Some say the biggest cultural debate of the early 90's was the Vanilla Ice vs MC Hammer "Who is the King of Rap” war. Vanilla Ice probably still ponders that very question today as he works in a Florida clothing store. There was a more important dilemma though...a question that split friendships and divided family households. Which was the biggest and best fighting game...Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter 2? A debate that has long been replaced with the great Tekken vs Virtual Fighter punch-up. Step aside from such modern gaming trappings, its time to take your Xbox on a journey into the mists of time. An era when a 2d sprite with four frames of animation was pushing a graphics processor to the limits..

As the name suggests Marvel vs Capcom 2 takes Capcom's Streetfighter 2 cast (with a few tag-alongs from their other games, like Stryder Ryu) and sends them into battle alongside with Marvel Super Heroes like Spider-man and The Hulk. Capcom have made a series of these Vs type games on various consoles, with our Xbox version stemming from an earlier Dreamcast appearance.

Gameplay has evolved from the simplistic one on one duke 'em out days, this latest evolvement lets you pick out a team of three characters to take on another group of three. The matches proceed in a tag-team format, where its important to keep an eye on the health bar, and tag another character in when the going gets tough.

These games were always about combo "Zen” mastery. The Xbox controller gets the workout of a lifetime. Apart from the expected finger twisting Reverse Fireball-Fly Through The Air-Headsnap-Double Take Downs there are more easily (thank goodness) executed team assist attacks. Seeing Captain America and Ryu double team Spider-man was unexpectedly enjoyable. The greatest combo addition included is the Hyper Combo. A gauge that slowly builds as you attack, unleashing screen shaking smackdowns that can range up to 60 hit chain reaction onslaughts. Its easy to see why the designers have increased the health bar from the early days.

At the very least, it can be said Capcom have produced a Technicolor dream here. Very vivid use of a bright cartoon looking pallete, that does the job very nicely. The backgrounds are 3d rendered, some looking great others appearing drab. The main show are the characters themselves, and on the whole they look the part. Characters range in size and shape dramatically, The Hulk for example takes half the screen height! The animation hasn't really been improved from the old days, its still rather stiff with limited frames of movement but that's the way of the 2d fighter. The only real issue, is the blockiness around the edges of the characters. I'm sure the Xbox has the grunt to display a flat sprite with smooth edges.

Grunts and smacking sounds abound, with a bit of voice-work for some characters popping up on occasion. The music is an acquired taste. My wife threatened me with a jolly good example of real-life violence if I didn't turn off the in-game music. Some people don't appreciate the not so smooth tones of Japanese arcade tunes it seems.