Ho, boy, have I gotten to Marvel vs. Capcom already?? Growing up I never really focused on Capcom or really played any of the Street Fighter or DarkStalkers games (blame Sega's Virtua Fighter and Namco's Tekken!), but I only knew who Ryu was in my childhood when I saw friends or cousins playing any of the Street Fighter games on the Genesis. I've seen this in the arcade many times (next to Namco's Tekken 2) in the late '90s, and been told about Spider-Man many times by a friend in middle school. He did NOT say one word about Morrigan.

Now flash-forward to 2007. I'm college age (I just turned 21 a few weeks ago) and still have exactly NO idea who Morrigan Aensland even *is* (I think Sega and Namco were trying to prevent me from finding out all these years). Then one day before classes, a fellow student who appeared to be playing games on an arcade emulator (I think MAME32FX) was playing random Capcom games, and it seemed that he was playing with Morrigan almost 33% of the time in separate games.

For those of you who have exactly NO idea who Morrigan Aensland is like myself since 1998 (I was 12!), she made her debut in the 1994 Capcom arcade game DarkStalkers: The Night Warriors in the form of the Succubus. There are eight other fighters, consisting of creatures, in this game as well. She is known for having (gasp) green hair! I'm not going to explain Ryu, either, since all of you should know what series of games HE'S from, now. :0P

To the gameplay (36/41): This is what makes MvC1 shine greatly. 2P games will have you (and some college friends!) playing for hours. The 1P game is just as hard as the arcade version of Gradius III (given the fact there that you *cannot* continue after you lose your last life), and if you get to face Onslaught on the final stage, prepare for Jinpachi Mishima-like cheapness (bad!). There are some other Capcom characters past and present as well as some of the obvious Marvel comic book heroes you see almost every day.

Some CPU opponents and the last boss stated above will give you lots and lots of headaches on the right setting. There are also two sets of two settings: for difficulty it's Easy and Normal; for speed it's Normal and Turbo. Easy Mode and Normal speed combined are for beginning players who, like myself, have no idea who Morrigan Aensland even is or if you have very little experience with Capcom games. These can be mixed with Easy and Turbo, and Normal and Turbo. After you defeat Onslaught, only then will you see your first character's ending, since the fights are supposed to be in teams in this game. It's possibly stated around somewhere that Tekken Tag Tournament got the idea of tag team battles from this game, but unlike this game (as to one K.O. and that team loses), MvC requires BOTH players to be K.O.'ed in order to advance to the next stage, and the stages are 1-round battles.

Graphics (39/41): This is 2-D (and who knows--it'll be some time before we see Morrigan in 3-D). You *are* supposed to like it! Everything that makes Capcom fans wet themselves (hehhehheh...) is shown in almost EVERY little detail possible ranging from laser blasts to the game letting you know visually when you land 30+ hits and even the special finisher's name being displayed on screen (hint: Ryu + Morrigan = Shinkuu-Eraser)! Talk about frantic!

Sound (41/41): Nothing to say here. No strings attached. Just sheer brilliance ranging from when Ryu or Morrigan enter the screen from stage left and their music hits to the hidden character theme when you face them (?). Sound effects are top-notch as well.

Thumbs-up
Play with Ryu and Morrigan on teams?!?!
Select a team of 2 Capcom characters, 2 Marvel characters, or you can mix it up and vice versa
Make new friends while playing this priceless game
2D fun for 2D fans

Thumbs-down
Jinpachi Mishima-like Onslaught (cheap boss *and* unplayable) and cheap AI...but that doesn't matter
Too much fun?
Morrigan's ending...poor Ryu...

(sorry for using the names Ryu and Morrigan so much...I'm starting to become a Capcom fan myself, though I know very little about the company.)

MY SCORE: 41/41 = 10!