Flashback 06.01.07: Marvel Vs Capcom 2 (DC)
Posted by Steve McHugh on 06.01.2007
This is how you make a fighting game.
The Capcom Vs set of games are fairly legendary and MvC2 was the last of them before the licence moved away to other developers. Before that happened, in 2000, Capcom pulled out all the stops to make this for the Arcade and ported it across to the DC in an almost perfect conversion. So was it any good?
Well if you've ever had any interest in 2D one-on-one fighting games then you'll already know the answer to tat question. Yes it was good. In fact it was, and still is, very, very good indeed. Anyone who read my look at Comic book video games knows how I feel about this game so it won't ruin it for anyone when I say this is one my 2 favourite fighters of all time (the other being SF – Third Strike).
The first thing about MvC2 is that it's not strictly speaking a one-on-one fighter. Each player picks 3 characters to use and can switch between any of them at the touch of a button. It's a great system and works really well, even during the more hectic fights. And the fights do get hectic; in fact I'd go so far as to say that they can become crazy spectacles when the special moves and tag moves start getting used.
As with any normal Capcom 2D fighter each of the characters has a selection of special moves, Ryu's fireball or Captain America's shield toss for example. But MvC2 goes one further by having tag moves. When you fill up your special move metre at the bottom of the screen you can perform one of these super powerful moves, meaning every character still alive can use one of their special moves. These can utterly obliterate any opponent who isn't blocking, and using them at the right time is one of the ways to ensure victory.
Picking the right characters helps too and this is where the game excels. 56 characters are available, with many of them becoming unlockable after playing the game. These include such Marvel greats as Iceman, Spider-man, Wolverine and the Hulk alongside Capcom mainstays Ryu and Ken et al. There are also a few inclusions that I didn't expect: Spiral, Captain Commando and Jill Valentine to name just 3. The wealth of characters to choose from will suit any fighting style and ensuring that you pick 3 that complement each other is the key to winning and earning precious points.
A second after this Doom killed everyone. Just because he could.
In this game points means prizes and the more you play any of the modes (even training) the more points you get to buy new characters, stages and costumes. This gives people a huge incentive to keep playing as the items that are unlockable actually take a lot of points in some cases (Silver Samurai for some inexplicable reason).
The main reason why you'll keep playing through is that it's just so much fun and although the learning curve is very steep it won't take you long before you've managed to figure out a handful of characters and are regularly handing the CPU opponents their collective asses. It maybe cliché but it really is a case of being easy to pick up but hard to master. Once you're there though (and it's a huge amount of work) it's all worth it, there's a very big reason why this game is used in fighting tournaments in Japan.
Graphically it's stunning. I would love to see an updated version running on a Hi-Def TV because this is visually amazing. The backgrounds look varied and alive and are only bested by the amazing animation for the main characters. Capcom really did pull something very special out of the Dreamcast for this one. The voices are also excellent and all sound very appropriate to the characters in question. Wolverine and Spider-man are my favourite voices and much better then anything from Marvel Ultimate Alliance. The music is excellent and really just adds to the whole package.
So are there any problems? Well when playing against a friend its all too easy to just start mashing buttons, which does defeat the object a little. Also when it starts to get mad on screen it gets really mad and you'll occasionally feel a little lost in the early stages. And this game is hard and unforgiving, especially to anyone who doesn't play a lot of 2D fighters. Be prepared to use the lowest difficulty setting a lot and still get beaten.
Spider-man is still one of the best characters to pick. He's so damn fast.
By far the two most annoying aspects are 1. The lack of individual endings for characters. I really missed that for the game as it would have given extra incentive to keep playing with every character as the first choice just to get them all. 2. This is more of a hardware problem. The DC controller is not the most comfortable controller ever for this type of game in fact if you're serious about playing it invest in a better controller. An arcade stick would be ideal.
Marrow. She can pull bones out of herself. Yep you read that right.
But none of that really matters in the long term because this is so excellent to play and so much fun. Everything is so responsive and the controls are so perfect that it really is one of the ultimate fighting games.
Should I buy it?
Without a doubt. If you like 2D fighters you need this game. If you don't own a DC then go and get one just to play this. I know you can find it on the PS2 and Xbox but both are badly done and not a patch on the DC version. It'll cost you around $20-$30 but it's worth every penny. Capcom really outdid themselves with this release.
9.5/10
Other stuff
- The last 2 weeks have been a bloody nightmare. First my computer just died, yes it was old but even so it just upped and died on me meaning I needed to get a new PC. Well after much messing about it finally turned up a few days later (Tesco next day delivery was a lifesaver) and then I spent the next few days trying to find all the damn stuff I had on the old PC. On top of all this I had to work for 4 12 hr days so I didn't even have time to do anything else. This column was meant to be out a while back now so that's the reason for the ungodly delay.
- The Saints lost on penalties. Well another year of whinging then.
- Liverpool Vs AC Milan. Bugger.
- TNA. I used to watch it every week and loved the PPV's. Now I barely care. Kurt Angle is awful, character wise, at the moment and every single good idea seems to get pissed away in a flood of crappy ones. Why in the hell are VKM still employed? What the hell do they contribute to anything? TNA needs to get the whole booking team changed. Why can't Cornette and maybe Raven do some booking together? They've both proved themselves in the past and I think would probably work well together. There need to be some huge changes if they want to repair all the crap people have had to sit through the last few months. Oh and hurry up and get on with the Sting/Daniels feud. Daniels should be destroying people not getting beat down after cheating to win. How does that build him up as a viable threat? It just makes him look like a fluke winner.
- Gaming news has it that FF4 is coming to the DS. I, for one, am very excited as FF4 is excellent. Oh and to answer the questions I've had about the Final Fantasy stuff it is all coming it's just taking a while.
- Speaking of stuff I've been asked about I was recently asked by a few people if I could include a few choice Xbox games in the column now that the Xbox is officially dead so in a few weeks I'll be doing a couple.
Next time though I'll be looking at Skies of Arcadia on the Dreamcast. See you then.
