For many beat-'em-up fans of a certain age, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is a dream come true. The premise is simple. Ryu, Ken and other Capcom scrappers get into a huge fight against most of the X-Men and other Marvel universe luminaries.

It's almost a game in itself to identify where each of the 56 characters originate from. But while that may take some time, you quickly realise that MvC2 plays very much like Street Fighter Alpha.

Every fighter has two over-the-top special moves that can only be performed when your power bar is charged up. For the Street Fighter contingent, these are just exaggerated versions of Ryu's fireball or Guile's Sonic Boom.

More imaginative and fun are the special moves from new Capcom characters like Jill Valentine from Resident Evil. With one click of her fingers, a fantastic-looking Tyrant pops up from the ground and starts to pummel your opponent with his oversized claw. Likewise, Megaman's nemesis Tron Bonne summons thousands of serv-bots who stampede across the screen to obliterate his enemies.

MvC2 is brimming with colour and imagination. The developer's love for their own characters and respect for the Marvel license are manifest in the slick animation. They've even included charismatic details like Spider-Man's spider-sense visibly tingling. It's only a shame that the characters are a little pixelated and that the beautiful 3D backgrounds make the 2D fighters look a little out of place.

The option to choose a three-character tag-team provides an interesting variation on the Street Fighter formula. Choosing a balance of tough, lumbering warriors like Sentinel and light, nippy combatants such as Sakura adds a real tactical dimension, especially when you consider that all three can combine their special moves into one devastating attack that briefly makes the action a bit like a lavish shoot-'em-up.

The major criticism is that it's all a bit old-hat. Sure it's a different kind of game, but it's hard to ignore that the visuals aren't as impressive as Dead Or Alive 3. The game's already been out on Dreamcast for ages and this Xbox version offers nothing new. Still, if you haven't played it before, MvC2 is about as good as the old-school Street Fighter style of fighting will ever get.

Power
Fantastic animation and dynamic character design but they're all a little pixelly round the edges.

Style
A wild jazz soundtrack combines with a great comic book look to bring out the spirit of the game.

Immersion
Hypnotic triple-team special moves will keep you coming back for more mayhem.

Lifespan
Loads of characters to get stuck into; thousands of tag-team combinations to try.

Summary
Fun so far as it goes, but with gaming well and truly established in 3D, the limits of 2D combat are all too obvious.

1. Authentic Marvel heroes are ace
2. Lightning fast moves and gameplay

1. No new features for Xbox version
2. Too similar to other existing Street Fighter games