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Marvel vs Capcom 2 Review - PS2

In the late 80’s to early 90’s, 2D fighting games were all the rage. Two particular series instantly come to mind, the Tekken and Street Fighter games. Very rarely did you find fans of both - much like Holden and Ford, you were either a Streety or Tekkenite. But as home gaming machines became more powerful, Tekken made the move to a more 3D environment. Street Fighter never made the move. Marvel Vs Capcom 2 falls, naturally, into the Street Fighter 2D comic book beat 'em up category. Sure, it’s mighty cool to be fighting with Spider-Man against Jill from Resident Evil, but is there enough here to keep the next-gen gamer happy???

Gameplay

Marvel Vs Capcom 2 is, as mentioned, is a 2D fighting game. There is no ability to move in and out of the screen- plain old side scrolling here. You start by selecting your 3 fighters out of a selection of Marvel (X-Men, Hulk, Spider-Man) and Capcom (Street Fighter, Resident Evil) characters. You are now ready for action. The fights work like a tag team wrestling match with the ability to call in your partners for an attacking move or to switch. This allows for some mighty super combos and if performed correctly can dish out some serious damage. A meter runs along the bottom of the screen that fills when you dish out or take some damage. Once filled, the hyper combo can be activated. The effects on the combos are one of the games few highlights. The screen literally lights up as blow after blow is reigned down on your opponent.

If one of your characters happens to perish, no worries, the next one just moves in. Whoever has the last man standing or at the end of the time limit. Whoever has the most energy left moves onto the next stage. Your basic moves, kick and punch, have 2 buttons each assigned, with each one dishing out variations on the move. There isn’t a great deal of difference between all the moves and the game turns out to be an out and out button masher. Moves can be blocked and counter moves initiated but in the end I preferred to kick and punch my way to victory.

The designers have tried to distinguish each character from the next, but essentially there are only a handful of variations. The powerful fighter who is slow, the quick fighter who dishes out little damage and the general all-rounder- not really good or bad at anything. All very stock standard stuff! The characters all move pretty sluggishly and at times you feel like it’s the controller you are fighting, not the game itself.

There really isn’t a lot of variety in the game and only hardcore Marvel or Capcom fans will play through it multiple times to unlock hidden characters. This is done by receiving points for any challenges you complete and spending them on the extra ... (continued next page)