Marvel vs. Capcom 2

"If you've ever wanted to see a Servbot beat the hell out of a Sentinel, this game is for you!"

Marvel Vs Capcom 2, the popular sequel to the Dreamcast, PSX, and Arcade game : Marvel vs Capcom. All in all, this game is very disappointing when it comes down to it. Don't get me wrong, I think it's an okay game for the Xbox, but it could've been better.

Marvel vs Capcom 2(From now on, it'll be called MvC2) is a 2D fighting game using characters from Marvel and Capcom. You choose up to 3 characters and fight three other characters until you get to the end of the game. While fighting, you can switch character into battle and out of battle. So, lets say you're using Ryu and he's getting almost dead; you can send out another character to fight while Ryu recovers his Health Gauge slowly.

When you choose a character, you're given three different "Assist Types". These are used when you want to bring out a character to help the character you're using.

For Example: When you set Jill's Assist Type to "Heal", she'll jump out on screen and give your Player a Herb which recovers your Health.

There are a bunch of things that come into play while fighting; you have a bar and the bottom of the screen that can go up to Level 4, this is your Hyper Combo gauge. Hyper Combo's are your character's extremely powerful attacks, most character's have 2-3 different ones and they're a bit easy to pull off. Also, using this gauge you can knock enemy opponents out of the ring and disable their health recovery when they're out of the battle for a while.

You can also buy characters with points you receive after you finish Arcade mode(or any mode for that matter). There are a lot of characters to unlock, so it should take you a while to actually get them all. Not only can you buy characters, but you can also buy Stages, Art Galleries, and even alternate costumes for characters. The sucky things about buying Costumes and Galleries is that the price rises by 100 points whenever you buy something. It'll take you an even longer time picking up this things than getting characters.

Like the first MvC, this game does have it's Clones. A clone, in a fighting game is a Character that's almost exactly like another character in the game. Take Wolverine and Bone-Claw Wolerine. Their appearances are almost identical except for the fact Bone Claw Wolverine has shorter claws. Or even the glaring War Machine and Iron Man, One shoots Lasers while the other shoots missiles. I'm sure Capcom could've made 56 original characters instead of this.

Battles are extremely fast and very easy after you've played a while. I mean, most hyper Combos can take a character down to 3/4's of their health! It seems most characters are unbalanced also. Mega Man can kill Roll in about 3-4 combos. How Pathetic.

The Music is also annoying on the most part. It's like smooth jazz, except it's repetitive.There are a few goods songs(Like the Ice Stage!), but most of it isn't that special.

The most disappointing thing about MvC2 is the fact that there is no plot and no character endings. When you beat the game once, you've seen all the endings. This is a major set back from the Original MvC that gave each Character (except secret Characters) a a unique ending.

Final Judgment
In all honesty, this game is very flawed. But, since it's a very rare game now on the Xbox, I suggest that you get it nonetheless. You'll have fun playing with other people, but I don't suggest buying it for single player. It gets boring. Be sure you have an Xbox S controller since it's a bit lighter and easier to use when playing fighting games on the Xbox.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/15/04