Marvel vs Capcom 2

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (360 and PS3 port)

Rating: T

Score: 9.0/10

I don’t usually review WiiWare/Xbox Live Arcade/Playstation Network games but this is an exception. It’s a game that I played on an arcade years ago and loved more than any other arcade game I’d ever played.  It is now being ported to Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Is it still as good as it was, or was it only good on the arcades?

Marvel vs Capcom 2 is a simple fighting game with an interesting mechanic: you choose three characters at once, but only play one at a time. During the battle, you can call a partner in to help you (usually by attacking the opponent) then leave (these are called “assists”), or you can switch characters completely. This means you could be in a heated match between Wolverine and Ryu, and suddenly Juggernaut would jump in to punch Wolverine, and then jump out. It not only can help you get a large combo going, but it also does instant surprise damage to your opponent.

The characters can also attack at once if you have a full “Super Meter”. Once activated, everyone jumps out to attack for massive damage. If you don’t have enough reserve in your Super Meter, you might still have enough to have a single character use his super attack. To get more bars in your Super Meter, just keep attacking the opponent.

To prevent the three versus three battles from becoming stale, there are a full fifty-eight characters: Half from Marvel, half from Capcom! In the Capcom section, you’ll find the likes of Megaman, Jill Valentine, and Ryu. In the Marvel section, you’ll find Spiderman, Iron Man, and The Hulk. Each character has three different “sets” you can use. They range from (but aren’t limited to) sets like “Projectile sets”, “Dash sets”, and “Variety sets”. Each set has different assist and move sets, so arguably there are 174 different characters to choose from. Wow, that’s a lot of programming! (Fun fact: that also means that there are 195,112 possible combinations of character teams, and 7,427,658,739,644,928 possible combinations if you count in sets.)

This game isn’t in HD, which is weird since Capcom’s port of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo was as a “HD remix”, cleverly called Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix. It still looks better, and plays just as smoothly as the arcade version ever did. It’s also Widescreen format, which is great as well.

The only problem I encountered was a glitch preventing me from playing the game. Well, that’s kind of serious. Turns out if I delete my save file from the hard drive, it works fine again (don’t worry, you don’t lose anything in doing that, all the characters are unlocked at the start). It was worth mentioning for people with the same problem - if you got to the first screen, but couldn’t get anywhere else.

Another problem is that the music is horrible. The music is upbeat jazz and light rock music, some of which is very repetitive. Of all music genres to pair with a fighting game, why choose jazz and light rock?

Overall, it’s one of those fighting experiences that can’t be missed. It’s interesting gameplay with a  huge roster of well-known characters, and hundreds of sets; the few minor problems can be overlooked. It also helps it has nostalgic value too. Why can’t all fighting games be this good?