In a study released concurrently with Monday’s announcement that arcade fighting classic Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 would see re-release on Xbox Live Arcade and PSN this summer, MIT researchers announced that beta participants uniformly suffered from a new form of delusion. Dr. Raymond Ng summarized the results, saying, “We looked at players’ stated earlier abilities, and their abilities in observed testing, and found that the gap was often massive. Players seem to be unable to remember just how terrible they were at MvC 2.”

The results were surprising for many. Hardcasual editor Chris Plante bragged, “Oh, man. I can run that game. I used to hang out at the Chinatown arcade with a Servbot / Ryu / Carnage team that would completely own.” When told that Carnage was actually not a character in Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, Plante looked confused and absent-mindedly removed his shoes.

“This is the kind of behavior we see,” said Dr. Ng, “Among the truly delusional players. When their fond memories of these games are challenged, they become nearly catatonic. Really, most of these players were just mashing ‘fierce punch’ as hard as they could and occasionally pulling off a quarter-circle turn. Once they’re faced with online competition… Well, they may be in for a terrible shock.”

Similar research, released in the ramp-up to Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: HD Remix, had revealed that many players remembered Street Fighter 2as being “fun,” only to be shocked to realize that the game really was anything but that.

Dr. Ng and his team are preparing to begin a new study on Killer Instinct fans, examining the effects of nostalgia on the human brain’s ability to romanticize a completely forgettable fighting game.