Marvel vs. Capcom

"Spiderman vs. Captain Commando!!!!! Yay!"

Marvel vs. Capcom is a 2-D fighting game originally released for arcade and then ported to the Dreamcast. This port of Marvel vs. Capcom is one of the best ports that you are likely to see. It is a work of art.

As with most 2D fighting games, there is very little story, but as the game is so good, no story line is needed to hold it all together. As the title suggests, this game has a selection of Capcom characters and Marvel characters. This means that you can have Ryu fighting Spiderman, or the Hulk fighting against Captain Commando. As Marvel characters were not developed solely for fighting games, some of the special moves and super combos are exaggerated, just slightly. This means that you can have a 52 hit super combo. Imagine the headache you'd have after that.

Unlike Street Fighter Alpha 3, anyone who can pick up a Dreamcast pad can play this. Instead of requiring you to input incredibly complex and intricate super combos, you can set it up so that all you have to do is to press two buttons together at the same time. It's as easy as overtaking a Reliant Robin in a Ferrari F430. In fact, it's probably easier than that.

Where this game excels over Alpha 3 is that you can have four player 2D fighting. The system operates a little like a tag team battle, but certain combinations of moves allow both characters on a team on the screen at the same time. This means buckets of fun ganging up on the sole character on the other team. Although this 2 on 1 period only happens occasionally, the tag team style is still very good and thoroughly enjoyable. I would recommend using this game at a party as four people can play at once and the difficulty is by no means draconic.

The graphics of Marvel vs. Capcom are not brilliant. Some of the characters appear slightly pixelated upon close viewing, but the game speed more than makes up for this. Games like Street Fighter III : Thrid Strike surpass this game graphically, but some of the crazy magic that Marvel vs. Capcom has is not there. In fact, even in the sequel, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, the game has somehow become toned down and just lacks a little bit a craziness that its predecessor had in bucket loads.

I found that the range of characters is really good. Although the choice is nowhere as diverse and varied as the characters on Alpha 3, most fighting styles and character types are covered by the selection of about 20 characters in Marvel vs. Capcom. Imagine walking into a supermarket and being confronted with about 40 different types of tomato soup, you wouldn't know which one to choose would you. Then imagine how much easier it would be to choose a can if there were only 20 to choose from. Alpha 3 has more choice just for the sake of having more choice rather than to enhance the game play.

Overall, Marvel vs. Capcom is one of my favourite 2D fighting games on the Dreamcast and I would strongly recommend that if you can find this game then you should buy it providing that the price tag is not astronomical. A thoroughly enjoyable game with all but no story that is still captivating and is suitable for newbie gamers as well as well seasoned gamers.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/26/07

Game Release: Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (EU, 06/23/00)