Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (Sony PlayStation 2, 2002)

Let me just lay it out there right now: I love this game. I loved it in the arcades, I loved it on the Dreamcast and I still love it here, three times around.

MvC2 is exactly what it sounds like: characters from the Marvel world and the Capcom world duke it out in over-the-top 2D graphics. With over 50 different characters to choose from (including Cable (from the X-Men universe), Jill Valentine (from Resident Evil), and Tron Bonne (from Mega Man Legends), among others), part of the fun is just coming up with new and different three person teams.

Which brings me to the fighting. Players choose teams of three, adjusting settings (such as what type of support attacks your non-active partners do, etc) and then they head out to fight. While the characters are 2D, the backgrounds are in full 3D...which is a nice touch, but since they do nothing to affect gameplay, you'll quickly forget about them (especially the one with the giant clown face - ugh). The controls are loose and responsive, allowing even beginners to piece together combos and special moves with relative ease. Anyone who has played any Capcom fighting game before will feel at home with these tired and true controls.

What really lets this game shine is how much fun it is to just sit down and play this game. Three character teams allow for a lot of trial and error when it comes to creating your own "perfect" team. Fighting is fierce and fast, constantly keeping you on your toes while also making this game a quick and easy pick-up.

But what it all boils down to is two player action. Nothing beats finding a great, working team of characters that shutdown a friend's favorite team or unleashing your entire team's super moves on a defenseless player, turning the tide of a close battle. You can still have plenty of fun with this game alone, unlocking all the secrets, but once that is over, what keeps this product such a high level product is multi-player.

As I said when I opened this review, I love this game. The Dreamcast version is slightly superior than to both the PS2 and X-Box versions due to cleaner, less pixelated graphics. Oh, it's more than half the price, easily making it the superior version. But that hardly makes this version worth any less than the $70+ it consistantly grabs on eBay for a complete copy. If you love 2D, over-the-top fighting, any of Capcom's other Vs. titles or are looking for a new multiplayer title, give this game a try! It will not disappoint!

I'd like to give it 5 stars, but I'm bitter. It's been 5 or 6 years since I've played it. I won a few tournaments back in the day, it was fun. Now that it's been 5/6 years since I have played it, I'm terrible. It was an 80 dollar investment due to nostalgia, and I won't lie. Even as terrible as I am, I'm enjoying it. I had the dreamcast version before the movers killed my dreamcast, and it took a lot of thinking to cave and drop the 80 on this game. Am I pleased? Fairly. The rarity and price I cannot hold against the seller, but the developer was very short sighted and stupid.

The game itself is as fun as I remember. You just pick your favorite three capcom or marvel characters and beat the hell out of each other until you win or lose. If you've played any of the Vs series, you know the deal. If you haven't, well, that's all there is to it. My advice if you are just starting out is to NOT drop the 80+ on this game. It's worth it if you know the game or really need a fighting game fix. It's not if you just want a game to play.

2002 - The New Age of Heroes. Everyone who was smart enough to get this when it was released, more power to you. As for me and everyone else who is reading this, you've realized that this extemely fun game is extremely rare to get (making it even more fun to play once you have it in your hands)! Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is awesome (not just for you, but your family as well - kids mostly); Just to name a few people for the Marvel side would be Cap. America/Steve Rogers, The Hulk/Bruce Banner, Spider-Man/Peter Parker, Wolverine/Logan, War Machine/Rhodes (Iron Man/Tony Stark's friend), and Venom/Eddie Brock (not Mac Gargan, the present Venom in the Marvel Comics Universe). Capcom's side has Ryu, Guile, Chun Li, Mega Man, Jill Valentine (from the Biohazard/Resident Evil series) and tons of other characters (56 characters total from both sides...after unlocking all of them). I know, I know (cause I was thinking it myself); $100!? $89.95 plus S&H!? $150!? Since it's become so rare to get in almost seven years time, it's only natural that people will mark up the price (especially in today's economy); but it's well worth the money. You, your girlfriend, your kids, cousins, whatever...they'll all enjoy this game mainly because it's easy to play and learn the button combinations needed to do some truly spectacular visual combos from your favorite character(s) on both sides. I can keep typing about how much I like this game and how long I've been waiting to play it since I rented it at Blockbuster 5 years ago, but ultimately you will have to make the decision on your own to get it or not; should you get the game though, please know that you will like it a lot (maybe even love it). Peace out!

Marvel vs Capcom 2 is one of the rarest PS2 titles there is, and for good reason. Almost everything about this game was done to near perfection where fighting games are concerned. I'll break it down for you into gameplay, controls, graphics/sound, and replay value.

Gameplay: 9/10
This is a fighting game. 2 people, or one person and a computer, select characters and attempt to pummel each other into oblivion. In this game, those characters happen to be an arsenal of X-men and other Marvel heroes and villains, and alot of the crew from Capcoms already famous fighting games such as Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, etc. There are also other characters such as Megaman and Jill Valentine who did not come from fighting games. There are 56 characters to choose from in all.
Each fight you pick 3 characters. During battle you only control 1 at a time, however with the press of a button your allies can be called in to perform assist attacks, combination special attacks, and a few other tricks as well. At first this game can be overwhelming due to the number of possible characters on the screen at once, but chances are you'll be having too much fun to notice.
There is the usual PS2 load times to deal with, but the amount of action you get in return for waiting is definitely worth it.

Controls: 10/10
This is where this gaqme really shines. The controls are so amazingly simple that anyone can pick up this game and start pulling off 5-hit combos or higher. Like other Capcom titles, you have different strengths of punches and kicks assigned to diffrent buttons, however the number of those attack buttons have been reduced from 6 to 4. The other buttons are your 'assist' button, and the one you've all been waiting for, the 'special button'. While this is actually a combination of other buttons, it makes the game a whole lot simpler once you realize what it can do.
On top of that, the usual style for performing over-the-top attacks in Capcoms fighting games has been simplified to using a quick slide of the directional pad along with the 'special' button for almost every hero in the game. You'll be uppercutting your opponent off the screen and throwing fireballs the size of small warehouses in no time.

Graphics/Sound: 5/10
If this game has a fault, this is it. It seems they're obsessed with putting 3d backgrounds into 2d fighting games. All this does is make an interesting, but ridiculous contrast to have to look at while your fighting. There are a few levels in the game that have very cool looks to them, but most of them just take up space on the disc that could've been spent on the characters.
Oh yeah, the characters also don't look like they've seen a graphics update since PS1. Considering 2d fighters, that's not a huge downfall.
On the plus side for the graphics, the animation is seamless and lightning fast, and the special attacks are all very well drawn.
The audio... I usually mute the TV. I'm not a fan of jazz, and this game has an endless amount of it. There are some great sound effects for the combat itself, and some of the characters have interesting things to say at times, but again this is a big dissapointment for this game.

Replay Value: 9/10
56 characters, half of which need to be unlocked, along with stages, costumes, etc. The sheer variety in this game gives you reasons to play for a very long time.

Overall: 8/10
Very fun game. I would highly recommend this to any fan of Marvel comics or Capcoms fighting games.

i have been playing this game since i first seen it in the arcades and then i finally got it for my sega dreamcast Overall it is a great fighting game and has the addictions for unlimited game play for a long time. You goy characters from Marvel Universe and Capcom. So many characters and so many combos will keep you playing for the extra hit to extend your combo (100 hit combo anyone). My personal favorite group consists of Jill Valentine, Hayato and Psylocke. Let's put it this way, the game is good enough to get me to buy versions of Sega Dreamcast, Playstation 2 and 2 Xbox (1 openend and 1 sealed). Anyways you have fast pace action and great gameplay, awesome backgrounds and colorful characters with unlimited combo potential to keep anyone from veteran to beginner interested for a long time. THere is no in between, you will like it or hate it. Just wished they made this online compatible so we all could get combo crazy online all over the world. Thanks