Marvel vs. Capcom 2

"Basically Another Best-of Fighter."

I did a review of the arcade version beforehand. My views of the game and how it works will change somewhat...

Now say that you're one of those people that grew up within the era of 2D fighting genre games since Street Fighter II. Great leaps and bounds have been made since then. You bought the cartridge games, bought the imports, and had basically funded any company that had two characters fighting each other. And in every game you played, your character had some sort of reason for being there.

Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, however, is not one of those traditional fighters. It's basically another one of those ''Best Of...'' fighters which rehashes the past characters and added new ones. All existence of plot had been removed (outside the introduction of the final boss known as Abyss) for the sake of gameplay; which ironically is nothing more than combos, combos, and more combos.

It starts the ''death of good ideas'' trend in video games: If your game doesn't have that splashy special effects or the ability to create a +100-hit combo; then it shouldn't even exist. MvC2, and SNK Vs. Capcom afterwards, caters to this crowd. And I can hear the heads over at ''Captain Commando Headquarters'' laughing their butts off as they roll in the big bank accounts on the games they recycle.

What made me finally buy the game, and the Dreamcast system with it, is the ability to ''buy'' characters after receiving some odd points for playing the game. Starting off with 24 characters; you can drop by the store and buy the other 32, their new colors, or a new stage.

[But in reality it means that you can buy the ones you want, and leave the rest of them on the shelves. I mean... 56 characters, right? That's 4 Shotokans, 2 Wolverines, 2 Ironmen, and a Servbot which hangs around Tron Bonne, right. And that's mostly palette swaps. So it finalizes itself as 50 characters.]

With that all being written, here's my review:

Gameplay: 6

I never did like the idea of ''Aerial Raves.'' The ability to launch your opponent in the sky and do whatever is not something I'd wanna go overboard with. The idea had its limits in other games. And also some of these characters are just way too overpowered; even though discriminated tweakings have been done on Strider, Spider, Wolverine, and Akuma.

Story: 2

Deya Iz None! The main characters seem to be Ruby Heart and Cable: Ruby for seeking the powers of Abyss, and Cable (probably from the future, join the club) on a mission to destroy the dreaded being ''for his future.'' New characters introduced into the Vs. game are:

Marrow (X-Men's Morlocks)
Jill (Resident Evil)
Tron Bonne and Servbot (Megaman)
Amingo (Buster Bros.)
Sonson (''Monkey Magic's'' Kongo rip-off?)
Hayato (Plasma Sword)
B.B. Hood, Felicia, and Anakaris (Darkstalkers)

The newcomers are welcome and fresh. The recycled characters are an extra-special spice. But it's the palette swaps I can't stand.

Audio/Video: 5

I stand corrected with the music used in the game. It's a refreshing change from all the re-used character theme songs running around. And having 50 characters herein said game; well of course you need some new music. The announcer is not as much on a caffeine high like the guy used in Street Fighter Alpha 3...

What the guys over at Capcom NEED to do is: Get rid of all that 3-D garbage. Do those special intros. (Like have Logan and Creed do a little discussion with each other. We can always skip it. ^_^;) And have some parting words from the winner of each bout. (Marrow's ''You Make Me Sick!'' or Felicia's ''Here I am again!'' Something like that.)

Replayability: 7

Never mind that it's a mind-numbing fighter. Knowing that you can buy the characters YOU want is an added bonus. I always joked that Ryu Hoshi is basically ''Evangelion's'' Shinji Ikari with a blackbelt and a lifelong search for battle; and that Scott Summers is Kensuke Aida with a really severe eye infection. Of course these two guys are gonna be best buddies!

To buy or to rent?

BUY!! Forget SNK Vs. Capcom! Buy the King of Fighters '98. Buy Street Fighter Alpha 3, 3.3, and EX3. If you can, hunt down the imports. But for the love of all things 2D fighting! Get this and tell the world ''Yes! Even li'l lego-like thingies can kick Dan Hibiki's butt 7 days a week!''

Overall: 5

This review is from someone who buys import fighter games filled with schoolkids kicking each other's butts. As well as waitresses, samurai and ninjas, and mobile suits. I've managed to steer myself away from games like Mortal Kombat, and the only 3D games I cared to put my money on were Rivals Schools and Dead Or Alive. Everyone dreams of combining words to create a new one; even though sacrifices were made in order to bring out the best work. And Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 is one of our dream's byproduct.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 12/28/00, Updated 12/28/00