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If you would ever like to see Jill Valentine from Resident Evil, Guile from Street Fighter, Megaman, Spider-Man, and Wolverine all in one game beating the crap out of each other than look no further than Marvel vs. Capcom 2. MvC2 is part of a series of games that started off with the arcade hit X-Men vs. Street Fighter back in 1996, culminating to a host of famous Marvel and Capcom characters in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 with characters from the X-Men, Street Fighter, Dark Stalkers, Mega Man, Resident Evil, Avengers, Spider-Man and more from each respective universe.
Originally released for arcades and then later Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, and Xbox, once a semi-scarce game to find on any platform, you can now download the game for 1200 MS Points ($15) and it includes the addition of online play. So while you could find a copy of the backwards-compatible Xbox original version of MvC2, you will have to deal with the emulation glitches and lack of online play.
The gameplay centers on the same basic 2D fighting that you would expect in Street Fighter games but with a few different twist. Besides the list of 56 characters to choose from with something for every fighter fan, the game is based around one round three vs three tag-team fighting. Whichever team has the most health or completely diminishes the health of the other team wins. With this, you can tag in and out, which can be crucial to winning, especially as depending on how hard you were hit or with what kind of attack you have an extra red health meter that can heal back up while you are tagged out. On the bottom of the screen you have a Power Gauge for when you use each characters “super combo”, and you are able to use up to all three characters depending on how well the power gauge is charged up. You charge the gauge up by landing attacks, but defending yourself from attacks as well. You can also use simple button presses (using mostly RB and LB) in conjunction with moving the directional pad/analog in certain directions to have one of your teammates show up on the screen and help you out for a moment. It can leave them open to attacks though, so mastering the art of countering becomes a necessity. You also have a special “snap back” ability that allows you to knock one of your opponents out for a short amount of time, making it easier to keep your opponent at bay. The controls are much easier to grasp than most Capcom fighters, giving you mainly two attack buttons, and the rest along with combinations of buttons are used for the characters’ various special attacks, and tagging out. These simple controls mean that two novice players could be playing so well after a few minutes that they could be looking like a pro, but many of these combo moves are automatic for a reason. The true challenge is mastering the countering and tagging out system. This means that despite it being slightly more accessible than most 2D fighters, along with the great variety, newcomers and casual fighter fans would probably be better off not buying the game. That is specifically because of online play.
While online play has been a popular request since the Sega Dreamcast days, Capcom and XBLA/PSN port developers Backbone Entertainment have done less than an admirable job of implementing it. The mode is the most basic it can be, giving you little info on fighters before a match starts, and both Quick Match, and Searching for a game by looking at a list of available games can be a frustrating experience. You are given little indication about what the other player is doing when you start the match, and unless you have decent ping (something the game lets you look at when checking out a list of available games) you are in for a really bumpy ride. Even if the ping starts out fine, the match could end up being you moving slowly around in one general spot, while the other player beats the hell out of you. The game also doesn’t do a very good with actually matchmaking you against someone that is of the same skill; in fact it doesn’t do it at all. The majority of the time you will go against people that know every detail about the inner workings of the game, and be greeted by a flash of combos, counters, and you trying feverishly to figure out how to best the guy that has had these things memorized since the game originally came out back in 2000 if you haven’t kept up yourself. If you haven’t you could always try out the training mode, which should get most veteran fighter fans into the mix, but the lack of any true tutorial mode still keeps it restricted. You can also try your best at the basic Arcade Mode, and Time Attack Mode, with all modes having every single character already unlocked for you.
Besides the draw of the massive selection of familiar characters to choose from, there is a certain old school charm about the game that is really hit or miss, and has been since the games original release. The well detailed 2D sprite characters look pretty jarring against the 3D animated backdrops initially, but back when released and still now it is one of the best looking fighters of its kind. The music can be very annoying a long with the gargled and over repeating announcers voice, complete with weird jazz and a robot that sounds like he smoked an entire truck full of cigarettes, and while done pretty poorly it has it’s own “so bad it’s good” charm.
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Marvel vs. Capcom 2 answers the prayers of many 2D fighter fans everywhere with the addition of an online mode, but that is pretty much it for this bargain priced (1200 MS Points) fighter. The online mode itself is lackluster, and the lack of any truly good visual updates such as boosting the visuals to HD is a little disappointing. Still for the summer drought, and for those that have played Street Fighter IV from top to bottom should have a great time.
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