Marvel Vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes

Written by AJ LaSaracina  on June 30, 2000

Review: Attentions developers, this is how to create a sequel.

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When creating a sequel, what goes into a producer's head and his thoughts? Do they want to make more of the same thing? Or create something totally new. The folks at Capcom have added to their hit known as Marvel Vs. Capcom, and it seams that they have a winner on their hand...again. Now with an amazing cast of 56 characters, including Jill Valentine, Cable, Amigo, Ryu, Ken, Akuma, Rogue, and many more, spanning over two of the most successful companies in their industry. Buckle up; this game is one hell of a ride of adrenalin...

The visuals are striking. The amazing clarity and depth of the backgrounds is just awe-inspiring. You find yourself getting lost in the action and gazing at the backgrounds half of the time. Also, unlike the original's backgrounds, MvC2 sports fully animated. From floating down a ice river, to a virtual day going by in the desert stage, MvC2 has pretty backgrounds. What kind of ruins it though, is the characters. When the pixilated characters are put against a beautiful fully 3D background it's bound to get ugly. Now when I used the VGA cord to play MvC2, this is where the pixels of the characters showed they best. You could easily see the flaws that were there, yet while on my regular TV, the characters didn't seam bad at all. Must be the 800x600 resolution you get on a VGA box. Along with the visuals, comes the audio. All of the trademark, booms, crashed and what have you are here. Every character's signature phrase, and speech is pulled off flawlessly. Though there is one great problem in their area. The music is not suiting. It doesn't work at all. For an intense fighter like this, you want something that will rock the place. Instead the people at Capcom added elevator music. It's some pop-jazz-Donny Osmond crap! Though it's not horrible, it just doesn't fit the mood at all, and at times can put you to sleep.

MvC2's most evident difference from it's original is in its gameplay. Sure, it plays like an "Over the top" Capcom fighter, but Capcom has finally done away with it's 6 button fighting scheme that it's used FOR YEARS. Now there are 2 punch buttons, 2 kick buttons, and the triggers call out your other helpers. This adds wonders to the game making it about 100% easier to use with a standard Dreamcast controller. Fears not though friends, for MEDIUM punch and kick can be achieved by hitting LIGHT punch/kick twice, so don't get all hussy about your combos. With an arcade stick though, the game truly plays like it was meant to be, and boy does it feel GOOD.

MvC2's features cannot be over looked, including the new amount of fighters on screen at once. There can be 6 of them! This being another good change, the new 3-on-3 combat is what Capcom chose over 2-on-2 fighting. Again, adding another depth of strategy, to a genre that sees so little change. Second, gone are the helpers, (though about 95% of them are playable) now when you need help, you can call out your other team mates endlessly. This adds wonderful strategy to the game, and makes the matches really, really long winded. Not to mention the endless capabilities of teams with all 56 characters unlocked.

Where does the replay end? Ok there ARE 56 characters, the case isn't lying. Only problem is that you have to unlock them. In the Japanese version, players signed onto the Internet, and fought against each other for points. The person, who won, took "X" amount of points which were automatically added to the game, which then unlocked a character. Since the US of A doesn't have net play yet, Capcom added a neat little feature. No matter what mode you do, Vs., Arcade, even Training, you ear points. Now there points can be used to go the shop. At the shop you can select from 3 different "items" (people, levels, costume changes etc. [Here's a little hint, don't like what you see at the shop? Exit and come back for 3 new items]).

This does add tremendously to the replay value of the game. Think how long it would take to unlock all 56 characters at about 700 points ever 4 matches, and each character being about 2,000 (the crappier characters like Storm are only 800 [HINT 2: the shittier the character the less points, so don't buy the cheapest one]). Once these are all unlocked, the game won't go back on the shelf so soon. Much like the original, this is a game that when bored, pick up off the shelf, and you become engrossed, it's just that good.