"To Hell with Capcom vs. SNK2, I'm going to the Marvel vs. Capcom2 machine!"

When I first began to start to play fighting games on a serious level a couple of years ago, I decided to pass up on Marvel vs. Capcom 2 because it appeared too spontaneous and chaotic for beginners to the fighting game scene to handle. To this day, I still believe that notion.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is a well-received sequel to its incredibly glitchy predecessor. As well as hosting a staggering 56 characters, Capcom decides to also expand the number of people on a team to a 3-on-3 format. It is clear that this game is the epitome of quantity over quality in the fighting game world.

If the massive cast of loveable characters does not attract the attention, the rapid, if not spontaneous, the gameplay of the actual fighting matches is the most unique of its kind. As two fighters engage in a brawl, they can summon one of their teammates during mid-match to extend a combo into ultimate damage. Even though the untrained eye sees random button mashing, the fights are actually controlled chaos where top-level fighters can really string these fast-paced inputs into either a high damage combo.

Talking about the combo system, it is very much combo friendly. Just about every character can string two short attacks into a launcher to really unleash a lot of damage in the air depending on the character. Since the game's super meter can hold up to five supers, a combo can finish in a very flashy fashion where each member can blast the opponent by canceling individual supers with each other through DHC (delayed hyper combo) or just do them at the same time with a THC (team hyper combo). Finally, there are a lot of infinites within the game, where one person can juggle an opponent with no limitations (other than skill) until the enemy is dead. So if you are the type of person that hates to get nailed with an infinite, then just be forewarned when you come across a veteran Iron Man, Magneto and/or Storm player.

Although there is a massive bulk of characters, most of these characters tend to go unplayed due to a severely noticeable tier system. For example, the characters of Magneto and Storm are often picked over people like Spiderman or Ryu because the former have more mobility, high combo potential and wield very safe supers whereas the latter lacks all of these positive traits and are often served a quick defeat even when both sides are played in an expert's hands. This tier system creates a character imbalance greater than even the one in Capcom vs. SNK2.

In addition, MvC2 is considered as one of the most popular arcade games to play in the nation so the competition at the arcades can be really steep, giving emphasis in California and New York, for a newbie to just wander in off the streets. Basically, rather than fighting an really stupid AI that will eat random supers 20 times over (and an even more ridiculously easy boss), just don't complain when getting dealt a loss from a guy playing the dreaded MSP (Magneto/Storm/Psylock) team. Since the arcade version has been out for over six years now, don't be surprised to run in on a long time vet of the game.

All in all, this game wasn't as bad as I made it out to be years ago. Although it looks very random, months of getting used to the combo system and the unique characters erases the label of the game being “another button masher game”. Instead, this game requires a lot of skill. So once that skill of executing many different sequences of buttons is tapped into, this game is actually very deep and very exciting.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/20/06