Slusy's Full Review: Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for Dreamcast
Since this is my 50th review, which is something of a milestone for me, I decided to write about a game that is near and dear to my heart, and the game that primarily got me to buy a Dreamcast in the first place: Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
Now, I have a soft spot in my heart for Capcom fighters, especially for their Vs. series. Marvel vs. Capcom 2, however, was not only the best of the lot, but is also the best Street Fighter port that I've had the opportunity to play.
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is a fighting game that doesn't pretend to be anything more than it is. You pick your characters and then you fight against other characters, and you keep this up until you lose or you beat the boss, one or the other. That's it. Pure chaos at its finest.
What's really great about this game is the sheer possibilities that the game offers. The game starts out with 24 characters, which is, by itself, the most that a Vs. game has ever had. However, there are a total of 56 characters that are available, which means that 32 are waiting to be unlocked. Combine 56 characters with the fact that teams are now made up of three characters, as opposed to two in previous Vs. games, and that leaves you with over 166,000 different teams to choose from. (I learned how to figure that out in college, kids, so stay in school.)
Not only that, but these 56 characters aren't just a small number of actual characters and then a bunch of ripoffs of those core characters, like in some fighting games. Each character has its own playing style, and even the ones that seem like they would be ripoffs of another character (Mega Man and Roll, for example) still have enough major differences to consider them totally different characters. Also, nearly every character who has ever appeared in any of the Vs. games, Marvel Super Heroes, or X-Men: Children of the Atom is in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. There are also a number of new characters, including Cable, from X-Men, Tron Bonne, from Mega Man Legends, and B.B. Hood from Darkstalkers.
The control is also much improved over the original Marvel vs. Capcom port for Dreamcast. One of the big problems with the original Marvel vs. Capcom was that analog control was disabled, and trying to play with the digital pad for movement was not only awkward but downright painful, since doing special moves required sliding a thumb all over the stiff D-pad. In Marvel vs. Capcom 2, analog control is available and easy to use, though it does take a little bit of patience to pick up. It's not as natural as using an arcade stick, but the game is still very playable for people who can't afford to buy arcade sticks.
The control is also simplified in order to make the game easier to play with a standard Dreamcast controller. The middle punch and kick buttons are removed to make way for Assist 1 and Assist 2, which are mapped to the triggers, leaving all the punch and kick buttons mapped to A, B, X, and Y. This is much more natural, since one of my biggest pet peeves was having to reach over to the triggers to use one of the punches or kicks, and when you're attempting to do a combo, it just doesn't work well. Once you're used to it, the missing buttons really don't get in the way, since these attacks can be accomplished by pressing the light punch or kick twice in a row in the middle of a combo.
Other moves are made simpler as well. Team super moves are now executed by pressing the two triggers together, which is much more effective than having to do a quarter circle and press hard punch and hard kick together, which is the way that team supers used to be executed. This does add to the "cheese factor" in that people who don't know what they're doing can still pull off incredible moves, but I think it also lowers the learning curve by allowing newer players to be able to pull off some powerful moves without much effort.
So the game controls well, and the game system is much improved as well. As I stated earlier, teams are now 3 characters apiece. All these characters are playable (ass opposed to Marvel vs. Capcom 1 where there was a 3rd character available, but only to do "helper" attacks, not to actually play with.) These characters can be switched to with a punch and kick together (the first teammate is brought in with light punch and kick, the second with hard punch and kick), or brought in for a one-time "helper" attack with the two triggers. These three teammates can also chain super moves together, which is an awesome new feature of Marvel vs. Capcom 2; I was blown away when I saw this done for the first time. Pairing this with the ease of pulling off triple team supers, 100+ hit combos are not out of the ordinary. Other than this, though, the system is pretty much the same Street Fighter system we all know and love, and anyone who's played a Street Fighter game should have no problem picking this game up. (For those who haven't, there's an excellent training mode included.)
The only real problem I have with the system is that the time limit is often too short. Matches last 99 units of time, which seems to be roughly 3 minutes. Unfortunately, with three characters, that time is often not enough and games have to end by decision more often than not. The time limit can be turned off (and I recommend that one do that, because games are so much more fun when you know they're going to end in a knockout), but it's still rather annoying. A match ending by decision is about as anticlimactic as you can get, and Capcom really should have done more testing to find out exactly what the best time limit is with this system.
Graphically, this game isn't breaking any barriers, but it's not bad, either. Even though Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is a 2D game, it uses the Dreamcast's power to create 3D backgrounds, which look incredible. Since there's no real interaction with the background, it's just a moving cartoon, and Capcom obviously put a lot of work into making them look slick.
If only they did as good a job on the characters. The character animations were taken straight from the older games, and it shows. Even on a standard television, the characters look pixilated, so I shudder to think about what they look like in 640x480 resolution on a VGA box. It's not very bad, though, and they do look like their comic book or Capcom counterparts. The moves are also well drawn, even if the animation isn't the best. Of course, this game moves so fast, chances are you won't have much time to notice that the graphics aren't the best that the Dreamcast can deliver.
Sound is also something of a mixed bag. The background music has got to be the oddest thing I've heard in a video game yet. It's a sort of calming, jazzy type of sound that doesn't really fit a frenetic fighting game like this. The character selection music is probably the worst example of this; it's just a woman singing, "I'm gonna take you for a ride," over and over and over again. Where were the people who wrote the music for Street Fighter III: Third Strike when Capcom did this game? Again, much like the graphics, though, the sound really does take a back seat once the game starts. Yes, it's annoying, but you probably won't notice it once you start to play.
The sound effects are on par with all the other Capcom fighters, though. Characters, as usual, feel the need to announce their every move, but it doesn't get on your nerves; the voices are usually well done. My only gripe is that I really wish Capcom would redo the voices when they bring their games to America. I don't understand what most of the Capcom characters are saying, because they mostly speak in Japanese, and I'd really like to know what they're saying. That's a minor complaint, though, obviously.
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is a must-own game for any fighting game fan. It may not be as technical as the Street Fighter Alpha or Street Fighter III series, but it's a lot of fun for anyone who wants to jump in and kick some butt. It's got lots of replay value built in, between all the secrets to unlock as well as several modes of play, and it's just plain fun, even if you've never played a Street Fighter game before. Go on and give it a try; you'll be stuck on it like one of Spider-Man's webs.
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