A Marvelous Revival

Last night, Capcom finally revealed what we already knew: Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is coming to Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network this summer. This is great news! MvC2 is one of my personal favorite fighting games. It's not the deepest or most complex fighting game around, nor is it very well balanced. OK, that last part is an understatement: the game's balance is absolutely whacko. But when it's this much fun, do you really need balance? Of course not.

Again, this is something everyone knew was coming, ever since the ESRB rated it and listed it on their website back in mid-October. Then the peripherals appeared for preorder in the listings of several online stores (though they were pulled soon afterwards). Finally, the achievements were released, which also confirmed that the game would be online. The Xbox version was originally going to be online when it released back in early 2003, but Capcom lost the license to the Marvel properties. Though they apparently haven't reacquired them since Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is still making its way out via Activision this fall. But hey, they apparently paid for it, and who's complaining?

Capcom's loss of the Marvel license also explains why the PS2 and Xbox versions of the game had such low print runs. Both versions go (went?) for pretty high prices on ebay and similar marketplaces, the PS2 versions selling for as high as nearly $100. Quite an achievement for what's definitely the worst version of the game around. I'm sure their worth will decrease when the inevitably superior XBLA and PSN version makes its way out, which uses the code that powered the Dreamcast version along with Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix's online netcode.

I just regret not selling my copy of the game when I had the chance. I don't know if I'm too much of a fan of selling something for more than twice the original MSRP ($40), but these days there's the temptation of doing it to get some easy money -- which would more than pay for the XBLA version of the game at $15 (or 1200 Microsoft space bucks).

But enough about that, the real news that everyone was looking forward to were the details of the game. The graphics have three optional filters. You may already know that I'm not a fan of filters on 2D games, but that's only when they look hideous (and the ones on the Genesis Collection made me want to cry). But the "crisp" filter this game uses actually looks pretty nice. That, along with the beautiful looking backgrounds should make this game easy on the eyes no matter what kind of setup you have.

I hope this is only the first step in Capcom putting their best fighting games on XBLA and PSN. I'm sure a lot of us would like games like Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Capcom vs. SNK 2, and Street Fighter Alpha 3 as digital downloads, and for a comapny that's doing so much right recently, that probably isn't out of the question.