Marvel vs. Capcom 2

"A great fighter but did Capcom go too far off the edge?"

THE SEQUEL TO A GREAT FIGHTER
The first Marvel vs. Capcom was a great hit. Despite its somewhat small group of characters, it was an exciting fighting game with fresh new characters such as Captain Commando, Venom, and Strider Hiryu.
Then Capcom came out with the highly-anticipated MvC2. It boasted 3v3 matches with 56 characters and a new 5-level Super Bar. Even the dreaded Dreamcast controller was properly prepared for the game with the two assist buttons and the removal of the two middle-hit buttons. Clearly, our wish list from the first MvC was answered.

As an added plus, the game requires you to earn points in order to unlock new secrets hidden in the game. With the points you earn, you can purchase new stages, hidden characters, new color costumes, and other little tidbits. This can keep you hooked for hours, assuming that you're not using the Gameshark for points.

So how could all of this NOT gain a perfect 10/10? Lemme explain.

FLAWS AND SENSELESS TIDBITS
The first flaw came in when Capcom was revising the statistics for each fighter to balance things out. For example, fast and deadly fighters such as Strider and Wolverine would get lowered resistance to damage. Sounds reasonable, right? Unfortunately, Capcom went too far in this department. Some fighters are killed far too quickly while others take too long to die. Even the awesome Akuma can't withstand too many blows before he drops dead. I'm assuming that this was done as a way to prevent cheesiness from players choosing three of the same character (this may have inspired the Ratio system in Capcom vs. SNK). Tweaking the damage in the game down helps but even at a balanced damage rate, you'll still see the problem.

Another flaw was in graphics. The backgrounds are just drop-dead gorgeous on 640x480 resolution but why didn't Capcom fix up the sprites for each character? While the backgrounds are excellent, everyone in the game wasn't prepared for such a high resolution. While everyone doesn't look too bad, it just didn't make sense to why Capcom would design such gorgeous backgrounds fit for the resolution but leave the characters the way they are. Even the last boss Abyss was terribly done.

The computer is another problem. In the first MvC, the comp used each character depending on the traits of that character. If the character was a raging animal (Wolverine), then the comp would rush you and attack you like there was no tomorrow. If the guy was a skilled-martial artist (Ryu), then the comp would dash forward, go back, parry, etc. Now the comp has become very basic with each character, utilizing different attacks in similar ways. The difficulty, however, is odd. Sometimes the comp doesn't put up a fight and then turns around with the next character, mashing you into pulp (e.g. Jill, Iceman, Storm). This was the original problem that Mortal Kombat Trilogy had when it was still around.

A final problem was the music. While the sound effects don't get any better than this, the music was rediculous. There's nothing wrong with the music's quality itself. It's pleasant and clear to my ear's delight. But would you wear denim jeans and a KISS shirt to a wedding? Then why would Capcom want to put such pleasant music in such a spectacular fighting game? The first MvC's music was a series of adrenalized remixes of each character's theme song. The songs would play everytime a character enters the fight. It's kinda like WWF when each wrestler enters the fight. Now it's kinda hard to repeat that with 56 different theme songs but at least give us music that actually fits the game.

(This next one is my own opinion so you don't have to agree with me)

One thing that I found stupid was some of the rediculous characters in the game. There were idiots such as Servbot, Amingo, and Tron Bonne while Guy, Cody, Lilith and others continue to wait in line for their turn (there's no representatives for Final Fight). The Marvel side is completely filled, which explains the entrance of Cable and Marrow. That's fine but do we really need a second Wolverine? There are lots of people in the Marvel Universe and surely, one of them's gotta fit. Maybe Bishop, Archangel, Hawkeye, or even the Human Torch (as an opposition to Iceman).

GRAPHICS 7/10
As mentioned above, the backgrounds are gorgeous but the characters needed some work. The crew doesn't look too bad but take a look at Guilty Gear X's crew and you'll see a big difference in character sprites.

SOUND 7/10
The sound effects don't get any better than this. The music is jazzy and somewhat relaxing, which is something that you could enjoy when you're trying to escape stress. That's great but such music doesn't belong in a game where you're trying to beat your opponent into a lifeless corpse.

CONTROL 10/10
The new button layout makes better use of the Dreamcast controller, utilizing the top two buttons as assists and throwing away the two middle-hit buttons. The vets are gonna need a little time to adjust but once you get used to it, the game's as smooth as a shaved monkey.

GAMEPLAY 7/10
Fights are often fast and furious and loads of fun but players will often become frustrated at characters dying too quickly and comps playing with strange patterns.

OVERALL 8/10
You're gonna have alotta fun with this title. It's a fun game to play with and you'll be hooked for hours trying to unlock all of the secrets but you're gonna notice the major flaws that show up and you'll wish that Capcom took another look at the game before finally releasing it. In other words, it coulda been better.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/05/01, Updated 07/05/01