Here, ladies and gentlemen, we have one of the great bait-and-switch techniques of the
last couple decades.
The true difference between arcade and console gaming - and we didn’t even have to get
any DDR pads involved.
This is the PlayStation version of Marvel Vs. Capcom - the original one, no numbers
needed - one of history’s great mistakes.
Now, let’s get one thing straight: Marvel Vs. Capcom was an unbelievable arcade game.
The port for the Dreamcast was exceptionally accurate.
But the Dreamcast was a 6th-gen console.
The Playstation, for all its potential, was a 5th-gen system.
It couldn’t push the sprites fast enough.
It couldn’t handle this level of awesome.
So, because there still had to be a Marvel Vs. Capcom on the Playstation, we got this.
A sad excuse.
The first difference you note, in the main arcade mode, you’re not playing a two-on-two
match.
It’s supposed to be a two-on-two match, but that’d take resources and memory the
machine just didn’t have.
Instead, it plays much more like a one-on-one fighter with an assist character, either one
of the playable roster or a dedicated support character.
Interestingly enough, after a knockout, the fight continues immediately without refilling
the victor’s health bar.
Very Killer Instinct, and perhaps an attempt to mimic the mechanics of the real game, but
it’s too little, too late.
The most damning indictment is the cross-over
mode, which attempts to mimic the gameplay of the arcade by allowing two separate characters
each with their own health bar.
Sounds fantastic, except that the character you choose becomes your opponent’s reserve
unit, and vice versa.
This way, the memory limitation is alleviated by only having two characters, the one you
chose and the one chosen for you.
It’s distressingly fair, but only because it makes every game a mirror match... in a
manner of speaking.
And if you’re using one of the pallate-swapped hidden characters - like Red Venom, or Gold
War Machine, or the robotic Chun-Li wannabe Shadow Lady...
well, the whole thing can quickly become a mess.
Heck, the only hidden character with a unique design is Roll, and the manual input code
to use her (start at Zangief, left left down down right right down down left left up right
up up right right to the space off the board adjacent to Mega Man) doesn’t even work.
It sounds like the arcade, it looks like the arcade, but the most crucial element is missing:
it doesn’t play like the arcade.
And that’s unfortunate, because back in the day this beast was king of the hill.
Fortunately, that can’t really happen today.
These games are designed for the home and if they eventually find themselves in an arcade,
so much the better.
Besides, the chances are better that there’s a guy you know with a pair of quality arcade
sticks than there being a functioning arcade in your town, complete with people who aren’t
just in it for the tickets.
I would say let this be the last misstep for the series, but you’re familiar with the
whole Ultimate MVC3 debacle.
I don’t think I need to yammer on about it anymore.
You either hate it, or you love it, or you hate it but you’re going to buy it anyway
because Phoenix Wright.
That latter option might just be me.
But that’s okay.