Marvel Vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (Arcade, 2000)

 

It's Marvel Vs Capcom 2, the sixth Marvel Vs Capcom game! Well, it's safe to say this is the best of the lot by a mile. It's like the first five all Megazord-Combined and formed this one. It's got everything the others had, all thrown together in a big tornado of craziness. Like getting all of your favorite significant others from the past together for a big party on a waterbed, which is what I'm personally hoping for in the afterlife.

As for the game, this is it, the high point of the series. No more holding out on us. This one has everybody. Except Thor probably lol.

Watched the first trilogy of X-Men movies this week. They were all fun enough, and now I know who more of these characters are. I should have done that a few weeks ago before I played these. The X-Men are probably the most important superheroes, in the "it's okay to be different, you don't need to kill yourself" sense. Teenagers particularly need that sort of thing.

Best thing about the movies was Magneto, what a fantastic villain. Both he and Professor X make intelligence look cool...something else teenagers in particular needed to see more of. When I was in high school it was generally a requirement to "dumb yourself down" or hide intelligence. Being smart was NOT cool at the time. I used the word "theoretically" in class one time and it prompted guys acting like that was some sort of big word for the rest of the semester and saying stuff like "THEORETICALLY, DA FUMIGATOR OF DA PROPAGATOR" when I'd walk by. Well, at least none of them tried to stab me, that was some other guy.

And now... the Cheetamen.

Steve "Mongo" McMichael: "Well it don't get any better than the year 2000 ladies and gentlemen because when you got WCW Monday Nitro on the TV, X-Men on the big screen, and Marvel Vs Capcom 2 in the arcades well enough said my friends we're living large to-night!"

That isn't Cyclops - it's Cable, whoever that is. Ryu looks younger than the previous game. And in the middle we have this pirate woman that they seem to really want us to focus on because she's front and center of everything. Who? Which side is she on?

Now THAT is a huge roster! After limited rosters for five games, they just EXPLODED with this one. It's like five games of a corn kernel, now suddenly exploding into a big ol popcorn. Basically everyone from the whole series is now playable.

I hate the "I'm gonna take you for a ride!" character select theme, though. Hate is a strong word, but I actually hate it. And also, time limits on character selects need to GTFO. I've had to reset so many times on the character selects of fighting games in general just to have enough time to actually look at everyone / take pictures. I get it when it's an arcade game and we need to hurry people up, with everyone waiting for their slow ass to pick a character, but some of the games I've played had really short timers. One of the MKs was like a 5 second timer. UMK3 arcade maybe. When you have a roster THIS big there probably shouldn't even be a timer. Maybe like a 60 second one just to keep somebody from tying up the machine.

Ruby Heart, the ostensible main character of this game. Looked into it, and it appears she was created specifically for the game. So she's basically Cole from the 2021 MK movie. Given what a massive roster they have here, not sure why they needed to create a new character at all much less a new main character (true of Cole as well). Also, wish the character portraits were about twice as big so we could see who we're looking at. There's a lot of unused real estate on screen. Ruby's thing is that she's a pirate and travels around in a flying boat. Radical, maaan.

Iron Man FINALLY makes his return to the series. Starting to think maybe this guy was never that huge of a deal until 2008. What I'm gleaning from all this is that pre-MCU, the Marvel roster was popular but not exactly superstars for the most part, with Spider-Man being their main draw and the X-Men / Avengers being on the next tier down.

While Marvel had a lot more characters, DC's smaller roster had much bigger draws on it - Superman and Batman being the two biggest draws in the industry, with Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Flash a tier below that - which all contributed to DC's dominance in the 20th century. However, in the 21st century, live-action movies are what propelled Marvel to higher cultural relevance than DC, starting with X-Men (2000).

That's the impression that I get, anyway.

Most importantly to this game, Psylocke FINALLY returns to the playable roster after being snubbed by so much of the series.

All these fighters and they didn't think to add the character that most of the fanbase would have been clamoring for in 2000:

You guessed it, Former GOP Congressman Dick Armey!

::holds earpiece:: Oh, right, Thor. There's still no Thor. What's goin' on with him? He's persona non grata. All we've seen of him was when he was petrified in the background of the Thanos fight in that one game.

Speaking of Thanos, he's playable, and looks like he was designed by the same artist as Wide Bison.

"Let's see you daaaaaance sucka you got nothin' on me!"

Thanos with his giant, iconic grin.

Right off the bat, the biggest change this game makes is switching to 3-on-3 fights. The last three games had tag-team matches and those were fun, so they just cranked that dial up even higher. Having 3 life meters means the fights take significantly longer, which is good, because they feel more epic. Also, this gets more airtime for more characters - with so many to choose from, you want to try as many as possible at a time.

Wolverine is still someone I need to play as more. Putting him on the list for MVC3, along with anyone else we've been waiting on, like Thor. Maybe we'll get Dark Phoenix and Scarlet Witch too, this series has been remarkably short on redheads.

Attacks in this game emit this awesome multichromatic light spark on contact. It's probably the best use of light/color that I've seen in a game's attacks since Defender for the Atari 2600, which has amazing-looking multichromatic florescent lasers on a 70's-era CRT TV. Can't really link anything demonstrating this wonder of engineering, need to see live footage of the CRT (or see it firsthand). Suffice to say, the lasers in that game practically leap off of the screen with their brightness and the way the entire color spectrum seems to be included.

Thanos gets to kill Spider-Man all over again! Radical!

In Infinity War, Spider-Man turning to sand was the moment it became blatantly obvious that the next movie was going to reverse all the deaths and they stopped meaning much. Up until that point, it was all characters I could see them doing away with. In the era of Red Weddings, it was believable.

Akuma has a great jump kick. The animations and the art in this game are the best yet, FINALLY toppling Marvel Super Heroes as my favorite of these six.

Capcom/SNK games from circa 1999/2000 tend to look pretty damn amazing. Garou: Mark of the Wolves is another one with this visual style. SNK Vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos too. Not sure what to call said style, but it's like...maxed-out 2D spritework. Not HD, no, just the traditional style I grew up with...maxed-out.

Akuma unleashes the HELL HADOKEN. Which is what I assume it's called. The artwork conveys so much movement and power. This isn't just a Hadoken animation, it's an animation where all of Akuma's clothes are being swept backwards a bit by the force of the fireball.

I can't get enough of these multichromatic impact-sparks either.

Even if this game didn't have the ridiculous mega-roster that's been missing from all the games up until now, even if it only had like ten characters, it'd still be the best in both gameplay and visual splendor. It just has it all.

Akuma: "I'm the worst rapper on this team, second-coolest."

Indeed you are, Big Akuma.

Next I battle the dynamo of action known as Tron Bonne. She's from Mega Man Legends and probably the thing people remember most from those games besides the 3D-ness. She is a certified G, and a bonafide stud.

And this right here, this is her bodyguard, the Mega Servbot. He has a clobbering mallet, he's seven foot tall, and you can't teach that.

...exactly how much do these servbot things "serv" Tron, anyway?

She sics a couple of them on Dr. Doom's neussen, whereupon they pummel it furiously.

BADA BOOM, REALEST GUYS IN THE ROOM.

HOW YOU DOIN?

As Doom conjures up lightning, I try to figure out how the hell he works. Is it a suit? Is he part-machine? If suit, what powers the suit? Is he Tony Stark from another universe or just happens to look like him? Some buildup movies before the next Avengers would have helped for your average layman. I'll have to go research this one too.

Iceman unleashes his deadly ICE BEAM.

First of all, who the hell is Iceman? Second of all-

-SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIING

So Dr. Doom is clearly extremely powerful. But is he stronger than Thanos? I hear he kills a Thanos variant single-handledly in the comics, so...yes. However that's un-infused, normal Thanos. He'd probably lose to full-power, Infinity Stone infused gauntlet Thanos, because everybody would. In-between you have different levels of Thanos having the gauntlet and X amount of stones. Doom probably falls in as equivalent to one of those levels of Thanos.

...but how would either of them match up to Knull?

Doom isn't the only one with formidable death-beams. Here's Akuma's super, the Dark Kamehameha.

Akuma versus Ken! I know Ken has his fans, but I'm not that high on the guy. He steals Ryu's heat, he isn't a main protagonist, and he isn't really a rival/antagonist. He's just... some guy who is an ally to and somehow keeps pace with the hero despite making 1/4th the effort.

Akuma also steals Ryu's heat, but at least he's an antagonist / evil counterpart.

Not sure if I've mentioned that this game has tag-team attacks, which is one of the more awesome features.

While playing as the villains is a lot of fun, I need to spread the wealth around and look at more characters. This game is the series main event, after all. Time to give Cody Rhodes a shot.

(Editor's Note: Actually MVC3 probably is the "main event" of the series, or more accurately, Ultimate MVC3...at least on sales)

Psylocke making her big return after all these games! It's great to see her again, finally.

.............

...alright, that's pretty embarrassing for Cammy. That is a sad way for a girl to go.

How was Psylocke missing for FOUR GAMES? She's a license to print money. Basically a sexier Kitana who has that X-Men "cool factor" and neat powers. For that matter, why'd it take so long to get her into a movie?

And while I'm at it, it's insane that Firestar has been missing from basically all of Marvel's movies and games. I mean, look at her:

Another license to print money. Not to be confused with the DC character Starfire, who's probably also cool. This is even more "chicken and egg" than Darkseid and Thanos (the former was first).

Give us Firestar, damn it! How do you have a cinematic universe and just ignore one of the best superhero designs out there? With her vaguely similar powers, Firestar should have gotten Captain Marvel's push. Nobody likes Captain Marvel.

Speaking of super popular characters, here's Dan. This series didn't have room for Psylocke the last few games, yet it sure did have room for fuckin' Dan! This guy has been a cheeseball since he popped up in that tournament in Xenogears.

The next fight is against a furry. I do what I'm legally mandated to do and sock her right in the face!

"Sometimes, ya just have to schlap a woman!" says Sean Connery when reached for comment.

UPPERCUTUUUU!

Too bad this doesn't have a Pit Stage Fatality. If there was ever a time for Reptile's Spike Pit, it's now.

Dhalsim shows up to literally murder Guile.

Guile was then arrested by UK police officers for being rude as he lay there dying.

Next, I battle Megaman, who attacks with soccer balls. This is a great reference to both the ball weapon in Mega Man 8 and the fact that Mega Man Soccer exists.

Anyway, he keeps kicking soccer balls at Akuma until Akuma finally snaps.

KABLAMMMMM!

He blasted Mega Man so hard, Mega Man turned into Psylocke.

Psylocke and Rogue lock horns! I'd like an X-Men show centered around these two fighting crime. Or just existing at all. It could be a soap opera about them navigating relationships and work, I still wouldn't miss an episode.

...why is there a towel hanging in the background? And is that a sombrero on that cactus? Or a UFO, not sure.

Rogue is gorgeous. I'll probably stick with this group for the remainder.

Too many characters, too little time... I barely got to a fraction of them here. Would have been cool if this overall game series had scaled up the roster size on more of a curve, rather than being flat until it jumped sky-high with this one. The only real curve in all of this is the curvature of Rogue.

The final boss is this big lumbering Abyss guy. Who??

He looks like a Dark Souls II boss.

He dishes out a Shao Kahn esque charge move. It's hard to avoid because he's as tall as the screen. No idea who this guy is, so again they're mining into the more obscure villain pantheon for the final boss. While previous final bosses in this series sometimes had two forms, this guy has 3.

As Psylocke elegantly leaps through the air, I'm going to look up who in the blue hell Abyss is.

Alright, back, and having looked it up...I still don't know. It appears that there are two different characters called Abyss in the X-Men universe. One is a dude and one is a chick. Though I'm not sure how you ascribe such mammalian species dynamics to something that is also some sort of void. The dude is a good guy and the chick is a villain, I think? The Abyss we see here doesn't match up with either of them, but it does match up with the "cosmic void" description. It's some sort of formless entity that attempted to terraform Mars into a new planet to rule over. Wasn't that part of the plot of Total Recall?

Well, now that I'm even more confused about this obscure character, let's wrap this up. Safe to say that the final boss isn't the strong point of the game, the massive roster is.

Abyss attacks with a NEUSSEN KAMEHAMEHA.

At last, the neussen hits BACK.

Doesn't matter, as Rogue unleashes Mirko Cro Cop saber kicks right back at Abyss' steel groin.

Mirko Cro Cop: Right kick, hospital. Left kick, cemetery.

Abyss' second form is this green liquid entity, which looks like a more fitting final boss. The big armored form wasn't interesting and didn't have much going for it beyond no-selling everything.

This form can do some wild stuff, like coiling up and trapping you in bubbles. However, the deadliest attack it has is...

...a ferocious beam attack. This game has some great looking beam attacks, that's for sure.

Win this, and he goes to form 3...

...this thing. These forms are so wildly different that they don't really have any rhyme, reason, or theme to them. The whole thing is just bizarre. Winning this fight is a matter of striking the head. Like the Apocalypse and Onslaught final battles, you're fully reliant on jump attacks, so it makes the most sense to only use fierce punches and supers. This guy is the toughest final boss in the series because he does something those other guys didn't do: Flies up and hovers around out of reach, bombing attacks down. It's what Ridley does in Super Metroid, except here there's no Space Jump.

I muster up a win, and Rogue changes into street clothes. If she ever loses her power of not being able to touch anyone, there is going to be a LINE of guys formed outside tripping over each other trying to get her attention.

Rogue: "Well, I'm cured now and can finally touch people."

Bobby: "That's awesome! Finally we can kiss!"

Rogue: "Er...sorry Bobby, I actually lost my virginity to a guy on a bus on the way over."

Bobby: "What?"

Rogue: "And I just had sex with a random guy in the bathroom just now so I'm kinda tapped out for the moment, but maybe later?"

Bobby: "Huh?"

Rogue: "Come to think of it I should probably take a shower after all that. Is there a co-ed shower around here?"

Bobby: "........."

Rogue: "You know, I think the guy on the bus might have been Pyro. You remember him right?"

Bobby: "......................"

::Bobby's high-pitched screaming can be heard from space::

Unfortunately, the gigantic roster means no specialized endings for the characters, it just goes straight to the credits. No endings? Not even short quick ones? Well, like with all things in life, you have to take the bad with the good.

This game was a monumental moment in the fighting game genre. As mentioned before, this replaced MSH as my favorite of these six. Not sure what was bigger, this or MVC3 in 2011, but I know both of them were huge. Curious enough to look it up, and this is what I found for sales:

MVC2 (2000) - 1,977,000

MVC3 (2011) - 2,200,000

Ultimate MVC3 (2011) - 3,500,000

(Unsure if those two should be combined to give us a lofty 5,700,000 or not, given that it was two versions of 3, but also considering a lot of the same people probably just got both, meaning the actual measure of popularity is probably in the 4m area)

and for comparison

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (2008) - 1,900,000

2008 and 2011 weren't that far apart, so MVC3 basically killed MK8 (and thus, Marvel trounced DC) on sales. Surprised MK8 didn't do better considering it was riding the momentum of The Dark Knight. And MVC3 was the biggest one, so that question is answered. No doubt because of a decade of hype around this game being a classic, plus the hype for the upcoming The Avengers.

Next up: After an 11 year time jump, MVC3 finally dropped during the PS3 generation. Originally I was just going to do these six, but after how much fun they were I decided to go beyond that and do the last 2(3) games as well. I'll probably do some other stuff first though, because this series piqued my interest in the Capcom characters I'm less-familiar with, and more of Capcom's arcade output.

Other Marvel Posts