Marvel Vs Capcom 2 is an old game and is loved as much as it is despised by various sections of Capcom’s impressively dedicated 2D fighting following. Exponents of the series point to almost limitless combo system and free-roaming genre-pushing environments whilst the doubters simply write it off as vulgar, imbalanced and impure.

Created by legendary Capcom developer Koji Nakajima of Studio 3, the game brings together a medley of characters from Marvel’s comic books and Capcom’s video-gam ... more >>

Marvel Vs Capcom 2 is an old game and is loved as much as it is despised by various sections of Capcom’s impressively dedicated 2D fighting following. Exponents of the series point to almost limitless combo system and free-roaming genre-pushing environments whilst the doubters simply write it off as vulgar, imbalanced and impure.

Created by legendary Capcom developer Koji Nakajima of Studio 3, the game brings together a medley of characters from Marvel’s comic books and Capcom’s video-games in a 2D fighter. Essentially the illegitimate spawn of Marvel Superheroes and Street Fighter Alpha, this is an upbeat visual feast, first seen running on Sega’s Naomi arcade system way back in 2000.

Fully titled Marvel Vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, the original version was Sega and Capcom’s first venture to see whether it was possible to entice players into carting around a Dreamcast VMU. Playing the arcade game would unlock certain players, such as Jill Valentine from the Resident Evil series. Unfortunately, this proved alarmingly unpopular.

This PlayStation 2 re-hash features 56 characters, which are played out in groups of three. The first to lose a character loses the match, so players must balance their resources carefully in order to succeed. Whenever a character is swapped, their replacement enters the fray with a high-priority move, almost unstoppable to the opposition. This can be engineered into a combo already in progress, leading to game-shattering 300-plus hit assaults.

As with the other games to make up Marvel Vs Capcom 2’s legacy (X-Men: Children of the Atom and so on) the combo system is very relaxed and designed to be easier for the novice to execute moves that, in another game, would receive a round of applause in the arcade. For example, two quick kicks will combo, which can then be linked to a cancellable special move, such as a dragon punch. The dragon punch can in turn be cancelled in to a super move. Speaking on this very point, Nakajima said that MvC2 was never meant to be played the way it is around the world. He wasn’t complaining, he was just surprised at the combined millions of man-hours that have been poured into to exploiting the game engine.

The pinnacle of achievement within its very specific genre (read over-powered twitch-play 2D beat ‘em up) MvC2 is all a player could ask for. And in two player mode, it goes on forever. << less