The amount of playable characters is enough to put any fighting fan's salivary glands in overdrive. Beginning with favorites such as Spider Man, Wolverine, Ryu, and Chun Li, players can eventually unlock 56 characters. We had our hands full just mastering a few of these fighters, and getting familiar with all 56 would take months of intense practice. There are almost too many moves, all depicted with superb animation and augmented by several tag-team combos. When the match begins, you can pick three characters. Once things heat up, you can call in your pals to unleash a massive move on your opponent. This adds immensely to the game's depth, and button mashers will be in for a shock when they find that their mistimed tag-team moves backfire.

Visually, this game is intense. The large characters are slightly jagged around the edges, but that's more than compensated for by the massive amount of animation frames, colorful special effects, and stunning 3-D backgrounds that are loaded with detail. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 also delivers a sonic performance that is nearly arcade-perfect. This is a must-buy for any fighting fan, especially those who have a couple of buddies to bash. Just be prepared to put in a lot of time in practice mode if you want to get good. --T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

• Brilliant 3-D backgrounds
• A massive number of characters to play as
• Tag-team element adds a fun strategic component to the gameplay

• Characters were drawn at low resolution