Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes

"The superlative crossover makes it's way home to the PSX"

Marvel vs. Capcom first came to me in a small arcade in a small in dowtoen Des Moines, oh I was quick to dismiss it as a another failed attempt for struggling licenses to earn another dollar but I wrenched myself to the cabinet and found that Marvel vs. Capcom has what many games have been missing lately, pure action, flashing colors, spazzy gameplay, and genuinely likeable characters. When I saw it hit the shelves for the PSX, I was skeptical (let us not remember X-Men vs. Street Fighter) but when I played it I was more than satisfied. Nearly every problum from previous cross-overs has been fixed.

GAMEPLAY

At it's heart MVC is remarkably simple, the game is an orgasm of colrs and fireworks, super combos fill up the screen with remarkable size and detail, everything from the previous versions applies and very little has changed, Capcom has just made it better. The characters are small in number but big on innovation, returning characters like Gambit, Spider-Man, and The Hulk once again enter the fray. It's the new ones though that make it great, Venom, Mega-Man, Morrigan, Strider Hiryu, and War Machine (carbon copy Iron Man) bring astonishing life and variety to an otherwise fading formula. Super combos are easy to pull off, are numerous, and wonderfully overdone. The character box-shot flashes in the left side of the screen, the game slows down for a moment, than a meteor shower floods the background while you pull off said combo. Nearly flawless in most respects. The only thing missing is the popular tag-mode which is absent, but the crossover mode lets you relive it somewhat, the only catch being you have the same 2 characters as the computer. To its credit though its a great way to get used to the new characters.

Overall: 8.5

GRAPHICS

The limited ram space on the aging PSX is always a problum for sprite based games, certain games have found ways to cope (Street Fighter Alpha 3) but the crossover series has suffered from slowdown, and unbalanced animation have plagued previous installments. Marvel vs. Capcom is forced to drop the popular tag mode but still proves worth playing thanks to an amazingly fast framerate, seldom does it drop except on double supers, even then it stays remarkably functional. The animation does shoe gaps for larger characters like Venom and The Hulk, but Capcom balanced everyone out so they all look good.

Overall: 8.0

SOUND

The music and sound effects are the only things that the previous games were better at, X-Men vs. Street fighter may hae had crappy gameply but few fighters could beat the soundtrack. The effects are poorly recorded and have an overly unnatural sound to them. The voice acting is solid as usual, Gambit's raspy cajun voice blends well with Ryu's now famous ''Hadoken!''. Musically the game will please fans with it's simplistic but catchy tunes, some are bouncy and cute like Mega Man's, soem like Strider Hiryu's and Jin's put off a rather dramatic quality.

Overall: 7.5

REPLAY

If you're intersted in this groundbreaking series here is the place to start, Of all the crossovers MVC offers the best gameplay and character variety. Fans as well as newcomers will not feel regret after playing Marvel vs. Capcom.

Overall: 8.0

Positives:

-Speedy frame-rate
-Great character variety
-Improved animation

Negatives:

-Sound effects need work
-The hidden characters are just pallet swaps.
-The Music is good, but not on par with previous games.

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