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I wanna take you for a ride...

It was the year 2000 and there wasn't really a justifiable reason to go to the arcades any more...except for Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, arguably the most popular game in the entire Capcom vs. series.

The plot? Oh, right. There is a plot. It's more or less the same story as last time: An evil wind is sweeping the land, creating a miasma that is killing all life. Ruby Heart, a dimension-traveling sky pirate, recruits Earth's greatest heroes (and villains) to track down the root of the problem: Abyss, the "Armor of Erosion."

This game is the final 2D entry in the Marvel vs. Capcom series; alongside all-new characters, every playable character from X-Men: Children of the Atom to the original Marvel vs. Capcom returns for one more round of fighting, bringing the total number of playable fighters to fifty-six — one of the largest rosters in fighting game history. The only absences are the vs. boss characters, the palette swaps, and most helpers from the previous game.

To accommodate the larger roster, MvC2 allowed players to select three fighters per team, allowing for different sets of assist attacks as well as Double (and Triple) Supers. It also introduced a gameplay mechanic where supers could be chained together for either absurdly long combos or safe, if costly, character-switching.

Capcom lost the Marvel license after this game, and both companies would follow separate routes until 2008. After massive fan demand (and the success of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix), MvC2 was re-released for Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network with online play. This reignited the Marvel and Capcom relationship, and in 2010, the companies announced that the game would get a true sequel in the form of Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

From 2021 onwards, the game has become the topic of intense discussion for a remastered revival with video game developer Digital Eclipse, known for remastering numerous Disney and Capcom games (including MvC2's 2009 release), having approached both Marvel and Disney regarding this venture. Though no news on a console port has arrived yet, Arcade1Up announced in August 2022 that MvC2 would be included in special themed arcade cabinet that compiles the entire Marvel vs. Capcom series up through it.


The Roster

Marvel

Capcom

Brand-new characters (representing the Capcom side):


Marvel vs. Capcom 2 contains the following tropes:

  • All There in the Manual: Info on Ruby Heart, SonSon, Amingo and Abyss are specifically available via Monthly Arcadia magazines published on March/May 2000 and on the Dreamcast Magazine published on February 2000.
  • Ambidextrous Sprite: Cable's bionic arm.
    • Characters that wield weapons will swap arms when they turn around, such as Gambit and SonSon's staves, Silver Samurai and Strider Hiryu's swords, Cable's guns, Hayato's plasma blade and Captain America's shield.
  • Ascended Extra:
    • Roll was a secret character in the first Marvel vs. Capcom, and then made the jump to the main roster in this game.
    • In Mega Man Legends, the Servbots were Tron's assistants, but here, they made the jump towards the main roster along with their mistress.
    • If we don't count both X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes, we have also Colossus, Iceman, Psylocke and Sentinel, whose only appearances in the crossover series were as assist characters in the previous game. Especially Sentinel, since in its source media it's not even the Master Mold, but one of a huge line of humongous mechas.
  • Assist Character: Several, including Mega Man (Rush), Jin (Blodia), Tron Bonne (Servbot), Captain Commando (his Commando Team), Jill Valentine (zombies, crows, dogs and Tyrant) and Sabretooth (Birdie).
  • Audible Sharpness: One of the many reasons Strider Hiryu became so popular. SCHWING!
    • Wolverine also counts with his claws. Shing-shing! Somehow even his bone claws make the same sound.
  • Avengers Assemble: There is an Achievement/Trophy with this name in the PS3/X360 re-release, obtained by beating Arcade Mode with a team consisting of the Avengers note . Similar Achievements/Trophies exist for the X-Men note , and the casts of Street Fighter note  and Darkstalkers note .
  • Badass Adorable: Roll, Tron Bonne, Servbot, BB Hood and Felicia.
  • Badass Arm-Fold: Doctor Doom has this as his Idle Animation. While it looks cool, it's not exactly the most practical position to have your arms in while fighting. Of course, it's Doom we're talking about.
    • Blackheart has one of these, most visible in its Hyper Combos. Shuma-Gorath has a Badass Tentaclefold.
    • M. Bison also gets in on the fun during his Knee Press Nightmare Hyper Combo and his Teleport Spam.
  • Badass Biker: Hayato, of Star Gladiator fame, whose intro consists of him jumping off of his tricked-out ride and activating his plasma blade with a kiai.
  • Badass Normal: Captain America, Iron Man, and War Machine on the Marvel side, and Zangief, Strider Hiryu, Jin Saotome, Hayato Kanzaki, Captain Commando, Jill Valentine, and Tron Bonne on the Capcom side. With the exception of Zangief, all of them use powered armors, humongous mechas and/or weapons, anyway.
  • BFG: Iron Man's/War Machine's PROTON CANNON!, Morrigan's SOUL ERASER!. B.B. Hood's goons guns in Cool Hunting and Cable's HYPER VIPER BEAM.
  • Beware the Cute Ones: See Badass Adorable.
  • Big Bad: Abyss, the Armor of Erosion. He is a sentient sphere that takes many forms, and kills all life simply by existing. Upon discovering him, Ruby Heart summoned many heroes and villains to save the world and destroy Abyss.
  • Big Eater: SonSon, who can turn her opponents into fruit and eat them.
  • Blocking Stops All Damage: Iceman has the unique property of not taking chip damage.
  • Blob Monster: Abyss is revealed to be a massive being of liquid/goo in his 2nd form, and apparently switches to red goo (blood?) in his 3rd form.
  • Blow You Away: Storm uses wind attacks as a few of her specials, and combines it with An Ice Person for one of her Supers.
  • Body Horror: One of Cable's victory animations has his cybernetic arm deteriorating, becoming skeletal in appearance.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: One of Marrow's winposes is her looking at the "camera" and throwing a bone, literally breaking the fourth wall.
  • Breast Expansion: Roll's Hyper Combo attack, "Hyper Roll", ages her up significantly in appearance and gives her Torpedo Tits.
  • Calling Your Attacks: You'd expect this with the Fighting Game characters, naturally. But it even extends to the Marvel superheroes, among others.
  • Character Roster Global Warming: 56 playable characters and only six (Zangief, Anakaris, Colossus, Sentinel, Hulk, Juggernaut) are of the slow-and-strong type.
  • Combat Tentacles: The only plausible explanation as to how Shuma-Gorath made the cut over his antagonist, Doctor Strange.
    • Also, Omega Red.
  • Combination Attack: Double and Triple Supers.
  • Composite Character: Zangief and Sakura may qualify, since they have the ability to transform into Mecha Zangief and Dark Sakura during battle, who were technically separate characters in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter.
  • Cool Ship/Cool Airship: Ruby Heart, being a trans-dimensional, world-traveling pirate, is in possession of one. It also is the cast's main form of transportation, one of the fighting stages of the game and one of her Super Combos.
  • Cool Versus Awesome: The whole reason the game exists.
  • Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Two assist buttons are added, but both medium attack buttons have been dropped. Some medium attacks have been retained as launching command attacks, while others can only be done by pressing a weak attack button twice within close range.
  • Death from Above:
    • Blackheart's Armageddon summons a meteor storm to the battlefield.
    • The Hulk jumps into space, and essentially pulls a passing meteor from space to drop it on his opponent.
    • War Machine's War Destroyer Hyper sends a shower of missiles down his opponent. Smart Bombs also do, except in a less powerful way.
  • Desperation Attack: If Jin Saotome is left as the last man standing on his team, he'll start glowing gold (default color scheme) and will gain a strength boost plus Super Armor (needs two hits to enter the stun animation).
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Almost literally, with Shuma-Gorath.
  • Dishing Out Dirt: Felicia's Sand Splash attack.
  • Divergent Character Evolution: War Machine in MvC was exactly like Iron Man in the earlier games. In MvC2, he gets Gold War Machine's special moves, replacing Iron Man's beam attacks with guns and missiles (which is closer to how he's portrayed in the comics).
  • Dramatic Wind: Gambit's cloak billows constantly, as does Jin's scarf. Also in one of Ryu's win poses.
  • Dream Match Game: For the entire Marvel vs. Capcom series up until that point, including the Marvel-only X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes.
  • Dynamic Entry: Most of the tag-ins.
  • Enemy Mine: Jill Valentine is "aided" by zombies in battle.
  • Enemy Summoner: Blackheart's strong attacks summon minor demons which cling onto the opponent to slow him/her down.
  • Energy Weapon: Cyclops is the most notable, although Doctor Doom deserves a good shout too.
  • Excuse Plot: Well there isn't really one, but the ending suggests that Ruby called everyone together to fight Abyss.
  • Fire, Ice, Lightning: Silver Samurai can switch between the three elements, having special effects and one unique Super for each.
  • Flash Step: Strider Hiryu makes use of this in several of his techniques. Also Akuma and Dark/Sunburned Sakura's Ashura Senkuu.
  • Flight: Iron Man, War Machine, Dr. DOOM, Magneto, Storm, Sentinel, Dhalsim and M.Bison all have a special move that allows them to fly for a limited time.
  • Foreshadowing: Well, for the arcade mode anyway. The cave stage has a large face in the background...which also happens to be strikingly similar to Abyss' third form's face.
  • Fragile Speedster: Strider Hiryu is the best example, having a very low health/defense stat in exchange for great speed.
  • Game Mod: Before the Xbox Live Arcade version was announced, fans were making custom Dreamcast ISOs with custom soundtracks, (due to its heavy Soundtrack Dissonance) and custom colors.
  • Genius Bruiser: The Hulk, where he's in the guise of the Merged Hulk/Professor persona. (remember, The Green Scar from Planet Hulk and World War Hulk had yet to be created at the time)
  • Glass Cannon: A few, considering there are many characters, but taken Up to Eleven with the team Strider/Doctor Doom/Sentinel, known as "Team Clockwork" after the player who pioneered it. Strider is not only a Glass Cannon himself, but if he or Doom dies, the team often falls apart. Notice in the first match in this video where Clockwork is holding a nice lead and momentum until Strider dies, and then it falls apart.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: Implied Trope. One of Jin Saotome's victory poses has him draw his katana and look at it proudly, before leaping over the enemy with a violent shout and his sword ready to strike - at which point it cuts to the scores screen.
  • Henshin Hero: Captain Commando is one according to his intro.
    "Henshin, Commando!"
  • Hot-Blooded: Jin Saotome, oh so very much.
  • Humongous Mecha: Sentinel. For non-playable mecha, we've got Jin's Blodia, who is used in some of his attacks.
  • I Am Legion: Justified as Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote are two seperate beings.
    Venom: "We are Venom!"
  • An Ice Person: Iceman.
    • Also Storm in some of her attacks, and Silver Samurai while in Ice Sword mode.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Servbot. He uses things like potato peelers, for crying out loud.
  • Instant Runes: Blink and you'll miss 'em, but they're there in Blackheart's Inferno attack.
  • Joke Character: Dan, Roll, and Servbot.
    • Lethal Joke Character: Because the Servbot is so ridiculously small, if you mix it with some good assists you'd be surprised at the results.
  • Kamehame Hadoken: The second part of the trope's name comes from the version of the Shinkuu Hadouken, which is the best known of many, many, many instances.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: Several characters either have the real deal (i.e. Jin Saotome in one of his Victory Poses, Silver Samurai, etc.) or a slight variation of it.
  • Kick Chick: Chun-Li and Cammy.
  • Kiss of Death: Morrigan's Eternal Slumber secret move. Also, Rogue's Power Drain, and her Hyper ends with one of these.
  • Laser Blade: Strider Hiryu's Cypher, Hayato's plasma sword. The former leans more toward Hot Blade.
  • The Leader: Ruby Heart is the leader of the entire Marvel and Capcom pantheons in the war against Abyss, as well as her own motley crew of pirates. Cable seems to be the deputy leader of sorts for the Marvel characters as he often mirrors her in both artwork and the character select screen as the default player 2 character.
  • Life Drain: Omega Red's specialty. Also Shuma-Gorath's throw and Thanos' Gauntlet Soul hyper.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Sentinel, especially when flying.
  • Long-Range Fighter: Several, but the best example is Blackheart. Even his punches and kicks summon projectiles.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: War Machine's Proton Cannon and War Destroyer.
  • Made of Iron: Colossus and (Mecha) Zangief for the literal example. Both even have Super Armor (Colossus as a Super move).
  • Megaton Punch: Jin's entire fighting style, especially the Blodia Punch, which is a Megaton Punch by a Humongous Mecha.
  • Mini-Mecha: Tron Bonne rides one to fight.
  • More Dakka:
    • B.B. Hood's special has her summoning her two mercenaries and firing at will
    • Mega Man's and Roll's Lv 1 super has them becoming Mazinger Z's expies firing many types of projectiles at will.
  • Moveset Clone: All 5 types: Ryu, Ken, Sakura, Akuma and Dan, all of them Shotoclones. And for examples not involving those two street fighters, there're two Wolverines (Adamantium and Bone claws); Iron Man and War Machine; Mega Man and Roll; and Guile and Charlie.
  • Multi-Slot Character: Wolverine is divided into two versions — one with his standard Adamantium claws, which uses his Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes moveset, and another with bone claws, which uses his X-Men vs. Street Fighter moveset.
  • New Work, Recycled Graphics: As was the norm for Capcom games at the time, many of the return character sprites are reused from earlier Capcom vs. games and the Street Fighter Alpha series. This is notable for why the Marvel side of the roster is so overwhelmingly bloated with X-Men characters; every character that was used and created for X-Men: Children of the Atom got reused here.
  • Noblewoman's Laugh: Tron Bonne as a taunt.
  • Nonstandard Game Over: If you lose to Abyss' third form, it is indicated that he eats your characters.
  • Original Generation: Amingo, Ruby Heart and Abyss. Also technically SonSon, as she is the granddaughter of the protagonist of the game of the same name.
  • Pinball Scoring: A first attack awards one million points. Combos score 1000 times the square of the number of hits - at least 10 million for a 100-hit combo. Finishing a round awards roughly 100 million bonus points.
  • Pirate Girl: Ruby Heart. To a much lesser extent, Tron Bonne.
  • Playing with Fire:
    • Blackheart, Silver Samurai (Fire Sword Mode), Captain Commando (along electric attacks), Dhalsim, Ken, Jin and Zangief (in his Mecha form) among others.
    • Cammy and Bison use a Psycho Power-fueled variation.
  • Power Copying: Averted with Rogue, who loses her ability to copy opponents' special moves from X-Men vs. Street Fighter and instead gains different Status Buffs based on who she hits with her Kiss of Death.
  • Power Creep, Power Seep:
    • How the (mostly) Badass Normal characters from the Street Fighter-verse can last more than five seconds against powerhouses like Magneto.
    • Seeing how a fairly obscure character like Marrow can beat A-listers like Magneto, or Wolverine, makes the game even more fun to play.
    • Heck, even a circuit-and-metal Servbot can beat Magneto, a Sentinel or the Juggernaut (bitch)!!!
    • The fact that any of these characters can go toe-to-toe with Shuma-Gorath, the resident Eldritch Abomination, is proof enough.
    • Somewhat averted in competitive matches, as the top ranked characters are all big-name Marvel characters (except Sentinel and Psylocke) with a few exceptions (Strider and Captain Commando).
    • The health tiers don't always make much sense. Akuma has the same health as the little girl Joke Character. Similarly Wolverine, a mutant with an accelerated Healing Factor and metal-laced skeleton takes more damage per hit than Jill Valentine.
  • Powered Armor: Iron Man, War Machine, Captain Commando and Abyss.
  • Promoted to Playable: Dr. Doom and Thanos, who were boss-only characters in their last game.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Blackheart, Thanos, Akuma, Sentinel. Good guy example: Gambit.
  • Rocket Punch: Sentinel. It even says those two words.
  • Rubber Man: Dhalsim and Spiral.
  • Rule of Fun: When looked at from the stance of balance and competitive viability, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is a trainwreck. Glitches, overpowered super moves, and a cast where barely 1/3 can be considered viable dominate this game at the higher levels of play. However in spite of that it is still loved. A lot of the game's memorable hype comes from the insane setups people can come up with in a pinch and many of those even rely on breaking the game, something that lesser games can easily be thrown in the trash for in the competitive scene. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is just that fun.
  • Sequel Number Snarl: According to its title screen, it's actually the fourth game in the series, despite the "2" in the title. X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter are the first two games.
  • Serious Business: This game holds the record for the biggest money match in fighting game history ($50,000).
  • Shock and Awe: Storm's primary form of offense. Many other characters have at least one shock/stun move.
    • Captain Commando's power gloves use both electricity and fire as attacks.
  • Shotoclone: Aside from the 5 examples of Ryu and Ken above, Spider-Man, Captain America, Morrigan, and Cyclops.
  • Shout-Out: Check the page.
  • Small Girl, Big Gun: Jill uses a rocket launcher so big that despite being a badass extraordinaire the recoil knocks her over.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: The soundtrack, which consists mainly of nu-jazz. It's awesome, but can be quite a contrast to all the action going on. The entry on that page likens the dissonance to using zydeco music in Silent Hill.
    Gonna take you for a riiiide!
  • Spectacular Spinning: Zangief, Cammy, Jin Saotome.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Crossover: The X-Men make up 18 of 28 Marvel reps, including two Wolverines. The Street Fighter characters make up a good portion of the Capcom side as well. It is understandable given that every character from past installments up to that point, including X-Men vs. Street Fighter, return.
  • Sprite/Polygon Mix: The game has sprite-based characters and 3D backgrounds.
  • Status Buff: Colossus' Super Armor, Wolverine's Berserker Charge, Juggernaut's Cyttorak Power-Up and Silver Samurai's Touki all return from previous games, and Rogue's Kiss of Death has been reworked into providing unique buffs depending on who she hits with it.
  • Stripperiffic: On the ladies' side, we have Psylocke, Cammy, Felicia, and Morrigan. The latter two technically don't even wear clothes. And on the men's side, Hulk, Zangief, Dhalsim and, if one is feeling crazy, Colossus.
  • Super Mode: ''Mecha'' Zangief and ''Dark'' Sakura, which were secret characters in previous games, are now Lv.3 Super Forms accessible to them.
  • Superpowered Evil Side: One technique has Hayato turning into Black Hayato.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: War Machine was included in the original Marvel vs. Capcom when they couldn't use Iron Man due to licensing issues. Both were included in this game, leading to Divergent Character Evolution.
  • Tag Team: Three to a team this time, unlike the two to a side in the three previous games.
  • Temporary Online Content: Capcom completely removed the PSN and Xbox Live versions of this game on December 17th, 2013, which means that if you didn't buy the game when you had the chance (or have a friend that you can download it from), it's this.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
    "HYPER COMBO FINISH!"
  • Third-Option Adaptation: Ruby Heart was created as a mediator between the Capcom and Marvel sides, acting as a neutral protagonist.
  • Transforming Mecha: Rush Drill and Beat Plane. Both controllable by the player.
  • Unexpected Character: Shuma-Gorath, Jin and Marrow.
  • Updated Re-release: Technically the 2009 port could count as this with its additions of online play, fixed glitches, custom soundtracks and sprite filters. No more, no less.
  • V-Formation Team Shot: Captain Commando and his team does this after his Captain Storm super move.
  • Victory Fakeout: Happens twice with Abyss. Each time you defeat its first two forms, the usual YOU WIN! message appears, and your onscreen character even does his victory pose. Sadly, your health is not restored.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifter: Amingo and Venom make extensive use of this in their movelist. Then there's Shuma-Gorath (who can change shapes into mouths, spikes or even stone), Spiral (has one Super in which she turns into everyone on Marvel's side of the cast), Morrigan (can shape her batwings into several forms), Felicia (can turn into a small kitten) and Anakaris (can shape into various pyramid-shaped forms)
  • Wave-Motion Gun: Iron Man's PROTON CANNON, Cable's HYPER VIPER BEAM and Morrigan's SOUL ERASER
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: Amingo, Ruby Heart, Abyss, and SonSon have yet to return in any significant manner and have been merely reduced to sporadic cameos.
  • A Winner Is You: This game does not have character-specific endings. Rather, it's a shared ending where the cast celebrates their victory over Abyss on Ruby Heart's airship after she tosses the Abyss sphere into the ocean. The slideshow includesnote :
    • Cyclops and Ryu shaking hands.
    • Amingo offering food to SonSon, Marrow and Rogue (console) or Shuma-Gorath (arcade).
    • Zangief striking a pose alongside Iceman. In the arcade version, B.B. Hood is seen counting her money while the consoles have Tron nervously standing on the side while her Servbots surround Zangief.
    • Jin and Juggernaut triumphantly standing on the ship's front. (Arcade only.)
    • Doctor Doom and Anakaris brooding on the side.
    • Spider-Man taking a picture with Morrigan (arcade) or Sakura (console).
    • Captain America and Guile enjoying a chat with Gambit and Captain Commando (arcade), or Jill and Psylocke (console).
    • Venom crashing a meeting between Strider Hiryu and the Hulk.
    • Wolverine and Hayato staying away from the rest of the festivities.
    • Akuma and Magneto standing back to back. (Arcade only.)
    • Cable and Ruby Heart meeting at the helm.
  • Wolverine Claws: Wolverine, obviously (plus you get to double your fun as Wolverine appears twice).
  • Wolverine Publicity: Two Wolverines on the roster, folks - the one with bone claws represents his incarnation from X-Men vs. Street Fighter, while the one with Adamantium represents his gameplay from Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter and the first Marvel vs. Capcom. While the bone-clawed version of Wolverine lacks several moves his Adamantium counterpart hasnote , his attacks deal more damage, and the moves he does share have quirks exclusive to him; for example, only he can perform Tornado Claws in mid-air.


Alternative Title(s): Marvel Vs Capcom 2 New Age Of Heroes

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