40 Fun Facts About X-Men Vs. Street Fighter

Which hidden fighter is chosen by pressing up from the top row of X-Men vs. Street Fighter's character select screen?

Akuma needs no code here, just an upward press, because his select box sits out of sight above the roster. He had already been a secret guest in Capcom's 1994 X-Men fighter.

In X-Men vs. Street Fighter, what does Rogue's Power Drain let her do to the opponent she catches?

Rogue can steal one of their moves, as in the comics: drain Cyclops and she fires an Optic Blast, drain Zangief and she gets his piledriver.

Which Street Fighter II hero misses X-Men vs. Street Fighter, leaving his Air Force comrade to throw the Sonic Booms?

Guile sat this crossover out, and the fellow officer whose death he sets out to avenge in Street Fighter II took the roster spot instead.

Which X-Men villain is the final boss of X-Men vs. Street Fighter, attacking with a giant fist that becomes a drill?

Apocalypse towers over the stage as a giant, so fighters have to leave the ground to reach his weakest point, his head.

The X-Men sprites and voices in X-Men vs. Street Fighter were modelled on which 1990s version of the team?

The animated TV series set the look, and Capcom brought in its original voice actors too. Only three of the eight X-Men fighters needed newly drawn sprites.

Whose Hadouken was super-sized for X-Men vs. Street Fighter into a beam that fills the entire screen?

Ryu got the upgrade so the martial artists could keep pace with superheroes, while Ken's fireball in the same game stays its usual size.

Which final boss of Capcom's first X-Men fighting game is selectable from the start in X-Men vs. Street Fighter?

Magneto ended the 1994 game as an unplayable boss, and here the computer always pairs him with M. Bison as the last team before the real boss.

Which X-Men vs. Street Fighter character can be chosen in a Street Fighter Alpha jumpsuit instead of a classic outfit?

Chun-Li defaults to her Street Fighter II outfit, even though most of the Capcom cast's sprites were lifted from Street Fighter Alpha 2.

In X-Men vs. Street Fighter, what happens to a tagged-out fighter while waiting off-screen for a partner?

Slowly regains some vitality is the reward for resting, though only part of what was lost comes back, so a well-timed swap is as much defence as attack.

Which mutant unleashes the Berserker Barrage X as a Hyper Combo in X-Men vs. Street Fighter?

Wolverine's Berserker Barrage X is the super version of his regular Berserker Barrage, and his arch-enemy on the roster has a near-namesake, the Berserker Claw X.

Besides Rogue and Sabretooth, which mutant needed brand-new sprites for X-Men vs. Street Fighter?

Gambit had never been in a Capcom fighter, so his card-throwing sprites were new, while the other mutants were carried over from the 1994 game.

Whose new look in X-Men vs. Street Fighter was reused for a hidden character in Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold?

Cammy appears here in her earlier days working for M. Bison, before the amnesia and the British special forces unit of Street Fighter II.

Whose X-Men vs. Street Fighter ending has him captured, leading to his return as the hidden Shadow in the sequel?

Charlie is seized by M. Bison and experimented on, and Shadow, a blacked-out version of him, duly turns up as a secret fighter in the 1997 follow-up.

Which of M. Bison's attacks is a Hyper Combo, not a regular special, in X-Men vs. Street Fighter?

Psycho Crusher is one of only two supers he has here, alongside the Knee Press Nightmare, and he can also take to the air with a move simply called Flying.

Most of the X-Men sprites in X-Men vs. Street Fighter were carried over from which 1994 Capcom fighting game?

Children of the Atom was Capcom's first Marvel-licensed fighting game, and its plot borrows from the Fatal Attractions storyline in the comics.

Which crime syndicate supplies two fighters to X-Men vs. Street Fighter, its caped leader and his young assassin?

Shadaloo is M. Bison's organisation, and in this game he even shows up in his agent's victory poses to admire her work.

Which secret programme from X-Men lore names Hyper Combos for two clawed rivals in X-Men vs. Street Fighter?

Weapon X is the super-soldier programme both Sabretooth and his arch-enemy went through, hence a move called Weapon X for one and Weapon X Dash for the other.

Which full-circle grab is Zangief's only Hyper Combo in X-Men vs. Street Fighter?

Final Atomic Buster makes Zangief the one Street Fighter here with a single super; his famous Spinning Piledriver, listed as the Screw Piledriver, stays an ordinary special move.

Which was the only country to get an official release of X-Men vs. Street Fighter's Saturn port?

Japan alone got it: plans for an American release collapsed, and a European version that Sega had licensed was shelved.

Which Capcom arcade board, in service since 1993, runs the original X-Men vs. Street Fighter?

CP System II had powered Capcom's fighters since 1993, and although its successor board launched the same year as this game, the older hardware outlived it by over four years.

What came packaged with the Saturn version of X-Men vs. Street Fighter to make an arcade-perfect port possible?

A 4MB RAM cartridge slotted into the console so that every sprite frame could be kept, and this was the first game announced to support it.

Which subtitle did Capcom add to the PlayStation release of X-Men vs. Street Fighter in its home market?

EX Edition marked a port that had been reworked to fit the console's memory, losing free partner switching along the way.

Besides a training option, which other mode is found only in the PlayStation version of X-Men vs. Street Fighter?

Survival pits the player against endless waves of teams, one of the extras Capcom added to a port that had lost the arcade's free tagging.

What does X-Men vs. Street Fighter call the mid-air combos that follow a launcher and a Super Jump?

Aerial Rave came over from Capcom's earlier Marvel fighters: one attack per character launches the opponent, and pressing up gives chase.

In X-Men vs. Street Fighter, which two-level technique has both partners fire their Hyper Combos at the same time?

Variable Combination costs two levels of meter, and when it ends the fighter who jumped in stays on screen, so it doubles as a way to swap.

Which feature, absent from X-Men vs. Street Fighter, did its 1997 sequel introduce to the crossover series?

Assist attacks let the off-screen partner jump in for one move and leave again, an idea the later games in the series kept building on.

How did the PlayStation port of X-Men vs. Street Fighter change the arcade's single-bout match format?

Best-of-three rounds replaced the single bout because the second character could no longer be swapped in freely on the weaker hardware.

Which two buttons, pressed together, tag in the waiting partner in arcade X-Men vs. Street Fighter?

Hard Punch and Hard Kick send the new fighter leaping in with an attack, followed by a brief taunt that leaves them open to a counter.

After beating the final boss of arcade X-Men vs. Street Fighter, who must the winning fighter defeat to see an ending?

Their own teammate, run by the computer, is the true last opponent, and the arcade machine refuses new challengers until that duel is over.

Which founding X-Man, playable in Capcom's 1994 X-Men fighter, was left off the X-Men vs. Street Fighter roster?

Iceman was dropped along with Colossus and Psylocke; of the six heroes in that earlier game, only three made the jump to the crossover.

Juggernaut's power-up move in X-Men vs. Street Fighter is named after which mystical source of his strength?

Cyttorak's crimson gem is what turned Cain Marko into the Juggernaut, which is why he is a magical avatar and not a mutant at all.

Which trait lets Juggernaut absorb a hit without flinching in X-Men vs. Street Fighter and later crossovers?

Super Armor is permanent for Juggernaut on the ground, so one stray jab will not interrupt whatever slow, heavy blow he has already started.

Which sidekick does Sabretooth call on screen to fire a big gun in X-Men vs. Street Fighter?

Birdy is the telepath Sabretooth hires in the comics to keep his bloodlust in check; the game spells her name Birdie in the move Armed Birdie.

Which of Dhalsim's Hyper Combos in X-Men vs. Street Fighter can be steered up or down while it burns?

Yoga Inferno is a stream of fire aimed with the stick, and the crossover also made his ordinary Yoga Flame far longer than usual.

Which 1993 beat 'em up shares the 2024 Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection with X-Men vs. Street Fighter?

The Punisher is the collection's only non-fighting game, and the release put its arcade version on consoles for the first time, three decades on.

In 2020, which company announced a home cabinet that included X-Men vs. Street Fighter and two of its sequels?

Arcade1Up builds three-quarter-scale replicas of classic machines, and its cabinet paired the game with two later Marvel crossovers.

Which X-Men vs. Street Fighter defensive technique pushes an attacker away when three buttons are pressed mid-block?

Advancing Guard does not cut the damage taken; it only widens the gap, so later hits in a string are more likely to miss.

If the clock runs out in X-Men vs. Street Fighter with both teams still standing, what decides the winner?

Most combined health wins, counting both partners' bars together, so hiding a wounded fighter off-screen still protects the lead.

Rogue's only Hyper Combo in X-Men vs. Street Fighter carries which Southern-flavoured name?

Goodnight Sugar is delivered in the voice of Lenore Zann, who went on to play Rogue again in Marvel Rivals nearly three decades later.

X-Men vs. Street Fighter's sequel dropped two Capcom fighters and added Sakura plus which Street Fighter Alpha regular?

Dan and Sakura took the two vacated slots, though one of the departed lived on in that game as a darkened secret character.