Marvel vs. Capcom

"All the fury of Capcom arcade fighting but it's coulda used more"

A DREAM COMES TRUE
After seeing so many crossover games such as X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, and so many others, it's finally a dream come true to see Marvel's greatest star go against Capcom's fine warriors and it's even better to know that it made a 100% NAOMI conversion to the Dreamcast but there should've been more than what I played.

HYPERACTIVE COMBAT
Just as in the past crossover fighters, MvC features a 2v2 fighting system in which each player chooses two characters and duke it out. In the middle of the fight, players can choose to switch fighters instantly, allowing an injured fighter to recover as the other one keeps up the fight. As usual, there is a meter on the bottom of the screen that be built up by inflicting and taking damage. Once you build up a level, you may perform a super move, which is a powerful attack that inflicts massive damage.

NEW FEATURES
A new addition to MvC is the Variable Combo in which a player can temporarily control both of his fighters in combat simultaneously with the ability to perform super moves at will without the meter's assistance. The unique thing about this feature is that both players can have both of their fighters out simultaneously, allowing for all four fighters to be fighting onscreen at once. Of course, this is pure insanity to do this but it's a lot of fun!

Another new feature is the 3rd Partner. After picking your two main fighters, the game will randomly choose one out of twenty different ''helper'' characters. Each one can be called out to perform his/her move by pressing SP and FK simultaneously (MP and MK for the new-school players). However, you may only call your partner a limited number of times depending on how strong your 3rd partner's attack is. Of course, there are now button tricks that be done to select whatever partner you desire, including the hidden ones Shadow and Sentinel.

One final feature is the set of new fighters that have never shown up in Capcom's fighting games before. Strider Hiryu, Jin, Venom, War Machine, and maybe one or two others have made a great transition to Capcom's fighting system with great special moves.

GRAPHICS 7/10
What the hell happened? When they said 100% conversion, they were kidding. The arcade version's graphics seem fine but the main problem with the DC version is that the game wasn't designed for the system's high resolution. Because of this, character sprites and backgrounds are horrible and look as though their edges have been cut by scissors. The only thing that prevents the graphics score from going down any further is that all of the graphics are intact with nothing removed and everything moves smoothly as you can see from Strider Hiryu's fluttering scarf.

SOUNDS 9/10
The sound effects in the game are clear and aren't bad. Punches, voice clips, blade slices, and other sound effects are all done well without scratches or any muffling.
The music is a big plus because each character has his/her own theme song that plays in the middle of the battle. They're adrenalized mixes of each character's game's theme music such as Jin's theme from Cyberbots and the various Street Fighter II themes from Chun-Li, Ryu, and Zangief.
The only problem with the sound is that you sometimes can't understand what the hell is the announcer or trying to say since the guy's voice is so muffled. ''Cross Combination Finish'' sounds like ''cora combination fay nay'' and the intro voice sounds like ''let's go pay day!''. Onslaught also the same problem with his voice whenever he makes his attacks.

CONTROLS 8/10
The control layout is the traditional 6-button layout with three punches and three kicks. The controls are very responsive but the DC's controller wasn't designed for MvC's layout, making Duo Team Combos almost impossible to do. Get a good arcade stick.

GAMEPLAY 8/10
The gameplay is a lot of fun and is very exciting, especially with the new characters added into the mix but the computer could be better. The way the computer plays with each character is based upon the traits of that character. For example, because Wolverine's personality is all animal rage, the computer will tend to rush at you when it has control of him, whereas it'll play smart and slick with a guy like Gambit. It's not a bad to go for computer programming but it gets too predictable that way and raising the difficulty for a higher challenge will only result in more precise blocking and attacking and what good is that? You'll build up better attack reflexes but it's still too predictable.
Another problem is that the game isn't quite an exact 100% conversion. The difference between the arcade and the DC version is that the arcade's damage is adjustable. Those who enjoy massive damage will find that they're stuck to whatever damage they have set unless they play the versus mode, which allows you to adjust the damage intake handicap.
A nice feature about the DC version, however, is the Cross Fever option, which allows four players to dish it out 2v2. This adds to the fun of multiplayer in this game and it's great for parties and tournaments. Of course, you'll be needing four controllers and chances are, you often don't have a need for that many controllers.

OVERALL 8/10
The game is a lot of fun and you'll enjoy it, especially with a few friends but it really could've used more than it was given. If Capcom had put a little more effort into MvC, it would've came out much better.

OTHER SUGGESTIONS
If you like MvC, also try out the following fighting games:
- Marvel vs. Capcom 2
- X-Men vs. Street Fighter
- Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter
- Marvel Super Heroes

If you like crossovers but you'd rather play old-school, go for the following:
- Capcom vs. SNK
- Capcom vs. SNK 2 (may not be out prior to this review)
- The King of Fighters: Dream Match 99

FINAL COMMENTS
For those who want to get into MvC, beware of those who often play with Wolverine, War Machine, and Megaman. They have a reputation of being too strong or too cheesy for in battle.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/12/01, Updated 07/12/01