Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes
System: Dreamcast
Publisher & Developer: Capcom
Released: 2000
Genre: 2-D Fighting
Capabilities: VMU Compatible, Jump Pack Compatible, Arcade Stick Compatible, VGA Cord(allows your PC monitor to act as a television)

This pic here shows
some of the most
spectacular 2-D sprites ever!
(Picture Credit: IGNDC)

The Game

The 4th installment in the vs. series. The vs. games by Capcom have been very innovative in the 2-D fighting category. Allowing for up to 4 fighters be fighting on screen at once, the previous vs. games were quick hits at the arcades. And the main feature here that’s different from the arcade is that’s it’s now 3-on-3 play where up to 6 characters can be fighting at once. I haven’t been following the fighting game genre that much lately, so if I miss some key elements about the game, please don’t go all hyper on me.

The Roster

Just about every imaginable character is here from the Marvel and Capcom worlds, with a total of 56 characters in all, where most need to be unlocked. Some new characters are Jill from Resident Evil, and Tron Bonn from Mega Man Legends. But all the old regulars are here like Ryu, Ken, Guile, Chun-Li, Mega Man from the Capcom side, plus Hulk, Captain America, Wolverine, Gambit, Iceman, and just about all the other X-Men. I’ll describe how you unlock the characters later on, but this is a very nice, huge roster alltogether.

Graphics

These graphics are just unbelievable! The best damn sprite festival is right here! All the characters in the game look huge, and detailed down to every point, where they look exactly the way they came out of the comic books. There’s no slowdown at all when all 3 characters on your team are doing a hyper combo at once. And the animation of it, just looks spectacular, it’s so stunning that you’ll have to see it for yourself. The game has nice hand drawn portraits of all the fighters, which looks really great and some of the best art work I ever saw. But what really looks great here are the hi-res, 3-D backgrounds of the game, the clown face of the carnival background looks superb! And the chunk of Ice you’re fighting on flowing down a river looks great too. Overall, Capcom has done a really great job on the graphics, my only complaint is that some characters look like old rehashed characters from older Capcom fighters, like Akuma, and the character design of him and a few others look really crappy compard to the new characters.

Sound

The sound is another thing well done here. All the sound effects of the punching, kicking, and stuff, sounds just like the same off other Capcom fighting games. All the characters have their own sets of grunts, and voices of them calling out their special moves, like Iceman’s “Ice Blast” and Cyclop’s “Optic Blast,” etc. The background music during the battles sounds really great and although it seems out of tune at first, you get use to it, and it seems to fit the background you’re fighting on just fine. The main menu music is good, but the only repetitive music is the background tune that plays during the fighter select screen, which keeps on saying, “Gonna take you for a ride” over and over. And it really gets on my nerves, but at least you’re never at the screen all that much though. Other than that tiny flaw, a great job on the music.

Game play

I love how this game controls, the way the characters do their moves is identical in older Capcom games, like it’s the same combination to Ryu’s fireball as it is in Street Fighter 2. I read a lot about this game being recommended for an arcade stick or some Japanese Saturn controller, but the Dreamcast controller works just fine for me. I really like how the two trigger buttons are used to tag in/out your partners, or call them in to attack your opponents. And the punch and kick buttons are the 4 main buttons on your controller. For a person who’s not a veteran at fighters like me, I say this is a really nice setup for me. I also like how the jump pack shakes the hell out of your controller during battles.

The game has a really unique battle system. Like I said before, its 3-on-3 and you can tag in your partners to replace a weaker character of yours anytime during battle. At the bottom of the screen is your combo bar, which builds up as you progress through your battle. Once it peaks, you can do a hyper combo, which is some form of a super combo attack, which pulls off 30-50 some hit combos. For game modes, there’s arcade mode, where you have 7 battles, then a final stage against 3 forms of Abyss, the boss. Then there’s vs. mode, where you go against a friend. There’s score attack mode where you basically try to get your highest score in a single battle. And there’s training mode where you go against a dummy computer, and it’s a great place to learn all your moves. There’s also an options menu to configure everything to your satisfaction. Then there’s high scores where you check out your highest ranks for arcade mode and score attack. Then there’s the hidden factor menu, where you can create a vs. VMU file to trade your fighters to other people who own the game, or ‘shop’ around, see you earn experience points after playing the game in any mode of play, even training, scoring for each mode varies, like you get 100 points for every battle you complete in VS., and I believe(not sure) 10 points for every minute you spend in training, your major point collectors though are in Score Attack and Arcade mode, any ways, you gain levels, and the more levels you gain, the more stuff opens up to be bought in the shop like hidden characters, hidden stages, and different colors for characters.

Replay Value

I really like the point system in the game, and it’ll always make you play the game more and more to make sure you get everything unlocked. The game is also a blast to play with 2 players. I’ve only had this game for a few days, but I’ve clocked in so many hours it’s unbelievable. I usually don’t find fighting games so addictive, but his is one that has me hooked.

In Brief

+: Eye-dropping graphics, Unbelievable backgrounds, innovative point system used to buy hidden fighters

-: Some characters look like unchanged earlier versions of them, repetitive background music during character select(as is these flaws even matter)

The Final Ratings Rundown

Graphics: 9.2
Sound: 9.7
Game play: 9.3
Replay Value: 8.9

Overall: 9.2

Rounded to fit GameFAQs Score: 9

Final Analysis

Another great fighting game by Capcom. Any one who has been a fan of the vs. series should check it out. The game’s really great and is one of the greatest true fighters I’ve played in a long time. Any one who’s a fan of the Capcom fighters especially should at least give this game a rent, even if the concept of 3-on-3 seems wacky to you at first, but you at least have to give this game a rent. Great job Capcom!