Review: Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (XBX)

“Guess what? The x men are in a street fighter game!”

“Whaaat? F**k off!”

That was that more or less the conversation that took place one day in Year 10 Maths class when I was 15. The advent of a merger of a very popular comic marvel brand into a Capcom streetfighter game was a big one. To have Wolverine taking on Ryu? Ooh er, a concept as exciting as the new female PE teacher in spandex.  Although I never got to play X Men VS Streetfigher, I did get the next instalment on jap import for my psone. I can still remember that cheesy voice screaming the title out…”Maaaarvel Suuuppper Heeerroos versus Streeeeeet Fightaaaa!”   It was great, brill 2d graphics, sick speed, over the top and easy to pull off supers and combos and a secret character by the name of Norimaru who attacked the hero’s with super powers and the hardened street fighters with his teddy, protractor and book bag.  Yes it was that mad, and hence lots of fun.
 
Then came Marvel VS Capcom, which had more characters….then Marvel VS Capcom 2, on the dreamcast…with erm…even more characters and now you can have three on your team instead of two. Although the series wasn’t jumping ahead by miles they were still fun. So for that reason they were ported to the PS2 and X BOX, hopefully making use of the new platforms specs and some extra dev time to chuck in some nice goodies. Other former dreamcast games are doing it. Shenmue 2 and Skies of Arcadia are being re-released with extras. So what does Marvel VS Capcom 2 offer us from the two year gap when it was on the dc?

Uhhh..well you see they…what they’ve done is…oh dear, I’m looking as hard as I can. Oh wait! There is something different! The characters sprites are a bit bigger and hence more pixellated!!! That’s right! The game looks a little worse than two years ago! Hmm I would have thought the reason why the x box is so damn big is ‘cos there’s a lot of circuits and wires there that could have made look Marvel vs Capcom 2 look a bit better at least. Oh well. The game is still good old 2d fun so I’ll forgive this little fact. The animation is still wonderful, the special moves fill up the whole screen in a tranceful and impressive manner. Despite the games age, it still can provide a bit of eye candy when a super max level move is pulled out to finish off an opponent. The characters are nice and large, if grainy. The backgrounds are in 3D, like Capcom VS SNK 2. Too me this looks strange, having 2d grainy characters on a clean, crisp pointy 3d background. I’d rather Capcom stuck 2d all the way, they just have to look at Sammy’s beat-em-up Guilty Gear X on the PS2 (has the cleanest and most amazing 2D look) to see how far back they are in the visual department.
 
Thankfully, the “cool” factor is still there. Having a team consisting of Ryu, Spiderman and Strider (our own Darran musta loved that fact) or any other of the available 21 characters give Marvel VS Capcom 2 that extra factor that the competition doesn’t. Pah! Who wants to plays as an old dude called Heihachi when you can be Spidey!
 
The moves are done very well, unique in their own way to each character and sometimes very amusing. I chuckled when I found Rogue from the X men could kiss opponents and nick their attributes or when Jill from Resident Evil (yes...you read right) brings out zombies, dogs, A TYRANT (!) and a massive rocket launcher.  Brilliant.

Now here’s the main problem with the x box conversion, and it’s not really got to do with the game. It’s the pad. Perfect for all day Halo, absolutely terrible for a 20 minute bash on a 2D ultra fast beat em up. I haven’t tried it with controller s, but with the main pad it can be a pain to get those moves out. I mean pain literally, my had began to hurt after a while and I vowed never to go back…but one thing kept me going. After a play on arcade you get points depending on how far you got and how well you fought. With these you can buy a number of things, new costumes, artwork…ooh and other 32 characters. That’s 56 in total. And I’ll play more just so I can get Mega Man, Omega Red and Ken.

As for the music, hmm well I doubt it’s to everyone’s taste, but I like it. It’s cheesy but the type I’d hear in an arcade filled with those 20p machines and those kids in leather jackets. The sound effects are done well with catch phrases being thrown out now and again, and the bigger moves give out the oomph factor with the zany announcer in the background shouting “awesome”!

There are the counter’s, reversals and stuff you can learn. Yet in multiplayer you know someone button bashing can get a triple super out so there’s a lack of balance there. But, ah who cares!? Marvel VS Capcom 2 is about zany, cool old school fun! It’s just too bad Capcom took the word “old” literally, and re-released a game that’s not really that different or better than the one I got in high school in 1999.

Rating: 6 / 10

Words by Usman Zia