| SEGA DREAMCAST - MARVEL VS. CAPCOM |
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As an arcade game, Marvel vs Capcom can be seen to be the sum total of Capcom’s work over the past 10 years as far as 2 dimensional fighting games are concerned. Not only does it feature characters from nearly all of Capcom’s games over the past 10 years (over 30 games in total), but the game also sports refined, and highly enjoyable gameplay with some of the best 2D graphics you’ll ever seen on a home game console.
Capcom characters, like Ryu (Streetfighter series) and Megaman (SNES Plaforming game) make an appearance, as well as many of the world’s most popular Marvel Heroes characters, like Spiderman, Hulk, Captain America and Wolverine from the X-Men.
Each have their own trademark moves that fans of their respective comic stories and fan books will instantly recognise, and the game’s over-the-top flashy visuals create a what is arguably one of the best 2D fighting games ever made.
The game’s combo system also represents the pinnacle of 2D fighting game engines, with simple movements that allow beginners to pick up the pad, yet complex combination attacks that can result in over 100 hit combos.
Marvel vs Capcom was also the first 2D game to offer a 4 player feature, and this option in the game made Marvel vs Capcom an incredibly enjoyable experience with 4 players and separated it from the rest of the 2D fighting games available at the time.
Game Features
15 characters who use are brought together from the Marvel Super Hero and Capcom universes. Some include:
Ryu – The trademark Streetfighter character has earned his place in this game with his patented fireball and dragon punch moves.
Chun Li – The Streetfighter girl who packs powerful kick attacks and ariel moves galore
Zangief – The powerful Ukrainian wrestler makes another comeback, although his sedate moves look terribly out of place compared to the Marvel characters’ super attacks.
Spiderman – The wall crawler makes an appearance and looks exactly like he does in the comic books and cartoons, complete with web throws and spider-like attacks.
Hulk – Hulk’s power is unchallenged in this game, and his awesome bulk can often fill half the screen. His super moves look incredibly impressive.
Iron Man – The cartoon character in the metal suit has a vast array of attacks that centre on his suit’s special abilities. Power rays and ion cannon attacks are just some of them.
Venom – Spiderman’s arch enemy looks like a deranged copy of the web hero, with bizarre moves that reflect his psychotic personality.
Captain America – This old favourite still has his famous shield and blue stripped costume. His moves has patriotic names, like ‘Stars and Stripes’ and ‘Thumbs up Soldier’.
Wolverine – The X-men favourite with his metallic claws is a popular choice in this game. His moves centre on his indestructible claws slashing and tearing at his opponents.
Megaman – Although small, this character features some of the most insane graphical attacks in the game. His super moves involve him transforming into a robot 5 times his size and launching a super fireball attack across the screen.
Graphics
Marvel vs Capcom fully demonstrates the Dreamcast’s 2d abilities in providing a perfect conversion of one of the most graphically complex 2D fighting games today. All of the game action runs at a super smooth 60 frames per second and never slows down, even when the most complex 2D graphics are on screen.
All of the fighting characters look just like their comic book and cartoon counterparts, with trademark moves that are easily identifiable. Spiderman’s web swing and web throw, Iron Man’s solar blast and repulsor blast; and Captain America’s Shield slash and Stars and Stripes uppercut are just some of them.
All of the characters have incredibly flashy and ridiculously over-the-top super moves. They look amazing and are incredibly rewarding to perform, giving a real sense of impact and satisfaction to the player.
Each of the game’s backgrounds are constructed with meticulous effort to detail. They all feature multiple scrolling backgrounds that give and excellent impression of depth and lots of character movement and detail in the background. Spiderman’s background is typical of this; set on top of two buildings that overlook a busy street, the background has cars and traffic moving by in the distance and pigeons flying around and signage, flags and people on the nearby rooftops in the foreground.
All of the characters feature incredibly fluid animations for all of their attacks and standing motions. The animations for the characters are so fluid it makes their movements look dynamic and lifelike.
Sound
All of the fighter has their own trademark speech for their special moves and attacks.
A wide variety of tunes have been faithfully converted from the arcade game to the Dreamcast version intact. These are cartoon-ish in quality and suit the game perfectly.
All punch and kick attacks are accompanied by a variety of sound effects for their contact with your opponent, with these effects generating a real sense of impact and damage that’s highly satisfying.
Gameplay
Each character has 6 attack buttons (three light and three heavy) and these can be combined in chain form, from lightest to heaviest to perform ‘chain combos’. This is the basic fighting engine carried over from the Streetfighter series, although the super moves can now be performed with only two buttons and a directional movement, which makes the game accessible and easy to play for beginners.
The standard Streetfighter fireball-style moves are in this game, although all of the characters feature up to 6 special attacks that are unique and trademarked to their own style.
At the beginning of the bout, players select from two characters of their choice and then a third ‘team’ partner who helps out. Players can switch between the two main characters at any time by pressing the two heavy attack buttons. This system allows players to change characters when their first character’s energy is low, which allows him to rest and regain his energy while you are fighting with his partner. The team partner can also perform a ‘help’ attack (by pressing the two medium buttons) where they jump on-screen and perform a quick attack to help you defeat your enemy. Knowing exactly when to tag your player in adds a great deal of strategy to Marvel vs Capcom. Players must juggle their two fighters on-screen time to ensure that each player has adequate rest off-screen which allows them to regain some of their energy to fight again.
Players can also perform ‘tag-tream’ attacks where they get both of their characters to perform super moves at the same time. This effectively doubles the damage inflicted upon your opponent, while looking bloody impressive at the same time.
When players perform regular attacks and special moves their ‘Super’ bar is increased in size until it becomes full. When it’s full the player can execute one super, and a maximum of three supers can be stored at any one time. When the player has two supers they can perform a tag team move, and with three supers they can activate a special mode where they call their partner on screen and perform as many supers as they can within a short period of time.
Four players can take part in the game when each player selects a different character and two take part on one team and two on the other. When one team stores up three super bars, both players can come on-screen and perform attacks and supers against their opponents. This effectively allows 4 players to get on-screen at once.
Marvel vs Capcom was pretty much the pinnacle of 2D fighting games at the time of its release. It was the first game to offer 4 player action, had the best visuals of any 2D fighting game, and also has an in-depth fighting game engine that allows experts to pull off huge combos with timing and skill.
The Dreamcast version is an perfect port of the arcade that offers 4 player action, more game modes and no loading time thanks to the Dreamcast’s 12 speed CD ROM drive.