Review RossBonaime 5/5 · Jun 27, 2025
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is my favorite fighting game of all time, and easily in my top 10 games ever. It's the only game I have an arcade machine of in my home, and despite this having 56 characters, I've played this game through multiple times, finishing the game with each character. It's a game I can't get enough of, …
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is my favorite fighting game of all time, and easily in my top 10 games ever. It's the only game I have an arcade machine of in my home, and despite this having 56 characters, I've played this game through multiple times, finishing the game with each character. It's a game I can't get enough of, and like my favorite games, it's always one I'd be ready to pick up and play at any time.
I adore how weird Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is, and especially playing through the other games made by Marvel and Capcom, it definitely feels like the first game where both companies truly trusted each other. Marvel allows their big characters in here for the first time (can you believe this is the sixth Marvel fighting game made with Capcom, but the first where you can play as Iron Man?), while Capcom is totally cool with just getting super weird with their options (Jin, Hayato, and Servbot??). They're throwing all sorts of wild ideas to the wall to see what sticks, and the answer is absolutely everything. It's this kind of absurdity and over-the-top nature that I crave in more fighting games, and rarely get.
Maybe the strangest thing about playing MvC2 this time around is that I've been playing a lot of Capcom games, and it's strange how streamlined and simplistic this game is compared to the others. Yeah, I was just playing Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Street Fighter III: Third Strike, so of course this is going to feel like a step back, but it did feel oddly restrained in a way that I haven't felt the other times I've played this game. It's not a criticism, just a note.
Yet despite having 56 characters, I love playing as everyone in this group, as each character has their advantages, and the straightforward way that this game controls means everyone is an option to pick up and play. There are so many fighting games that throw interesting characters into the mix, then you realize they're going to take a while to learn. That's not the case here, and I always appreciate how accessible this game is. I love big, bold fighting games like this, when the companies allow themselves to let loose and have fun, and I don't think any fighting game has ever done that quite as well as Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
