There's an old video on YouTube titled "Justin Wong vs Yipes - Never give up" and it features a fight from this game, partway through, during a public competition. You can look it up right now, but I'll vaguely describe what matters from it:
Competitive player Justin Wong plays as Cyclops, the only member left from his 3-member team. Yipes' stable is all-present, barely dented: Storm, Psylocke, and Blue Mag-net-oh. The fight plays out, and it seems like the match is about to be over. But Justin Wong begins to pull an upset - eliminating Magneto, then Storm, then, after many jumps, back-and-forths, announcer screams of "WE JUST GOT A REAL MATCH!" and crowd cheers, Wong via-Cyclops does a 4-hit on Yipes' Psylocke! Then a Hyper Combo optic blast! This ends it, but not without a loud smattering of screams - the loudest, a shrill "JAHSTAN WOAAANG!". Couple that with visible fervor from the game itself: the marbled-like psychedelic visuals that explode in the background like glory-fireworks for the winner.
This review isn't about Justin Wong, and it's not about Yipes. I know that these people, 12 years since this video, have had reputations and careers since then. I don't really care about that. What I do care about is those little moments of this video. Where your ass clenches, your teeth grit, your hands ball into fists, and you feel the energy of competition, without having been in the crowd. Where, even though you know the outcome is an upset based off the way it's set up with the "Pro-Tip" title, you're tense till the moment of victory. Where moments are bigger than the game itself.
MvC2 is an arcade game through-and-through. The sprite artwork is a thing of beauty. This is to be expected with the Capcom characters: the shading, the colors, the outlines, and the movements - they all pop. Even the idle positions feel lively. No surprise. Is it any wonder we see gifs of them so ubiquitously? Revelation comes with the Marvel characters. How do you evolve the look of Spider-Man from the last game? Wolverine? Or a new character, like Cable? And what about the posturing? Captain America - dignified, with his chest up high. Spider-Man - crouched low, arms raised, dangling, ready to leap at a moment's notice. Then they add those crushed sound effects, like when someone powers up with some unexplained, cosmic energy. (Or maybe there is an explanation, and we just don't care right now.) There's no story needed to package this crossover. It exists in an arcade reality, where things make sense in movement and energy, not in conventional logic.
MvC2 is an arcade game, but one that you can play at home with your friends. Even still, online with strangers. It's as much about the unique, fleeting beauty of a "Mango Sentinel" as it is about the trash talk you hurl to your friend as you lose the second member of your team in battle. Or frantically contorting three fingers on your right hand to snap some face buttons while your left hand flicks the joystick into a quarter circle, in an effort to shoot across the screen and land a kick to the face. It's not about WHY Mega Man is shooting at Iron Man (or even WHO would win in a fight in that scenario), but the intensity that comes out of Tony Stark flipping into a leap, dropping down, and trying to kick as a blast shoots out from his boot.
MvC2 is an arcade game sandwiched between other installments of a series of fighting games. These games share similar names, but don't match 2's legacy. It's not one of Capcom's 10 top-selling games. It has no bearing on the media giant that is Marvel. It's lauded, but mostly by its fans, and fans of the genre. The praise it receives is not the same as classics like Zelda, Metroid, Grand Theft Auto, or even Street Fighter. Its merits are off in a corner, where it's generally agreed upon, but almost never among the first to be carried towards the canon. It doesn't matter, because it's a masterpiece anyway.
And notice I haven't even mentioned the music.
MvC2 is an arcade fighting game, but more broadly, it's just a game. It requires skill, but makes it fun and rewarding to pick up that skill. It's about numbers: 3 vs. 3. It's about the emotions elicited when those numbers change. Emotions like losing hope when you have three chances to win, and then you have one. Or gaining hope when you realize you're skilled enough to beat the odds. Not always, but sometimes. And it's about those little moments. Like the moment in the fight, where you decide it's worth it to keep fighting.
MvC2 is about never giving up.
Competitive player Justin Wong plays as Cyclops, the only member left from his 3-member team. Yipes' stable is all-present, barely dented: Storm, Psylocke, and Blue Mag-net-oh. The fight plays out, and it seems like the match is about to be over. But Justin Wong begins to pull an upset - eliminating Magneto, then Storm, then, after many jumps, back-and-forths, announcer screams of "WE JUST GOT A REAL MATCH!" and crowd cheers, Wong via-Cyclops does a 4-hit on Yipes' Psylocke! Then a Hyper Combo optic blast! This ends it, but not without a loud smattering of screams - the loudest, a shrill "JAHSTAN WOAAANG!". Couple that with visible fervor from the game itself: the marbled-like psychedelic visuals that explode in the background like glory-fireworks for the winner.
This review isn't about Justin Wong, and it's not about Yipes. I know that these people, 12 years since this video, have had reputations and careers since then. I don't really care about that. What I do care about is those little moments of this video. Where your ass clenches, your teeth grit, your hands ball into fists, and you feel the energy of competition, without having been in the crowd. Where, even though you know the outcome is an upset based off the way it's set up with the "Pro-Tip" title, you're tense till the moment of victory. Where moments are bigger than the game itself.
MvC2 is an arcade game through-and-through. The sprite artwork is a thing of beauty. This is to be expected with the Capcom characters: the shading, the colors, the outlines, and the movements - they all pop. Even the idle positions feel lively. No surprise. Is it any wonder we see gifs of them so ubiquitously? Revelation comes with the Marvel characters. How do you evolve the look of Spider-Man from the last game? Wolverine? Or a new character, like Cable? And what about the posturing? Captain America - dignified, with his chest up high. Spider-Man - crouched low, arms raised, dangling, ready to leap at a moment's notice. Then they add those crushed sound effects, like when someone powers up with some unexplained, cosmic energy. (Or maybe there is an explanation, and we just don't care right now.) There's no story needed to package this crossover. It exists in an arcade reality, where things make sense in movement and energy, not in conventional logic.
MvC2 is an arcade game, but one that you can play at home with your friends. Even still, online with strangers. It's as much about the unique, fleeting beauty of a "Mango Sentinel" as it is about the trash talk you hurl to your friend as you lose the second member of your team in battle. Or frantically contorting three fingers on your right hand to snap some face buttons while your left hand flicks the joystick into a quarter circle, in an effort to shoot across the screen and land a kick to the face. It's not about WHY Mega Man is shooting at Iron Man (or even WHO would win in a fight in that scenario), but the intensity that comes out of Tony Stark flipping into a leap, dropping down, and trying to kick as a blast shoots out from his boot.
MvC2 is an arcade game sandwiched between other installments of a series of fighting games. These games share similar names, but don't match 2's legacy. It's not one of Capcom's 10 top-selling games. It has no bearing on the media giant that is Marvel. It's lauded, but mostly by its fans, and fans of the genre. The praise it receives is not the same as classics like Zelda, Metroid, Grand Theft Auto, or even Street Fighter. Its merits are off in a corner, where it's generally agreed upon, but almost never among the first to be carried towards the canon. It doesn't matter, because it's a masterpiece anyway.
And notice I haven't even mentioned the music.
MvC2 is an arcade fighting game, but more broadly, it's just a game. It requires skill, but makes it fun and rewarding to pick up that skill. It's about numbers: 3 vs. 3. It's about the emotions elicited when those numbers change. Emotions like losing hope when you have three chances to win, and then you have one. Or gaining hope when you realize you're skilled enough to beat the odds. Not always, but sometimes. And it's about those little moments. Like the moment in the fight, where you decide it's worth it to keep fighting.
MvC2 is about never giving up.