Marvel vs. Capcom 2

The Good
One of the best in the genre.

The Bad
Dated graphics if that bothers you.

The Bottom Line
Awesome game, classic arcade fighter.

The Good
Really, there's one thing to like about Marvel: winning. Ain't nothing about this game to consol you if you come up second. All the action goes down in an upbeat, fun environment with jazzy music playing, but it's a deadly serious affair for competitive players. I'm a grizzled veteran myself but I still get butterflies going into a match. It may seem odd that I'd get so worked up over a mere videogame, but that's because it's so good.

The wonderful thing about Marvel is that there's so many widely disparate characters to choose from. Everyone can settle on a few personal favorites. Sentinel means serious business, being a gigantic robot that can utterly dominate the playing field when played judiciously. Cable just tosses grenades and shoots lasers at you, but god help you if a savvy player catches you in an air Hyper Viper Beam. He'll chain three of them and your character is dead.

But then there's another two characters on your team, so even after losing a man, you can still pull yourself together a mount a comeback. Miracles can and do happen in this game, and the feeling when you accomplish one is hard to match.

The Bad
For a time I was anxious about a sequel, but with its release on the 360, I can wait another decade if need be. This version is so complete, so expansive, so well-executed, that to hanker for a sequel is to take what we already have here for granted.

The Bottom Line
Pulse-pounding action that can be played strategically, frenetically, or a mix of both. A single hard-fought match can be a draining affair that can take hours to recover from fully. All-in-all, one of the best games ever made. If you have the passion to get good at it, of course.

The Good
The game is absolutely insane. It's one you just have to see in action to appreciate. Especially on the turbo modes, the amount of stuff happening onscreen is simply boggling, what with characters leaping up and down the playfield, letting loose screen-sized super blasts, tagging in and out with other members, etc etc. Frenetic to the extreme.
The huge cast of characters also helps, with very few dupes, and the method of unlocking new characters is excellent. (no achieving nearly-impossible goals; you simply get "points" whenever you play the game which can be used to purchase new characters and levels) All of them are excellently animated, and display loads of personality true to their sources. (all of the graphics are great, outside of the final boss being oddly pixelated) The controls are also spot-on, although it did leave me wishing that the DC controller had more buttons. Even in full turbo mode, I never felt like it was misinterpreting my commands.

The Bad
The chaotic nature of the game virtually destroys any sense of strategy. While it IS possible to become a Zen Master at the game, in the end, ESPECIALLY in two-player mode, it becomes a button-mashing contest. This doesn't really doesn't hurt the game at all, as far as I'm concerned, and just adds to the overall insanity, but people who prefer more thoughtful fighting games (like the Street Fighter series) will likely disagree. Ultimately, this is a game to pull out for grins and for the experience, not to become a black belt with. The sound is also extremely weak. The music is horribly bland, and more vocal samples are desperately needed. (you'll be ready to throttle the announcer by the 20th time you hear, "I can't believe it! You're amazing!")

The Bottom Line
Fighting Game crack. To this day, unbeaten in terms of sheer visual insanity and chaotic energy.