The characters of Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes:
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Marvel Characters
Captain America
- Captain Patriotic: As expected. He has plenty of Patriotic Fervor in his animations, including military saluting the player and win poses where he interacts with a bald eagle.
- Disturbed Doves: One of his win animations has him stand back-turned as a flock of white birds fly into the sky.
- Empowered Badass Normal: The Super Serum only raised the Cap's body strength and stamina up to peak human efficiency, making him the top of the top in terms of physical prowess, but still within human limits.
- The Good Captain: But of course! He's one of the nicest characters here, congratulating his partner/the player in most of his win animations ("Good work, soldier!", Thumbs up, soldier!"), and he's the one who makes sure the Capcom heroes go back to their home world after Onslaught's defeat in his ending.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: His shield, when doing "Hyper Charging Star" hyper move, eats his opponent's strikes and projectiles (including Hypers such as "Proton Cannon" or "Shinkuu Hadouken"), which allows him to keep charging forward and damaging his opponent unchallenged.
- Military Salute: Has an animation where he salutes in this way, often used in win poses toward the camera/player, and he also salutes the Capcom heroes as they go back to their home world in his ending.
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: If he connects his Final Justice Hyper Combo, Cap proceeds to smack the opponent down with a series of rapid kicks and punches, and ends it by throwing them upward, catching them in mid-air and driving them into the floor.
- Shield Bash: The Cap can use his shield to strike both as a special move and as part of Hyper Combos.
- Throwing Your Shield Always Works: Captain America throw his shield at enemies, although if blocked or interrupted, it can end up on the ground until the Cap comes to pick it up.
Gambit
- Amazon Chaser: He shows interest in Morrigan during his ending, but Rogue quickly swipes down and carries him away.
- Badass Longcoat: As his usual appearance he is seen wearing his iconic brown longcoat.
- Cane Fu: He has some moves where he uses his staff to perform several dash strikes.
- The Casanova: As his lines and ending show, he's quite still at it.
- Death Dealer: His kinetic-charged cards are used as his main projectile attack, Kinetic Card; he also has an anti-air version called Trick Card and an Hyper Combo variant called Royal Flush.
- Ground Wave: His Cajun Explosion Hyper Combo has him throw cards at the ground, generating a large wave of explosions going forward.
- Having a Blast: Most of his moves are about his capacity to make stuff blow up.
- Spam Attack: His Royal Flush move has him throw an indecent amount of charged cards at the opponent.
- Why Am I Ticking?: In one of his throws, he charges the opponent with kinetic energy and then kicks him away, letting him explode away from him.
Hulk
- Blood Knight: Some of his dialogue show that Hulk is really enjoying himself fighting and looks forward for the next challenger.“Barely flexed a bicep that time, who's next?”“Gamma charged and ready for the next match up!”"Who's next?" (spoken in his win animation)
- Death from Above: His Gamma Crush Hyper Combo has him crash a passing meteor into his opponent from above. Another Hyper Combo, Gamma Quake, has him strike the ground and make a shower of rocks fall into the arena.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Hulk's Gamm Wave has him create a wave of ground and rock by lifting the soil they are standing on. Gamma Quake has him create a shower of rocks by slamming the ground as well.
- Genius Bruiser: The MVC series still runs with the premise of Hulk retaining most of Bruce Banner's intellect, which reflected the comics' status quo for most of the 1990s. In one win quote, Hulk seems to regress into his old Savage persona, screaming "HULK SMASH!" before saying he's kidding.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Captain America sacrifices himself to end Onslaught in Hulk's ending, mirroring the end of the comic book Onslaught arc.
- In a Single Bound: As seen when he performs Gamma Crush, Hulk can jump into outer space to grab passing meteors!!
- Megaton Punch: His Gamma Charge move lets him perform a devastating dashing elbow strike forward.
- Mighty Glacier: As expected of the Hulk, he packs massive damage in all his moves, but is much slower than the other fighters.
- No-Sell: Hulk enjoys limited Super Armor, which means most other characters need to hit him twice in order to stop his attacks/animations.
- Shockwave Clap: Downplayed, as although it is one of Hulk's most memorable abilities, the clap only appears as one of Hulk's normal attacks in mid-air.
- Vocal Dissonance: Until MvC3, his voice does not match his large, hulking, angry, green-skinned brute that has a penchant to smash things. Justified as he was not portrayed in his Savage personality, but his more intelligent Professor persona.
Spider-Man
- All Webbed Up: As part of some of his special moves, such as the Web Ball (which traps them in web) or the Web Throw (where he ensnares them in web, spins them around then throws them).
- Building Swing: His Web Swing allows him to swing in the air from one side of the screen to the other.
- Group Picture Ending: His ending has Spidey taking a photo with his partner to commemorate the defeat of Onslaught. The ending itself ends showing the taken photo in sepia.
- Mad Libs Dialogue: His ending is made in a way that Spider-Man will say his partner's name, which will be different based on the player's choice.
- No Holds Barred Beat Down: Crawler Assault has Spidey rush forward while punching and kicking at a quick pace. Maximum Spider has him fly all over the screen, striking the foe each time he passes through.
- Speech Bubbles: Spidey generates these as part of his taunt animation.
- Spider-Sense: Despite being one of Spidey's most iconic powers, it doesn't figure in his movelist and is only referenced in intro animations, where Spidey takes his battle stance as he claims "My Spider-Sense is tingling!".
- Wolverine Publicity: As expected for Spider-Man, he is prominently shown in promotional materials and leads the cast in the game's introduction.
- You Will Not Evade Me: His Web Throw move, where he catches the opponent with his web, then pulls him forward, spins them around, then throws them away. Ultimate Web Throw is a similar move where he catches them with a lot of web, spins around in mid-air, then slams them into the ground.
Venom
- All Webbed Up: The enemy if caught in Venom Web, webbed up in a large spider web ready to get pummeled by Venom.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: In his ending he tries to convince his partner to join him in fighting crime and protecting the innocent...by crushing the skulls and eating the brains of evildoers...
- The Brute: Particularly when compared to Spider-Man in some of their similar moves. Whereas Spidey throws his enemies away with a Web Throw, Venom violently slams them to the ground several times, for example.
- Anti-Hero: His win quotes in the Japanese version are a lot more visceral as most of them involve Venom describing in which way they are going to murder the villains while protecting the innocent.
- I Am Legion: He always talks of himself as a plural, as he's both Venom and Eddie Brock. His intros have him state "We are Venom!".
- I'm a Humanitarian: States his desire to eat opponent's brains as one of his win poses, and in his ending.
- Lamprey Mouth: Venom generates these kind of mouths when performing the Venom Rush Hyper Combo.
- Land Shark: His Venom Fang evokes the same feeling, as Venom dives into the ground as a large, sharp-toothed form that vaguely resembles a shark jumping in water.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: As expected of Venom. This is best seen in one win animation where the Symbiote detach from Eddy's top half to sneer at the downed enemy with a fully exposed sharp-toothed grin. The mouths he creates with his Venom Rush special move and in one normal attack where he merges his hands/top half into a large mouth to attack are also quite toothy.
- Multipurpose Tongue: Venom's large tongue is put to use in two normal attacks where he strikes at the enemy using it as a whip.
- Primary-Color Champion: In contrast to his black or dark navy blue palette in the comics, Venom is bright blue in this game, for some reason.
- The Rival: Some of Venom's win quotes shows he's still holding a grudge against Spider-Man for (as he claims) "ruining my innocence".
- Rubber Man: His sprite really emphasises his shapeshifter qualities, which allow him to morph his body mass in unpredictable ways.
- Shapeshifter Weapon: The malleability of the Symbiote allows him to create a lot of unique forms to attack, going from snake-like extensions, big snapping jaws from his hands, a large diving head with sharpened teeth and even a massive shiled for defense.
War Machine
- BFG: The Proton Cannon he summons for a Hyper Combo.
- Death from Above: War Machine's new Hyper Combo, War Destroyer, rains a shower of missiles onto the opponent.
- Jet Pack: He summons a jetpack from where he shoots missiles for his War Destroyer Hyper Combo, and uses it in his ending to fly into outer space.
- Moveset Clone: Of Iron Man from Marvel Super Heroes, save a single new Hyper Combo (War Destroyer).
- Palette Swap: Reuses Iron Man's sprites from Marvel Super Heroes, except recoloured blue and gun-metal grey.
- Powered Armor: As expected of Iron Man's friend. War Machine's armor is geared more towards being heavily weaponized than Iron Man's.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Due to licensing issues, War Machine was included in the game instead of Iron Man. One of his winquotes lampshades it mercilessly.War Machine: Not Iron Man. War Machine!
- Trick Bomb: He has the Smart Bomb special move where he shoots several circular bombs from his shoulders.
- Video Game Flight: One of the few characters with the ability to fly freely around the screen for a limited time.
- Walking Armory: His main difference from Iron Man is that War Machine's moveset is heavily built around his superior firepower, with more missiles, bombs and bazookas incorporated into his arsenal.
Wolverine
- Audible Sharpness: Every time he swings those babies, a metallic scratch noise resounds.
- Blade Spam: Most of his moves involve doing this: Tornado Claw has him spinning his claws in an upward motion, Berserker Barrage has him slash constantly while rushing forward, Weapon X involves him attacking the opponent with a quick barrage of attacks, etc.
- The Berserker: His animations show just how brutal and wild he is, swinging his claws around like a madman without much thought. There's a reason a lot of his moves start with "Berserker" after all.
- Broad Strokes: The impetus for the Xavier eventually becoming Onslaught in the comics was Magneto removing the Adamantium from Wolverine's skeleton, but in this game, he still uses the Adamantium claws. "Bone Claw Wolverine" wouldn't be a thing until the sequel.
- Glass Cannon: Very fast and very strong, but stands among the characters with the lowest amount of defense/health.
- It's All My Fault: In his ending, Xavier blames himself for Onslaught's existence. Wolverine offers some comforting words.
- Spectacular Spinning: His Drill Claw and Tornado Claw moves include lots of spinning around.
- Wolverine Claws: What? Where you expecting something different here??
- Wolverine Publicity: Being the Trope Namer, it's no surprise why he's one of the only two playable X-Men in this game (not counting Assists).
Capcom Characters
Captain Commando
- Assist Character: The rest of the Commando Team arrive to assist their leader for various attacks, including his level 3 hyper combo.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: His win quotes have plenty of this, one of them even has him thank the player for playing this game.
- Calling Your Attacks: "CAPTAIN FIRE!", "CAPTAIN CORRIDOR!", "CAPTAIN KIIIICK!"
- Cool Shades: His ruby-colored shades are not only cool, but here they serve to summon his super-hero getup.
- Elemental Powers: Has powered-up gauntlets.
- Shock and Awe: Captain Corridor is a ground-pound that releases a large column of electricity. He can also shock his opponent as part of one of his throws.
- Playing with Fire: Captain Fire is a simple flamethrower projectile. Captain Kick comes with a trail of fire as well.
- Ground Punch: The Captain Corridor is activated by a mighty strike to the ground.
- Henshin Hero: Presented as one during his intro, where he puts on his glasses to switch from a business suit to his Commando Armor at the scream of "Henshin, Commando!".
- Hyperactive Sprite: The Cap can't stop moving, not even in his idle stance as he's constantly swaying his body back and forth and doing small poses.
- Jack of All Stats: He's a well-balanced character with strong ranged and close-quarters attacks.
- Large Ham: Ties closely with Jin as the hammiest character in the game.
- Mascot: The original mascot of Capcom, in a sense. He was born as a fictional spokesperson for Capcom USA who appeared in game packagings from 1986 up to 1990, using a number of wildly different designs before Capcom Japan established his current identity. Nowadays both Mega Man and Ryu took over the title from him.
- Mythology Gag:
- Commando's business suit appearance in intros is a nod to his appearance in the manga, where he was given a civilian identity as company CEO Mars Carlysle.
- The cowboy costume he wears in animations and his taunt may be a nod to his very first design by Capcom USA, who had a space cowboy/sheriff theme.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: What the Captain Storm Hyper Combo amounts to: Commando calls up all the team and then uppercuts the opponent, who gets mauled in mid-air by Commando's teammates before he ends him up with a Captain Corridor.
- Powered Armor: The Cap fights using a set known as the Commando Armor, which grants him elemental attacks and greatly enhances his physical strength and defenses.
- Power Fist: His elemental-based attacks come from a part of his gauntlets, the Energy Glove.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The other members of the Commando Team.
- Ninja: Ginzu the Ninja (Sho), probably the most straight-forward of the bunch.
- Enclosed Extraterrestrials: Mack the Knife (Jennety), an alien that goes around fully covered in bandages, making him resemble a Mummy (and his codename is even that, Mummy Commando).
- Brainy Baby: Baby Head (Hoover), a 2-years old super genius baby who controls a Mini-Mecha made by himself.
- Rouge Angles of Satin: Captain Corridor should be Captain Collider. Although, to be honest, this mistake is carried over from Commando's Arcade game.
- Shaping Your Attacks: Captain Sword has all four team members converge to produce a massive pillar of light resembling a sword.
- "Super Sentai" Stance: The whole team poses this way at the end of the Captain Storm Hyper.
- Thanking the Viewer: One of his win quotes references Capcom's iconic "Thank you for playing" end game message.
- Whole-Plot Reference: His ending is identical to the ending of the Arcade Captain Commando, only replacing the Earth government with the Avengers HQ.
Chun-Li
- Badass in Distress: In her ending she gets captured by M. Bison, but fortunately gets saved before anything happens by Shadow.
- Evil Counterpart: The secret character Shadow Lady is Chun-Li after being captured and turned into a loyal cyborg by Shadaloo.
- Hurricane Kick: Her Spinning Bird Kick.
- Ki Manipulation: Her Kikoken, a regular ki projectile; and her Kikousho, an Sphere of Destruction made of ki.
- Kick Chick: Most of her attacks consists of kicks much like her home counterpart.
- Murderous Thighs: Well-known for her muscular thighs.
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: A Kick version in her Hyakuretsukyaku where she strikes her opponents with a barrage of kicks.
- Statuesque Stunner: Stands a head taller than most of the cast.
- Wolverine Publicity: By virtue of being the star of Street Fighter alongside Ryu, she has appeared in every Capcom VS titles.
Mega Man
- Adaptational Personality Change: A mild one, but his personality here is very much a child and his taunt has him make faces at his opponents, which contrasts with his maturity from his home series.
- Arm Cannon: One of his staple weapons is his Mega Buster.
- Assist Character: Mega Man is assisted by Rush (who stands next to him at all times, and helps him in the Rush Drill Hyper Combo), Beat (turns into a plane for the Beat Plane Hyper Combo) and Eddy (who brings him the Robot Master weapons to exchange).
- Badass Adorable: A robot boy that is usually smaller than the rest of the cast, but can take on Onslaught like the rest of them.
- Charged Attack: Mega Man can shoot by simply pressing High/Fierce Punch, and by holding it up can shoot larger charge shots just like in his origin series.
- Composite Character: A mild case, as his power set includes a Mega Man 2 weapon (Leaf Shield), two Mega Man 8 weapons (Rock Ball and Tornado Hold), the Mega Upper (a move first seen in Mega Man 7) and the Slide (first seen in Mega Man 3).
- Home Stage: "Dr Wily's Military Base", set in front of one of Wily's bases with the evil doctor and a number of his creations going around the background.
- Humongous Mecha: His Hyper Mega Man super has him transform into a giant robot version of himself.
- Combining Mecha: He achieves this by combining with Rush, Beat and Eddy.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: When defeated, Mega Man explodes into a series of circles radiating outwards. This animation is a reference to his death animation in his home series.
- More Dakka: While in Beat Plane, the player can spam fireballs and drop missiles for as long as the Hyper Combo lasts.
- Power Copying: In his ending, he copies Onslaught's Magnetic Shockwave in the same way he does a defeated Robot Master. In the PlayStation port, this can actually be unlocked as an Hyper Combo after beating the game with him.
- Robot Dog: Rush, who is always to Mega Man's side in battle, follows him around and barks whenever he is winning the fight.
- Single Tear: In Roll's ending, he can't reach Onslaught before Roll beats him and Light gives her an upgrade as a reward. Mega Man arrives just as everyone leaves, kneels down and sheds a single tear.
- Swiss-Army Appendage: Either one of his fists can change into his arm cannon if necessary.
- Telescoping Robot: His Hyper Mega Man form is bigger than his regular form.
- This Is a Drill: Rush becomes a small Drill Tank for the Rush Drill Hyper Combo.
- Transforming Mecha: For Hyper Combos, Rush turns into a Drill Tank, while Beat turns into a small plane.
Jin Saotome
- Badass Arm-Fold: One of his intros has him enter the screen this way, while on top of Blodia's palm, with the Dramatic Wind blowing his clothes all around.
- Badass Normal: Is an ordinary human who can go toe-to-toe with combat robots, ki-users, super soldiers, and mutants with nothing but his skills with martial arts and his Blodia mech.
- Desperation Attack: If not blocked, his Blodia Barrage special will have him jump inside to the mech to unload more bullets at his opponents.
- 11th-Hour Superpower: If he's the last standing character in the team and is left with 30% or less of health, he will activate the "Saotome Shine", an instant Hyper Combo that gives him a gold glow, increases his damage and defense and grants him limited super armor.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In his ending he throws himself at the remains of Onslaught to finish him off, seemingly dying as well.
- Hot-Blooded: His white-hot passion for battle becomes quite literal in many instances. Many of his normal attacks produce small fiery projectile effects, and his taunt sees him instantaneously strip down to a fundoshi and rub his back furiously with some cloth until his skin catches fire.
- Humongous Mecha: He rides his father's Variant Armor, a big red-colored mecha known as Blodia, which is big enough it is never fully seen on screen. He uses it in one of his grab (to strike the enemy against it fist) and in his Hyper Combos, to either shoot or punch his opponents.
- Incendiary Exponent: A lot of his moves involve him getting so much into the fight that his body espontaneously creates fire. His taunt has him rub a towel on himself hard enough to literally catch on fire. This is done for no other reason other than because it makes Jin look even cooler.
- Kiai: The man never stops screaming.
- Kick Them While They're Down: One win-pose sees him unsheathe a ceremonial katana and raise it triumphantly. Then, just before the screen cuts away, he leaps into the air with the clear intent to finish off his downed opponent.
- Large Ham: Enough to rival Captain Commando. Jin is basically the human form of the Tasmanian Devil, right down to both having a deadly tornado attack. His hot-blooded nature is reflected in his oomph-y attack animations and loud battle cries.
- Late to the Tragedy: In Shadow Lady's ending, Shadow Charlie and Shadow Lady convert him into a cyborg after finding his body.
- Megaton Punch: His standard fierce punch is a powerful travelling punch. His hyper combo, Blodia Punch, sees his trusty mecha provide some extra wallop.
- More Dakka: His Blodia Barrage has this, as Blodia comes in with chainguns blazing.
- Mr. Fanservice: Jin spontaneously strips down to his underwear for both his taunt and his Saotome Dynamite attack.
- Painting the Medium: His Saotome Crush attack sees him use his opponent as a surfboard and grinds them across all four sides of the screen.
- Paint It Black: When he becomes a cyborg in Shadow Lady's ending, his skin is pitch black.
- Playing with Fire: Some of his basic moves turns his limbs into spinning drills of fire, and he becomes a fire tornado in his Saotome Typhoon and Saotome Cyclone moves. His Saotome Fire move engulfs him in flames by the act of rubbing a towel on his skin violently.
- Power Glows: The special Hyper Combo Saotome Shine gives Jin a gold glow as it increases all his stats. It activates only when he's the final member of the team and is about to be defeated.
- Shout-Out: Rather than reference his own ending in Cyberbots, his ending here is a copy of fellow character Gawaine, including Ryu's thinking Jin is alive somewhere while holding his scarf mirroring Jin's appearance on that ending doing the same while holding Gawaine's sword.
- Spectacular Spinning: He takes the principle of Ryu's Tatsumaki attack even further by turning himself into a swirling typhoon.
- This Is a Drill:
- In one of his command normals and some of his basic moves he turns his feet into a fire drill.
- His hands turn into a drill-like arsenal after Shadow Lady revived him as a cyborg.
- Unwilling Roboticisation: Becomes a Cyborg in Shadow Lady's ending.
Morrigan
- Assist Character: A few of her Hyper Combos involve her summoning Lilith.
- Bait-and-Switch: In her ending everything points to Morrigan and Ryu about to get ready to fight, but then it turns out they only wanted to challenge themselves to a nice game of Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo.
- BFG: Her Soul Eraser, a large cannon shaped out of her bats.
- Cape Wings: She can transforms any part of her clothing into many forms, from blades and weapons to even jet thrusters!
- Energy Ball: Unlike in her origin games, her Soul Fist projectile always comes out in the shape of a large bat's skull.
- Femme Fatale: Plenty of win quotes has her teasing nature, and she even tries to seduce Gambit in his ending.
- Fusion Dance: Performs one with Lilith in her intro animation, in reference to both character's endings in Vampire Savior.
- Home Stage: "Live House of the Dark Realm", set in a dilapidated theater in the Makai while in the middle of a Lord Raptor's concert.
- Navel-Deep Neckline: Her iconic outfit technically "only" possesses an Impossibly-Low Neckline and a cut-out right below said neckline that, combined, reveal her entire cleavage and the top part of her stomach.
- Shotoclone: Morrigan sports a similar gameplay style with a projectile (Soul Fist) and a Shoryuken (Shadow Blade).
- Stripperiffic: She technically doesn't wear clothes.
- Succubi and Incubi: She's a succubus, manifesting as an attractive, scantily clad woman with bat wings.
- Two Beings, One Body: She and Lilith share the same body, as seen in their intro when they merge together, and some of her Hyper Combos where Lilith appears to assist her. This is a follow-up to both her and Lilith's endings in Vampire Savior, where they become one.
- Voluntary Shapeshifter: She creates everything she needs, from weapons and blades to her own clothing, out of the bats surrounding her.
- Unwilling Suspension: One of Morrigan's win animation has her subject Lilith to this, suddenly emerging with her wrists chained above her head while Morrigan prepares to discipline her.
- Hell Bentfor Leather: In said animation Morrigan switches clothes to something...more appropiate given the situation...
- Winged Humanoid: Morrigan sports a pair of bat-like wings that she can turn into a variety of bladed weapons in battle.
Ryu
- Black Screen of Death: While using Akuma's style, Ryu has access to the ever-present Shun Goku Satsu.
- Composite Character: Don't have memory space to have Akuma and Ken alongside Ryu, but really want them in? No problem! Just have Ryu change his moveset into their's! No explanation needed!
- Hurricane Kick: He has a super variant, the Shin Tatsumaki Senpukyaku.
- Home Stage: "Honda's Bathhouse", set in a Japanese bathhouse (a regular stage setting for E. Honda in Street Fighter) in front of the man's bath entrance. Hitting the right-side wall enough times breaks it, extending the level into the woman's bath area.
- Instant Costume Change: This game introduces a new transformation ability for Ryu. One of his hyper combos, "Complete Change", switches his gi colour to reflect either Ken or Akuma from his own series, since they both skipped out on this instalment. Ryu gains some of their unique moves, as well as flame effects correlating to their fighting styles.
- Ki Manipulation: Ryu can create projectiles of Ki with his Hadouken and Shinkuu Hadouken.
- Martial Arts Headband: Marvel vs. Capcom finally updated Ryu's design to his most iconic red headband, as in previous games, he sported his original plain white headband from the Street Fighter Alpha series.
- Pillars of Moral Character: He's a good man always striving for self-improvement.
- Playing with Fire: When using Ken's style, as his special moves all create fire blazes. Also happens with Akuma's style, except they are purple flames instead.
- Shoryuken: Also has a super variant, the Shin Shoryuken.
- Shotoclone: Averted. MVC was the first game in the Versus series to not feature another shoto-playstyle character, making Ryu the sole representative of the Ansatsuken style.
- Video Game Dashing: As part of Akuma's moveset, he has access to his Ashura Warp move, allowing him to slide across the stage.
- Wolverine Publicity: He is the mascot for Capcom in general and for Street Fighter. Both Chun-Li and him have appeared in the Marvel vs. Capcom series several times.
Strider Hiryu
- Anime Hair: He rocks a spiky, windswept hairstyle.
- Assist Character: He's helped by his three Option robots: Option A is a satellite with legs that provides defense and backup fire, Option B is a Smilodon Hiryu can send to attack an enemy and Option C is a hawk that can swoop down on enemies or drop bombs on them.
- Audible Sharpness: The famous "SCHWING" sound effect of Hiryu's blade, Cypher, is fondly remembered by arcade-goers.
- Badass Back: One of his win animations and his taunt has Hiryu turn his back to his opponents as he utters some badass quote.
- Badass Normal: Apart from his status as a Strider, all of his attacks are done by his Cypher, accompanied by Options with no ki-powers of his own.
- Blade Spam: What the Ragnarok Hyper Combo amounts to: a long series of sword slashes in mid-air by several copies of Hiryu.
- Breakout Character: Hiryu was always cool, but the Versus series amplified his coolness factor by several orders of magnitude, turning him into the series' unexpected breakout star.
- Cool Sword: His tonfa-esque Cypher.
- Dash Attack:
- His Ame-no-Murakumo move is a wide swinging sword strike performed after a dash. The length of the dash is determined by the strength of the buttom used.
- His Excalibur move is an air-dashing attack where he slashes the enemy as he dashes through them while in mid-flight.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: When defeated, his body dissipates into several energy waves. This animation references his origin game's death animation, down to the same sound used.
- Doppelgänger Attack: His Vajra move has him disappear and appear as four images of him converge into a Diving Kick into the enemy's position. His Ragnarok Hyper Combo grabs the enemy and then strikes at him in mid-air via multiple clones of him, several times before ending it with the Vajra kick.
- Dynamic Entry: One of his intro animations has him arrive at the screen by flying via Glider, in a nod to the Arcade original's intro. Another one sees him enter the battle while riding his panthera Option B, then jumping down into his place.
- Flash Step: Makes use of this in his Warp and Vajra moves to teleport around.
- Fragile Speedster: Hiryu is one of the fastest characters in terms of mobility and striking speed, but he has the lowest amount of health in the whole cast outside of High Speed Venom.
- Gravity Screw: One of his win poses has him suddenly fling upwards and land on his feet on the "ceiling" of the screen. This is a nod to the gravity-altered areas in the Arcade games.
- Home Stage: "Neo St. Petersburg", set in the capital city of the Kazakh Federation, the first stage in Strider.
- Hot Blade: The Cypher he wields uses plasma energy to create a white-hot edge that cuts through everything.
- Ninja: One of gaming's most iconic ninjas.
- Cyber Ninja: Not a cyborg himself, but all the gadgets and robot animals he employs have the same effect.
- Orbiting Particle Shield: His Ouroboros Hyper Combo has two Option As spinning around him.
- Painting the Medium: His Wall Crawl special move allows him to cling to the sides of the screen, even if there's no proper wall there to cling to.
- Recursive Canon: His popularity boost prompted Capcom to produce a belated sequel to the original arcade game, Strider 2, which emulated Hiryu's redesigned look from this game.
- Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: All his special moves are named after legendary swords or weapons, including Excalibur, Gram, Ame-no-Murakumo, Vajra. His Hyper Combos are also themed after mythology in general: Legion, Ouroboros and Ragnarok.
- Riding into the Sunset: A carry-over from his origin Arcade game, since this was the intented sentiment of Hiryu landing on top of a whale as it swims away in the Arcade original, and his ending here is an exact copy of that.
- Scarf of Asskicking: Though he wore one occasionally in Moto Kikaku's manga series and in cutscenes for its NES adaptation, Hiryu otherwise never wore a scarf in his own game appearances. Here, he wears a stylish red scarf (which is constantly blowing in the wind, even indoors) and he never reveals his face, giving him a new sense of mystique. The scarf became distinguished enough for it to be transferred over to his home series from Strider 2 onwards.
- Sleeves Are for Wimps: His Strider uniform lacks sleeves, showing his well-toned arms.
- Slide Attack: Just as in his home series, he can perform a sliding kick low to the ground.
- Sword Lines: The large arcs of plasma left behind by the Cypher with each swing, another staple carried over from his origin game.
- The Stoic: He is very reserved and soft-spoken, befitting a professional assassin.
- Unnecessary Combat Roll: Hiryu's back dash is him tumbling backwards in a roll, based on his damaged animation in the Arcade game.
- Wall Crawl: One of his game's selling points was adapted into a move in which he clings to the side of the screen. He can follow it up with a simple swing of his sword, a descending heel strike or a Diving Kick.
- Wall Jump: Can perform wall jumps off the side of the screen as well.
- Warrior Poet: His English win quotes have a certain flair like that, with lines talking about the future, being devoted, not living a false life and the search for truth.
- Zerg Rush: The Hyper Combo Legion is Hiryu sending a large number of Options to rush the enemy.
Zangief
- Badass Normal: He has no Ki Manipulation like Ryu and Chun-Li, however, he is a skilled professional wrestler and his specials can be devastating.
- The Big Guy: The tallest, big muscled expert in the roster. His Big Fun tendencies carry over as well from Street Fighter, as Zangief is a big burly well of positivity.
- Breath Weapon: As Mecha Zangief he gains the Vodka Fire, where he breathes a large blue flame.
- Combination Attack: As an unique trait of Zangief, any Team Hyper Combos done with him as the point character becomes the "Double Final Atomic Buster", where his partner assists him in grabbing and performing the move.
- Composite Character: Zangief is his usual Street Fighter self, but gains the ability to transform into Mecha Zangief at will. Mecha Zangief was a separate character in the previous game.
- Everything Makes a Mushroom: The end result of his duel with Blodia in his ending? A massive skull-shaped mushroom cloud visible from space.
- The Grappler: The quintessential example in fighting games. Obviously, he is the game's sole example.
- Man Bites Man: One of his grabs has him biting the opponent several times.
- Mother Russia Makes You Strong: Hails from the Soviet Union, and he has the build of a Grizzly Bear.
- No-Sell: As Mecha Zangief, he loses the ability to block but becomes unstoppable, as no move will ever phase him.
- Spectacular Spinning: A lot of his moves incorporate spinning, most notably his Spinning Lariat, Spinning Pile Driver and Final Atomic Buster.
- Super Mode: He can access the Mecha Zangief mode as part of the "Iron Body" Hyper Combo.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Mecha Zangief is much slower than the already-slow Zangief, can't jump very high and can't defend himself from attacks, but his Hyper Armor makes him unstoppable by any attack or special move, and he gains a strength buff that goes well with his grab moves.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: He goes into battle with nothing but his wrestling wear, displaying his brutish physique, chest hair, and scars.
- Worthy Opponent: In his ending he considers Blodia this to his Iron Body transformation, and engages in a duel with the giant mecha.
Marvel Secret Characters
While the English version provides no explanation for them, their Japanese win quotes reveal these three are creations of Onslaught, serving him in his desire to destroy the world.
A version of War Machine with golden armor that trades out most of his rupulsor blasts, flight, blocking and overall mobility for powerful missiles and Hyper Armor, meaning he can't be stunned or interrupted by any attack, with a heavy amount of defense to pair with it.
A version of Venom with a red Symbiote that is incredibly physically weak, both offensively and defensively. The trade-off? He’s the fastest character on the roster.
A version of Hulk with orange skin instead of the giant’s usual green that rearranges his stats and moves to make him play more like his Marvel Super Heroes incarnation.
General Tropes
- Artificial Human: They are all created by Onslaught's powers.
- A Winner Is You: All their endings are just them posing in front of the Hyper Combo background as the game congratulates you for winning with a secret character.
- Evil Knockoff: They are constructs (called "phantoms" in Japanese) created by Onslaught of War Machine, Venom and Hulk.
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: One of their (Japanese only) win quotes has them begging their partner to kill them for their part in helping Onslaught.
- Identity Breakdown: In the Japanese version, atleast. They all have several win quotes were they praise Onslaught and wish death upon the world and/or humanity, but then they also have a few select win quotes where they appear to struggle with their identities, think they are the super heroes they are based on and act confused over their desire to stop Onslaught. Their exchange against Onslaught himself has them defying him directly, while still struggling to form full sentences.
- Lost in Translation: The English version just copy-pasted their regular selves' win quotes and called it a day, so their more interesting Japanese lines were lost in the transition.
- Omnicidal Maniac: The majority of their win quotes (in Japanese) are this, with them praising Onslaught as a God and proclaiming the end of all life and the Earth in his name.
- Original Generation: Although just derivatives of existing characters, they are still separate original characters created for this game.
- Palette Swap: They are gold/yellow/orange swaps of War Machine, Venom and Hulk.
- Secret Boss: All three can be faced as secret battles in Arcade Mode, after fulfilling a set of requirements including perfect victories and use of Hyper Combos in previous fights.
Hyper-Armor War Machine / Gold War Machine
- Expy: If War Machine wasn't enough of an Expy already, Gold War Machine resembles Iron Man's Mk. II suit from the classic comics.
- The Juggernaut: Impossible to stop by any means, Gold War Machine walks through every single special or hyper attack without reacting to any of it, his steps literally shaking the screen.
- Made of Iron: Gold War Machine is completely immune to flinching.
- Macross Missile Massacre: His Photon Cannon is changed to shoot missiles instead of a laser beam. His crouching laser normal is also changed to a missile projectile.
- Mighty Glacier: He’s incredibly slow and can’t block, but is able to take hits like a pro and hit back like a truck.
- No-Sell: Gold War Machine can't block, but that's because he doesn't need to. No attack will even phase him, and he can walk through the largest laser supers unopposed.
High-Speed Venom / Red Venom
- Difficult, but Awesome: Hyper Venom can lose more than half his health in just a few hits, but he's thrice as fast as the original Venom while retaining his strength, so players that have mastered his combos can easily take out opponents in mere seconds.
- Fragile Speedster: The extreme example. He is so fast he literally leaves after-images with every move, yet he has so little health he goes down in a third of the time any other character does in the game.
- Expy: Probably created as a nod to Carnage, although the fact that he's red and three times as fast as the other characters could also make him a reference to Char's Zaku
- Speed Echoes: His speed is represented by his every move leaving a trail of after-images.
MSH-Performance Hulk / Orange Hulk
- Canon Immigrant: An orange Hulk
would later appear in the comics as the solar-powered Hulk of Earth-295. - Expy: The orange skin is probably a nod to Marvel's other famous Big Good, the ever-lovin' blue eyed Thing.
- Glass Cannon: Only slightly more so than his regular Green counterpart, as he lacks any super-armor in his attack animations. However, he has superior defensive options in other areas.
- Moveset Clone: More so than his friends, as while Gold War Machine and High Speed Venom have a few unique moves or lack moves of their originals, Orange Hulk has the exact same moves as Hulk (with different attributes, but still).
Capcom Secret Characters
Roll
- Anime Theme Song: Kaze yo Tsutaete — AKA, her own theme from Mega Man: Battle & Chase — shows up as Roll's personal theme song, complete with vocals.
- Arm Cannon: Roll gets one in this game, which functions as you'd expect. Unlike Mega Man's built-in ones though, she has to physically put it on after taking it out of her shoe and can't use it by simply pressing Hard Punch or charge it, requiring a special motion.
- Assist Character: Like Mega Man, she can call upon Rush, Eddie and Beat to help her.
- Badass Adorable: While made more for housework than fighting bad guys, she could theoretically take on the likes of Onslaught.
- Big Brother Bully: In one of Roll's win animations, Mega Man appears and mocks/makes faces to her until she cries.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: One of her victory quotes features an intentional Title Drop of a game from her series.Roll: See? I should have been in Power Battle!
- The Cutie: In a cast full of rough super-heroes, literal monsters and seasoned fighters, she stands out being a cute, little girl.
- Composite Character: Like Mega Man, she can use weapons from Wood Man and Tengu Man, as well as the Mega Ball, and wears her more detailed dress from Mega Man 8.
- Daddy's Girl: She's joining the battle to prove her worth to her creator, Dr. Light. In her ending Light is proud of her and as a reward upgrades Roll into her Hyper form.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: When defeated, she explodes the same way as Mega Man.
- Humongous Mecha: Her Hyper Combo transforms her into a giant robot girl that fires off a barrage of bombs and lasers, in the same way Mega Man does in his own one.
- Combining Mecha: In the same vein as Mega Man, she acquires this form after merging with Rush, Eddy and Beat.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: She will keep her dress down whenever she is falling from a jump, but if the player does any other action while in mid-air, well...
- Joke Character: As she plays like a robot that was made more for housework than fighting, Roll is this to the point where she had a below-bottom "Roll Tier" all to herself in this game's sequel.
- More Dakka: When she turns into her Hyper Roll form in her Hyper Combo, she fires Eddies out of her legs, Beats out of her stomach, lasers out of a pair of antennae, and missiles out of her chest.
- Moveset Clone: She has all of Mega Man's moves, except they are slower and not as effective for the most part. She does have one original move (Flower Bomb), however, replacing the Mega Upper.
- Robot Girl: She's Mega Man's younger sister (AKA, DLN #02) who was built by Doctor Light as a housekeeping robot, like how her brother was originally made to be an ideal lab assistant.
- Sailor Fuku: One of her win animations has her change into one of these.
- Secret Boss: She can be faced in Arcade Mode after fulfilling a set of requirements including perfect victories and use of Hyper Combos in previous fights.
- This Is a Drill: Has a Hyper Combo that turns Rush into a Drill Tank.
- Throw Down the Bomblet: Her Flower Bomb special move has her overhand-throw a small bomb (disguised as a bouquet of flowers) at her opponent(s).
- Telescoping Robot: Her super form is far bigger than her tiny regular self.
Lilith (Lilith-Mode Morrigan)
- Artificial Human: She was created from a piece of Morrigan's soul sealed away by her father.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: As her ending implies, this is the result of Morrigan and Lilith swapping bodies as a result of a big collision between them.
- Grand Theft Me: At the end, Morrigan and Lilith seems to have recovered their original bodies, and they fly away happily...until "Zangief" wakes up and starts screaming for her sister to come back. The worst part is that Zangief (in Lilith's body) plays along once he realizes what's happened, indicating he's more than happy with the situation.
- Moveset Clone: She has most of Morrigan's moves, with some altered to resemble her Vampire Savior moves.
- Shotoclone: As a clone of Morrigan, she shares most of her moves, including her shoto-type projectile and Shoryuken.
- Palette Swap: Although she has her own design, in this game she uses Morrigan's sprite but with her original color palette. In her ending, Morrigan appears as well in Lilith's original sprite but with her palette.
- Secret Boss: She can be faced in Arcade Mode after fulfilling a set of requirements including perfect victories and use of Hyper Combos in previous fights.
- Stripperiffic: While normally she is pretty much naked like Morrigan, in this case she's literally identical to Morrigan, since she's in her body.
- Use Your Head: As Lilith and Morrigan briefly swap consciousnesses, their ending sees them try to get back into their original bodies by headbutting each other at high speed. Unfortunately, Zangief gets in the way.
Shadow Lady
- Alternate Self: She is an alternate version of Chun-Li who was kidnapped, experimented, unwillingly roboticized and brainwashed to become The Dragon to M. Bison.
- Brainwashed: As part of the process Shadow Lady has no memories of her true self and is a loyal follower of M. Bison. Her memories eventually come back and she escapes him, however.
- Button Mashing: Her Plasma Barrier and Big Bang Laser makes it possible to increase the number of hits, increasing the damage dealt.
- Cyborg: She was subjected to a robotizacion process that turned her into a war machine filled with lots of weapons:
- Backpack Cannon: Her back can shoot a large number of homing missiles as part of the Galaxy Missiles Hyper Combo.
- Power Palms: The Big Bang Laser Hyper Combo is a large laser beam shot from her hands.
- This Is a Drill: Her hands can be turned into drills.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Brainwashed to obey Shadaloo.
- Darker and Edgier: Shadow Lady is a darker, evil and more powerful version of Chun-Li created by Shadaloo.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Initially averted as Shadow Lady is a loyal servant and enforcer for Bison. Played straight once her memories return and she joins Shadow in their efforts to stop Bison.
- Deflector Shield: Her Plasma Barrier can deflect enemy attacks and stun them.
- Attack Reflector: It can deflect projectiles.
- Double Jump: She has the ability to Triple Jump.
- Dragon Lady: Much more so than Chun-Li, as she's a Dark Action Girl under M. Bison's orders, serving his every desire.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: She shares the same defeat pose as Chun-Li but with a twist. Being a Robot Girl, Shadow Lady starts to short-circuit on the ground, and soon enough, explode on the spot.
- Energy Weapon: Her Big Bang Laser is large powerful beam.
- Evil Costume Switch: Once Bison has her under her employ, Chun-Li now dresses in a fully black qipao with yellow lines, and her full body is entirely obscured.
- Femme Fatale: Chun-Li as a literal killing machine under Bison's orders.
- Forced into Evil: Captured and forced into becoming an evil enforcer by Bison and Shadaloo.
- Fighting from the Inside: Eventually her old memories resurfaces and she finally overcomes the Shadaloo programming, joining Shadow in his fight against Bison.
- Heel–Face Turn: After escaping from M. Bison, she and Shadow join together against him.
- Hidden Weapons: Can morph her hands into drills, fire a large beam (Big Bang Laser) from her palms and fires homing missiles from her back.
- Hyperspace Arsenal: Drills, plasma beams, missiles and electric shield, all contained within her metallic frame.
- Hand Blast: Her Big Bang Laser is launched from her palms.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Has a built-in auto targeting system that allows her to fire rockets from her back.
- Iconic Outfit: Wears a modified version of her iconic blue Qipao costume.
- Killer Robot: Similar to Charlie becoming Shadow, Chun-Li is turned into a killing machine using Shadaloo technology and Psycho Power.]]
- Kick Chick: Shadow Chun-Li retains some of normal Chun-Li's kick moves.
- Late to the Tragedy: In his ending, Shadow Charlie and Shadow Lady convert Jin into a cyborg after finding his body.
- Lightning Bruiser: Like normal Chun-Li, but only much faster and stronger.
- Loss of Identity: Underwent this upon being reconstructed, but she eventually regains it.
- Made of Phlebotinum: Her drills are made of an alloy of "Light Ceramical Titanium", the Japanese name of "Ceratanium", a special material featured in the Mega Man series.
- Morph Weapon: Shadow Lady's robotic shell contains a veritable arsenal of high-tech weaponry, including drills and homing missiles.
- Murderous Thighs: Even as a cyborg, Shadow Chun-Li retains the muscular thighs.
- Not Herself: After first reawakening as Shadow Lady, she retains no traces of her personality as Chun-Li and behaves like, well, a robot who's been programmed to obey Shadaloo.
- Palette Swap: Shadow Lady is a cyborgized Chun-Li ala Shadow in the vein of Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter. She gains a lot of brand-new original moves while retaining a few of Chun-Li's originals.
- Phlebotinum Rebel: Type 5 - Chun-Li was captured by M. Bison and forcibly transformed into a Robot Girl, but she runs away from him.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Seems to have this with Shadow, who was also turned into a cyborg like her and now work together to stop Shadaloo.
- Prayer Pose: While bowing down, the Galaxy Missiles fire off from her back.
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: As with normal Chun-Li, Shadow Lady retains Chun-Li Hyakuretsu Kyaku special move where she strikes several kicks quickly.
- Reforged into a Minion: Bison captured his hated arch-nemesis and reforged her into a dutiful soldier...atleast for a while.
- Robot Girl: She is Chun-Li transformed into a cyborg girl with a lot of enhancements.
- Shock and Awe: The Plasma Barrier move can stun opponents.
- Spam Attack: Her Hyakuretsukyaku/Infinity Leg kicks allow her to kick very rapidly.
- Swiss-Army Appendage: Her hands turn into drills.
- Secret Boss: She can be faced in Arcade Mode after fulfilling a set of requirements including perfect victories and use of Hyper Combos in previous fights. Unique to her, M. Bison appears to present her as the opponent.
- Super-Soldier: The intention from Bison's experients on her: to turn her arch-enemy into a powerful enforcer bent to his will.
- This Is a Drill: Shadow Lady's Miracle Drill move turns her hands into drills and charge her towards her opponent.
- Tron Lines: Her clothing now has glowing yellow lines.
- Turned Against Their Masters: Following Shadow in this after her memories return.
- Unwilling Roboticization: Chun-Li was captured and forced into becoming Shadow Lady by Bison.
- Unwitting Test Subject: In a similar vein to how Charlie was captured and experimented on, Chun-Li suffers the same fate as Shadow Lady.
- Videogame Dashing: Her Air Dash allows her to evade enemies and launch potential combos.
- Walking Armory: Shadow Lady's robotic shell contains a veritable arsenal of high-tech weaponry.
- Missile Lock-On: Her missile attacks home on her opponents.
- Flight: Has jet thrusters in her legs, altough this only allows her to dash in mid-air, not fly properly.
- Homing Projectile: The missiles are homing ones.
- Macross Missile Massacre: Her Galaxy Missile move allows her to fire a salvo of homing rockets from her back.
Marvel Special Partners
Marvel's selection of Special Partners is for the most part from the X-Men: Cyclops, Storm, Psylocke, Juggernaut, Iceman, Colossus, Rogue, Magneto, Sentinel and Jubilee. Joining them are the U.S. Agent and The Mighty Thor.
- Advertised Extra: Colossus, Jubilee, Juggernaut and Psylocke appear in the original key art (where the two sides face each other) despite being a minor part of the game.
- Anti-Air: Rogue's assist attack has her drop down and then dash at an angle upwards, making it an useful anti-air attack.
- Ascended Extra:
- Thor went from a minor stage/ending cameo in Marvel Super Heroes to a special partner, and then a full playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
- Jubilee was also ascended from a minor ending cameo in X-Men vs. Street Fighter.
- Blow You Away: Storm's assist attack is a whirlwind created on the opponent's spot.
- Dash Attack: Psylocke, Juggernaut, Colossus, U.S. Agent and Sentinel's assist attack are all this: they simply dash forward, from one end of the screen to the other.
- Death from Above: Iceman's assist attack has him drop some icebergs on the opponent's head.
- Demoted to Extra: All characters except Jubilee and Thor were playable in previous games.
- Eye Beams: Cyclops' assist attack is a crouching Optic Blast.
- Humongous Mecha: Sentinel, as usual. He towers over every character in the game.
- The Juggernaut: Well...Juggernaut! In the animation on the credits roll, he is shown going through every X-Men without problem...until Roll manages to somehow stop him with her little hands enough to repel him away.
- Killer Robot: Sentinels are built for this. Onslaught took control of them to attack his opponents, which is why it appears as an assist for him.
- Machine Monotone: Sentinel only utters a robotic "Destroy!" when summoned.
- Palette Swap: U.S. Agent, as in his previous appearance, is a black palette swap of Captain America.
- Secret Character: Sentinel is not in the partner select screen, and can only be selected by holding a button combination before a fight.
- Shock and Awe: Thor's assist attack is a lightning bolt.
- Spread Shot: Jubilee's assist attack shoots a number of fireworks in a spread pattern in front of her.
- Tornado Move: Storm creates a large tornado as part of her assist attack.
Capcom Special Partners
Capcom's selection of Special Partners comes from a variety of characters from old Arcade video games: Arthur, Unknown Soldier, Saki, Ton Pooh, Devilotte, Anita, Michelle Heart, Lou, Shadow and Pure & Fur (from Adventure Quiz: Capcom World 2).
- Advertised Extra: Arthur, Anita, Saki and the Unknown Soldier appear in the original key art (where the two sides face each other) despite being a minor part of the game. Saki and Ton Pooh also have original full-body art used in the instructions flyer.
- Anime Chinese Girl: Ton Pooh is one of the older examples in gaming, rocking a chinese martial artists design that was in vogue during late Eighties.
- Ascended Extra:
- Arthur made the jump to playable in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
- Saki went from here to become fully playable in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.
- Assist Character: Lou is helped by one of his origin game's power-ups, a little flame spirit called Firestorm (Akabii). Unknown Soldier comes together with a laser satellite from his game, too.
- Automatic Crossbows: Lou uses a gun-shaped one in his assist attack, shooting three arrows in quick succession.
- Badass Normal: Saki is just a normal human with a BFG.
- Battle Aura: Anita expels a powerful psychic aura at all times.
- Death from Above: Pure's attack has her summoning a rain of giant dice.
- Demoted to Extra:
- Shadow is the only previously-playable character that came back as an assist.
- In a different sense, most of these characters are the main heroes in their debut games, so they are demoted here to mere assist characters.
- The Cameo: Unlike all other Special Partners, Shadow does get a bit more of mileage appearing in the endings of Chun-Li and Shadow Lady.
- Clothing Damage: Just as in his origin series, if Arthur gets struck before finishing his assist attack, he will be thrown off-screen as his armor breaks apart, leaving him on his underwear.
- Elemental Embodiment: Lou's little partner Firestorm is a living flame.
- Explosive Stupidity: How Devilotte's assist attack works: she commands her lackeys to attack, but they instead end up blowing themselves and her up, leaving them with an Ash Face as they retreat.
- Forced Transformation: In the credits sequence, Pure turns Devilotte's mecha (with her and her lackeys inside!) into Eddie.
- Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: Anita gives the pointy finger to Roll after she repels Juggernaut in the credits sequence, making her cry.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: There's a chance that among the objects thrown by Anita is a death/knocked out Donovan.
- Home Stage: Strangely, Unknown Soldier appears to have a stage based on his game: "Headquarters of Evil", set in a big circular area with appearance of the bosses Whodin, Laidin and Bios in the background. The area appears to be a large tower, probably the Tower of Babel, the final stage in Forgotten Worlds.
- Inconsistent Spelling: Ton Pooh instead of Tong Pooh. Michelle Heart is also written Miechelle Heart or Michelle Hart sometimes.
- Kick Chick: Ton Pooh's assist attack is a sharp-as-sword turning flying kick.
- Jousting Lance: Arthur uses his trusty lance in his assist attack, throwing three in quick succesion.
- Knight in Shining Armor: Sir Arthur sports his very delicate armor, and can lose it with a single hit.
- Magic Staff: Pure uses one to summon her giant dice attack.
- Mind over Matter: Anita's assist attack, where she levitates an assortment of objects and then throws them forward.
- More Dakka: Unknown Soldier and Michelle Heart wield machine guns, and let out a volley of shots as their assist attacks.
- No Name Given: The Unknown Soldier. This is a carry over from his Arcade game, where the two protagonists don't know nor care to have names.
- No-Sell: Unlike other Assist Partners, Devilotte can take up to 3 hits before retreating.
- Psychic Children: Anita. Unlike in Darkstalkers, her assist attack is one of the few direct displays of her powers in video game form.
- Secret Character: Shadow is not in the partner select screen, and can only be selected by holding a button combination before a fight.
- Shout-Out: Some of the alternate color palette are references to their games of origin:
- Unknown Soldier's is a red and black color resembling his 2P partner in Forgotten Worlds.
- Lou's is a green alt that resembles the colors of his 2P partner, Siva, from Midnight Wanderer.
- Ton Pooh's is a gray and black alt based on an Optional Boss version of herself from Strider.
- Small Girl, Big Gun: Saki wields a pretty large Positron Rifle.
- Terrible Trio: Devilotte comes accompanied by her two cronis from Cyberbots, Dave the Scientist and Xavier the wizard, who command her mecha to perform an attack only to blow up in their face.
- Unblockable Attack: Devilotte's explosion assist can't be blocked.
-
What Could Have Been: Capcom's side is short 2 Special Partners compared to Marvel, but there were plans to add Reval the Elf and Lancelot to the roster. - Winged Humanoid: Michelle Heart sports angel wings.
Boss
Onslaught
- A Darker Me: Onslaught is an even more insane/evil Magneto with a twisted version of Xavier's philosophies.
- Anti-Escape Mechanism: Onslaught can use Magneto's Hyper Gravitation move, which can track and capture his opponent in a ball of gravity for a while, leaving themselves open for Onslaught's attacks.
- Assist Character: Can summon Sentinels to attack the player, as well as weaker duplicates of the playable fighters.
- A God Am I: He proclaims as such, and all Marvel secret characters (his creations) proclaim him a god as well in their win quotes.
- A Winner Is You: His ending in the ports he's playable is the same as the Marvel secret characters: Onslaught posing while the game congratulates you for winning with a secret character.
- Badass Boast: If he wins, he cruelly twists Charles Xavier's pro-mutant creed back at the player.Onslaught: THE DREAM IS DEAD.
- Beam Spam: Onslaught loves to spam his laser beams during his 2nd phase, creating 4-6 pillars of energy all over the ground.
- Evil Is Bigger:
- His initial form towers over every other character. His second form is even larger and can no longer fit on the screen, similar to Apocalypse before him.
- He is also a much bigger Evil Knockoff of Magneto in his design and gameplay: he looks like a buffed-up monstrous Magneto and has a lot of moves from his previous game appearances, only juiced up considerably.
- Face–Heel Turn: Onslaught is Xavier turned into an evil Omnicidal Maniac.
- Ground Wave: Onslaught has Magneto's Magnetic Shockwave Hyper Combo, only much bigger and yellow.
- Healing Boss: While Onslaught sends in a weak copy of a character to fight you, he stands in the background and slowly heals his red health. The only way to stop this is to beat the clone quickly.
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: As Xavier can't stop himself once he becomes Onslaught, his call for help to the Capcom heroes is to help stop his rampage before it's too late. He's rescued without killing him, fortunately.
- One-Winged Angel: His first form is imposing and looks akin to a particularly jacked-up Magneto. Then, when the fight transitions to the second phase, he grows gargantuan and sheds his helmet for a demonic-looking Nightmare Face.
- Pillar of Light: In his second form, he can create massive pillars of blue energy as an attack.
- Power Floats: Onslaught's idle stance has him floating in place at all times. His 2nd force takes this further, as he's so large he is required to fly in order to fit the screen.
- Prepare to Die: When he goes One-Winged Angel.Onslaught: NO ONE IS SAFE!
- Promoted to Playable: He becomes a Secret Character in the console ports.
- SNK Boss: Onslaught ticks basically all the boxes, with bonkers damage output, super-armor that requires a multi-hit combo to make him even flinch — which only really serves to interrupt an attack, not combo with— and complete immunity to throws and auto-combo moves. Then you defeat him, and he takes on a second form, in the form of a 30-foot Eldritch Abomination, who freely flies around the battlefield, now has ludicrous damage output, and can only be damaged by hits to his small and usually high off the ground face.
- Spanner in the Works: In this version of the story, Xavier reached out to the Capcom world for help as well, adding extra assistance to put an end to his own rampage.
- Teleport Spam: Onslaught tends to use his teleport move to switch sides on the screen, often consecutively. He also uses it to escape if locked into a Hyper Combo or just a regular one.
