Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is one of the best fighting games ever made. Period.
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 continues this fine tradition of video games and ups the ante. As opposed to the previous games which featured two man teams with additional support characters, MvC 2 introduces three man fighting teams. To make space for this small change they introduced a fairly radical change; where the previous games had used the Capcom standard six button control set-up this game instead uses four buttons to attack and two are used to switch party members. It takes some getting used to in the arcades but it actually works perfectly on the consoles.
Making an already great game even better is the immense amount of characters available to you when playing. Well over forty characters can be chosen, drawing from a variety of Marvel and Capcom sources. Veterans of the series such as Storm and Ryu are joined by a bevy of newcomers such as Cable, Tron Bonne (from Mega Man Legends) and Jill from Resident Evil. Top that off with a few original characters like Ruby Heart and Amingo and you can see just how full the game is. Where other, newer, games like Mortal Kombat Armageddon use duplicate fighting styles for a roster this huge each character has their own move sets, even situations where it's mostly the same character such as the two versions of Wolverine who fight almost entirely differently.
As you might expect everything is not sunshine and candy in the land of MvC 2. While there have been plenty of improvements and changes to the game, not counting the roster, there are a few glaring problems with the game.
The biggest problem comes in the form of a few of the characters. There are no truly broken characters but when dealing with someone like Cable you will likely have difficulty seeing this. The sheer frustration that you will feel when fighting a character so utterly capable of tearing you apart with little difficulty can be agitating beyond words. Probably the worst offenders are the newest characters, SonSon and Amingo, who have a number of moves that border rather dangerously on the precipice of being totally cheesy.
However to a player who spends the time mastering the ins and outs of the fighting system this will eventually present little difficulty and can be overcome with lots of practice. Plus, on lower difficulties, you won't even notice just how absurd fighting some of the characters can feel.
Graphics and audio in MvC 2 are about as top-notch as you can possibly get. All of the stages have a crisp look to them and are mostly drawn from places in both game worlds. The pulled back camera actually lets you appreciate the look of the stages all the more not to mention giving you more space to fight in. Almost all of the audio comes from previous games as well so it will be more than familiar although a few remixes spice up the listening experience.
No matter how you slice it Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is a major milestone in fighting games. While the super jumping, tag-teaming, humongous special moves genre seems to have faded from the fighting scene this game stands as a true testament to what can be accomplished in this genre. This is a rare game, made hard to find by Capcoms' loss of the Marvel license, so getting it can be tricky and expensive. But if you can avoid breaking the bank, picking this game up will provide one of the best fighting experiences you can find on a console of any generation.
Score: 9