Even if I prefer mvc1s style and presentation, I can understand why people prefer a simpler approach they took for mvc2 since they don't want to be too distracted while fighting. ...which makes it all the more baffling that most players still choose the training room stage.
Well, the Training stage and Abyss' stage can't be chosen by random. Lately, I developed a habit of picking these stages on my own as they look too good to be passed for Random Select. In the case of my custom mixes, it's worth picking these stages to listen to "Glassy Sky" or "Magia" respectively since these are the songs I chose in the AmaLee mix specifically.
While Marvel vs Capcom 2 stages aren't based on the games or comics, I think the original stages look really cool. Especially The Airship, Clock Tower, and Carnival stages.
Took me a long time to love em too but I get them wanting to do something new and I overall love that. Especially if we compare what they have going on in MVC infinite
@@baberuthlessThis is just me, but I enjoyed the 1st MvC more. Even though it had a roster of only 15 playable characters, all of them were detailed in their mechanics unlike 56 characters in this game. The several new crossover characters all felt interesting, Ryu could transform into Ken or Akuma, Zangief could turn into Mech, new hyper combos for the returning characters, etc. MvC2 has more quantity because of a giant roster. But MvC1 has more quality because of what was done with the roster it had
@@homeoftek5844 I personally agree with you. I love MVC2 and i know its the competitive standard these days but the presentation and overall pakage of MVC1 and even X-men Vs SF is just something that appeals to me more.
@@baberuthless yeah, idk. I mean...I do like MvC2. Just not as much as I thought I would after owning the game as a kid. Owning MvC1 and the two crossover games before it made me wish for MvC2 before my father bought it for me as a kid. It's one of those situations where the chase was better than the catch. I like MvC2 and enjoyed playing it at home and arcades 20+ yrs ago. It just didn't draw me in quite like how MvC1 did
Especially in America, the super hype jazz fusion sound was really not "cool" in the late 90s early 20s. My local arcade would open the cabinet and literally unplug the speakers from the board cause they hated it so much. For reference Devil may cry came out 1 year after this game and that was more of what a "cool" soundtrack from the 00s was about. This game paved the way for games action to feature real jazz comps. Music trends change and this game is 24 years old afterall.
I used to hate it too because it was too jazzy and didn't fit any character supposedly, but I grew to love it, it's perfect, invites you to have fun playing against your friends
My fondest memory of this game was going to the arcades that me and my cousins frequently visited. We had a blast playing and was blown away by the characters shown in the game including cable,thanos, akuma and rubyheart. I really like the headcanon and details you talked about here in this video. It feels like a real nostalgia trip when looking at the stages. I do feel that rubyheart is the indirect protagonist for this game since a majority of the stages involved her airship and the end credits with the characters interacting with each other. Amingo i feel is definitely one of her canon tag partners and the desert stage being his home too. My favorite stages are personally the clocktower with the snow all over, the airship at night and the carnival stage with the very familiar clown head in the middle xD. Great video as always. I love the details you talked about here! ^_^
Thanky ou so much! Those are all really good pics for stages im glad there is quite a variety of environments in the game but i know its easy for people to forget since their all so different
she was the main character of Mvc2 but also was considered a darkstalkers character… Amingo was not he was originally going to get his own game that got cancelled. The developers have come out and said it. you can also watch the wha happun on it
Ruby Heart potentially being a Darkstalkers character makes a ton of sense. Her style & theming is super fitting. I absolutely love MvC2. I had it on Dreamcast. Its a huge part of my childhood & one of the main reasons why Capcom is my favorite developer ever.
Used to love playing MVC2 when my local movie theater used to have a awesome arcade (it sucks now). I eventually got MVC2 on PS2 for Christmas (along with Super Bust a move 2) that same year. My siblings, my friend's and I used to play MVC2 all the time, my main team was Cable, Tron Bonne & War Machine.
I like the sleeper set up of Dan/Ken/Sakura, Ken's Dragon Punch assist beats literally everything and Dan can reverse direction in the air with his hurricane kick to become quite mobile and build meter safely along with opportunistic assist use . I only tag in Sakura after Dan has built up enough meter to enable Dark Sakura, she has a teleport that can be abused along with Ken's DP assist to create a nightmare rushdown situation where she constantly darts in and out with invincibility and can punish with both combos and hyper beams.
And as of this last week and the Nintendo Direct; MVC 2 is coming back on to PS4, Switch and PC. Alongside the other early Marvel fighting games, plus The Punisher; for some reason. All in one bundle.
Ruby Heart deserves to have her story properly told, and that's what you've done here, so thank you. Amingo deserves to have his story told too. And SonSon deserves to have a story in the first place. And her own franchise. And everything she wants in life. And recongnition as a toptier waifu.
"Marvel Vs. Capcom 2" was an arcade game which used to be in Arcades located in shopping malls, carnivals, party restaurants & sports arenas. Everything in "Marvel Vs. Capcom 2" from the lights, music & 3D stages are designed to make it enjoyable & fun to attract players especially kids into playing the game & keep the coins rolling.
This is the best explanation yet for its wacky style. When it hit arcades, the concept of the traditional arcade was slowly going away and morphing into the Dave & Busters model with more of an emphasis on physical games like skeetball, air hockey, and earning tickets, etc.
Great video, one thing I may add is that in a similar way to your comparison between the alternate river stage and Wolverine's MSH stage, I like to think that the carnival stage in this game could possibly be somewhat of a spiritual successor to Hulk's stage in MSH and Amingo's desert stage is a continuation of the many Death Valley/canyon stages within previous MvC games. But that is just my perspective on that.
Great job , you should talk about the beautiful Capcom vs SNK stages. Capcom vs SNK Pro added some changes from the original like Sagat’s stage with an eclipse of the sun. so damn cool.
Another great vid! One of my fav fighting game soundtracks because it's not what you expect and the composers made it work! I had no idea the Swamp Stage had a such a detailed story behind it!
According to my dad who was around when this game released the game was generally not received well on launch apparently, the music was as criticized for not being “epic” like other fighting games and the gameplay being generally unbalanced as hell but now a days most look back on it with fondness and the feeling they were too hard on it. It was also released at a time when most fighting games were following the 3D craze and at this time in the industry anything 2D was seen as “old” and “outdated” and I’m glad over the years we were able to move past that.
This is like, perhaps my favourite videogame of all time. I have played it for years, and there are so many details I never noticed… I don’t even think I ever realized the factory was a shipyard lol. Great video!
This was actually the 1st mvc series game i played, which might be why i never had the "hate it" phase. This game used to own my soul, every saturday we'd go watch my dad play hockey and every time my older brother and i would beg my mom for quarters so we could play this game at the little arcade section. We were always the only kids there and we had the whole place to ourselves but this was the only game we cared to play. At the time i also had these amazing marvel shoes, they had little windows and you'd slide a card into the slot. Each card had two sides and they had characters like spiderman, venom, wolverine and cyclops. They were the best and marvel 2 always reminds me of those days
Very impressed with this video, I went in just expecting a look at the background details, instead you went over the development history, and better yet, the extremely limited lore. And I had a big smile on my face when you set up the journey told through the stages, there's nothing I love more than unnecessary story in games that could get away with none. This vid did help me grow an appreciation for the stages and music... they still make me wretch, though. I barely remember them, besides the carnival, and even then, I don't even think of it as a carnival, just "the clown head stage". I also literally forgot the swamp and cave were in the game until they showed up. As for the music, I'd love to see the venn diagram between comic/fighting game fans and smooth jazz/lounge listeners, maybe like a 1% overlap?
Great video. This was my favorite game as a kid and I would just spend hours noticing the details of the stages. This game still holds up, and I always have it running during family get togethers and bday partys
Fairly sure the bird is a vulture. He's got the thing around his neck, he's got the wingspan, and they're iconic for this kind of setting. I know somebody probably already said this but...I'm also saying it too.
Great video, hearing this breakdown of the stages make me enjoy them and this game even more! I always enjoyed the experimental 2d sprites to 3d backgrounds style with this game, Guardian Heroes and Panzer Bandit.
11:56 That flag looks like it belongs to The Bonne Family. They are the air pirate bad guys from the Megaman Legends series. Their best mechanic, Tron, is in the game as well as the Servbot minions she builds.
Phenomenal video. MvC2 just may be my favorite game, and while I love the competitive side of it, not nearly enough people talk about its vibe and aesthetics, which is a huge part of its character. I think your video was incredibly detailed, well made and super interesting. I hope you make more videos like this, as there is definitely an under served audience for this type of content. Great job!
The 1st time playing this in the arcade i couldn't notice the music due to the noise in the arcade. Once I got it on the Dreamcast the music grew on me. Its just MvC2, feel like this music is needed.
Recent player of MvC2, I'll admit, I just recently realized just how little Marvel and Capcom is represented in the stages and music of the game. Didn't even realize they were supposed to tell an overlapping narrative like this. Guess it's one of those weirdnesses that help the game stand out even to this day.
I remember going to Aladdin's Castle as a teenager, seeing this game for the first time (after having experienced a lot of the other Capcom fighters, of course), and being instantly in love with it. There were just 24 characters at the start, and fan favorites like Chun-Li and Magneto seemed to be missing, but Dr. Doom coming back after a long absence still made me hopeful. And those 24 characters were surrounded by hidden character boxes, so there was obviously some way to unlock them. I played through Arcade Mode multiple times with multiple teams trying to get more and more of them unlocked. It didn't seem to move the needle much, but I did notice before long that more characters would show up seemingly each weekend I went to the arcade.
The one and only MvC2 machine I ever got to see was located at Disney Quest- Disney used to have an ultimate park pass back in 2008, which included access to all the parks and water parks along with 'unlimited' access to Disney Quest in Downtown Disney. It, along with many of the other games, were simply unplayable due to broken control buttons or uncalibrated light guns. Needless to say, now we know that DQ was slated for demo which is why they didn't care about those games.
Great video! Your attention to detail for each stage is phenomenal. I love how you went into detail damn near covering every nook and cranny of each stage. The soundtrack of this game doesn't really fit, but over time it grew on to fans to the point where most of us love it. My favorite stages in this game are the blue cave, swamp/Son Son stage, training stage, and Abyss stage.
@@baberuthless Seeing a face like that in a cave in real life would scare the 💩 out of me lol. It definitely looks cool as f*** though. As far as swimming, well, that can't happen for me because I can't swim.
Interesting video, I didn't know a lot of that. There is one comic reference in the stages that I didn't see mentioned, but it's a DC one and not a Marvel one. On the fair ground stage, the other clown face with "entrance" above it is a reference to the Batman comic "The Killing Joke". It's very similar to the face painted on the door in the fair ground in that story (although not exactly, obviously, but close enough to spot).
As much as I love stages based on iconic locations in crossovers, the original stages of Marvel 2 are still very distinctive in their own right. I kinda wish we could get that, for lack of a better term, "video game-ass video game" feel back instead of IP holders being all too desperate to hold on to their "brands", or original UIs ending up being unobtrusive and minimalist to a fault.
I would agree to an extent i do love the refrence stuff as well i do wish there was a healthy balance of it in future titles. Wouldnt be against a hybrid of the two if they were to make future titles
First time seeing a video game-related video with a woman narrator, and, man... I needed this. Aside from the nice, calm tone, I love how she doesn't throw the occasional lame-ass joke/pun throughout, as so many other narrators feel compelled to. While some of her takes seem like reaches, she clarifies that those takes may just be her overthinking, which I appreciated, as many others might have just acted as though they had an "inside scoop" regarding the source of their theories. Anyway, I really appreciated this. No misleading title or thumbnail, no ads, no obnoxious "SMASH THAT SUBSCRIBE BUTTON" bullshit. Just a modest, informative, intricate-but-not-boring, well-made video. * Liked and Subscribed *
The attention to detail is remarkable! It's great to hear a breakdown of these stages, and especially some of the details that may go unnoticed if a player's focused on watching their life bars/the opponent's movements. I definitely have a new appreciation for these environments after watching this! 😃
Great video! I recon that the MvC2 amusement park stage may be a callback to Marvel Super Heroes' Hulk's home stage; which takes place on a carousel, also in an amusement park. The carousel in that stage at first is inactive, but as the battle goes on it starts to light up, moves and appears to be simulated as you get a scrolling-type effect/view of the rest of the park. I think the stage artists definitely wanted to go all out with the aesthetics of the attractions of the MvC2 AP stage, and you're right: to do this they wanted to take advantage of the hardware they were using at the time 🎠
It very well could be a call back but it’s so wildly different than that stage I think it might be pure coincidence but who knows for sure I wish there was more documentation on the development of this game
21:31 If you play on the PlayStation 2 version, the clock hands will only point relative to the Tokyo time without Daylight Savings, as Daylight Savings isn't reserved in Japan at all. Here's the catch: If you disable Daylight Savings Time and set the Time Zone to Tokyo, the settings will match the MVC2 Clock Tower stage. Not to mention, performing certain hyper combo finishes at the rightmost part of the stage will cause parts of the buildings to fall to the surface, blocking off part of the bell's visibility. The color of the roof depends on what variant of the stage is chosen. Speaking of the hyper combo finishes, here are some the hyper combos known to collapse part of the buildings at the end of the match: - Magnetic Shockwave - Captain Sword - Cajun Explosion - Gamma Wave (not tested) - Hayato's "ice wave" (not tested)
Man this is my favorite game of all time but I had no clue about all the little details in the stages! I love how much stuff they put into this game, as well as the soundtrack. I’m addicted to the Swamp Stage track lol Thanks for making this!
I have been waiting for a high quality content creator to finally put some respect on SonSon's stage as someone who was briefly obsessed with journey to the west and inspired media during my teen years (because i love SonSon as a character so much lol). Even better to have it come from an actual Chinese person (correct me and apologies if I'm wrong) who grew up on even more Journey to the West media herself and can lay down some firsthand cultural knowledge about the stage. My favorite in the game by far. Clock tower has the best music still though lol. Edit: don't forget about Buddha's hand in the background, big reference to his famous bet with Wukong
I really want a MVC in the future that actually have years of support and, just like SFV, we can see modern versions of some of these classic stages. Thanks for the video!
Wow, what a unique channel concept and it's executed so cleanly. Feels like an art museum tour and kept my attention the entire time. I have fond memories of this game as a 12 year old in 2003. I remember noticing a lot of details but this video pulled out a lot of hidden memories. My favorite stages were Sonson stage and clock tower. If I can bring a suggestion, you may enjoy dissecting the stages from the Persona 4 Arena series. There's a lot of minute details and presentation features. There's also a lot of story elements to them (some of which could be considered spoilers since some stages are from the original RPG series). Regular players often refer to most stages by name: "school at night," "music room," and "altar stage" Since it was a collab with Arc System Works, it shares similar features from the BlazBlue series (another case study) and even shared some in BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle.
Thank you so much for your kind words! I love Persona so it’s very likely I will cover arena and the smash stage at some point luckily I know the lore very well so it won’t be as intimidating as covering a game like guilty gear or Blaz blu
First video I've watched of yours and I total agree...when I first played this game...I was not a fan of the music nor the stages...Now...still can't stand them but at least they were part of an iconic game which garners respect. Thanks for the memories and the info.
Had no idea that their was story depth behind these stages tho I'm not big into MVC I do like and appreciate the effort that went into their stages across each game, same for the music, atmosphere and aesthetics and u explained it into full detail.😊💖💯 And as you said if only these devs and publishers can replicate wonderous creativity of their old FGs into their new ones. I can say same the same from a gameplay perspective too. I would love to see you cover some KOF stages and CVS2 stages too I'm more into KOF and Fatal Fury but I still like and appreciate SF and the Capcom VS games but out of the 2 I do play SF. SNK is also the best in the business with their FGs when it comes to the amount of detail in their stages tho they've been using the same hardware but they pushed the Neo Geo to their limits and made so many amazing stuff in the 90's that fans still revere and hold dare to this day. Me personally I grew up with their stuff in the 2000's since I'm a bit younger I played KOF 2000, 2001, Metal Slug 5 and 6 on the PSP. Didn't get play the other stuff such as SS5S KOF 2002,2003 & 11 NGBC the KOF MI games etc. U earned yourself a sub 💯💯✨✨💖💖
15:19 I remember playing a "B.B.Hood vs. Kurt Angle" flash game, and using part of MVC2's OST. Music from this stage would play for the entire fight. Wasn't expecting this... Also, MVC2 has four "routes" that are selected by random, and these routes determine the stage order. The carnival stage is in all four routes, with it appearing in Stage 4 of the Airship route, Stage 2 of the Rocky Desert route, Stage 1 in the Carnival route and Stage 6 of the Clock Tower route. Also, the PS3/360 ports always chooses the Carnival route upon bootup, and forces Omega Red (Alpha), Colossus (Alpha) and Doctor Doom (Gamma) as the enemy team in the first stage. Just what was Backbone even thinking?
14:36 The haunted house may be a reference to The Haunted Mansion at Tokyo Disneyland, and the christmas theming could be a refernece to the "Nightmare Before Christmas" overlay, starring the pumpkin king Jack Skellington.
ive always wondered what was the reason behind some of the stages, and i particularly hated the clown alternate stage since it was just less saturated in my own opinion. Really nice analysis, great vid!
I am a snooty, elitist, classically trained musician with a DMA in Piano, and I LOVE AND ALWAYS LOVED the music from MVC2! Thank you for the breakdown! I didn't have many fellow players of MVC2 (I had some lonely teen years), but those who knew the game, hated the music, and I thought they were crazy.
I always dug this music. Here's what I've told people for years: this game was always a giant joke, a fun lark, a big fat carnival. Over-the-top fighting action way outside the scope of the characters' own universes, without regard to things like balance and strategy. The things that inspired M.U.G.E.N. This presentation, music and all, was 150% appropriate!
2:48 I think it would have been better if each franchise has its own theme music. I know it isn't a fighting game, but crossover SRPG Chaos Wars had battle music that played depending on which unit is having his or her turn. Specifically, the battle music depended on that character's series. If it's a Chaos Wars original character, a looped arrangement of Sound Horizon's "Endia and the Nights" played. If a Spectral character is up, then music inspired by the Spectral series will play. If a Shadow Hearts character has his or her turn, then music inspired by the Shadow Hearts series will play. If a Blazing Souls character is having a turn, then music inspired by Blazing Souls will play. The list just goes on.
A few months late, but I enjoyed the video. The stages always felt a bit randomn to me, but you put some clarity to it. With so many characters and virtually no emphasis on story, it was easy forget that Ruby Heart was the main character even though the credits had people sailing on her ship. At the very least, the choose your character song of "I'm going to take you for a ride" won't feel so out of place. It actually makes sense given the context.
So strange to remember people saying they thought the stages and music was bad. I remember this game standing out so much from every other fighting game because of the stages and music. I think having that quality definitely pushed people to put more coins into the cabinets. I'm not sure how I ended up, but you got yourself a new sub
I agree on top of the huge roster I think even the casual passerby would see this game at the time and be blown away by how different it was to what they normally play in a fighter
6:26 If a reskin happened, I could picture it the same as the normal variant, but everything is frozen and covered in ice, preventing any operation in the factory. No rats would move on the bridge since the factory would have been frozen anyways.
Well once youtubes suggested is working i noticed, great channel and interesting to know some details about these stages. Big fan of fighing games, subbed and a 👍🏼
What a stellar video! I love your analysis on the Marvel vs. series. One thing of note tho is that for the MVC2 plot synopsis is that I think you should’ve pointed out that Ruby Heart also works together with Marvel’s Cable who is the protagonist for the Marvel vs. side.
That the music composer for Power Stone 1 and 2 was also involved with this MvC2s music makes sense since MvC2's first console release was on Dreamcast. Nice analysis. I agree with most of the critiques. I do feel like the music fits for the carnival stage since it sounds kind of energetic and fun but I agree for stages like the cave just before the final boss, it doesn't really fit. Anyway, gg and thanks for making a video that made me sleep later than I should have.
The Swamp Stage was my fave in the visuals and especially the music. When I was still little I used to go to the training mode, choose the Swamp Stage and just chill. Now I put it on full blast while going on a long car ride or when commuting at night.
I’m actually shocked that there were people who dislike this game’s music. I immediately fell in love with the music along with the characters on the Dreamcast, and I was pleasantly surprised to know that the same composer was on power stone 1 & 2. If you’ve never played those two games, you missed out on some very good music.
![The 50+ Cut Characters of [Ultimate] Marvel VS Capcom 3](/img/n.gif)
Even if I prefer mvc1s style and presentation, I can understand why people prefer a simpler approach they took for mvc2 since they don't want to be too distracted while fighting.
...which makes it all the more baffling that most players still choose the training room stage.
I agree but thankfully in a lot of tournys I see lately it seems like they just random to any stage
@@baberuthlessI'm pretty sure you can't actually fight on the training stage.
Well, the Training stage and Abyss' stage can't be chosen by random. Lately, I developed a habit of picking these stages on my own as they look too good to be passed for Random Select. In the case of my custom mixes, it's worth picking these stages to listen to "Glassy Sky" or "Magia" respectively since these are the songs I chose in the AmaLee mix specifically.
11:54 12:06 the skull-and-crossbone flags in the carnival stage each have the word "GHOST" on them. 👻
It's truly awe inspiring how they pride themselves on readability in the stage designs and then add 1 frame crouching light kicks ♥️
Such an imbalanced game, but still somehow competitive
@@kottonmouthxkydEvery character is broken, so on a competitive level, it's all about who's the most broken.
@@MegaManXPoweredUponly like 10 chars are broken but I get the sentiment.
@@MegaManXPoweredUpput mvc2 roll and servbot into any other fighting game and they'd still be bottom 2
@@aclonymous Alright, let's see if that's true if they were in Expect No Mercy.
with MvC2 coming back this is a great little video to brush up in the game
I think it's beautiful aswell.
While Marvel vs Capcom 2 stages aren't based on the games or comics, I think the original stages look really cool. Especially The Airship, Clock Tower, and Carnival stages.
Took me a long time to love em too but I get them wanting to do something new and I overall love that. Especially if we compare what they have going on in MVC infinite
@@baberuthlessThis is just me, but I enjoyed the 1st MvC more. Even though it had a roster of only 15 playable characters, all of them were detailed in their mechanics unlike 56 characters in this game. The several new crossover characters all felt interesting, Ryu could transform into Ken or Akuma, Zangief could turn into Mech, new hyper combos for the returning characters, etc. MvC2 has more quantity because of a giant roster. But MvC1 has more quality because of what was done with the roster it had
@@homeoftek5844 I personally agree with you. I love MVC2 and i know its the competitive standard these days but the presentation and overall pakage of MVC1 and even X-men Vs SF is just something that appeals to me more.
@@baberuthless yeah, idk. I mean...I do like MvC2. Just not as much as I thought I would after owning the game as a kid. Owning MvC1 and the two crossover games before it made me wish for MvC2 before my father bought it for me as a kid. It's one of those situations where the chase was better than the catch. I like MvC2 and enjoyed playing it at home and arcades 20+ yrs ago. It just didn't draw me in quite like how MvC1 did
I love this game especially some of the songs!
My read is that MvC2 is its own original continuity and the Marvel and Capcom characters just happen to be its worlds inhabitants.
i genuinely am surprised someone dislikes mvc2 music. its so iconic. you hear the themes and u know exactly what game it is.
I love it. I listen to the soundtrack in the morning sometimes when I'm making breakfast and starting my day
Especially in America, the super hype jazz fusion sound was really not "cool" in the late 90s early 20s. My local arcade would open the cabinet and literally unplug the speakers from the board cause they hated it so much. For reference Devil may cry came out 1 year after this game and that was more of what a "cool" soundtrack from the 00s was about. This game paved the way for games action to feature real jazz comps. Music trends change and this game is 24 years old afterall.
I used to hate it too because it was too jazzy and didn't fit any character supposedly, but I grew to love it, it's perfect, invites you to have fun playing against your friends
It's garbage
Capcom so often took these remarkable steps out of the box... only for people to trash them... and then come around years later with nostalgia
My fondest memory of this game was going to the arcades that me and my cousins frequently visited. We had a blast playing and was blown away by the characters shown in the game including cable,thanos, akuma and rubyheart.
I really like the headcanon and details you talked about here in this video. It feels like a real nostalgia trip when looking at the stages. I do feel that rubyheart is the indirect protagonist for this game since a majority of the stages involved her airship and the end credits with the characters interacting with each other. Amingo i feel is definitely one of her canon tag partners and the desert stage being his home too.
My favorite stages are personally the clocktower with the snow all over, the airship at night and the carnival stage with the very familiar clown head in the middle xD.
Great video as always. I love the details you talked about here! ^_^
Thanky ou so much! Those are all really good pics for stages im glad there is quite a variety of environments in the game but i know its easy for people to forget since their all so different
I am NOT READING ALL THAT
Capcom should make an JRPG about Ruby, Amingo and SonSons Journey, how they beat Abyss.
That would be amazing honestly
I don't know if Ruby Heart was ever intended to be a Darkstalkers character, but I'm positive Amingo was.
she was the main character of Mvc2 but also was considered a darkstalkers character… Amingo was not he was originally going to get his own game that got cancelled. The developers have come out and said it. you can also watch the wha happun on it
😅 13:02 @@RusticRonnie
@@RusticRonnie8🎉🎉.. i😅99i99o
Factory & Airship: Ruby Heart
Carnival: Sonson
Desert: Amingo
Cave and Lair: Abyss
These original stages always felt unique
I thought the swamp stage was for sonson
@@discmanthecdlord I do think the swamp stage is connected to River (Raft), then desert, then Cave, then Abyss’s lair
Sonson's stage is the alternate swamp stage with the pink peach trees and red pillars.
@@mgbenz I’ve always thought she owned a carnival since she uses a staff
But that seems possible too
Swamp: Sonson
Carnival: Zangief
Cave: Jin
Factory: Tron Bonne
River: B.B. Hood
Clock Tower: Hayato
Ruby Heart potentially being a Darkstalkers character makes a ton of sense. Her style & theming is super fitting.
I absolutely love MvC2. I had it on Dreamcast. Its a huge part of my childhood & one of the main reasons why Capcom is my favorite developer ever.
Yes
Funny enough ruby is the main character in the story of mvc2
She isn’t a scraped darkstalkers but instead from an obscure Famicom game. Amingo is the speculated scraped darkstalker
@@Shmez0I'm pretty sure your confusing ruby heart with sonson
@@discmanthecdlord son son is from well the game son son. While ruby heart originates from a game called pirate ship Higemaru
Used to love playing MVC2 when my local movie theater used to have a awesome arcade (it sucks now). I eventually got MVC2 on PS2 for Christmas (along with Super Bust a move 2) that same year. My siblings, my friend's and I used to play MVC2 all the time, my main team was Cable, Tron Bonne & War Machine.
I like the sleeper set up of Dan/Ken/Sakura, Ken's Dragon Punch assist beats literally everything and Dan can reverse direction in the air with his hurricane kick to become quite mobile and build meter safely along with opportunistic assist use . I only tag in Sakura after Dan has built up enough meter to enable Dark Sakura, she has a teleport that can be abused along with Ken's DP assist to create a nightmare rushdown situation where she constantly darts in and out with invincibility and can punish with both combos and hyper beams.
And as of this last week and the Nintendo Direct; MVC 2 is coming back on to PS4, Switch and PC.
Alongside the other early Marvel fighting games, plus The Punisher; for some reason. All in one bundle.
I think the carnival stage might have been an evolution of Hulks MSH stage, similar to Wolverines raft stage.
Good point! Whether that was intentional or not I think that’s a good way to look at it
@@baberuthlessThe HD trailer featuring hulk and zangief kind of reinforced the idea for me.
Ruby Heart deserves to have her story properly told, and that's what you've done here, so thank you.
Amingo deserves to have his story told too.
And SonSon deserves to have a story in the first place. And her own franchise. And everything she wants in life. And recongnition as a toptier waifu.
I hope all three of these characters some day get to be in another game soon!
@@baberuthless We can only hope.
SonSon is, indeed, a top tier waifu
Ruby Heart, Amingo & SonSon all traveling together as Sky pirate crew would make a cool action-adventure game
Sonson has my favorite stage
Same here ☺️
Didn't knew the MVC2 stages had such a deep lore. Amazing video!
Hope you make one analyzing the details of stages from MVC3
Certainly will! I’ve talked about the 2 Resident evil stages in MVC3 in a separate video but plan to talk about the rest in the future
"Marvel Vs. Capcom 2" was an arcade game which used to be in Arcades located in shopping malls, carnivals, party restaurants & sports arenas.
Everything in "Marvel Vs. Capcom 2" from the lights, music & 3D stages are designed to make it enjoyable & fun to attract players especially kids into playing the game & keep the coins rolling.
This is the best explanation yet for its wacky style. When it hit arcades, the concept of the traditional arcade was slowly going away and morphing into the Dave & Busters model with more of an emphasis on physical games like skeetball, air hockey, and earning tickets, etc.
Now this is a good explanation.
Great video, one thing I may add is that in a similar way to your comparison between the alternate river stage and Wolverine's MSH stage, I like to think that the carnival stage in this game could possibly be somewhat of a spiritual successor to Hulk's stage in MSH and Amingo's desert stage is a continuation of the many Death Valley/canyon stages within previous MvC games. But that is just my perspective on that.
Good point! im sure even if it wasnt directly intentional their craft on those previous stages im sure helped influence the MVC2 ones
Great job , you should talk about the beautiful Capcom vs SNK stages.
Capcom vs SNK Pro added some changes from the original like Sagat’s stage with an eclipse of the sun. so damn cool.
The first CVS in particular is one of my favorite games of all time. So I’m sure I’ll definitely talk about that one 😊
@@baberuthless awsome thx ☺️
Amingo was the character who was about to be a Darkstalkers character!
you found it at a friend's house .. imagine the arcade experience..i was there and its spectacular
Another great vid! One of my fav fighting game soundtracks because it's not what you expect and the composers made it work!
I had no idea the Swamp Stage had a such a detailed story behind it!
The composers were certainly aloud to do their own thing that’s for sure, I am glad they were able to without restrictions
That was my favorite stage.....The swamp stage. The vocals along with the music 👌🏿
According to my dad who was around when this game released the game was generally not received well on launch apparently, the music was as criticized for not being “epic” like other fighting games and the gameplay being generally unbalanced as hell but now a days most look back on it with fondness and the feeling they were too hard on it. It was also released at a time when most fighting games were following the 3D craze and at this time in the industry anything 2D was seen as “old” and “outdated” and I’m glad over the years we were able to move past that.
This is like, perhaps my favourite videogame of all time. I have played it for years, and there are so many details I never noticed… I don’t even think I ever realized the factory was a shipyard lol. Great video!
When i always hear the Marvel vs Capcom 2 theme song i remember the old arcade days good times and the theme giving me some casino vibes.
Same here very nostalgic. Also I can definitely picture the casino vibes 😆
I always felt the Circus stage was based on Arcade from Marvel Comics & was MurderWorld because Arcade has had Circus themed MurderWorlds before.
I've never noticed that the stages tell a story about Ruby's journey to the final boss. That's genius! Thank you so much for showing that up!
I always liked the music and stages lol
It was so different and funky
Returned to this video after the Marvel vs Capcom Collection was announced.
This was actually the 1st mvc series game i played, which might be why i never had the "hate it" phase. This game used to own my soul, every saturday we'd go watch my dad play hockey and every time my older brother and i would beg my mom for quarters so we could play this game at the little arcade section. We were always the only kids there and we had the whole place to ourselves but this was the only game we cared to play. At the time i also had these amazing marvel shoes, they had little windows and you'd slide a card into the slot. Each card had two sides and they had characters like spiderman, venom, wolverine and cyclops. They were the best and marvel 2 always reminds me of those days
Swamp stage has the best song btw
The amount of love i have for Power Stone and MvC2 is astronomical.
MVC2 is my favorite out of all the Marvel vs Capcom games.
Very impressed with this video, I went in just expecting a look at the background details, instead you went over the development history, and better yet, the extremely limited lore. And I had a big smile on my face when you set up the journey told through the stages, there's nothing I love more than unnecessary story in games that could get away with none.
This vid did help me grow an appreciation for the stages and music... they still make me wretch, though. I barely remember them, besides the carnival, and even then, I don't even think of it as a carnival, just "the clown head stage". I also literally forgot the swamp and cave were in the game until they showed up.
As for the music, I'd love to see the venn diagram between comic/fighting game fans and smooth jazz/lounge listeners, maybe like a 1% overlap?
Haha I’d be shocked if the overlap was that high at 1%
Great video. This was my favorite game as a kid and I would just spend hours noticing the details of the stages. This game still holds up, and I always have it running during family get togethers and bday partys
I just wish capcom would rerelease it 😭
Fairly sure the bird is a vulture. He's got the thing around his neck, he's got the wingspan, and they're iconic for this kind of setting. I know somebody probably already said this but...I'm also saying it too.
Haha that’s ok. I very much believe that is a vulture at this point
Great video, hearing this breakdown of the stages make me enjoy them and this game even more! I always enjoyed the experimental 2d sprites to 3d backgrounds style with this game, Guardian Heroes and Panzer Bandit.
Panzer bandit I actually haven’t heard of that one! Will def have to look into it
11:56 That flag looks like it belongs to The Bonne Family. They are the air pirate bad guys from the Megaman Legends series. Their best mechanic, Tron, is in the game as well as the Servbot minions she builds.
Great video!! I never understood or much liked these stages (except maybe the raft one) but now they make way more sense thanks to you!
Phenomenal video. MvC2 just may be my favorite game, and while I love the competitive side of it, not nearly enough people talk about its vibe and aesthetics, which is a huge part of its character. I think your video was incredibly detailed, well made and super interesting. I hope you make more videos like this, as there is definitely an under served audience for this type of content. Great job!
Thank you so much for saying that I’m glad you enjoyed this! 😊
River stage/Frozen has the BEST music.
The 1st time playing this in the arcade i couldn't notice the music due to the noise in the arcade. Once I got it on the Dreamcast the music grew on me. Its just MvC2, feel like this music is needed.
Recent player of MvC2, I'll admit, I just recently realized just how little Marvel and Capcom is represented in the stages and music of the game. Didn't even realize they were supposed to tell an overlapping narrative like this. Guess it's one of those weirdnesses that help the game stand out even to this day.
MVC2 is a pretty hard game so I’m glad you were willing to start playing it, regardless if it’s competitively or casually
I remember going to Aladdin's Castle as a teenager, seeing this game for the first time (after having experienced a lot of the other Capcom fighters, of course), and being instantly in love with it. There were just 24 characters at the start, and fan favorites like Chun-Li and Magneto seemed to be missing, but Dr. Doom coming back after a long absence still made me hopeful. And those 24 characters were surrounded by hidden character boxes, so there was obviously some way to unlock them.
I played through Arcade Mode multiple times with multiple teams trying to get more and more of them unlocked. It didn't seem to move the needle much, but I did notice before long that more characters would show up seemingly each weekend I went to the arcade.
The one and only MvC2 machine I ever got to see was located at Disney Quest- Disney used to have an ultimate park pass back in 2008, which included access to all the parks and water parks along with 'unlimited' access to Disney Quest in Downtown Disney. It, along with many of the other games, were simply unplayable due to broken control buttons or uncalibrated light guns. Needless to say, now we know that DQ was slated for demo which is why they didn't care about those games.
Great video! Your attention to detail for each stage is phenomenal. I love how you went into detail damn near covering every nook and cranny of each stage. The soundtrack of this game doesn't really fit, but over time it grew on to fans to the point where most of us love it.
My favorite stages in this game are the blue cave, swamp/Son Son stage, training stage, and Abyss stage.
Thank you 😊 Also those are definitely good pics for stages for sure. The blue cave I would just love to hang out in and swim 😆
@@baberuthless Seeing a face like that in a cave in real life would scare the 💩 out of me lol. It definitely looks cool as f*** though. As far as swimming, well, that can't happen for me because I can't swim.
@@prof.x3821 haha fair enough
I feel like the airship stage theme sounds very much in line with the breath of fire 3 soundtrack for some reason
Interesting video, I didn't know a lot of that. There is one comic reference in the stages that I didn't see mentioned, but it's a DC one and not a Marvel one. On the fair ground stage, the other clown face with "entrance" above it is a reference to the Batman comic "The Killing Joke". It's very similar to the face painted on the door in the fair ground in that story (although not exactly, obviously, but close enough to spot).
As much as I love stages based on iconic locations in crossovers, the original stages of Marvel 2 are still very distinctive in their own right. I kinda wish we could get that, for lack of a better term, "video game-ass video game" feel back instead of IP holders being all too desperate to hold on to their "brands", or original UIs ending up being unobtrusive and minimalist to a fault.
I would agree to an extent i do love the refrence stuff as well i do wish there was a healthy balance of it in future titles. Wouldnt be against a hybrid of the two if they were to make future titles
First time seeing a video game-related video with a woman narrator, and, man... I needed this. Aside from the nice, calm tone, I love how she doesn't throw the occasional lame-ass joke/pun throughout, as so many other narrators feel compelled to. While some of her takes seem like reaches, she clarifies that those takes may just be her overthinking, which I appreciated, as many others might have just acted as though they had an "inside scoop" regarding the source of their theories. Anyway, I really appreciated this. No misleading title or thumbnail, no ads, no obnoxious "SMASH THAT SUBSCRIBE BUTTON" bullshit. Just a modest, informative, intricate-but-not-boring, well-made video.
* Liked and Subscribed *
The attention to detail is remarkable! It's great to hear a breakdown of these stages, and especially some of the details that may go unnoticed if a player's focused on watching their life bars/the opponent's movements. I definitely have a new appreciation for these environments after watching this! 😃
Thank you so much im glad you enjoyed it!
I fucking love the Carnival Stage, and the music.
Great video! I recon that the MvC2 amusement park stage may be a callback to Marvel Super Heroes' Hulk's home stage; which takes place on a carousel, also in an amusement park. The carousel in that stage at first is inactive, but as the battle goes on it starts to light up, moves and appears to be simulated as you get a scrolling-type effect/view of the rest of the park. I think the stage artists definitely wanted to go all out with the aesthetics of the attractions of the MvC2 AP stage, and you're right: to do this they wanted to take advantage of the hardware they were using at the time 🎠
It very well could be a call back but it’s so wildly different than that stage I think it might be pure coincidence but who knows for sure I wish there was more documentation on the development of this game
Your accuracy for this research in this video is commendable. Truly talented, subbed!!
Bless you for making this one, I just love how you tackled the stages of one of my favorite video game franchises.
Thank you! im happy to hear you liked it!
21:31 If you play on the PlayStation 2 version, the clock hands will only point relative to the Tokyo time without Daylight Savings, as Daylight Savings isn't reserved in Japan at all. Here's the catch: If you disable Daylight Savings Time and set the Time Zone to Tokyo, the settings will match the MVC2 Clock Tower stage.
Not to mention, performing certain hyper combo finishes at the rightmost part of the stage will cause parts of the buildings to fall to the surface, blocking off part of the bell's visibility. The color of the roof depends on what variant of the stage is chosen.
Speaking of the hyper combo finishes, here are some the hyper combos known to collapse part of the buildings at the end of the match:
- Magnetic Shockwave
- Captain Sword
- Cajun Explosion
- Gamma Wave (not tested)
- Hayato's "ice wave" (not tested)
Man this is my favorite game of all time but I had no clue about all the little details in the stages! I love how much stuff they put into this game, as well as the soundtrack. I’m addicted to the Swamp Stage track lol Thanks for making this!
I have been waiting for a high quality content creator to finally put some respect on SonSon's stage as someone who was briefly obsessed with journey to the west and inspired media during my teen years (because i love SonSon as a character so much lol). Even better to have it come from an actual Chinese person (correct me and apologies if I'm wrong) who grew up on even more Journey to the West media herself and can lay down some firsthand cultural knowledge about the stage. My favorite in the game by far. Clock tower has the best music still though lol.
Edit: don't forget about Buddha's hand in the background, big reference to his famous bet with Wukong
Thank you so much! I am 100 percent Chinese so no worries. Also thanks for the heads up on Buddha’s hand I completely missed that reference!
@MagillanicaLou: So that was the hand part of a statue in the background of that stage after all. Thanks for clarifying!
I really want a MVC in the future that actually have years of support and, just like SFV, we can see modern versions of some of these classic stages. Thanks for the video!
In a dream land i would love a everybody is here MVC with characters and stages alike but i wont hold my breath
The vibe of this game is sick, I've been in love with it since middle school lol
Wow, what a unique channel concept and it's executed so cleanly. Feels like an art museum tour and kept my attention the entire time.
I have fond memories of this game as a 12 year old in 2003. I remember noticing a lot of details but this video pulled out a lot of hidden memories. My favorite stages were Sonson stage and clock tower.
If I can bring a suggestion, you may enjoy dissecting the stages from the Persona 4 Arena series. There's a lot of minute details and presentation features.
There's also a lot of story elements to them (some of which could be considered spoilers since some stages are from the original RPG series). Regular players often refer to most stages by name: "school at night," "music room," and "altar stage"
Since it was a collab with Arc System Works, it shares similar features from the BlazBlue series (another case study) and even shared some in BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle.
Thank you so much for your kind words! I love Persona so it’s very likely I will cover arena and the smash stage at some point luckily I know the lore very well so it won’t be as intimidating as covering a game like guilty gear or Blaz blu
I never thought about MVC2 having an relevance to the story. Just random location with different track. Enjoyed your analysis of it
You did a fantastic job with this video
Thank you ☺️
First video I've watched of yours and I total agree...when I first played this game...I was not a fan of the music nor the stages...Now...still can't stand them but at least they were part of an iconic game which garners respect.
Thanks for the memories and the info.
This makes me wish this game had a proper story mode. Good breakdown looking forward to more.
Thank you ☺️
Had no idea that their was story depth behind these stages tho I'm not big into MVC I do like and appreciate the effort that went into their stages across each game, same for the music, atmosphere and aesthetics and u explained it into full detail.😊💖💯
And as you said if only these devs and publishers can replicate wonderous creativity of their old FGs into their new ones. I can say same the same from a gameplay perspective too.
I would love to see you cover some KOF stages and CVS2 stages too I'm more into KOF and Fatal Fury but I still like and appreciate SF and the Capcom VS games but out of the 2 I do play SF.
SNK is also the best in the business with their FGs when it comes to the amount of detail in their stages tho they've been using the same hardware but they pushed the Neo Geo to their limits and made so many amazing stuff in the 90's that fans still revere and hold dare to this day.
Me personally I grew up with their stuff in the 2000's since I'm a bit younger I played KOF 2000, 2001, Metal Slug 5 and 6 on the PSP.
Didn't get play the other stuff such as SS5S KOF 2002,2003 & 11 NGBC the KOF MI games etc.
U earned yourself a sub
💯💯✨✨💖💖
15:19 I remember playing a "B.B.Hood vs. Kurt Angle" flash game, and using part of MVC2's OST. Music from this stage would play for the entire fight. Wasn't expecting this...
Also, MVC2 has four "routes" that are selected by random, and these routes determine the stage order. The carnival stage is in all four routes, with it appearing in Stage 4 of the Airship route, Stage 2 of the Rocky Desert route, Stage 1 in the Carnival route and Stage 6 of the Clock Tower route. Also, the PS3/360 ports always chooses the Carnival route upon bootup, and forces Omega Red (Alpha), Colossus (Alpha) and Doctor Doom (Gamma) as the enemy team in the first stage. Just what was Backbone even thinking?
Baberuthless...
MARVEL IS FREE
14:36 The haunted house may be a reference to The Haunted Mansion at Tokyo Disneyland, and the christmas theming could be a refernece to the "Nightmare Before Christmas" overlay, starring the pumpkin king Jack Skellington.
I think there’s probably a heavy chance that it certainly was a reference especially since the ghost changes to a pumpkin with a Santa hat
Just here for the CVS2 love frfr, every time y’all brought it up I was like YEAHHHHHHHHHHH
Nice vid.
This is my favorite fighting game.
The stage OST is different, but I like it.
ive always wondered what was the reason behind some of the stages, and i particularly hated the clown alternate stage since it was just less saturated in my own opinion. Really nice analysis, great vid!
I am a snooty, elitist, classically trained musician with a DMA in Piano, and I LOVE AND ALWAYS LOVED the music from MVC2! Thank you for the breakdown! I didn't have many fellow players of MVC2 (I had some lonely teen years), but those who knew the game, hated the music, and I thought they were crazy.
Thank you for saying that I’m happy you liked it! Also yes they are crazy for disliking it 😂
I always dug this music. Here's what I've told people for years: this game was always a giant joke, a fun lark, a big fat carnival. Over-the-top fighting action way outside the scope of the characters' own universes, without regard to things like balance and strategy. The things that inspired M.U.G.E.N. This presentation, music and all, was 150% appropriate!
Such an awesome idea for a video. Thank you. Subscribed
The swamp stage and music will forever be my favorite nostalgia pieces
“I wana take you for a ride” is only track I hear when I think of mvc2
Never was a big fan of MvC2 because of the soundtrack and stages, but your video is so cool, thank you!
We need a depth video of explaining Capcom vs SNK 2 stages
2:48 I think it would have been better if each franchise has its own theme music. I know it isn't a fighting game, but crossover SRPG Chaos Wars had battle music that played depending on which unit is having his or her turn. Specifically, the battle music depended on that character's series. If it's a Chaos Wars original character, a looped arrangement of Sound Horizon's "Endia and the Nights" played. If a Spectral character is up, then music inspired by the Spectral series will play. If a Shadow Hearts character has his or her turn, then music inspired by the Shadow Hearts series will play. If a Blazing Souls character is having a turn, then music inspired by Blazing Souls will play. The list just goes on.
Great analysis of MVC2 stages! You pointed out thing I never noticed and I have been playing this game for 15+ years
I’m glad you enjoyed it! Thank you 😊
Love your analysis
A few months late, but I enjoyed the video. The stages always felt a bit randomn to me, but you put some clarity to it. With so many characters and virtually no emphasis on story, it was easy forget that Ruby Heart was the main character even though the credits had people sailing on her ship. At the very least, the choose your character song of "I'm going to take you for a ride" won't feel so out of place. It actually makes sense given the context.
Greatly enjoyed the analysis, the bird circling on Amingo's stage is a vulture. Vultures circle in the sky when something is about to die.
I never realized how cool this game was when I was a kid
So strange to remember people saying they thought the stages and music was bad. I remember this game standing out so much from every other fighting game because of the stages and music. I think having that quality definitely pushed people to put more coins into the cabinets. I'm not sure how I ended up, but you got yourself a new sub
I agree on top of the huge roster I think even the casual passerby would see this game at the time and be blown away by how different it was to what they normally play in a fighter
GIRL , THEY ARE RE-RELEASING IT IN A COLECCION !!! , loved your vid
I’m super stoked these games are finally going to be easy to get and in a physical disc no less!
You certainly did your research in describing the backgrounds & music of Marvel vs Capcom 2.
I thank you for the video. 😁
6:26 If a reskin happened, I could picture it the same as the normal variant, but everything is frozen and covered in ice, preventing any operation in the factory. No rats would move on the bridge since the factory would have been frozen anyways.
Well once youtubes suggested is working i noticed, great channel and interesting to know some details about these stages. Big fan of fighing games, subbed and a 👍🏼
What a stellar video! I love your analysis on the Marvel vs. series. One thing of note tho is that for the MVC2 plot synopsis is that I think you should’ve pointed out that Ruby Heart also works together with Marvel’s Cable who is the protagonist for the Marvel vs. side.
i do hope one day you might tackle the stages from SVC: chaos. they are very creepy to me.
I certainly will! Got a lot to say about those ones
That the music composer for Power Stone 1 and 2 was also involved with this MvC2s music makes sense since MvC2's first console release was on Dreamcast. Nice analysis. I agree with most of the critiques. I do feel like the music fits for the carnival stage since it sounds kind of energetic and fun but I agree for stages like the cave just before the final boss, it doesn't really fit. Anyway, gg and thanks for making a video that made me sleep later than I should have.
great video . glad to see mahvel is back baybeeeee~
Wow as huge fan of mvc2 this was a awesome watch thank you
I only came to say one thing.... YEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!
I can't hear the Ship nor the Carnival stage theme without thinking of Maximilian 😂
He certainly has ownership of those songs at this point as well as the EX2 sakura theme and i wouldnt have it any other way
The Swamp Stage was my fave in the visuals and especially the music.
When I was still little I used to go to the training mode, choose the Swamp Stage and just chill.
Now I put it on full blast while going on a long car ride or when commuting at night.
MvC2 is such a cool game. I remember coming across the arcade version at a bus stop in Wisconsin in 2016. It was fun to play for a while
I’m actually shocked that there were people who dislike this game’s music. I immediately fell in love with the music along with the characters on the Dreamcast, and I was pleasantly surprised to know that the same composer was on power stone 1 & 2. If you’ve never played those two games, you missed out on some very good music.
Dam Sega dreamcast was just unreal man. Mvc2 is the best dreamcast game by far.