People seem to think that just because I praise Street Fighter III as being more about skill than flash, that I'm damning the versus series as a whole.
That's definitely not true.
Marvel vs Capcom 2 proves to be one of the best fighting games out there, one of the Dreamcast's most sparkling gems, and an awesome experience both for 1 player and multiple players alike. Yes, folks, the madness of Marvel can indeed coexist with the beautiful simplicity of Street Fighter III.
And this game is definitely mad, even more so than in previous incarnations. Here's a quick rundown. Marvel vs Capcom 2 takes Capcom's tag-team concept to new worlds. You select a total of three characters at the start, only this time all three can be tagged in or out in mid battle and become fully playable. The game does away with the medium punch and kick functions, replacing them, respectively, with ASSIST 1 and ASSIST 2, which are used to call in your tagged-out buddies for some assistance, ranging from health recovery to brutal mid-combo blows. Careful, though, as a character that's onscreen during an assist function looses tremendous amounts of life if struck by the opponent, so you'd better be very sure when using the feature.
The real fun starts when you get into the area of super moves. Capcom's hit the stratosphere in insanity, with massive displays of sprites and animation spewing across the screen, from Tron Bonn with her dozens of cloned robo dudes to Son Son's giant phallic symbol. You can call in all three combatants for a group super, or you can chain character supers one after the other. This is how those ridiculous combo counts seen in early shots have been achieved.
The game manages to play better through the standard Dreamcast controller thanks to the assist buttons being perfectly suited to shoulder presses, although the analogue shoulder buttons do feel a bit strange at times. If you're an old timer like myself and you play your fighting games with the three center fingers of your right hand instead of with your right thumb, you're going to need to do one of the following:
Pick up a Mad Catz Dream Pad 6 button controller: they've removed the stupid rubber coating from the D-Pad, and if you're real picky, you can swap the Mad Catz D-Pad with a D-Pad from your favorite Saturn controller (available used for less than 3 bucks).
 | Import a 6 Button Fighter's Pad from ASCII: Unlike the Twin Sticks or Maracas, these are in abundant supply, and should cost you less than 50 bucks at an import store. |
| Get yourself a Saturn to Dreamcast converter from an Online retailer (try NCS or Level Six),
find yourself a Japanese-style Saturn controller, and you're all set. The Saturn pad is
much better than the ASCII Dreamcast pad. Remember - all gamers need at least one Capcom-friendly controller. Control options aside, Marvel vs Capcom 2 takes some major amounts of getting used to in order to master its fighting system, and most people are probably gonna play the game without even trying to gain that mastery. They'll win or lose but won't necessarily be able to repeat their performance, and to them Capcom's button configuration will be reduced to one giant button the size of the controller with the words "mash, mash" inscribed upon it. All the while, onlookers won't have the slightest clue as to what's going on on-screen, especially during super chains. The game's an absolute riot none-the-less, especially in groups, and even the untrained can't deny how well-thought-out the whole thing feels. It doesn't feel necessarily as refined as a Street Fighter III, but considering the sheer level of insanity, the system is refined enough. Furthermore, you certainly can master the game with lots of practice through the very complete training mode. Practice your aerial raves, learn how to best achieve combos, all to the moral support of the game's fruity announcer (now with twice the fruit - you gotta hear how this guy announces the game's name at the title screen). Mastery takes an amazing amount of time with MVC2, and unless you get really good you're going to get non-stop whooped by your less skilled friends who fight haphazardly, but it's all in good fun, right? It's actually a lot easier to work at the game in one player mode thanks to the tremendous amount of variety and home options included. In addition to standard arcade and versus (human or CPU) modes, you'll find the aforementioned training mode and a survival mode of sorts. There's no network fighting mode, unfortunately, but maybe its better that Capcom got this game out now without the functionality, considering that a brand new fighter could be just around the corner. The coolest part of the game's one player mode is its cast of fighters, which at 56 characters (many of whom need to be unlocked) is larger than ever. The list includes the previously seen likes of Ryu, Ken, Cyclops, Wolverine, Iceman and hyper-cute Mega Man, but Capcom's also gone about giving us newbies such as Jill Valentine of Resident Evil fame, Tron Bonn, of Mega Man Legends fame, and Amigo of…. uhh, I think Amigo is one of the few original characters in the game (please correct me if I'm wrong). Each character behaves as you'd expect, with Jill Valentine calling on zombies and wolves as her means of attack while coming in with health (complete with the Resident Evil life-line icon) as her assist function. You unlock characters and new character colors by earning points in the various other modes of play, then purchasing them through a cute little character shop, and characters can be traded between VMUs by downloading a VMU exchange file. You seem to earn points for pretty much anything, including the training mode, giving us an incredible incentive to actually learn the system. And on top of that, whereas Marvel vs Capcom looked like an utter mess on the Dreamcast, with pixelization problems and a rushed-port feel to it, that's certainly not the case for the sequel - you'll play it just to admire its good looks. The arcade game was a sight to behold in the first place, with 3D backdrops more smooth and detailed than you'd expect on Naomi. Add in the 2D characters, whose animation is at the level of the original Marvel vs Capcom (not at the level of SFIII, though), and you have a game that could only look better if Capcom would make the move to full 640x480. The home version's presentation is rock solid as well, with the most attractive menus ever in a Capcom fighter, and minimal load times. I must also admit that, while I despised the jazzy, vocal sound track at first, I now consider it to be one of the greatest things in human history. It made me feel real hip while working my way through arcade mode as Mega Man, Tron Bonn, and Amigo. And oh boy is that intro cool - you gotta love an intro which lists the features of a game like a product spec sheet from the company. The only thing that could possibly hold you back from this game are the options of buying Alpha III or Double Impact in its place (both of which have just been released… reeeeeeeeal smart, Capcom). I still believe Alpha III has more going for it than any Capcom home fighter to date, although Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Double Impact win for having not been released on the PlayStation over a year ago. Thankfully, both Marvel and Double Impact are at opposite ends of the fighting spectrum, and can coexist on your gaming shelf. |
Hmm, also looks like my ex (ed's note: not bitter!)
I think it want's a high five?
One word, spiderman.