Overall 9.3 Graphics 9 Sound 7 Addictive 10 Story 7 Depth 10 Difficulty 8
8.5
Let me take you on a ride! becerra95
Been exposed to Marvel vs Capcom for quite a while since my first taste in an emulation from a PSP. It was Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter and Marvel vs Capcom : Clash of Superheroes that brought to me this vs. series which is wild because out of all the years until 2010s I didn’t know this existed, even though I played Street Fighter games and Marvel Superheroes. This one though, I’ve seen it on the Xbox Marketplace when it was available before the removal (licensing). Since then I’ve bought the physical disc for the Dreamcast 8 years ago for $40 and now, through emulation because of how expensive the game is now… I’ll make a review about this classic of a game. This is Marvel vs Capcom 2 : New Age of Heroes for Dreamcast. Story : 7
The story of a game is about a pirate named Ruby Heart who stumbled a great evil named Abyss. She traveled on her ship to warn the Marvel heroes and villains plus the Capcom universe of a great evil that is approaching. Putting aside their differences, they team up once again since the battle of Onslaught, as they travel through the lands to face Abyss and trap him back in a sphere where he came out of.
It’s a similar “Heroes and villains vs a great evil” they have been pulling off the last few iterations but the catch is that there’s no individual stories of these characters. No matter who you choose it’ll always be the same ending (not spoiling). The story presents itself an original boss and that’s quite uncommon from this series itself.
It’s a 7 out of 10. Overused but not so dulled out. Lack of individual stories makes it lackluster compared to previous games.
Graphics : 9
The game introduces some 3D aspects into the fray in use of the backgrounds. The stages look pretty great on Dreamcast hardware, almost near perfection to the arcade port if not already. Simply one of the best Capcom has done yet with the series. Stages are more so static with an exception of some moving background (water or a clock tower. Carnival). That doesn’t ruin the experience as the stages still look very lively even if some have minimal impact with the scenery.
The character designs, most are reused again from previous games while others are making their first appearance in the series and were made from the ground up. Most look good and blend well with other character while others stick out like a sore thumb and look odd in the game (Morrigan’s graphic design looks good but being a reused asset from Darkstalkers you can see some interlacing with her but not with other characters oddly enough). The new characters look pretty sharp and fit well with the graphics of the game.
The intro, it’s one of the best I’ve seen whether on an arcade or this Dreamcast port. You see the flying Capcom logo in the sky before the announcer (male) announces “Capcom Presents” and you get treated with a cast of characters from both sides with the attract screen displaying the new mechanics and gameplay for the game to draw a crowd before it announces “Marvel vs Capcom 2 : New age of Heroes” on a 3D water wave looking background. Pressing start gives you a marble slab looking menu that doesn’t look bad though odd choice. Not against it. The character select though, it’s also one of the best I’ve seen as you see a globe vector behind the character select and the red background is a nice touch. The character art designs are also one of the best I’ve seen as each character looks remarkable and an eye catcher.
For the gameplay, some small slowdowns at times when too much is happening in the screen for some characters but it doesn’t hinder the gameplay one bit. That’s my only take away as the game boasts speed, smoothness and great animation to make impress the players.
Capcom really tried to use the Dreamcast hardware to its potential to make sure the game is close to the port as possible when it comes to graphics.
Overall it’s a 9 out of 10. Reusing models is still kind of lazy but they made up with such upgrades and impressive graphics that it makes up for that one hiccup.
Difficulty : 8
The game is no pushover with characters blocking most of the time during gameplay. They’ll counter whenever they have the opening, bring out assists to throw you off your momentum or continue to devastate your health. The fact the final boss is one of the most difficult yet more balanced from the game says a bit about the game itself (more on that later).
It’s an 8 out or 10. Game can be beaten easily but with opponents blocking most matches sometimes a win could feel lackluster. You can always change the difficulty on the settings.
Addictive : 10
This game is one of the best I’ve ever played in the Marvel vs Capcom series. So much character selection, so many crazy combinations of teams. Learning how to play them and what they can offer in a fight. The chaotic nature this game brings makes you want to play for hours on ends and not get tired by the vast selection. Every character having a personality of its own and trying to beat your own score is a great way to invest hours. Though the beauty of this game is the multiplayer. Playing against one another is the best part of the game. It’s so great that even to this day there are tournaments being held for this game from time to time for competitive play and that shows the longevity this game possess. Truly a classic, one that is adored and played by so many people, even myself for hours on end.
It’s a 10 out of 10 for me. Huge variety in many areas keeps you coming back for more if you’re into the series or crazy fighting games.
Sound : 7
I put this second to last for a reason. The game boasts a great soundtrack, but it lacks the depth of music the previous games had to offer. No more of the specific themes for each character that they boast before. Every stage has a different theme and for me, it’s a downgrade.
The intro music, very jazzy and energetic that it doesn’t become dull during the attract mode. The character select music is probably the best out of the whole game “Let me take you on a ride” is a classic for the series these days.
The sound effects, mostly pretty good and the sound is clear for the most part. Some character models, I don’t know whether it’s just me or what but they do have a muddled sound to it (Dr. Doom “molecular shield” sounds muffled and Iceman’s “freeze” sounds like children of the atom without enhancing)
I mean for the most part the sound quality is pretty good but the removal of character music to stage music is a huge downgrade to me. It’s a 7 out 10
Depth : 10
The last of the review and for a good reason. This game is somewhat depth rich with its gameplay and mechanics. First the characters.
The roster consists of 56 characters, 24 readily available on the get go as the rest are unlockables through a shop. For the roster, most characters that had ever appeared in a Vs. series or marvel fighting game makes a returning presence to choose from. Only one character is absent from the roster that made an appearance (Anita from Darkstalkers. Made her appearance on Marvel Super Heroes as a secret character). Other than that, every other character is present with some new additions from both Capcom and Marvel.
From the Marvel side, two notable characters that make a playable debut (in my knowledge) are Dr. Doom and Thanos (sub boss and final boss in Marvel Super Heroes), and new characters are Cable and Marrow. Every other character has made at least one presence as a playable character from X-men Children of the Atom to Clash of Superheroes.
Capcom side has debutants Anarkis, Felicia, B.B. Hood from Darkstalkers. Tron Bonne and Servbot also make a debut from the Mega man legends series and with Jill Valentine from Resident Evil, Hayato from Star Gladiator, and SonSon from his own game… SonSon. That rounds up the list with two new original characters featuring Amingo and Ruby Heart for the Capcom side.
With this huge roster comes balances, and this game lacks balances. This game is so broken that it actually helps with the gameplay. Some characters are god tier once you learn to play while some are just bottom tiered low levels but they still have appeal to play them for fun (servbot cough cough).
And with no balancing in the game also comes assists. Capcom once again returned to using selected characters as an assist instead of choosing a specific character that they done to Clash of SuperHeroes. Each character has one of three options to choose an assist coming from an anti air, variety type, projectile type, heal type or more. Some characters are better as an assist only than others and you can easily use these to your advantage for an opening, extend a combo, end a combo or even boost your player health or stats up a bit. You thought the tier list was bad on how broken the game is, the assists can be just as broken and exploited.
When starting the match, you choose three characters to play as instead of two like the previous games. The goal is still the same as you try to defeat your opponent by knocking out all three players or whoever has the least amount of health loses. Instead of a regular six button scheme, Capcom devised to go for a more 4 button scheme with two kicks and two punches. The last two buttons are now used as an assist button to summons one of your two teammates to assist you temporarily in the game, though they take more damage if they get hit so be warned.
3 vs 3 team battle may sound great but it could be a pain at times as playing higher stages means they’ll block more and sometimes you win by time out, which is lackluster.
The game has returning and more refined mechanics of the previous installments. Instead of the three hyper meter gauges, you can stick up to five per match. This is makes it easier to pull of Team Hyper Combos (Every player on your team does a Hyper Combo simultaneously on screen for massive damage). Snap backs is a great addition to the game as you can force an opponent player out and call out another depending on which assist button you used. This can be very useful when you’re trying to knock an opponent out of the game when they are resting and prevent health regeneration. With health regeneration, the two players resting during the match can have their health replenished where the red bar is at until the red is gone or you swap out prematurely, losing the red bar and health regeneration.
Each character has at least one Hyper Combo move, while others gave up to four or more Super moves and while that seems odd or unfair, it’s a broken game (Iceman got the worst of it with just one Hyper Combo). Each character also has their own strengths and defense, some are able to tank more hit while others can pack a punch. With each character comes with the usual tropes (zoners, grapplers, traps, etc) but with assists it can be easier to mitigate some drawbacks of each character and with some hours invested into the game you can see which characters compliment one another with assists while fighting.
The best part of the game is the gameplay itself. I keep saying the mechanics are broken and all, I’ll tell you why. One huge example is Magneto, Storm and Sentinel team. This is one of the most broken teams in the game and if you’re good, you can make people rage quit with the abuse of powers you can do with these three characters. Most characters have an infinite, you can abuse the SnapBack where you can instantly kill a character when they’re supposed to be knocked back. Some Team Hyper Combos can be a sure kill if done correctly (B.B. Hood Captain Commando and Juggernaut), and negatives of the game is some players can’t be hit with standard attacks and have to crouch to land some attacks (Servbot). Some characters like Servbot are really weak and are meant as joke characters but they also possess some gimmicks to help with their survivability. It’s a broken mess and I applaud how wonderful the chaos is represented. This is peak Marvel vs Capcom here.
As for the game modes themselves, there’s some variations. Arcade mode is the usual with fighting 8 stages of opponents with the last stage being Abyss with his three forms. A knight mode, a slime mode and his final mode. Not much to talk about as the arcade mode is similar to every installment of previous titles.
Training mode is where you practice your skills against a dummy opponent in a training stage to improve yourself with combos or get a feel of how characters play. There’s many ways to adjust your training by dummy controls, some training options to adjust Hyper combo gauges, speed of the game, difficulty and damage dealt. Attack data is also present but it’s off by default. You can also change characters without resetting so that’s neat. A more than useful mode if you want to practice on your skills.
Score attack is basically getting the highest score and setting personal bests. A good way to deviate from the arcade if you want to see how much you can rack up on points.
Secret factor is a place in the game where you buy new characters, new color palettes, look at the characters you’ve unlocked and trade among friends with a vmu characters that neither of you have unlocked yet. I’m not sure why is that an option when I think you can just copy and put it in your vmu their saved data unless I’m mistaken. One cheap way to get characters is to go in and out of shop every time and each time you enter, different characters appear with different prices. If lucky you can snag a character you like for cheap which is a good deal and exploit.
The depth of the game is a 10 out of 10. The depth of characters, the broken mechanics and imbalances, the new features make this one of those games where it’s so good that it’s in this state. Game modes offer some deviation but not much.
Overall. This is personally one of my favorite Marvel vs Capcom games I’ve played (up until Ultimate MvC3 since I heard Infinite was bad). I’ve played so much of it that I actually have a team of my own which I like the play style (Akuma, Guile, and Dr. Doom) this game was a later edition to my collection and to think it’s worth $150 complete on Dreamcast these days is crazy to me. Even to this day whenever I see the game in an arcade or anywhere I try my best to play a few rounds because of how fun it is to enjoy some fighting from time to time. Only regret is that I didn’t get the 1up Arcade cabinet and it’s hard to come by at times… though either way this is a game worth recommend playing as it is the best the series has to offer since it was meant to be the final game until they reversed their decision to make MvC3, a game which I won’t be reviewing soon. So many positives in the game only to be hampered by the lack of a huge soundtrack and reuse of some character models. This is clearly one of the best ports of the game since it was made in similar hardware as the Dreamcast.
My rating : 9.5 out of 10.
Review rating : 8.5 out of 10
Graphics 9 Sound 7 Addictive 10 Story 7 Depth 10 Difficulty 8
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 07-23-23
Review Replies: 0
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