Marvel vs. Capcom 2 New Age of Heroes
Reviewed by Dale Kulas
The Game
The 4th in the vs. series installment. 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 dang 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
dumb 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 out of 10
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!
OR
Car Credit - Info Videos - Hotel Las Vegas - Payday Loans - Problem Mortgage 