Fighting and Frustration As Usual

I found a copy of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for the XBox somewhere a couple of years ago. I tried it briefly and did horribly, then put it aside until recently. I'm still not any good at it, worse than I was at Marvel vs. Capcom 3, actually. MvC 2 is a 3 vs. 3 fighting game, where you can switch between members of your team at will, or call the ones on the sideline in to perform assist moves, pretty much all the time. I looked for an option to increase the time before you could call in for an assist again, but there was no way to do that. Too bad; sometimes the computer spams the hell out of that. The assist character has barely leapt off-screen before they come barreling back in.

The problem for is, I'd rather it was a 1 vs. 1 fighting game, like Street Fighter. Failing that, more of a free-for-all melee, where all members of both teams are out there at once. Not sure how I would control three characters simultaneously, but maybe that's a multiplayer option, like Super Smash Bros. Then you could try and have one team member hang back, either to recover health or just to keep in reserve, but they might still have to defend themselves. It's really annoying when the computer manages to withdraw a character I've almost knocked out and throw in someone rested.

I'll use that trick when I can, and sometimes I spam assist attacks too, when it feels like my only chance. Although if I've gotten to that point, I'm probably too far gone to pull off a win. I'd like to win. But it isn't really how I like to play.

All that said, when I can actually just fight one character against another, the controls pretty smooth. I put them on the easy setting, so it's not as complicated to do special moves. I'm glad they include that option. As with most fighting game, I try to use all the characters. My Top 20 scores involve 35 of the 56 characters at least once. I tend to do better with characters I'd describe as having good speed, and average ability to deal and take damage. Or maybe those are just the ones I like playing as the most. I can get by with other characters - the description in the previous sentence doesn't match the Hulk, and he's part of 5 of those top 20 scores - but I feel like I'm working against the character's strengths when I do. Getting lucky, or winning in spite of myself.

The character I hate fighting against the most varies. Sakura seems to block everything; I have a lot more trouble beating her than I do Ryu or Ken, who are, in their universe, supposed to be much further along as fighters than she is. Wolverine is set to be so ridiculously fast it's just frustrating. Fortunately, he has a glass jaw, so if I can hit him, he'll drop pretty fast. I know, that doesn't make any sense to me either. Also, they included two Wolverines, one with Adamantium and one without. That seems unnecessary. Iron Man and War Machine both have attacks that frustrate my tendency to jump towards the opponent (I can't seem to get Dashing forward to work well for me). Omega Red's reach get old after a while. Especially when he jumps so you're below him and aren't visible on the screen, then he grabs you and tosses you around. That's not cheap or anything.

The graphics aren't as good as on MvC 3, obviously, but I actually prefer the art style. The later game was more of a CGI style, while this is based off Joe Madureira's art style, I think. It's a little more fluid than the later game's look, which I prefer. I would have been curious to see that game in this one's style. Yeah, I just looked for Joe Mad drawings of Rocket Raccoon and I think that would have looked pretty cool.

The character selection dates the game a bit (I'm sure MvC 3's does as well). Lot fewer X-Men in the later game, while this one is full of them and related characters. You have Wolverine(s), Rogue, Psylocke, Cyclops, Storm. But they also threw in Cable (who is probably disappointed Iron Man brought a bigger gun), Iceman (who I do surprisingly well with), and Marrow. I picked up some post-Onslaught, pre-Grant Morrison X-Men comics last winter, so I remember when they were trying to make Marrow kind of a next wave of X-Men. Still, it's strange to see her in a big licensed fighting game. She wasn't even a character you had to unlock, she was available right from the start. Of course they also threw in Silver Samurai and Spiral, not to mention Blackheart from the Nocenti/Romita Jr. Daredevil run. I know some of these had been in earlier Capcom fighting games, Marvel Super-Heroes, or X-Men vs. Street Fighter, so it isn't a surprise they carried over. Although a lot of them didn't make it to MvC 3.

The game is set up so you get points for playing it. The more rounds and the better your score, the more points you earn. The points are what you use to unlock other characters, artwork, alternate color schemes for the costumes. Trying to get hose last two is what made me hit burn out. Every time you purchase one a gallery, the next one costs a little more. So it takes a little more playing to get enough points to get the next one, a little for the one after that, and so on. Which turned into a grind for no good purpose.

I don't know what the story is exactly. The instruction manual doesn't tell you anything. Some big threat endangering both worlds, I guess. The final boss has three different forms. You beat one, then the next, then the final form. Your characters don't recuperate between those fights, and if one gets knocked out, they're done for the remainder. If I can make it past the second form, I usually do pretty well at winning the whole thing. But the second form takes a toll.