Insane, involving, addictive and totally surreal.
So masterful is this games, so well is it put together, and so fast paced and well made it is that it's hard to fault it for being a bit of a button masher. I mean, where else can you see Cable, Ryu, and Akuma fighting on the same team against Jill, Ken, and Colossus?
Graphics: 9/10
The graphics of MVC 2 are some of the prettiest 2D graphics ever made. The characters are all big, crisp and well animated using a plethora of sprites and effects. The colors aren't washed and they vibrate with intensity. The animation is top notch, and is of the same crisp and flawless quality you've come to expect from Capcom games before it. As for the arenas, they're varied with a series of backgrounds, and feature a pseudo-3D effect that makes the game stand out amongst the crowd of very good 2D fighters on the Dreamcast. MVC 2 is also devoid of any framerate problems, or any graphical hiccups, but some of the old characters do have a very poor sprite count, which hurts the game.
However, it's not only through the actual quality of the graphics that this game impresses, but through the insanity that's going on at screen at one time. The art direction that the developers at Capcom took with this game will never be forgotten because MVC2 puts some of the more insane battles in such anime as DragonBall Z or Naruto to shame! At any one time the player might experience anything from 300 hit combos (literally) to a series of super moves being thrwon from left to right, character switches in or out of the battle, and the exquisite animation and lighting effects in the game. At first the visual overload simply overwhelms you, but then it becomes clear that its sweet nature is only one of the many positive things about MVC2.
Sound: 6/10
The battle music in most fighting games is usually centered around hard-pumping techno or, at most pop, but not in MVC2. Capcom's musical choice for this game was... jazz and lyricless bluegrass? What the hell? The music detracts greatly from the experience as not only is it's quality and selection a bit dubious, but it's always drowned out by the sound effects and the quality is appalling for a CD-based game. Even if this was first in arcades, the quality should not be lowered as much as it was.
Sound effects are a bit better. They are usually present, and don't get drown out by each other and they don't seem to overlap to a serious extent (of course when 20 things are happening on screen this might be easier said than actually heard). The sound effects, however, don't stray far from the already established norms of fighting games: Punches, kicks, some taunts, and battle cries are all done well, but they're not spectacular.
Gameplay: 10/10
MVC2 is the only fighting game capable of getting a 10/10 in gameplay because it's the only fighting game to combine button-mashing, technical gameplay, and insane action at one time on the screen. While other games have tried to do this (DBZ: Budokai being a horrible example), all of them have either failed or they didn't come out nearly as good or as spectacular as MVC2.
Now on to the real thing.
Before the, aforementioned Budokai series, MVC2 was the game which boasted the highest amount of characters ever: Well above 60. On the other hand, where you can't compare this game to Budokai and its crappy ilk is that MVC2's characters are actually well made and they are different from one another! The character selection ranges from the most obscure of characters, like a-Red-Riding-Hood-look-alike from Darkstalkers, to Ryu or Akuma the staples of the Street Fighter series, to Jill from Resident Evil 1 and 3. For the Marvel side, the characters range from the Green Goblin, to Cable, to Spiderman, to just about everyone else that has something to do with the Marvel universe. The balance of characters is great, with an almost even amount of players on both sides. All characters also have a wealth of costumes available from purchase from the game's store, where you can also purchase other fighters which might not be part of the initial roster. The whole character mania however can become overwhelming: I've easily spent some 400 hours on this game, to say the least, and I haven't gotten all of the costumes yet. Either way, the character selection in MVC2 is one of the strongest points in the game, and one of the best things to happen to the fighting-game industry.
Don't let the huge amount of characters fool you, Capcom spared no expense (or life, whatever) to make sure that these characters are as different from one another as they can be. Most of them have their own combos, which are very different from one another, and all of them have a myriad of special moves, super moves, and finishers which will simply leave you stunned. The differences are also apparent in the amount of hits someone can take, comboability, and the speed or power of the final attacks as well as the amount of energy required for these attacks. There are no turbo, super, or other such settings when choosing a fighter, but one can easily see why that would be a bit hard when there's over 5 dozen fighters! There are 3 differential settings between characters, but those will be discussed later.
The arenas are also impeccable. They fill the range from mountainous wastelands, to ice caverns, to futuristic facilities just to name a few. Just like the fighter selection, the arena selection is also astounding. After so many hours of game time, I still haven’t acquired, nor have I seen, all the arenas available in this game. Too bad that the arenas aren't more interactive, and a little bit bigger as the fighters reach the ends of the arenas after only a few leaps backwards. Everything, from arenas to fighters or costumes, can be bought from a "game store" where the players take the points they gained in the arcade or practice modes (points which are determined by the amount of time spent or how spectacular the fights were) and then they buy all kinds of nifty things, like the aforementioned new arenas or fighters. Prices range, as does inflation, but they're usually more expensive towards the end of the game when the "cooler" characters and arenas become available.
Finally, it's time to discuss the fighting system. I haven't personally ever seen such a well made system in any fighter, before or since, MVC2: This game combines button mashing with technical fighting to perfection! The game uses only 4 buttons for regular attacks, the four face buttons of the Dreamcast's controller, while the two shoulder triggers are used to unleash super moves. The super moves in this game are a whole new ball game. They're INSANE! The combos can reach in the hundreds easily, and, if the energy bar is sufficiently fully, all 3 of the characters will come in and combine all of their attacks into one mega attack! Such attacks can include anything from a flood of robots from Megaman, to a rabid-attack of Jill's zombie-dogs, to 4 undulating beams coming from Cable's laser gun all combined to deliver a finishing blow to the other party! Outside of the super moves however, the game also features the regular special moves, like Ryu's Haddouken, which are all fairly spectacular in their own right and can be pulled off in the same fashion as we've gotten used to from previous 2D fighters.
Another new feature of the fighting system is the "comboability" which is pretty much a way of saying how easily can you string together hundred-hit combos with certain characters. This obviously differs from character to character, but stringing together hits for a combo is fairly easy, with the same templates that were used in Street Fighter games available here. Controlling the characters during, before, and after their combos is a breeze and MVC2 is perhaps the best fighter to play with the DC's original pad as it handles perfectly with that gamepad. Throws and cancels mimic those found in the original MVC and Pocket Fighter very closely. Canceling combos, consecutively, will usually lead into hyper combos, which are the aforementioned hundred-hit-combos. Unfortunately there are no EX moves, like in other Capcom fighting games such as SFIII but what makes this system different from the other 2D fighters is that these moves WORK! The hundred-hit-combo is actually used in-game, not just in practice where players try to string together as many hits as they can. Blocking is handled through a pushing system, but this actually by using the back button, rather than the forward button as encountered in other VS. games.
That's not to say that the system is without problems. There are pretty huge character imbalances and most characters can be split up in two categories: Beam attackers or close quarter, despite the 3 "settings" available at the beginning of each fight. These 3 settings, ranging from "beam" to "air" attacks might have you thinking that these affect the characters outside their super moves, but they don't. Usually, even super moves are fairly standard, as some characters will have to get close even to activate their "air" finisher, and so on. These balance problems do lead to some faults, most notably the fact that a fighter with beam attacks can keep his distance and pour beam after beam on his opponent (and this is very viable strategy at times) but I've personally found that this is highly over played: The game has a way of balancing itself out so that it doesn't make one character all-ass-kicking (like, say, Sagat).
The AI is decent, just like in any other fighting game. Depending on how high you set it, it can either kick your ass a little or it can kill you without even letting you lay a finger on it. The game modes are fairly standard, and they include the average arcade mode, practice mode, and anything else you can probably think of in a fighter.
Multiplayer: 8/10
Whether or not you'll enjoy the multiplayer in MVC2 depends on who you play against. If your opponents like to abuse to bugs and imbalances in the system (which is fairly common) than this game can become a serious pain in the ass. However, to be honest, that can be said about nearly every fighter out there... even the most balanced.
If however, if the other player is willing to not use cheap ass tactics and exploit the same over-powered-move all the time, the game can become quite fantastic. The fighting with humans is so much more unpredictable and they are a much better opponent than the computer because of this. As one would expect, the multiplayer modes are the fairly standard 2 players vs. that has been present in fighters since the dawn of time.
Overall: 9/10
Tons of characters and arenas, insane action, insane combos, and a perfect combination of button mashing and technical gameplay; MVC2 is pretty much a fighter's dream! If you don't own a Dreamcast, or MVC2, go out and buy both as fast as you can. MVC2 is, by far, best played on a Dreamcast and the game itself, is a masterpiece worth every penny.