"A Button Masher's Dream"

Ah, the fighting game. Is there anything more enjoyable than going up against your buddies in a contest to pound each other's digital avatars into a bloody pulp?

Well, at least in theory. Some games blow the whole concept, and some of them blow the concept so badly that you wonder if anyone at R&D actually played the thing. Marvel VS Capcom 2 is such a game. I remember being distinctly unimpressed with its predecessor; the graphics were bright and colorful but failed to cover up the shallowness and repetitiveness of the gameplay. MvC2, instead of rectifying the flaws of the original, instead grossly inflates them. The gameplay is so horribly unbalanced and downright broken that the whole concept of skill does not even come into play.

It sure is pretty, though. Harnessing the power of the Sega NAOMI hardware, MvC2 features gorgeous 3D backgrounds that, despite being 3D, still manage to retain a hand-drawn, comic book feel. Special moves and super moves look equally spectacular, with enormous, over-the-top graphic effects that make earlier versions of the VS series look tame by comparison. Unfortunately, Capcom decided to reuse the exact same character sprites as before, giving the game a dated look. It must be some kind of inside joke inside Capcom HQ as to how many times they can reuse Morrigan's sprite before they have to redraw her. It would have been nice to see the character sprites at the same resolution as the rest of the game, a la Guilty Gear, but once again, Capcom's trademark laziness strikes again.

Making matters worse is the horridly discordant music playing throughout the battles. Unlike MvC, where the hyper, energetic tunes that perfectly matched the frantic pace of battle, MvC2 uses jazzy, easy-listening music that does not mesh with the gameplay at all. It doesn't drag the game down (at least, nowhere near as much as other flaws) but it makes one wonder if the composer actually knew what kind of game he was writing for.

The gameplay differs from the first MvC in several ways. Firstly, you now choose a team of three characters, similar to SNK's King of Fighters series. Secondly, and more importantly, those new to MvC2 will discover that Medium Punches and Kicks have been eliminated. Instead, when one wishes to use them in a combo, MvC2 will automatically fill them in between Strong and Weak punches and kicks. The effect of this is two-fold. Firstly, chain combos, which were fairly easy to do even in MvC, suddenly become even simpler. A novice to MvC2 with but a few minutes of practice can begin turning nine- or ten-hit combos with ease. Secondly, since MvC2 still uses the conventional six-button layout, the lack of Medium Punches and Kicks frees up an extra two buttons.

So what are these two buttons used for? In continuing with ripping off King of Fighters, hitting either will cause one of your teammates to come out and attack your opponent. The key difference between MvC2's assist system and KoF's striker system, however, is that there is no limit to how many times one can call out an assist attack. You only have to play the game against even a semi-skilled opponent to appreciate just how much this ruins the gameplay. Whether you win or lose hinges on how often you can call out assists, which becomes beyond irritating as the gameplay de-evolves into hitting the assist buttons over and over to play keep-away with your opponent. It also opens itself up to abuse, with such dirty tricks as calling an assist and performing a Super Jump at the same time, so your assist attack occurs off-screen against your hapless opponent.

Now, the infinitely-abusable assist system would be enough to cripple to game outright, but it's merely one in a system of string of offenses committed. The Super Combo system, in particular, deserves mention. One of the biggest flaws with MvC was how easily supers could be comboed into, allowing a single Weak Punch or Kick to initiate a string of moves ending with a super, taking off a good third or half of the opponent's health. Unfortunately, in MvC2, this problem has not been fixed; in fact, it has been made far worse. Now, not only can you do a chain combo into a super with ease, you can chain supers into a another super. It's possible to call out all three teammembers to super your opponent one after the other, easily going past 100 hits and doing more than enough damage to take your opponent's health from 100% to dead. As if that weren't bad enough, you can also call out all three teammembers to super your opponent at once. Either way, they're dead. Did I mention that all this mayhem can be still initiated with a single Weak Punch or Kick?

As if that weren't bad enough, character balance has been thrown away with such gleeful abandon that I wonder if the developers had even heard of the concept. Projectile-based characters like Cable or Magneto dominate with screen-filling supers and special moves, while characters without projectiles like Zangief are left utterly hapless. It's a shame, too, since Marvel VS Capcom 2 boasts one of the largest rosters of characters next to King of Fighters.

What all this means is that the game does not just allow "cheap" strategies, abuse, and button-mashing; it revels in them. That's not to say that MvC2 cannot offer up some enjoyable moments when played among friends, but played at higher levels the game becomes an absolute bore and one quickly grows tired of it. Marvel VS Capcom 2 is the game equivalent of cotton-candy: sweet-tasting, but you'll soon be left wanting more substantial fare.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 04/10/06