Marvel Vs Capcom 2 – Review

September 20, 2009 by Scott Ranachan
Filed under PlayStation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360

In recent years it has become more and more common to see the word ‘versus’ thrown into an ageing franchise in order to give it a new lease on life. Your Alien getting a little tired out? Throw in a Predator. Your Freddy lacking a Fright? We’ve got some Jason here to pick him up. Even superhero powerhouse DC Comics had a pop with last year’s so-so fighter Mortal Kombat vs DC. But long before those inventions saw the light of day there was one franchise who ruled the ‘versus’ concept: Capcom. And they had a different superhero giant to take on.

Marvel Vs Capcom 2 was one of the last in a long line of Capcom ‘versus’ titles to arrive in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Attaining an almost cult like fan base in the arcades the title saw several console ports, though these began to dip in popularity as they became less faithful to the arcade original. That is to say easier. Now as part of their ‘Summer of Arcade’ experience Microsoft has brought MVC2 to the 360, but how does it size up to previous incarnations?

Aerial fighting plays a big role in the game.

The first thing any player will notice about this game is the difficulty. It is hard. Not just in a “I’ll have to get some practice in” way, this game will destroy you. It’s an old school 2D fighter based on Capcom’s premier Street Fighter series and follows the same basic control system. There a few basic attacks and that can be linked into combos, a few special attacks and each character has a selection of Hyper combos to boot. The game is includes a team dynamic and each bout is a contest of 3-on-3, this allows the player to use assist attacks and swap out players with a quick button combination.

The team element is a key factor in winning, and players will not be doing a lot of that. At least at first. Unlike most current generation brawlers defence is not really an option in this game and players have to go on an all out attack to make headway, factor in the precise timing needed to pull off the best attacks and combos you’ll find yourself making a lot of mistakes early on. And then losing.

Hyper Combos are the matchwinners.

However the game is a lot deeper than it appears on the surface, all the attacks fill up a power gauge that allow the use of the Hyper combos. The team share this gauge and if the player has enough energy he can link multiple Hyper combos allowing for devastating, match winning attacks. While the timing for the best combos has to be precise most of the Hyper and special moves are very easy to pull off allowing new players to slide into the game comfortably, even if they are losing. There are also launch attacks that allow players to juggle an opponent in the air, allowing for an array of assist or jump attacks, and even limited flight for some of the super powered roster.

And the roster is one of the games biggest attractions. Featuring an impressive selection of Marvel heroes, including icons like Spider-man, Iron man and Wolverine, as well as some well known faces from Street Fighter, Darkstalkers and a certain Ms. Valentine from the Resident Evil series. With over 50 playable characters to choose from the team combinations are practically limitless and unlike many modern fighting games there are no carbon copy characters, each fighter’s move list is their own.

Unfortunately the roster is far from balanced. Every version of this game over the years has suffered from a terrible tier system that means some of the characters will always be at a disadvantage. Players who learn how to exploit the lower tiered character’s weaknesses will never be beaten by them, which means players that want to get very good at this game have far less options to select from. Disappointingly some of the weakest characters are also some of the most iconic, including Ryu and Chun Li from Street Fighter or Spider-Man and Venom from Marvel. These slide in with the four original characters for the game, who are as forgettable as they are useless.

Big Man vs Big Robot.

All things considered this version of the game seems a faithful recreation of the original arcade classic. However this game has one feature that improves on the original immeasurably: Online play.

Facing an opponent over Xbox live is a great addition to the gameplay allowing players to fine tune their style against other experienced players giving the game some much needed longevity. The game runs smoothly most of the time, but does occasionally fall into some lag, though this is by far the minority of matches. The main problem with the online play is the inability to match yourself according to skill. With ranked play there is really only the option to play whomever the game matches you with at random, which can lead to winning painfully easily or losing embarrassingly hard.

At 1200 MS points this is sitting as the most expensive of the summer’s arcade games. It’s an amazing 2D fighter and with online play now has the longevity sorely missing from previous incarnations of the game. However it remains impenetrably difficult, and if you are not looking for this kind of challenge I guarantee it will leave you more frustrated than anything else.

Lost Gamer Verdict: 8/10