"Another VS. game? Yes, and a lot more"

Probably unable to think of a more general name for Capcom's new Vs. game, they just decided to name it Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Even though the name is unimaginative, there are several new additions to the Vs. formula that make it seem anything but unimaginative.

For one thing, there are 56 characters in this game, the most of any fighting game ever. It begins with about half of them however, but when you put money in the game, the game gets points. After a certain amount of points, new characters and new color schemes for old characters are released. In the end, there are 56 characters with 6 color schemes each. The drawback to this is that there is only one ending this time around. Having endings for all those characters would probably be stupid. Besides, the endings in Vs. games haven't been that great, so good riddens. Oh, by the way, the characters include everybody that has appeared on a Marvel licensed Capcom fighting (X-Men, Marvel Super Heroes, and the Vs. games). If that wasn't enough, they brought 2 more Marvel characters, Cable and Marrow, made Dr. Doom and Thanos fully playable and gave us the adamantiumless Wolverine along with the old one. On the Capcom side, two brand new characters were created, bringing in Anakaris, Felicia and B.B. Hood from Vampire Savior, plus bringing in Hayato from Star Gladiator/Plasma Sword, even bringing in Sonson from the TurboGrafx 16 game.

Did Capcom stop there? No, of course not. They altered the entire format to 3-on-3. Yes, now you have three characters to whoop with. This is possible with the Naomi arcade board, which this game runs on. Now, there are two drawbacks to this. One is that you have the same amount of time to whoop on three people than you did when you only had to whoop too. This leads to more timeouts than usual, which is kinda disappointing. The other drawback is that they had to alter gameplay a lot.

It's still a 6-button layout, but it's been changed. There are 2 punch buttons, 2 kick buttons and 2 assist buttons. You can no longer do Strongs or Forwards by themselves, and this alters nearly everybody's move set. For example, to do Ken's overhead kick, they have to do f + Roundhouse. Chain combos are now done by pressing, Jab, Short, Jab, Short, Fierce, Roundhouse. It will feel awkward, but you will get the hang of it. Problem is, I can't play using the old system on the other Vs. games anymore. You can tag whichever partner you want by pressing the weak attacks or the strong attacks, and that's cool. The assist buttons are for calling out one of your partners and having him do an attack, a-la MSH vs. SF. You can even choose what attack they do before the fight. You are kept from repeatedly calling out your partners like a schmoe and since they taunt after they do the attack, they are left quite open. This way there is not as much abuse as it was the last time. There is still abuse as some attacks can catch you off guard like before and set you up for some serious damage. The Crossover Combo can now be done by simply pressing both assist buttons and yes, all 3 members of the team can come out with a flashy hyper combo, provided you have enough energy (you now have 5 levels of Hyper Combo energy this time around). Plus the delayed hyper combos from the EX versions of the Vs. games are in this game, but you can cancel into your partner's super. You can now add on to any Hyper Combo with your partner's, plus it is also a very safe way of tagging out.

MvC2 features 3D backgrounds, which all look very nice when you can notice. But who notices backgrounds in the middle of a match? In addition, there are some other 3D effects in the game, like hit effects and pretty much every other screen in the game. Anyway, it seems that the backgrounds clash with the 2D characters, making them look more pixelated. It shouldn't take away from your experience that much though. Also, the animation for old characters hasn't improved at all. Not that I blame them, since it would be tough to do, but the guys who haven't been seen since X-Men look kinda bad in comparison. Again, not that I can notice when I'm fighting, I'm just saying.

Soundwise, the music is definitely more upbeat and jazzy, kinda even more so from previous Capcom 2D fighters. Some may not like it, some will like the change of pace, some won't even care. The announcer is more verbal and a guy this time around, saying things like, ''Oh man, I almost had a heart attack.'' Announcers are getting more verbal in Capcom games, such as SF3: Third Strike and SFA3, so I guess this is a trend. Voices are voices and they come out quite clear.

All in all, this is a very good game and no 2D fighting game fan should pass it up.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/02/00, Updated 07/02/00