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An amazing cast of characters, for one fantastic game.

Overview
Released in early 2000, MvC2 is the fourth and last installment of the (in)famous Marvel superheroes and Capcom characters crossover games. It is, in my opinion, the refinement of all of its three predecessors. It retains most of the features that made those games enjoyable- air combos, tagging, counters, and the oh-so-flashy supers. I say it is an improvement over the others for a few reasons. It removed the "too easy" juggle combos and infinites of X-Men vs. Street Fighter (as well as the lack of team dynamic). It toned down the insane Wolverine tactics, and improved upon the clumsy assist system of Marvel Superheroes vs. Street Fighter. And lastly, it did away with the helper system and easy to abuse duo attack system (Double War Machine rain of missiles, anyone) of the 1st Marvel vs. Capcom. These things made the first three crossover games feel empty for me. MvC2 tops them with better graphics, solid gameplay, and very nice presentation.

Graphics 9/10
The first thing that will grab your attention is the graphics. MvC2 is the first crossover game to make use of the NAOMI hardware (the previous ones used the old CPS2). This makes for great visuals. The backgrounds are in 3D now, and seem to be alive. The locales are the crazy kind that you would expect from a crossover game. There are backgrounds of a carnival, a huge cavern, a flying ship, and you can even get to battle on an ice floe as it floats down a river. The backgrounds are fully animated and give the cozy, casual atmosphere that suits a dream match game perfectly. As for the sprites, there’s nothing really special. The new sprites look good and blend well with the old ones. The old ones are simply dumps from the previous games. There are up to six alternate colors to choose from, depending on the attack button pressed when one selects the characters. They range from awesome (all-black Sentinel, whoa there) to insanely colorblind. Colorblind, as in flashy and mismatched color combinations.Oh and LOL Morrigan sprite old!

Gameplay/Controls 9/10
The buttons do not come in the standard Capcom six-button layout anymore. Rather, it is more of a modified four-button layout. The medium attacks have been ditched in favor of the light attacks, then the heavy attacks immediately follow in second button column. The medium attack can now be performed in combos by pressing the light attack buttons twice, or, if they are launcher attacks, by pressing df+ heavy attack of choice. The last column of the buttons are the assist buttons. This is because aside from choosing a character, you actually get to choose one of three different assists for that character. Pressing either assist button causes a one of your non-point characters to jump in and perform an attack, or to give your point character a curative/power up boost. So, the button layout should be jab-fierce-assist1 for the first button row, then short kick-roundhouse-assist2 for the second one.

The super meter has been modified this time around; instead of the old level 3 limit, it goes up to level 5. Team supers are performed by pressing both assist buttons simultaneously. What is interesting is that the "team super" is determined by the number of super meter stocks that you have. Level 3 ensures that all three characters perform their team supers, level 2 means only the first two characters get to perform the supers, and level 1 means only the point character will perform his or her super.

Other new game dynamics include the Delayed Hyper Combo (DHC) and the Snapback. DHC is a novel and useful way of implementing supers. When you point character performs a super, you may now perform a motion for your second character’s super. The first character is now substituted by the second. The second character will now perform the super motioned for. And as he or she is doing so, you may motion a super for the third character, and that "tags out" the second character and lets the third character in to do his or her super. Of course, this depends on how much stock you have in your super meter. The DHC is particularly useful for finishing an opponent off (if the initial super doesn’t suffice), or for safe "tagging out" of characters, by using supers as a "cover", should conventional tagging be too risky. Snapback, on the other hand, is a way of forcing your opponent’s character out. It performed by motioning qcf+ an assist button. If it connects on an opponent’s point character, that character is knocked off screen, and, depending on which assist button you pressed, the opponent’s second or third character enters. Take note that the character knocked out will have a big "X" on his or her lifebar. This means that he or she cannot tag back in, be used as an assist, or regain any life lost, for a short period of time. This is a great gameplay tactic, as you can combo into a Snapback: should you not like the current matchup, you can simply Snapback your opponent’s character, and let a different character enter the fray.

The older gameplay features are impressive as well. The tagging (note: you can easily do OTG combos now), supers, and air combo goodness are still there. Special to super cancels are now possible. The Crossover Counter and push blocking are still there, as excellent defense mechanisms.

Sound/Music 7.5/10
Ah yes, the music. It has long been mocked, and rightfully so. The traditional techno and synthesized beats of the previous crossover games has been ditched in favor of (drum roll please) elevator music. I mean, cheesy jazz. Yeargh! It doesn’t fit the game at all. When I’m slashing, comboing, or blasting the opponent with missiles or lasers, I’d rather have it accompanied by hard rock (a la Guilty Gear X2) or the aforementioned techno, thank you very much. Not by some chick crooning, "swing your body" and saxophones. And Jesus, the select screen music is the worst offender of them all. It’s awful, repetitive, and can be misinterpreted by more perverted minds as "I’m gonna rape you from behind". If you can only access the arcade version, the only course of action is to grin and bear it (for those of you lucky bastards who have the DC version, I heard that there is a way to change the OST). The voice acting is awesome, however, and somewhat makes up for the music. From the KAWAII ^___^ Chun-Li and Sakura clips, to Cable’s cold, menacing "viper beam" to the creepy cybernetic sounds that Dr. Doom makes-I fell in love with the VA. In fact I sometimes the shout super move name as I perform it, not mindful of the perplexed looks of the kibitzers. :B

Replay Value 9.5/10
The roster is one of the largest (if not the largest) in fighting games. A total of 56 characters--each company chipping in 28-- are selectable. They range from very familiar faces such as Ryu, Wolverine, Megaman, and Spider-man, to more obscure ones such as Marrow, Sonson, and Shuma Gorath (your tentacle hentai joke here). Many of the "cool" and much-loved characters make a first-time appearance. Jill Valentine of Resident Evil fame is here, as is Tron Bonne and her Servbots. Cable, everyone’s favorite time traveling, gun-toting bastard, and Hayato of Star Gladiator fame are also first timers. Two playable characters even seem to have been made by Capcom just for this game. They are the hot pirate chick (rawr) Ruby Heart, and the living cactus Amingo. As a side note, the game does not start with all 56 characters. Rather, it starts off with a fixed roster of characters. I forgot how many exactly, but based of the DC version, I think it’s half of the cast, at 28. The time-release method of unlocking characters is employed. Each week, a new character is automatically unlocked; the characters that remain locked have their portraits blotted out in the attract mode.

The end boss of this game is Abyss. Contrary to previous reports that he was the son of Apocalypse, he’s another new character from Capcom. He’s thrown into this game to give it some plot (yeah right)-Ruby Heart’s after his fabled armor, and employs help from all the other heroes and villains to achieve such a goal. As with other crossover games bosses, he’s quite easy to defeat. Just have a character with beams or projectile attacks and you’re halfway there; simple defense and evasion such as jumping, blocking, and attacking when the opportunity presents itself constitute the other half. Abyss attacks in three forms: a giant black knight, a green slime creature, and a giant red monster (fondly called the STD discharge dog). All have powerful energy attacks and the "cheap-at-first-glance-but-oh-so-easy-later-on" AI of the crossover games bosses. Other than that, there is nothing really noteworthy.

To seemingly complement this cast of thousands, players can now select up to three characters for their team this time around. Let’s see, 56 C 3-if I’m not mistaken, that means there are 27,720 possible teams. This shows the many possibilities when playing with this game. You can mix and match to your heart’s content here, whether it be for a viable, tourney-caliber team, or just fooling around and making a casual, theme-based one (e.g. team Charlie’s Angels: Cammy, Jill, and Psylocke). :D

I would like to comment on Cable. Everybody knows his shtick- the dreaded Air Hyper Viper Beam, or AHVB for short. This is performed using the Tiger Knee motion-after the initial qcf, you press up in addition to both punch buttons. This makes Cable jump up from the ground and perform his air super instantaneously. Other characters can also "Tiger Knee" their moves instantaneously, but Cable’s is the most noticeable because the AHVB combos into *itself*. After landing an AHVB, simply perform the super motion again, aim the beam in the appropriate direction, and boom! The AHVB can be performed thrice, and maybe even more in you’re quick. Instant 80-100 hit combo. It has instant startup and recovery, meaning that it hurts like a fucker, and spells death for assist characters or anyone who attacks without thinking. However, it is not completely invincible-fast players can super jump cancel and then air dash to safety (some fast moves and assists with invincibility frames will hit Cable out of the AHVB too). The AHVBx3 ultimately makes Cable top tier, and more than that, an acid test of your skill at the game. If you can best good Cable players (and NOT the mindless mashers), then in my opinion you’re pretty good at the game.

That being said, it is only fitting to look at the issue of balance. A lot of people believe that out of 56 characters, only 10 or so are actually playable or useful. In actuality, about 60% or so of the characters are viable. It’s just that players in tourneys and elsewhere just want to win the fastest way possible. Thus, the resort to using only the Big Four of this game-Storm, Sentinel, Cable, and Magneto (the fastest character in a fighting game ever)-and a only a few of the high tier characters. The truth is, even the lowly members of the cast can still have their uses, at least as assists if not on point. MvC2 introduces the concept of team dynamic. This means that one must choose the characters (and which assists to use) well. One must know how the characters’ special moves, DHC’s, assists, and supers complement one another, and to find out if a certain trio is really viable as a team. In effect, you could say that MvC2 is broken (oh, how I dread using the word) at low-level play, but shines in higher levels of play, when the concepts of team dynamics and strategizing come into the big picture.

There are also reports of infinites and glitches aplenty. However, they don’t seem to affect the game too much. Most of the infinites are not really practical. They aren’t easy to perform (for the most part), either The glitches will not reduce the fun factor of this game, since they are so rare to come by, and many of them require cooperation from both players to perform. If you do perform a glitch intentionally during a match, however, expect your fellow player to kick you in the jewels.

Overall 10/10
MvC2 is best served as a two-player delight. This is because the one-player game gets boring fast. The AI is inconsistent, though oftentimes dumb, falling for the fireball trap (hahaha) or related "scrub" patterns. In versus mode, however, endless hours of fun excitement are to be found. Whether it be casual games with friends, or challenges with strangers at the arcade, MvC2 is simply charming in this aspect.

To wrap it up, I’d say that MvC2 is a solid game, and an excellent two-player experience. I would like to reiterate that it is the best game out of the four crossover games that Capcom released. It is fast-paced, requires strategizing, and is a fun game over all. It is not for everybody. IMO, MvC2 takes its place in the gallery of excellent fighting games. Given suitable competition, it’s a good game to play. If you have friends and foes alike to play against, then it is highly advised that you get the console version (Dreamcast), as it is easier to unlock characters (unless you are very patient about time release, having a new arcade cab and waiting for any characters to be unlocked is a chore). I’m hoping that I can afford a home version myself, if only to enjoy the lovable sight that is the Servbot Lunch Rush.

- by Photon