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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
2D Cult-Classic Beat'em up - PURE GAMEPLAY!, January 9, 2003
Before I start, I would like to commend Capcom for this conversion. It was a LONG time coming, but they still persisted and went ahead with it. This game, while not appealing to a wider market, will no doubt please a lot of die-hard fans of the genre. Please read on and find out what my opinion is, of this cult-classic 2D fighting game.GRAPHICS 7.5/10
This is where the game takes a step back in time. The 2D sprites are showing their age, and look particularly pixilated in comparison to the Dreamcast port. But what is reassuring is that all characters move smoothly and have all most, if not all of their animation frames intact. When you think about how jerky a lot of the old 2D fighting games were on PS1 back in the day due to lack of frames, it's a relief to know the PS2 can `cut it' in this area. Most of the character sprites are bold and colorful as ever, but some appear rough around the edges and recycled when compared to some of the previous installments. The game's special effects are rather impressive: when performing a tag super combo, the explosive effects are very flashy. The Backgrounds are now in 3D, but still have a cartoony edge, this is nice, but the characters being 2D, don't fit in very well - I cant help thinking the game would have had a better feel if it was 2D throughout.
So in summary, the graphics aren't too bad, it's just a pity that the character sprites suffer from pixilation and that they are not quite on par with the crystal clear sprites of the Dreamcast version. SOUND 5.5/10
Now this is the area of the game that I find most disappointing. The sound effects during battle sound shoddy, recycled, muffled, and altogether a lot less crisp and clear when compared with the Dreamcast version. Sometimes you can barely hear the impact of a blow. The vs. games on the PS1 packed a real good punch and sounded solid - so why in the world does this PS2 suffer and have worse sound? The PS2 has greater audio capabilities than the PS1 but for some reason suffers in this area. Perhaps it is due to the large amount of memory usage for all of the animation frames processed at any one time during play. It just takes a lot away from the solidity and impact of the game and slightly effects gameplay quality. It is as if all of the sounds have been dubbed over from the Dreamcast version and have lost audio quality in the process. The Music on the other hand, is what prevents me from giving Marvel vs. Capcom 2 a completely bad score on the sound front. The music is excellent. It gives the game a good feel and is very fitting for super heroes. However the character select music can become extremely tedious, especially when taking longer to choose your characters as the roster increases. The continuous repetition of the "I wanna take you for a ride" riff is sometimes enough to reduce you to tears of tedium and anxiety! Just joking, but then you'd probably guessed! The music is extremely Jazz influenced, so depending on your taste; you may either love it or hate it. GAMEPLAY 10/10
Now this is where the game cannot be faulted! The usual razor sharp control system is once again present with the exception of one minor alteration: the traditional six button configuration has been brought down to four, but don't panic! This increases combo ease and speeds the gamelpay up. The difference is that you now have light & medium punch as one button, and light & medium kick also as one button. Upon activation of the button your character will perform a light attack but when pressed repeatedly your character will go from light to medium performing easy chain combos and super combo openers! (Opportunities to link regular chain combos to super combos) And of course you have your heavy attack buttons for kick & punch. This control system works incredibly well and makes gameplay a delight!
But what makes Marvel vs. Capcom 2 astounding is the sheer amount of characters available. There are 24 to begin with and a total of 56 when all are opened. This makes for an incredible amount of gameplay possibilities and character teams, especially now that you have three characters to a team! Difficulty levels are good, ranging from very easy, where you can cheaply super combo your way through the game, to intense difficulty, where you will struggle for victory in the first battle! All in all, an amazing amount of FUN gameplay. LIFESPAN/LONGEVITY 9/10
This game has a massive amount of replay value; you'll keep coming back for more. It has 7 additional backgrounds to open up; character galleries and all characters have variant costume colors to access along with the aforementioned multitude of playable characters. All of which are bought with points earned through playing the game in training, arcade and score attack mode. You have an incentive upon playing the game due to how much more you can gain through buying new features with the points you earn. Excellent. OVERALL OPINION
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is a great bumper value package of a fighting game! But in the end of the day, it will only really appeal to the die-hard fans. The majority of the fighting fans these days would opt for the next generation fighters like Tekken 4, Virtua Fighter 4 or the upcoming Soul Blade 2, but if you are a fan, I strongly recommend this game. The good easily out ways the bad. To be exact, an overall 8/10 - Great Stuff
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