Lets face it, one thing the Xbox Live Arcade isn’t short of is fighting games. So releasing yet another one seems odd, especially when original games like Shatter, from New Zealand Company Sidhe, are apparently turned down by Microsoft. But giving that Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is touted as one of the best, lets see how it fares in the cut and thrust genre of 2D Beat’em Ups.
I have to admit to being pretty keen to take Spider-man, Wolverine, and Hulk toe to toe with that skirt wearing Capcom crowd. Yes, I am definitely on the Marvel side when picking between these two groups. And lets face it, in a real world face off Marvel would mop the floor with Capcom. Lucky for Capcom our Marvel Superheroes have had their powers toned down to make for a more even fight.
With 56 characters to choose from there is enough choice for anyone and even your Grandma is bound to recognise a handful of our favourite fighters. Taking your selected characters in to battle is simple enough but for the more initiated there are multiple options for battle types, rules and even individual character traits like ranged, dash or aerial attacks.
As a button masher I found Marvel vs. Capcom 2 much more accessible and enjoyable than the likes of King of Fighters. Even just mashing the buttons I was able to pull off awesome combos, special moves and team assists, so for someone who puts the time in to learn the actual moves I’d imagine this game will be very rewarding. One thing that did annoy me was on completing the single player game I was not given an Achievement. Upon investigation I found you have to beat the game with characters from the same universe (X-men, Street Fighter, etc.) to get the Achievements. A bit sad really.
The net code for Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is apparently some of the best around, making online games top notch and with a large fan base, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 maybe the XBLA title to buck the trend and have a bit of longevity in it’s multi-player life. I hope so because as fighting games go, this is the one I believe deserves the attention from fans and casual gamers alike.
As a port the graphics are good with some updated HD backgrounds, wide-screen support and three ’smoothing’ options for the characters. As in most fighting games the action is too frantic to really notice any minor graphical short comings. Thinking of the audio has left me blank, so lets just say it is nothing memorable but does it’s job well enough with a few comments from the characters to spice things up.
Closing Comments.
Although priced a bit steep for the casual gamers out there, I have no doubt that the fans of Marvel, Capcom and fighting games in general, will snap this game up. And in doing so will hopefully keep the multi-player alive. To be honest, if you want a 2D fighting game in your XBLA collection you currently couldn’t do much better than Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
Released 29/7/2009 for 1200 MS Points.
