Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes

"Those who don't have a Dreamcast will find this title a decent alternative to the arcade."

Initially, with the success of MSHSF on the PSX, one might assume equal footing with MvC. Granted MSHSF didn't have the true crossover mode, but it was implemented to the fullest of the standards of the Playstation. PSX owners can be a bit skeptical of MvC because it boasts more animation and more memory than any of the previous crossover games. However, by Playstation standards, the game turns out to be a pretty reliable port of the arcade.

Graphically, the game isn't nearly as crisp as the Dreamcast. However, most of the game's animation remains intact and few will ever know the difference as there was less of an animation strip in this game from the arcades than from previous PSX ports. The colors aren't nearly as bright or as flashy as the arcade, but they work just enough on the PSX that most MvC fans won't notice. The characters themselves all look pretty sharp with few animation cuts, with the most obvious animation cuts coming from special effects. Which is good because this leaves the game play itself virtually unchanged in terms combos and timing. The load times, surprisingly, are faster than previous crossover games, despite the more obvious memory and animation that Marvel vs. Capcom uses.

Sound is your traditional affair with Crossover games, with few exception. MvC is a bit more wackier in terms of sounds such as using a rather high-pitched toddler as their announcer. Much of the arcade's sounds and music remains faithfully intact, though some of the sound effects of flesh hits aren't nearly as loud. Music is a bit of a mixed bag in terms of quality. While the performance of the music is pretty much arcade perfect, the tracks are never really memorable and much of the soundtracks are just rehashes from the previous games with little to no adjustment in them.

Obviously with new characters, the game is going to have some new tracks, and not surprisingly the music for these characters fit their persona. For instance, Venom's music is a bit more creepy in nature while Strider's music is very heroic in nature, almost to the sounds of synthesized French Horns. Captain America, Spider-Man, and Hulk pretty much have the same tracks they've always had since their days in Marvel Super Heroes, which is a bit disappointing to say the least. While the tracks are not tiresome (they're memorable, in fact), not seeing innovation to their tunes makes the characters themselves feel a bit dated.

New to Marvel vs. Capcom is the use of a 3rd character, often referred to as a helper character or a half character. These 22 unique characters perform just quick attacks that are meant to give each player a slight advantage. You cannot control these characters alone, as they are not playable, but if used at the right time, the slight advantage suddenly becomes a huge advantage. While it is random which 3rd character you are assigned, an in-game code system will allow you to specifically target which helper you wish to use.

Also new to Marvel vs. Capcom is the very innovative Duo Team Up Attack. During this mode, one player is able to control two players and given an infinite amount of supers to use. While it does take some getting use to, controlling 2 players at once can be a lot of fun and with some practice, can lead to some rather bizarre combos that range well over 100 hits. Surprisingly, on the Playstation the duo team up attack feature hardly slows down, and the few instances of slowdown are minimal. However, during this attack your second character will be your opponent. For instance, if you decide to pick Zangief/Ryu and your opponent is Chun-Li/Megaman, with Chun-Li being the main opponent, then when you initiate the duo team up attack, you control Zangief and Chun-Li. However, you can still use Zangief/Ryu during team up supers. This severely limits what you can actually do during this mode, but it's still an impressive feat on the weak hardware that is the Playstation.

The game features your crossover mode, which is the tag mode the arcade version is famous for. It's pretty much what you've come to expect, with A/B vs. B/A. On one player they occasionally swap after each round. During Arcade/Versus mode, they give you the option of a helper or a partner character. If you choose a partner character, it's your usual no tag mode affair famous during the Playstation incarnations. Helper option is a bit unique, and you can select which helper you wish to use. Helper option is often preferred if you wish to win as you are given unlimited helpers and during the duo-team up attack, your second controllable character is replaced with the helper performing his/her attack repeatedly during this affair. It's not much and hardly does anything in terms of combos, but it's a nice cheap way to win fights.

Fighting Onslaught can only be fought with one main controllable character, and surprisingly there is little to no slowdown during the fight with this incredibly massive screen-filling boss. Onslaught is probably the only character in the game to have retained all its animation completely intact in this version.

As for other modes, the game just offers a Gallery mode, much like previous games. You can save endings and portraits of characters as well as listen to the game's outstanding, but dated, tracks. You can also turn off the zoom in feature that the game is notorious for. With this feature turned on, the action zooms in on the players during an air combo, which the camera zooming in closer after each successive hit. However, the characters always came up looking pixelated as the pixelation got worst with every close up.

The load times, even more surprising, are faster than previous Vs. games, with it even faster during same character battles. Exclusive to this version of the game, it appears, is the ability of Mega Man to use the Magnetic Shockwave. Many who saw Mega Man's ending thought of it as simply a teaser was actually no teaser, at least on the Playstation version. The PSX version also allows 4 different colors for each character(this includes hidden characters) other than Onslaught. You can play as Onslaught as well.

Overall: 8/10

Marvel vs. Capcom is still a solid fighter on the Playstation. Though not arcade perfect like the Dreamcast brother, this still isn't a bad alternative if you do not own a Dreamcast. While the gallery option is nice and the ability to use the Magnetic Shockwave is dandy, one can help but feeling a bit left out a bit on the Playstation's limited RAM and hardware. However, fans of the arcade should at least consider this a rental before thinking about a buy.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/31/00, Updated 08/07/04