So, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. One of the premier tournament fighters of all time. The Dreamcast port of the arcade game was literally perfect in terms of fighting mechanics and was still played in tournaments, on the Dreamcast, up until the release of Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. I got it for cheap since the release of the sequel drove down the price on ebay. And I unfortunately have to deliver some bad news: MVC2 isn't all that good of a game.
GAMEPLAY:
Let me cover the good elements first. The fighting mechanics for this game are SPOT ON. Fighting flows with a really zippy pace. Combos are relatively easy to string together. Super moves are awesome looking and the characters all come with appropriate special moves and abilities. And it all controls very well, with either the d-pad or the analog stick.
MVC2 definitely earns its status as a legendary tournament fighter. The game is easy to pick up and play but provides a lot of depth for pros to master. The cast of characters also leads to great combo's since you take three fighters into battle each game, leading to near endless team variety. I will say that not all characters are created equal. Some of the street fighter characters just don't translate well into this faster paced fighter and the more obscure characters just don't seem to have the same level of thought put into there move list. There are also some characters with moves hard to counter unless you get really good (screw you gambit) and some are more button mash friendly than others.
DESIGN:
The fighting is were the good elements end. As a tournament fighter, MVC2 deserves its praise. But as a GAME, it has some unforgivable flaws.
The menu system is painfully basic. Just buttons with names on them. But the character select screen is flat out ass-backwards in its design. First, the music loops forever. It never changes. Not usually a problem but this music is quite noticeable and will rapidly grate on your nerves. But then you pick your characters. Lets say you pick Venom, but then change your mind. Too damn bad. There is no way to deselect a character once you have chosen them. You are stuck with them and have no choice but to play with them for the next round. "Well then just exit the screen and pick again" you might say, but you cannot do that either. Once you have entered the character select screen, for ANY of the game modes, you are stuck in there. You can only exit a game mode by entering a fight, hitting start and selecting quit. This is especially unforgivable in vs. mode, where you and your buddy will only decide to change modes AFTER a fight is over. So you both have to quick pick 3 characters, just so you can enter a fight so you can quit the mode.
Unlocking characters is also strange. You earn points from playing in arcade or versus mode. You then enter the "Secret Factory" and spend these points on characters. But only two characters and a skin will be sold at any one time. You can hop in and out of the store (which is pretty quick, menu wise) and the selection will change, but after a while you will see that only 10 or so characters will pop up during a single store checking session. This list of characters can change if you go play, but it won't change drastically in the space of an hour. Their price's also fluctuate, as much as 500 points giving the whole buying process a decidedly random feel. Now the concept of buying characters for points you gain from playing isn't bad, its just another form of progression. But the random prices with the limited selection of characters feels like they are teasing you with the fan favorites. The points you gain from playing also don't feel like a good representation of how much time you spent earning them, for what characters they will buy you.
Now, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 got some flack for having very few game modes. This was not new to the series. MVC2 has only the bare minimum of modes, with vs., Arcade and training. Now as an older title, this is a bit more forgivable than the above problems, but it seriously hampers the game's replay value. Playing by yourself can feel like an unmitigated slog and the Arcade mode can get pretty unfair in the later matches.
OVERVIEW:
MVC2 suffers from heavy nostalgia goggles. The fighting is unarguably slick and polished, but the rest of the game just feels half finished. I know it was an arcade port, but at least try to make it more user friendly than that.
5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment