amiquilena's Full Review: Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for Dreamcast
=== Intro: A Plane… ===
A plane takes off and 7 hours later I find myself walking down Dublin’s –Columbus, OH- stores with something attached to my right hand…I start shacking it, but nothing happens…when I look down, a terrifying image suddenly arises; my little cousin pointing out products everywhere. At this point I knew I was in trouble…
=== Annoyance ====
Being mentally and physically harassed is not an easy cake people –believe me, I’ve lived-, entering a store –alone- and looking for the new showcases on hot products is a heavenly situation for me; but entering a store –with a 8 years old- and trying to look for some new products it’s a whole different history, getting pushed around and being drawn to products that made your “don’t want” list a while ago can be tedious.
I’ve never been a fan of Sega; yes you’re reading correctly –NEVER- it just that their systems and games don’t appeal to me. I’ve been in the gaming industry as a consumer since I was 8 years old –my first system being an Atari *oh the good old days*- and I’ve seen and tested it all. The mistakes from Nintendo –sticking to their old cartridge system-, the flaws of Sega –which used to have a lack in the developers department- and now Microsoft trying to extend their products line into the console gaming world.
So there I’m, in front of the new and hot “Sega Dreamcast” –I have to admit, the name did sounded appealing at that time-, so I look down and I see my cousin with his mouth wide open –some sort of admiration and desire symbolist behavior - trying to speak but all I could hear was some murmuring in the process. So of course the employee walks towards me and start raving about the new system –telling me a lot of things I…already knew- and the choices nailed down to 1 –I had to please my cousin-
=== Mentally ill, I know ===
My favorite genre when it comes to games is and will be –for I don’t know how long- RTS (Real-Time Strategy), fighters do not appeal to me that much…I mean, the idea of choosing a character and beating the hell out of your opponent –or getting beat up- is fun…yes…for a while, after that I believe all fighting games get tedious and repetitive, perhaps due the same game-play path you have to follow over and over again or the lack of options characters wise –many fighting games I’ve played or seen recently seems to have the less-is-best concept, so options are limited when it comes to choosing your fighting manchine-
But…-like I say, there’s always a but- that perception of fighting games changed recently. Don’t get me wrong I still find them repetitive but a little more fun now-a-days, and that’s rather important, finding fun within the whole and mere concept of a game.
=== The Game ===
Personal Intro
“In order to achieve an open mind, you have to taste each and every single one of the plates in the table”
Those words are simply what my mom kept repeating to me over and over again when I was growing up, an obvious sense of motherhood but extreme reality content is present in those lines. Applicable to all gamers out there, I believe the right recipe for mental health is testing each game you come across no matter how great they are or how yucky.
So not being a fan of the genre doesn’t necessarily mean I haven’t play some in my short existence…and one I’ve been playing lately is “Marvel vs. Capcom 2”.
So what is exactly this title? A new whole revolution in the fighting games? Mix of genres? The 8th
World wonder?
No.
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is a game that’s not trying to be anything else but that, a fighting game with no intention of redefining the concept of the genre nor trying to impress a huge and vast audience, the sole goal of it would be on my eyes “Bring extreme fighting fun to gamers that dig this genre”, a clever goal when it comes to this hard industry.
Graphics
Like I said there’s no wonder in here, you won’t find well detailed textures or extreme rendering engines that makes a title mouth-opening like let’s say –Max Payne- (yes, I’m still impressed by the graphics.
So when it comes to keeping it simple, Capcom sure knew how when they did this title, rendering 3D animations as the background (some cartoon-looking scenes, that will animate every now and then, adding a sense of realism to the game), and the good old 2D graphic system previously found in the game previous release.
An obvious lack of use when it comes to Dreamcast’s graphics capabilities is present in each aspect of this game, making it look good but outdated. Now looking at the game and writing this review –I analyze things too much sometimes- I’m thinking they could have done a better job when it comes to designing characters, I mean…they are –ok- drawn, and the combo animations (pretty much what you will see often) is also well done, but the DC have much more power that could be use by this great yet sometimes dummy developing company.
But well that question must remain uncertain, since who gets to decide if all new games should have 3D environments? Or a kick-as* graphic engine?.
Sound
What is this? I mean, this has to be the strangest sound I’ve heard in my life; it’s so not accurate with the game concept. Hello people!!! This was supposed to be a fighter? Not some kind of Jazz weirdo-s club.
I like to hear I don’t know…mmm…a quick beat that will add some sense of thrill into the fighting scene, but noooo…your fighting and guess what? You get this really and people I mean really weird jazz music that simple don’t go along, so it’s sadly another moot-point I found in this game, where an obvious lack of a good Sound Editor was present. I think we all need to go on some sort of strike here, “IMPROVE THE SOUND, IMPROVE THE SOUND, IMPROVE THE SOUND”, but would that really help us? Nah…
Gameplay
There’s no storyline to follow here people, none whatsoever, just pick up characters and go kicking butt’s everywhere. But of course we all knew that already, this is not an RPG or an RTS so following a storyline is not necessary, nor a life or death addition, so let’s focus only in the things the game actually offers.
-Controls-
The control system is slightly improved, only with the new noticeable addition that you can use the analog pad to control your characters –though I believe is painful and so not funny, I highly recommend to buy one of the DC’s accessories like let’s say…an mmm…arcade stick?-, but besides that fact the control is pretty much the same, no new breath-taking additions in this area people, sorry if it disappoints many…(some may disagree with me on this one, but hey, I’m entitled to this)
-Camera-
You have to be kidding me if you’re reading this part of the review, because you might as well skip it! –joking- there’s no wow camera movement given the fact the game stays within the 2D environment, so all you can see is that, a 2D view of what’s happening in the d’lanteours of your battles.
-Features-
This is it people! The real reason I bought this game –besides pleasing my said cousin- The new general features the game offers.
Like I said, playing a fighting game can be tedious and believe me because hell I’ve played some, but when it comes to MVC2 you will me impressed in this matter. The games doesn’t only offers you the 24 starter characters but it gives you the opportunity to reveal 32 hidden ones, giving you the vast amount of 56 characters to choose –Yes, the biggest recorded character number in a fighter game-.
The other best addition to this game is the fact that now you can team-up to three playable characters –MVC only could team-up to 2, with an extra “help” character that like the name says, could only help in given circumstances-, so now, yes yes yes finally you get 3. Mixing that up with the fact that you can choose from 56 characters you have a vast world of opportunities when it comes to making up teams.
=== Final Words ===
The game it’s an OK package in general, taking aside the minor flaws and the terrible but terrible sound, you can get ton of fun while kicking someone’s butt –the computer or what’s more fun…your friends-
But the new additions are what really make this title worth buying, not because it will bring you a year of gaming experience, or an overrated orgasm, it will just entertain you for a while. We all know every game has a destination, and though sometimes a few games stay within your hard-drive they’ll always end up being stored –perhaps not forgotten- but stored somewhere else. This game is not trying to impress you, remember that, this game it’s just trying to entertain you a bit –and make Capcom richer of course-
This review is part of the excellent Capcom 2-weeks long Write-Off, hosted by our incredible girl Xeno3998. More information about who is participating can be found at my profile page, or xeno’s profile page. The W/O is still on process, so if you want to join, email her!
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