The most broken, unbalanced, lazy, and over the top fighter you'll love.
The story of the game is very barebones and simple. On earth there has been death happening at a fast rate. The pirate, Ruby Heart, traces the sources to a sphere known as Abyss, the Armor of Erosion. Calling in the many forces, Ruby Heart teams up with the heroes (and villains) to bring an end to Abyss.
There really isn't a point in describing the story, because it's nearly nonexistent. What is kind of disappointing is that all of the story elements from the previous games are gone and the only ounce of detail you receive is through the ending credits, which I may add, is the same for all the characters. This is kind of a shame, considering how entertaining the character or team specific endings were in the previous games, which kind of makes Capcom's effort seem lazy.
The graphics in the game are rather nice; keeping the 2D approach from the previous games, yet adding some 3D backgrounds, thanks to the NAOMI arcade hardware the game is based off of. The 3D backgrounds are used occasionally, like the final phase of Abyss, as you fight in a fiery arena. Overall, the details are rather nice in the stages, varied from a clock tower, a carnival with a giant 3D clown, and a cave. The areas are rather nice, but lack the distinct nature the previous games had, not containing any levels from the Marvel or Capcom universe. This is a minor complaint, but it was more fun playing in a mall where you saw different characters such as Cody and Jessica, or an area where Dr. Wiley was yelling through a megaphone.
The character models are pretty good, yet are taken directly from their respective games. People who have played games such as the Street Fighter Alpha series or Darkstalkers can easily note the blatant copy of the sprites. Many of the newcomers in the playable characters, such as Psylocke, had their sprites taken from the original assist models from Marvel vs Capcom. The only issue that I found in the graphics in terms of the character models was Roll's, simply because she looks too heavily penciled and doesn't fit the other sprites at all, in terms of style. Aside from the character models and backgrounds, many of the animations come from the explosive action, which flows rather well.
Since most of us have moved on to widescreen televisions, Capcom made some small changes to the formatting in which the game is based off of. The transition in ratio worked in some ways, with a minor mistake being that you can see the cutoff of some of the character's Super combos, like Jin's. This unfortunately cuts off parts of the screen if you do not use a widescreen television. Aside from the ratio change, there have been three different graphic filters added, called "smooth", "crisp", and "classic". The crisp setting actually removes some of the blemishes and blockiness that the game had, so it can look somewhat decent on a high definition television. This makes the smooth and classic settings worthless, unless you're bent on having the game's graphics as faithful as you can to the original. The graphics and models of the characters might be average, but that doesn't necessarily make it a huge problem.
The gameplay is where the game shines. The controls have been simplified from the approach taken in the previous games. Instead of 6 attack buttons, it has been changed to 4 attack and 2 assist buttons. The assist system from Marvel vs Capcom has been dropped, where you had a random character attack for a number of times. Instead, the system of Marvel Superheroes vs Street Fighter has been adapted. Overall the new controls scheme works well, with the only downer being that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions do not have a dash button anymore, making some of the character's combos harder to pull off than in the other versions.
For those who have never played a game in the Vs. series, dealing or taking damage fills the Super meter on the bottom, which allows you to pull off a Super, which are moves that deal greater damage than a normal one. Depending on the level of your Super Meter, you can link up Supers with your fighters, and depending on the assist type you chose, you can bring in all 3 of your fighters on the screen at once to deal a ridiculous amount of damage to your opponent.
When using an assist, you can choose from three types that they have, with a few examples being Anti-Air, Heal, and Capture. The results from choosing your assist type vary from doing a regular attack or giving an item for extra health. Using your assist means that the assisting character is in danger, and an assist character takes in twice as much damage as a currently played fighter. However, if an assist is not brought in to fight, they can regain the health that they lost from the attacks. The only times assists cannot be used are when you are doing a Super jump, pulling off a Super, or blocking. The assist system works very nice and works well in manipulating the opponent's weakness, to give you opportunities to bring them down.
The roster of the game is at a ridiculous number of 56, bringing in a huge array of memorable Marvel characters, and everybody but the kitchen sink from Capcom's side. Capcom went as far as bringing in characters from relatively unknown games such as Hayato from the Star Gladiator series and the granddaughter of the original SonSon from the arcade game.
Characters that were never shown fighting hand to hand combat, like Jill Valentine from the Resident Evil series, were given move-sets to fit in the game, such as summoning zombies and Tyrant, using charged based attacks, and many weapons that range from the popular Beretta to a rocket launcher. Although a lot of the character sprites were taken straight from their respective series, the new faces makes up for it. Aside from SonSon, the other two new characters are Ruby Heart, a French pirate, and Amingo, a cactus who is in search of an evil wind.
Aside from the roster being huge, the game is ridiculously broken. There is no balance in the roster and some fighters are more ridiculously overpowered than others, which can lead to some frustration when your team of Ryu, Cypclops, and Tron Bonne gets pulverized by a team of Sentinel, Iron Man, and Cable. Then again, that's where all the fun and insanity comes from in the game. This also makes it an easy game for beginners, yet deep enough for the aficionados who yearn to make ridiculous combos and strategies.
If there is one thing that will bring you back time after time is the multiplayer, which is the best part of the game. Nothing is more satisfying than bringing in a group of friends and sharing the exciting fighting and the large amounts of frustration from using cheap tactics. Backbone Entertainment has also kindly given an online play, on par with Super Street Fighter II: Turbo HD Remix. It works pretty well, but an issue I have is that there is no ranking system, like in Street Fighter IV, where you gain experience for every win you have, or vice versa when you lose. This at least can help bring an option where people can fight others with the same skill as them, rather than having a system that makes no distinction. Though the online play is barebones, it does get the job done.
The sound in the game is actually pretty good and gets a lot of unneeded flack. Although Capcom did not include the character specific tracks found in the previous games, we are treated to a cheesy yet awesome soundtrack filled with obscure jazz tracks and fast paced tunes to complement the fighting. My personal favorite track in the game is the Carnival Theme, which is pretty awesome. The greatest track however, is the character selection theme, which is just amazing and never gets old.
The voice acting in the game is not bad and the characters sound pretty good. The characters from their respective series, like Street Fighter and Darkstalkers, sound just like the way you would expect from their games. The Marvel cast sounds good too, with most of their voices being similar to their television show counterparts, like the X-Men and Spider-Man television shows. The only two characters that annoy me are Rogue and Roll, with the former sounding like she has a bad cold yet trying to coat it with a manly voice, only making it sound worse.
The replayability of the game is ridiculously high, although you do not have to use the credit system in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game to unlock characters, alternate colors for the costumes, and stages to fight in. This is actually a good thing, as having everything unlocked can have you jumping into the action straight away. The Arcade Mode can last you quite a bit, but the online play and multiplayer are the two driving forces of replayability. The sheer amount of fun this game presents will be more than enough reasoning to come back time after time.
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is one of the most broken, rushed, and unbalanced fighters that I have played, and I love it for those reasons alone. The amount of fun this game has is ridiculous and it is a game that I can play at any time.
If you're a fan of fighting games or just fun in general, you have no reason not to own this masterpiece. To put it in simple words, it's my favorite fighting game of all time and one of my favorite games that I've ever played. If you're a person serious about fighters or even one who never touched a fighter, let alone know what a Hadouken is, you'll still have an amazing time with this masterpiece. Even when this generation of consoles will end and newer fighters will come out, I'll still have my PlayStation 3 hooked up and fighting with my team of Ryu, Jill, and Spider-Man.
This is a ride you definitely want to take.