Oh well, let us know your impressions.
So I put together my MvC cabinet and recorded my thoughts in the process to help anyone thinking about picking one up in the near future:
Packaging: Everything in the MvC retail box was packaged really well. The side panels were placed at the center of the box surrounded by the boxes of the other parts and Styrofoam. Everything looks undamaged despite the outer box being worse for wear from shipping.
Assembly: Assembly took me about 90 minutes going at a leisurely pace. Someone with their mind focused on it could get the cabinet together in an hour. The last A1U cabinet I put together (Golden Axe) had multiple minor QA build issues such as slightly off screw holes which made assembly more difficult than it was supposed to be. I can say that the MvC cabinet I received had none of those issues. I'm not a fan of the assembly process A1U uses with their cabinets, but all the screw holes lined up perfectly and all the parts snapped together tightly.
Cabinet Aesthetics: The cabinet itself looks fantastic. The vinyl artwork is vivid & crisp. The light-up marquee distributes it's light evenly across the artwork.
Control Deck: The joystick and buttons are Sanwa clones. Testing out the game with Ryu I was able to pull off motion inputs without much difficulty in adjustment. I think I had a harder time getting re-adjusted to using a bat-top and American button layout than the actual controls. The joystick shaft has a standard Sanwa screw thread, so if you dislike bat-tops, you can easily swap them out for ball-tops. I think for most people looking to buy this cabinet, the stock controls will meet their needs. I know from working on my other A1U cabinets, the stock controls can be swapped out for higher quality sticks and buttons.
The MvC cabinet comes with a row of LED lights to illuminate the control deck during play. The plexiglass protective cover has the outlines of the control artwork with some kind of photo-reactive ink. When the LED lights are on, the joystick and button graphics light up with a really nice effect. Sadly I'm ultimately disappointed with this feature, as the LED lights also illuminate
EVERY hairline scratch or smudge on the plexiglass cover. When I first turned on the LED effect after building my cabinet, I noticed multiple patches of hairline scratches and smudges. Worse, while I was playing the cabinet, I noticed a growing ring of color around the joystick dust cover. The plastic dust cover was scratching the plexiglass which the LED lights were illuminating. I can only imagine as time wears on my control deck will look worse and worse as hairline scratches and smudges accumulate.
The Stool: A non-swivel stool about 30" in height. Unlike the stools A1U sells separately, this one is not height adjustable, so you can really only use it with the cabinet on a riser. Seat padding feels kind of thin; I might not want to sit on it for long sessions.
Online Experience: When I first turned on the cabinet, the system asked me if I wanted to connect to my wifi network. No problems getting connected and the cabinet immediately alerted me to an available firmware update. Creating an online player account was straightforward as well. I briefly tried to find an online game, but I had no luck. I assume with the cabinet being so new there isn't much of an online community yet. I'm curious how long the online community will stay active.
The Games: I gave MvC, XvSF, and that SNES game a quick try. Both XvC & XvSF have the option to go into the arcade test menu and change settings or run test diagnostics. The games run great and I didn't notice any apparent issues with the emulation. I am disappointed that there isn't an option in these games to add a scanline filter. A1U's Golden Axe cabinet has a scanline filter and it improves the overall look of the games immensely. I am hopeful with the wifi connectivity that A1U will be inclined to push out future updates to patch this filter in.
I'm not sure why A1U felt the need to include a SNES side-scrolling beat'em up with either version of this cabinet. Both cabinets have 3-4 great fighting games, filler wasn't needed. I assume A1U felt adding a single player game from another genre would boost the cabinet's appeal. I don't know why A1U didn't go with The Punisher, previously found on the Marvel Super Heroes cabinet. That would've been a fantastic game to include.
Conclusion: Overall my impression the Marvel vs Capcom cabinet is one of the better cabinets A1U has released. Is it worth the extra $100 over the $399 X-Men vs Street Fighter version? That's a tougher question to answer. While the cabinet artwork design is great, the other physical perks to the cabinet (the light-up control deck & custom stool) I don't really feel are worth that extra money. On the software side, the MvC gives you a different SNES Marvel game (which I think most people don't care about), swaps out Children of the Atom for Marvel Super Heroes, and adds Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter.
I think overall, the $399 XvsSF cabinet offers the best value for the money. I'd only recommend spending the extra $100 if you got to have the MvC cabinet artwork design or are a fan of MSH or MSHvSF.
