• Dissection: Marvel Vs Capcom 2

    by
    Neil Golding
    Published on 01-07-2010 01:34 PM
    0 Comments Comments
    It popped up out of nowhere a few months back, amidst speculation and rumours, but it's finally happened. Capcom has finally released the arcade & 128bit console era classic, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes. Currently, it's on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade, myself having access to the former. In this dissection, we'll mainly talk about it's worth as a port.

    Oh hey, it's the clock stage that matches your system clock!
    Oh hey, it's the clock stage that matches your system clock!

    So, this is primarily a port of the Dreamcast version of the game, gutted of it's menus, intro movie and character unlock process. New features include; HD menus, full 56 character line up unlocked from install, network modes – Scoreboard & Friendly match (with local multi-player, of course) and wide-screen aspect ratio with sprite smoothing options. Character balance is the same as it was on the Dreamcast, since this is a straight port.

    The main fault with this port is the aspect ratio, it's very hit & miss. The game was designed with a 4:3 screen in mind, 16:9 not so much. While, for the most part, the game looks nice in wide-screen, it's when the action moves to the sides of the stages or when players fire off a super combo, that the sloppiness of the port is evident. Cut in pictures of characters when they perform their super won't sit on the edge of the screen, like they do in standard screen format, instead they sit a few inches out, looking very tacky indeed. This is because you're still playing in 4:3, it's just that the port is designed so that you can see the edges outside of 4:3.

    Even the beefiest of sprites hold up in HD.
    Even the beefiest of sprites hold up in HD.

    As with cut in pictures, beam attacks seem to cut off before the edge of the screen and certain stages show black-space where background imagery is meant to be hidden behind the screen edge. My main question is, why include this feature, if the company is not going to do it properly? I'd have preferred 4:3 with a fancy background around the screen, like in Mortal Kombat II for PSN. Fortunately, it's these aspect issues that are the only real problem with the port.

    Currently both the XBLA and PSN versions of the game have had network issues. Game freezes which are apparently tied to voice chat, forcing one player to quit the game and reload. Network problems are a common occurrence lately, with Fat Princess getting its fix within 2 weeks of launch. Luckily, we're in the age of patches and hot-fixes, so these issues won't be around too much longer.

    Let's go, bub!
    Let's go, bub!

    As it stands, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 is a reasonable port of a classic game for modern systems at a low price. If you're a fan of the series, then you've probably already forked out and purchased it. For roughly AUD$24, you get a tried and true arcade slug-fest, with an array of display options and net play.

    What they got right:
    • It's cheap, AUD$24.
    • Dreamcast port.
    • The game has new fancy HD menus.
    • Good net code, outside of freezes online.
    • All characters are unlocked from install.
    • Custom soundtrack support.
    What they got wrong:
    • Graphical flaws with wide-screen.
    • Graphical smoothing isn't as pretty as HD sprites.
    • All characters are unlocked from install.
    • No more intro movie or attract mode.
    • Network mode lobbies need a hot fix.
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