Marvel vs. Capcom 2

The Good
The game is absolutely insane. It's one you just have to see in action to appreciate. Especially on the turbo modes, the amount of stuff happening onscreen is simply boggling, what with characters leaping up and down the playfield, letting loose screen-sized super blasts, tagging in and out with other members, etc etc. Frenetic to the extreme.
The huge cast of characters also helps, with very few dupes, and the method of unlocking new characters is excellent. (no achieving nearly-impossible goals; you simply get "points" whenever you play the game which can be used to purchase new characters and levels) All of them are excellently animated, and display loads of personality true to their sources. (all of the graphics are great, outside of the final boss being oddly pixelated) The controls are also spot-on, although it did leave me wishing that the DC controller had more buttons. Even in full turbo mode, I never felt like it was misinterpreting my commands.

The Bad
The chaotic nature of the game virtually destroys any sense of strategy. While it IS possible to become a Zen Master at the game, in the end, ESPECIALLY in two-player mode, it becomes a button-mashing contest. This doesn't really doesn't hurt the game at all, as far as I'm concerned, and just adds to the overall insanity, but people who prefer more thoughtful fighting games (like the Street Fighter series) will likely disagree. Ultimately, this is a game to pull out for grins and for the experience, not to become a black belt with. The sound is also extremely weak. The music is horribly bland, and more vocal samples are desperately needed. (you'll be ready to throttle the announcer by the 20th time you hear, "I can't believe it! You're amazing!")

The Bottom Line
Fighting Game crack. To this day, unbeaten in terms of sheer visual insanity and chaotic energy.

The Good
3-on-3 battles are great fun, and last a good few minutes. The controls are great: assists, character switches, even triple hyper combos are just two button presses away. Plenty of eye candy, especially now that hyper moves are a dime a dozen. This game is just addictive.

The Bad
There may be 56 characters, but only 10 are any good. Gameplay gets repetitive: since everything is so showy, it's more about filling the screen with your characters/projectiles than it's about choosing the right move. Balance is horrible (Cable and Magneto and particular are way too powerful); there's practically an infinite combo for every character. The boss is disappointingly easy.

The Bottom Line
It may not be as complex as Virtua Fighter 3 or as good-looking as Soul Calibur, but it certainly is a whole lot of fun.

The Good
What I liked about this game is the number and variety of fighters. There is a character in here for everyone. I like the super combos that can be easily executed by pushing just two buttons and being able bring your whole team out to do a super combo. I like the three team tag battle because of the strategy that involves and having to adjust to your opponents three characters styles of fighting.

The Bad
I would like to have seen more fighting mode options like a one on one battle. The game is limited to a team of three tag battle.

The Bottom Line
You select a team of three fighters. Each fighter has three attributes that can be selected for when you call them out to assist you in a fight. There are characters from the Marvel comic universe such as Spiderman, The Hulk and X-Men such as Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm and more. Characters from the Capcom universe include fighters from the Street Fighter Series such as Ryu, Guile, Chun Li and other Capcom games like Megaman, Jill Valentine from Resident Evil and more. You can combine fighters from Marvel and Capcom on one team.

The Good
The sequel to the original Marvel vs. Capcom as well as the Street Fighter vs. X-men games, this game had a lot to live up to. Could it be better than those games? Read my review and find out.

In Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, the space-time continuum has been disrupted. Now the Marvel universe and Capcom universe are merging in to one another. Will the heroes overcome this and save themselves?

The plot in MvC2 is a little silly, and a little loose. It is however a fighting game, so I am not expecting much here. Therefore it is not counted as being a, "bad" aspect of the game.

"Here's one for JJ!"-Spider-man, MvC2-

The fighting is fast and furious. You pick a team of three. Each with there own fighting types: ground, capture, healing, etc. And take on the other teams also composed of three. You can also interchange the fighting styles of each combatant. All have one that they excel at however.

Unlike most Capcom brawlers that utilize six buttons. MvC2 uses four, perfect for the Dreamcast controller. In addition to basics like punch, kick, grab, there is also the ability to switch to any fighter at a time. They are all playable, unlike in the original Marvel vs. Capcom, in which the second fighter was passive. You can also pull off super moves.

"Thumbs up solider!"-Captain America, MvC2-

In order to execute these super moves, you have to wait until your power bar fills. It fills by getting hit, and by pulling off successful attacks. If it fills to level three or higher all the members on your team attack at once. This can devastate an opponent. Furthermore multi-hit combos can also be achieved. I have personally done a 110 hit combo.(It was awesome.-MM-) The higher the combo the more points, the more points the higher your end score.

The gameplay is very flexible, with ground combat as well as aerial combat. It is also great fun, there are a plethora of fighters, 56 in all. You start with 16, and earn points to unlock more. You "spend" the points in the "shop". To earn points you must play the single player game or go head to head in Versus mode. You can also unlock stages, and alternate colors for your heroes to wear.

Heroes range from Spider-man, Ryu, Iron-Man, to more rare and expensive like Captain Commando, and Blackheart.

The graphics in MvC2 are amazing, the Dreamcast enables the arcade perfect quality. With 3D backdrops, and 2D fighters with high quality animations. The Special moves look fantastic and the entire game has excellent lighting effects.

The sprites are huge, and very well detailed.

The sound quality is high, with the voice clips, taunts, and victory trash talking. As well as the sounds of combat.

The music is not as well done. Not it's not good it just sometimes seems out of place.

The Bad
"Let's go bub."-Wolverine, MvC2-

56 fighters are two few. That may seem absurd to some, but there are so many missing fighters. I know that they could not put in every single fighter from the Marvel and Capcom universe, but some of the omissions are odd. Where is The Thing? Or Ghost Rider? Or The Punisher, this is really baffling as Capcom made the excellent Punisher beat-em-up.

And where the hell is Ryu, from the "Breath Of Fire" series?

The A.I. is very cheap. Capcom fighting games are notorious for this.

The end boss is a huge pain in the ass.

The music may not sit well with some. It is basically light jazz. And while it sounds good, it just seems an odd choice for this type of game.

Where is Marvel vs. Capcom 3?

There tends to be and imbalance in fighter strength, but not in the way most fighting games go wrong, Usually the brute fighters are too powerful. Here it seems to be the goofy fighters that are too strong. How is Spider-man gonna be beaten by some jackass cactus man? That's right a cactus man!

The Bottom Line
MvC2 is a very fun game and can be quite addictive. It is one of the best if not the best 2D fighting game out there. And one of the best fighters overall.

Dreamcast fighting fans have to pick this one up. The Dreamcast version is the strongest of all the versions, so you best avoid the PS2 and Xbox versions, unless that is the only way you can play this gem.

The Good
This game is one of my all-time favorite games on the now-deceased Dreamcast. It had all of your favorite players from both Marvel and Capcom, and they all had their only special skill-set. The action never gets boring and you have other good things to unlock after you beat the game

The Bad
There wasn't much I didn't like except for the obvious distinction of other players get more special attention than others. (Dan, I'm looking at you!)

The Bottom Line
All in all, a must-have for Dreamcast owners.

The Good
One of the best in the genre.

The Bad
Dated graphics if that bothers you.

The Bottom Line
Awesome game, classic arcade fighter.

The Good
Really, there's one thing to like about Marvel: winning. Ain't nothing about this game to consol you if you come up second. All the action goes down in an upbeat, fun environment with jazzy music playing, but it's a deadly serious affair for competitive players. I'm a grizzled veteran myself but I still get butterflies going into a match. It may seem odd that I'd get so worked up over a mere videogame, but that's because it's so good.

The wonderful thing about Marvel is that there's so many widely disparate characters to choose from. Everyone can settle on a few personal favorites. Sentinel means serious business, being a gigantic robot that can utterly dominate the playing field when played judiciously. Cable just tosses grenades and shoots lasers at you, but god help you if a savvy player catches you in an air Hyper Viper Beam. He'll chain three of them and your character is dead.

But then there's another two characters on your team, so even after losing a man, you can still pull yourself together a mount a comeback. Miracles can and do happen in this game, and the feeling when you accomplish one is hard to match.

The Bad
For a time I was anxious about a sequel, but with its release on the 360, I can wait another decade if need be. This version is so complete, so expansive, so well-executed, that to hanker for a sequel is to take what we already have here for granted.

The Bottom Line
Pulse-pounding action that can be played strategically, frenetically, or a mix of both. A single hard-fought match can be a draining affair that can take hours to recover from fully. All-in-all, one of the best games ever made. If you have the passion to get good at it, of course.

The Good
the hyper combos cool characters - all the classics are there the mass selection of characters the idea of earing points to buy secret characters the vmu save - includes shop, level of expert, play time, trading characters by linking 2 vmu's very well rendered and animated backgrounds 3 character tag team

The Bad
poor graphics - jagged characters like a ps1 game - even tho they are cartoons - id expect better music - oh dear the lack of addictiveness the repetitiveness

The Bottom Line
good if your a follower of these games - buy it if your looking for just a cool fighting game go for soul calibur - you will b amazed theres just too little for this game to make it last a long time in your collection - i wouldnt waste my time id get sommat else