Who says 2-D fighters are dead? Capcom begs to differ. Although released on the current generation consoles back in late 2002, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was released in the arcade and on the Dreamcast a couple of years earlier. I was excited to see them porting it over to the X-Box and PS2. It still remains one of the best 2-D fighters ever, and boasts more replay value than many recent 3-D fighting games.
The most tantalizing feature off the bat is learning that there are 52 possible characters to play, with 26 on the Marvel side and 26 on the Capcom side. You only start with a handful of said characters, but the others are unlocked by fighting in either Versus mode against another player or fighting against CPU opponents. You build up points for each match played, and can acquire a ton of points quickly by beating the Arcade mode of the game. Once you have enough points, you can visit the game's Secret Factor mode and unlock additional characters, artwork, stages, and color costumes.
There are many familiar characters, some returning from the original Marvel vs. Capcom. Wolverine, Spider-Man, Iceman, Magneto, and Rogue are a few familiar names from Marvel. Capcom pulls out some interesting fighters from their various games, such as Ryu, Chun-Li, Strider, Cammy, and a few you've probably never heard of before. Having so many characters and seeing some familiar names from the comics and Capcom games can be pretty nostalgic.
Okay, so now onto the real core of the game: the fighting. I've played many 2-D fighters in my time, and have been disappointed by many recent ones such as the Capcom vs. SNK series. However, this is where MvC2 thinks outside the box. The player chooses three characters for one addicting tag-team based game. As you're playing as one character, you can call in either of your other characters to come out and do a quick assist move such as throwing a fireball or any of their other signature moves. Assist moves change things dramatically, and become a cornerstone for most people's strategies. You can also tag-out your current character and begin playing as either of your reserve ones, at the cost of being vulnerable momentarily, so watch for your opponent to be off guard before swapping characters.
The most addicting aspect of the fighting engine are the Super Moves. First of all, the moves are easy as pie to pull off in this game. They may require quick fingers, but they don't require tedious movements. Almost all of the Supers are pulled off by one of the classic quarter-circle directional pad movements and pressing either both punch or both kick buttons. Exploring each character's Super Moves is a lot of fun; a lot of them are creative and have very entertaining animations. What's even better is chaining your three characters' combos together for a Hyper Combo. Basically, when you begin hitting your opponent with a Super Move, you can enter the correct combination for your second character's super, and they will hop into the fight and take over from there. You can then call in your third character the same way, as long as you begin their own Super Move before your last character's ends. This can make for some very damaging, yet easy to pull off, combos.
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Finding three characters that work well together is an entertaining challenge. Some characters have Super Moves that chain together better than others, but it's your job to be creative and see what kind of crazy combos you can come up with.
As for graphics, MvC2 doesn't fall behind despite its age. Its cartoon-like characters fight on 3-D backgrounds, which all still look decent in today's 2-D fighter standards. The character models are all accurate and easily recognizable from their comic book and video game origins. The sound effects are well done, combining quirky little voice clips for the characters and their moves. For characters like the X-Men, their voices actually sound like the ones from the cartoon series they did on it long ago. The downside to the sound is the music. I don't know where they got it from, but the majority of it sounds like you're standing in an elevator. Unfortunately, there is no way to disable the music, but you'll probably be having too much fun to care about it.
Many people call this game a "button masher" as well as others like it. However, anyone who is any good at this game quickly distinguishes himself apart from just hitting random buttons. Sure, you can play the game by smashing your control pad, but you'll do better if you take the time to learn to play the way it was meant to be.
The only downside to MvC2 is the fact it does not contain online play. Even though a game like this screams "Online Play", they just didn't bother with it. That's a shame, considering the awesome utility that X-Box Live is, but…oh well. If you really want to play someone, you can always invite over some friends or see if you can find any challengers at your local arcade.
Overall, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 remains my favorite 2-D fighter of all time, and one I still load up on the X-Box every now and then. It's a great game to break out with a group of friends, especially if you not only tag-team characters, but players as well (like passing the controller around as you change characters.) It can make for an addicting and fun event. These days, you can probably buy this game quite cheap. It's worth it, and if you like 2-D fighters even just a little bit, or are looking for a good "social" game, add this to your X-Box or PS2 library.
