The Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection appears to be removing one of the goofiest guest characters of all time

Though you’ve probably never gotten to play him in the first place

The recent announcement of the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection got fans around the world excited to finally gain easy access to these arcade classics though not everything is going to be the same as it was on the cabinets.

On top of the addition of some nice new features to modernize the compilation, it appears Capcom is going to be cutting arguably the silliest fighter they’ve ever made.

This would of course be the infamous yet still farily obscure inclusion of Norimaro in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter.

Norimaro was a special guest character created by Japanese comedian Noritake Kinashi as a pretty stereotypical cowardly / awkward high school nerd who asks the other fighters for their autograph and wants to take their picture.

Although he started out as mostly just a joke, former Capcom artist, writer and translator Katsuya Akitomo revealed that Producer Yoshiki Okamoto said they promised Kinashi to feature Norimaro in their next Street Fighter release.

Okamoto himself wasn’t reportedly wasn’t a fan of the “mind-bogglingly uncool” character, but legendary artist Akiman loved him and so was made a reality for Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter.

“back on topic: ultimately, MSHvSF’s most impactful character was Norimaro—he’s a character created by Noritake ‘Noritaro’ Kinashi with the TV show Tunnels no Namade Daradara Ikasete, and Okamoto-san thought he was mind-bogglingly uncool, but…”https://t.co/FxMCf1tbLY

— GSK | https://cohost.org/gosokkyu (@gosokkyu) October 31, 2020

Unsurprisingly, Marvel themselves apparently were not down with Norimaro at all either, so he was made a Japanese-exclusive character as a compromise.

As for the new MvC collection, it certainly looks as though the comedic guest has been removed entirely.

“Marvel was violently opposed; naturally, they didn’t want some random unpowered gag character going to-to-toe with their heroes. we pleaded desperately & tried to assuage them—’we’ll only use him in Japan!’—and so he’s missing from the overseas versions”https://t.co/UheWyNgZUj

— GSK | https://cohost.org/gosokkyu (@gosokkyu) October 31, 2020

While other hidden fighters like Cyber Akuma can now be unlocked through settings in the changes made to the arcade originals, there is no mention of removing Norimaro — though there’s no reference to him at all on the Japanese website for the compilation.

No entry exists for him on the character page for Marvel vs. SF (where as even Cyber Akuma now does), and a screenshot of the fighter select screen shows Norimaro’s usual spot at the bottom has been replaced by the game logo like in other releases of the game.

Norimaro’s absence likely boils down to licensing issues with Capcom probably not wanting to need to rope Nippon TV and Arrival back into the fold on top of Marvel/Disney.

Or maybe the powers at be still simply do not like him and wished to avoid jumping through the extra hoops just to get him back.

Norimaro also didn’t really play like a normal fighter with the majority of his damage not coming from big attacks and combos but comedically throwing random items at the opponent from his bag and trying to push / kick them away.

It seems this inadvertent fighting style likely helped inspire Phoenix Wright’s playstyle and mechanics years later in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

And though he technically remained a Japan-exclusive character, localization and translation work for Norimaro did appear to basically be done and still in the code but unused.

Other English versions of Marvel vs. Street Fighter could be modded to use Norimaro where he’d be shown to have fully translated victory quotes and character ending too (though he shows up with Captain America’s name).

The new Marvel vs. Capcom collection could have been a fun way to make Norimaro officially playable and finally use that work officially, which likely would have confused much of the playerbase outside of Japan, though it seems that won’t be happening.

He won’t be the only removal / content adjustment found in the compilation either.

Comparison of Noritake Kinashi’s motion capture shenanigans at Capcom headquarters and the Marvel Super Heroes VS Street Fighter Norimaro sprites based on them. pic.twitter.com/NV1SotI8yC

— felineki (@felineki) February 15, 2020

The first Marvel vs. Capcom title is listed as having some stages that were altered, which likely includes Honda’s Bathhouse to take out the rising sun from the background as well as potentially the pinup model on the calendar and man toweling himself off though that hasn’t been fully confirmed yet.

This new MvC Fighting Collection won’t be releasing on Xbox at all nor have a native PlayStation 5 version, and we recently took a look into why that is too.

Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is set to release in 2024 on the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC.