Marvel vs Capcom 2

I had a dream last night that a mutant cactus was trying to kill a little robot while a girl with hairy monkey legs spun a long stick over her head.

Except that it was no dream. It was the beautiful madness of Marvel vs Capcom 2. Madder than a bag of demented spiders. This is the art of fighting, on drugs.

So animalistic, so wild and yet so pure, it's little wonder that Marvel vs Capcom 2 is still heralded by some as the greatest fighting game of all time.

The version available on the Xbox LIVE Arcade is a port of the classic Dreamcast version, originally released almost a decade ago, and somehow it still manages to look fresh. The character sprites are clear and lively, and the backgrounds are drenched in vibrant colour. To keep up with the times, there are now two new video options on show: Smooth and Crisp. While they may sound like kinds of peanut butter, they are really just filters that make the game look, well, a tiny bit smoother or a smidgen more crisp. I sat as close to my screen as possible and switched between them and the original Classic mode, and I can safely report that the differences are small at best.

In the heat of battle, I can assure you that you will not have time to think about a slightly blurry looking fireball here and there. Because once this game gets cracking, it's a snarling beast of a brawler.

Your instincts will tell you to head straight for the Arcade mode, or the Ranked online mode, but let me save your ego a violent blow... do yourself a favour and spend a little time in the training mode. I will never claim to be a beat-em-up pro, but I know my Sonic Booms from my Hadoukens, and I was torn to shreds within the first two rounds of this game. Brush up on your combo's and your special moves, and you will be busting out Super Ultra Beefcake Megacombos before you know it.

Fans of the game will tell you that what makes it so special is the balance between the different characters, of which there are 56 in total, all unlocked from the start.

Personally I found some of the fighters to be simply no fun to use, with the result that I had a completely different play experience when using characters with whom I could connect on some level. Put me in control of Servbot, the tiny robot who looks like a LEGO man, or Shuma-Gorath, the tentacled creature from the abyss, and it all gets just a bit too crazy. I struggle to whip off massive combo's with a character with no discernible arms or legs. Call me closed-minded if you will, but that's how I roll.

On the other hand, give me a triple-tag team of Ken, Iceman and Wolverine, and I will be pulling off all the tricks in the book. Some of the characters could also be considered unessential, being either too similar to other more popular fighters, or really just a bit silly.

Once you have found a team of three that compliments your play style, it is a very rewarding experience. There is so much going on on-screen at once, it becomes tricky just to stay focused on who and where you are, but there is an elegance in that pandemonium, and once I had overcome the learning curve I found myself in a trance-like state, pulling off moves I never thought possible. You have to witness the Super Combos for yourself to appreciate the anarchy here, as all three of your fighters do their Ultra move at the same time, inflicting massive and sometimes game changing damage.

Playing a game like this on your own can be frustrating at first, but persevere and it quickly becomes very addictive. But take that same action into the realm of the multiplayer, and it's pure awesomeness on a whole new level. Whether it's on the couch multiplayer or online on Xbox LIVE, Marvel vs Capcom 2 is a transcendent 2-player wonderland. Both frantic and beautiful, a three on three slugfest is something no gamer should miss out on. The online modes allow for ranked matches, giving you the opportunity to fight your way up the leaderboard to greatness.

If I have to be critical, there is one area of Marvel vs Capcom 2 which needs a complete overhaul. The music. Wow. Synth-jazz from the pits of Hell is just about as close as I can come to describing it using non-age restricted words. If you can listen to the 'I wanna take you for a ride' track on the character select screen for more than 5 minutes, I will personally come to your house and wash your car, because that is a feat beyond normal human ability. It wasn't long before I was muting the music before and after matches. The voice work for the menu's and post-match comments are also near atrocious, with an unpleasant American drawl going on about 'You were amazing, I couldn't believe it!" and so on. The sound effects during the fights themselves are spot on, no problems there, so it's not all bad.

At the end of the day, if you are a serious fighting fan you would have probably already played this in the arcade long ago, so you would know if this tickles your fancy or not. For those who like a a bit of a 2D thrash once in a while, this may prove a bit too wacky for your liking. Still, there is simply so much to recommend about this game, you would honestly be doing yourself a disservice if you didn't give it a try. A massive character roster, some of the most explosively colourful 2D graphics ever to bombard your eyes, and gameplay that will become second nature once you give it a chance, all makes for a bout of essential fighting fun.

Marvel vs Capcom 2 is available on XBLM for a very reasonable 1200MSP, and is the second game in this years Xbox LIVE Summer of Arcade series.

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