Evolution 2008, Part 3: Marvel vs. Capcom 2

Wellllll I have noticed that my articles have basically called forth a fuck-ton of fighting game/Street Fighter ads to this blog. So once this series of articles is over, I will take a long break from speaking about fighting games (this will be the 3rd game out of six, so we're half way there; hang in there my friends). Besides, even I have other interests and topics to talk about.

The third game I will talk about is Marvel vs. Capcom 2, or MvC2 for short. Ahhhhh MvC2, one of my favorites. I've chosen this one to break up some of the monotony. Because while this game shares the six button layout of Street Fighter/Capcom fighting games, it is very different from the others. In fact, it's totally insane. Seriously, every aspect of this game is nuts, from the game itself to the community that plays it. Plus, it has characters from the Marvel comics line (which you probably guessed), and I love comics.

First, the history. MvC2 is part of a series of games known as the "VS." games. They all share some characteristics: high speed combat, chain combos out the wazoo , limited aerial combat, and then some. However, the first game to introduce this style of playing wasn't a cross over at all. It was called X-Men: Children of the Atom. You can guess what kind of characters were in this game.

After that came Marvel Super Heroes which had all sorts of Marvel characters including X-Men. Again while not really a crossover game, it had many of the early mechanics to be found in the VS. series. The first true crossover in the series was X-Men vs. Street Fighter. Aside from the original mechanics, it also introduced a tag team system, so it was two against two, with the ability to switch characters on the fly. This was followed by Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, and then Marvel vs. Capcom, which introduced the idea of being able to summon an assist character to appear and strike the opponent.

Then in 2000(?) came Marvel vs. Capcom 2, which let you pick from teams of three, and you could call out your teammates to strike like you could the assist characters in the previous game. Not to mention it's an insanely fast game.....with Spider-Man.

Now on to the game's community. Mannnnnnn where to start. This community is insane. The best parallel I can make to these guys is rappers who have beef with other rappers, or maybe pro wrestling. Seriously, there are a lot of ghetto ass dudes who play this game, and usually there is some kind of beef that gets settled with a money match which makes for great entertainment. You'll hear things like "Yo Sentinel is a bitch!" or "Yo you think I suck! I'll money match you man, first to ten baby!" The hype these dudes make for the game is what keeps it going despite being eight years old.

But not everyone who plays it is some guy from the hood. In fact, the most dominate player in the scene is an Asian kid (JK holla at him) named Justin Wong. He has won something like 3 or 4 consecutive championships. He only lost recently, last year to a player named Yipes. (I may be wrong about this, but he did lose)

So there you have it. With the conclusion of this article, we are half way done. I'll leave you with a match video from Evolution 2006 of top players Sanford Kelly vs. Duc Do. This is the eighth game in a series of matches for like 5 grand (I'm not kidding).

Try not to have your head explode. Enjoy!