Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes is easily one of the greatest comic book video games of all time without a question. Whether you’re a competitive fighting game player or just like to see beloved characters fill the screen with giant explosions, it’s impossible not to get sucked in by its gorgeous sprite work, expansive roster, jazzy soundtrack and ear worm of a character select screen song. It’s a shame then that for approaching 9 years now, MvC2 has been unavailable for purchase after its digital only rerelease on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and mobile devices was delisted in late 2013. Unless you bought it already on one of these platforms or own a physical copy for either the Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 or Xbox, your only recourse to experience this classic is emulation or paying a lot of money on the secondary market for a disc.

At least, that was the case until today.

During a live-stream as part of EVO 2022, Arcade1up debuted the first episode of a program dubbed That 1up Show where they announced that they’re bringing back MvC2 as part of their line of home arcade machines. Though no price point has been released yet, the unit is available for pre-order on Arcade 1up’s official site starting on 9/8 with a promise that it will ship shortly after that. Like other releases, MvC2 will be playable online via Wi-Fi, and it will come with 7 other games. The full roster of titles on the cabinet includes the following:

• Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes
• Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes
• Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter
• X-Men vs. Street Fighter
• Marvel Super Heroes
• X-Men: Children of the Atom
• Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems
• X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse

Notably absent is Capcom’s beat ’em up The Punisher which has been released on other Arcade 1up machines. Had that game had been included, this would be the complete compilation of Capcom’s Marvel output, but if you’ve been waiting on picking up one of these home cabinets for MvC2, you’re getting a stacked roster of games.

While it’s great to see MvC2 come back in some form, it’s still somewhat of a monkey’s paw wish after fighting game video producer and streamer Maximilian Dood spearheaded the #FREEMVC2 initiative in 2021. Yes, MvC2 is indeed free, however unless you have both the money and space, it’s still not in a form factor that’s conducive to the mass market. Also, if you’ve already have one or more of Arcade1up’s Marvel cabinets in your home, it’s a steep price tag for one game, even if that game happens to be Marvel vs. Capcom 2.

With this latest release though, there’s at least some hope that Marvel vs. Capcom 2 will once again land on consoles. Just last year Arcade1up put out machines that housed Konami’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade machines and now those will join other games later this month on the highly anticipated Cowabunga Collection.

You can be notified of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 pre-orders HERE