Spider-Punk lands in Marvel vs Capcom Infinite thanks to a giant mod with a revamped art style and new modes out this week

Fists up, a big fighting game mod is due out this weekend. Marvel vs Capcom Infinite came out in 2017 and got some flak for its plastic figurine art style. But this year a modder began work on an overhaul that would grant the game pretty cel-shaded visuals. Since then the modding team has grown to 40 people and the scope of the mod’s features has ballooned. It’s now going to include new moves, stages, costumes, and a chaotic-looking 2v2 multiplayer tag team mode. All good news for biff ’em up sickos, as the mod is due to release on Friday.

They’re calling the mod “Marvel Vs Capcom Infinite And Beyond”. Worth noting that Buzz Lightyear is not a character within either universe but we’ll let that go. The trailer above shows off a lot of thick black outlines, halftone effects, and a flash of Venom as he dons a cute baby blue symbiote. You can also catch a glimpse of an alternate costume for Spider-Man – the get-up of British quipster Spider-Punk, who appeared in the most recent animated webslinger flick Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse. Cool.

We spy some of those new arenas too, which we’re told are “nods” to stages previously used in the series. I don’t play a whole heap of MvC, so I only recognise the wireframe training room from Street Fighter. Please don’t take my biff ’em up badge. I worked so hard for it.

You’ll be able to grab the mod on the team’s website when it launches on December 20th, the creators say. “This was a labor of love from nearly 40 people over 8 months of work,” said Maximillian Dood, a streamer who commissioned the principal modder to continue work on the mod after catching wind of it back in May.

So there you go. It’s a neat overhaul. The cel-shaded style is used well to evoke manga and anime in the Arc System Works fighting games such as Guilty Gear Strive, so it makes perfect sense to me that an MvC game would look swish when done in a similar style.