Description
The Fantasy Fighter of the Millennium

Imagine the battle: Spider-Man vs. Mega Man...Incredible! Or, who would stand victorious in a Strider vs. Captain America? Amazing! Now, Capcom brings its #1 arcade smash fantasy fighter to the PlayStation game console. Experience the world's most insane battles between your favorite, legendary Capcom characters and Super Heroes of the Marvel Universe.

Review
It’s not as bad as you remember it…

The PlayStation always had one Achilles Heel; 2D fighters from the late ‘90s. With the Japanese Sega Saturn having the expandable RAM and the US Saturn pretty much dead in the water, Westerners were forced to make due with what they had. If that particular situation didn’t include an import Saturn or a Dreamcast system, you had to accept a few setbacks…like a game’s main point.

Marvel vs. Capcom is the third in the Vs series, right after X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter. This time around the focus is on a mish-mash of both side’s favored characters. New comers like Mega Man and Venom join a robust line-up in a fantasy brawl that set arcades on fire like never before. The milkshake that brought all the boys to the yard was the game’s ‘tag’ mode. You chose two players and fought against another’s chosen duo, with the ability to swap characters in and out as you pleased.

Up until it came home on the PlayStation. Because of the very limited RAM, Capcom had to perform some serious fat cutting from the main course. The biggest drawback was that the actual Tag option was removed from standard game play, and replaced as an alternate mode where you each picked one fighter and then both players took both characters into battle. There was also considerable animation frames dropped to help keep loading times down and the speed somewhat reasonable.

Graphical limitations aside, for what it is the game still holds up well, especially if you’re playing in 480i on a PS2 / PS3. Vibrant colors, very big sprites, and the usual tight control you expect from Capcom all still shine through.

Music and sound effects are a bit muffled in spots (again, space issues) but overall it’s minimal, and in the heat of battle you don’t really notice. I was using headphones when playing through it and everything sounded like its 10 year-old self.

With the game still going for $40 or so on eBay, it’s a steep price to go relive glory days of a stripped down port, but if you have no use for a Dreamcast, this is still the next best thing on a CD. Let’s go crazy!

• All of the Japanese PlayStation "Vs" series carried the subtitle 'EX Edition", due to them containing an extra mode to compensate for not having the true arcade Tag experience. Capcom USA dropped this sub-title fearing it would detract sales.
   
• Aside from the real cast, check out the backgrounds for many cameos and new takes on classic game levels, like the now anime-like inspired take on Strider's world.
   
• One of the few Capcom fighters to not have a place in the Fighter's Edge label variation.
   
• Ryu has a neat trick where he can take on Ken or Akuma's move set, in effect becoming his own tag partner.
   
• One of the new features in the game is the 'Dynamic Mode' - essentially it's a Zoom function that brings you closer to the action during a throw or an aerial rave combo. If you're not expecting it, it can throw you off, especially with characters who have quick throw animations.
   
• Worth 20 points in the Fighter's Edge program.
   
• Morrigan absorbs Lillith into herself at the beginning of each match. There is a code to actually play as Lillith.
   
• While the Shadow Lady character is simply a bizarre Chun-Li alternative, for a while many 2D fighters had this fad where there were 'EX' versions of selectable characters. The term EX, depending on the game, was also sometimes known as a 'shadow' . Oddly enough, Mortal Kombat has long had Noob Saibot, who is for all intents and purposes...an actual shadow!
   
• Jin is from the Japanese only released game Cyberbots - a great, if not that deep fighting game where players used very stylized robots to do battle with each other. Jin's Super Move and entry animation are all using his actual robot's arm.
  

Variants
This game has no known regular released variants.