches. Next week I'll be putting my spin on the Guilty Gear franchise of weirdos.

JUST WHAT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR

In case you don't wander around the FGC, that stands for "Fighting Game Community," the collective name containing the loose assortment of fighting game enthusiasts and professional gamers, you likely missed Maximillian Dood's recent video ranking his top ten personal favorite Capcom fighting games.

I was going to scribe a lengthy diatribe about the current FGC hot-button issue, (no pun intended, or maybe it was...) the sudden take over of fighting game moves being reduced to simple, single button operations instead of the longstanding, classic, motion inputs, but in the end I didn't really care to pull enough thought from my already feeble brain to try and make a cogent point about something I really don't care about when all is said and done. Plus, my mind is already in vacation mode and making my own list of my favorite ten Capcom fighters is waaaaaaaaaaay easier, and more fun for me. Easy and fun, what am I talking about, your mom? Hi-oh!

So without further adieu:

10: X-Men Vs Street Fighter
As a comic book loving teenaged nerd, the closest thing I had to a "Marvel Cinematic Shared Universe" was Capcom fighting games. X-Men Vs Street Fighter was the first time, at least as far as I knew, that Marvel and Capcom crossed over, leaving me to wonder why we weren't doing this all along. It was astronomically amazing in 1996, and honestly, still is.

9: Marvel Vs Capcom
A scant few years after X-Men Vs Street Fighter, the crazy crossover synergy continued with Marvel Vs Capcom, now expanding each roster to include characters from all of Marvel's comics, and Capcom's gaming lineage, but the real selling point of this game was that Venom was a playable character in this one. That's all you had to fucking say, Capcom.

8: X-Men: Children of the Atom
The first time Capcom took on Marvel Comics in fighting game form was in 1994, at the peak of X-Men mania. I vividly remember walking into the local sports card store that also served as a little arcade and seeing this machine. I couldn't fucking believe my youthful eyes (I could still see clearly then): an X-Men fighting game? From the company that made Street Fighter? Sheer bliss.

7: Pocket Fighter
I think this is one of the most underrated Capcom fighters. It's not all that complex, or technical, or challenging, as far as fighting games go, but what it lacks in depth it more than makes up in charm. It's pixel art, chibi styled art and presentation just oozes with personality in what is essentially an open love letter from Capcom to Capcom fighting games. I could spend days just looking at the art, pouring over the stage designs, and looking for all the little nods and winks hidden within to all the best Capcom games. It's a work of art, never let anybody tell you it's not.

6: Marvel Super Heroes
While X-Men: Children of the Atom was undoubtedly rad, soon after it's arcade release, Capcom set it's sight on the expanded Marvel universe and dropped Marvel Super Heroes. The added benefit of this game, for me at least, was that it was one of the games my circle of teenaged skateboarding punks had on the original Playstation, and since we were also screaming nerds, we played this game endlessly, for days on end, long into the night and the dawning mornings, hopped up on sugary beverages and nacho cheesed tortilla chips. Those are some of my fondest youthful memories of fighting games, and to this day, my favorite take on any or the Marvel super heroes.

5: Street Fighter II
I mean, it's the game that ushered in the fighting game craze, and the first fighting game I ever played, hidden away in the darkened back corner of a Circle K convenience store. My personal favorite iteration of Street Fighter II is "The New Challengers" where T. Hawk, Dee Jay, Fei Long, and Cammy were introduced, because adding four characters to a game in the early 90's was akin to your favorite movie getting a sequel, but mostly because it was the version I had at home on Super Nintendo. You can't beat convenience.

4: Street Fighter VI
The current version of Street Fighter. The one that I first took the plunge into actually trying to "get good" at, overcoming my fear of getting my ass kicked online, and the one that exposed me wholly to the larger FGC, as well as getting my cranky, unsocial ass out of the house to meet absolute strangers in public to play the game with, leading to finding like-minded companions in a country I can hardly speak the language of, and ultimately, me competing in my first fighting game tournament (which I placed 17th in, thank you very fucking much).

3: Street Fighter III: Third Strike
My good friend, and fellow fighting game enthusiast shared this meme with me recently:

It can't even be argued with. Despite my younger selfs original disdain for the Street Fighter III series, what with it ditching all of the main Street Fighter II roster save Ken, Ryu, and Chun-Li, for a gaggle of fucking weirdos, over the past two decades since it's release, it's more than come to grow on me. It's larger held up as the greatest fighting game of all time, and I doubt you'll find any other fighting game fan of a certain age who wouldn't claim so as well. It's only number three on my list because of personal tastes.

It’s also responsible for the hypest competitive moment of ever.

2: Vampire Savior: The Lord of the Vampire (Darkstalkers 3)
Goddamn, stumbling on the arcade of the first Darkstalkers game in my youth was like a fucking awakening. A fighting game full of horror movie monster tropes, blazing around the screen, in vivid anime style and color. This was whatever I thought I needed most in my life then. It had an impact on me creatively on the same level as seeing Star Wars for the first time, or flipping through my very first Marvel Comic. I knew art when I saw it. Capcom would go on to perfect the series with the third installment which has become my preferred version. It's insane wackiness and ludicrous Looney Tunes presentation is pretty much as peak as it gets for me and fighting games.

1: Street Fighter Alpha 3
As much as I loved the original Street Fighter II series in the 90's, I didn't even know that what I needed was an faster, anime inspired prequel series, which Capcom happily provided me with in the Street Fighter Alpha series. Much like the previously mentioned Marvel Superheroes, Street Fighter Alpha 3 was available on the Playstation, so of course, it quickly became the de facto fighting game for me and my friends. Not only was it's quick paced, beautifully animated presentation addicting as fuck, it had on the console version a mode called "World Tour" where you could pick from any of the amazing roster, and battle your way across the world, leveling up your preferred character, then save that super powered bad ass version and use them to fight your unsuspecting friends. To this day, through all the iterations of Street Fighter, these are my favorite versions of the characters. It's pure fighting game perfection on all fronts: design, play, party pleasing, content, just, muah, chef's kiss.

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WHAT I'M LISTENING TO THIS WEEK

Metallica - "Load (Remastered)"
My hot boomer heavy metal take is that Load is Metallica's best album. Or at least it's my favorite. The new remaster sounds rad, even if I can't tell the difference between it and the original release, but whatevs, it's good excuse to listen to it again.

Sigh - "I Saw The World's End (Hangman's Hymn MMXXV Rerecorded)"
Speaking of old things getting a fresh paint of coat, if you like weirdo, wild, avant-garde, Japanese extreme metal, nobody does it better than Sigh, and they just rerecorded one of their wildest albums.

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LYRICS OF THE WEEK

I can bring the type of vibe to the party that nobody likes and I make everybody sad

Viagra Boys - "You N33D Me"