With 56 of your favourite Marvel and Capcom characters to choose for 3-on-3 tag team battles, you're in for some spectacular fighting action!

Marvel Vs Capcom 2 is the kind of game that reminds you just how great 2D beat-em-ups still are, despite the flashy graphics of such 3D masterpieces as Soul Calibur and Dead or Alive 3. The artists have used a brilliant comic book style for the characters and the flashy special effects for the super-moves add to the comic book vibe. The animation is speedy and fluid, with all of the moves, attacks, dodges and jumps blended seamlessly together.

There are two game modes to choose from - in Arcade you work your way through increasingly difficult rounds in order to get the highest score and earn points to unlock new characters, whilst Versus pretty involves playing against a friend. Unfortunately you can't have up to 5 friends playing, it's just you and a buddy controlling a team of 3 each. Even so it's a great laugh to pummel your friend into the ground until he runs crying from your living room!

The characters on offer include Spiderman, Ice Man, The Incredible Hulk, Venom, Storm, Dr Doom, Rogue, Wolverine, Cyclops and Captain America from the Marvel side, whilst Capcom's team includes Streetfighter favourites Zangrief, Ryu, Chun-Li, Ken and M. Bison plus others like Amingo, Ruby Heart, Sasson and Jill Valentine. Each character has a wide range of attacks and the controls are dead easy to use.

As well as various punch and kick combos, each character has at least five special moves. Wolverine has loads of admantium claw attacks, Storm can use whirlwind and lightning attacks and Venom can morph himself in a number of disturbing ways in order to cause maximum damage to his opponent. Meanwhile the Capcom characters' attacks are taken straight out of their games and the non-Streetfighter characters such as Jill, Amingo and Ruby Heart have fun and quirky attacks. Jill's attacks are particularly amusing - she can summon up zombies, zombie dogs, crows and even the T002 mutant. Her missile launcher attack is awesome and as a tag partner she can bring in some red and green herbs to heal another character. This loving attention to detail is present for all 56 characters, the game's designers know the characters intimately and it shows.

Each character has three different tag types on offer, which determine what they will do when called in to help you. The types of assistance they can provide include ground attack, anti-air attack, health boost, stun and more. In this way, choosing a strong combination of tag types can really make a difference to the outcome of the fight. You can also perform a mega-combo and use all three characters' super attacks simultaneously, the spectacle of this is truly outstanding and both Marvel and Capcom fans will be delighted at how their favourite characters have been recreated. The backdrops are also very good, rendered in 3D with a wide range of locations and plenty of animation and movement going on in the background. The sound effects are all excellent and the music is fitting too.

A combination of strategy and quick reactions is needed to win - you'll need to switch between your characters often and call them in for extra support. Also, you'll need to get good at pulling off those special moves as most of them involve moving the control stick and can be tricky to activate in the heat of battle. For this there is a fantastic training mode where you can pick any three characters and let rip on a stationery opponent. There's even an on-screen menu that displays each of your current character's special moves and how to activate them. They simply couldn't have made learning and mastering the special moves any easier and the game is a lot more accessible because of it.

There is also more longevity than with most beat-em-ups, as there are only 24 characters unlocked to begin with. You'll have to play a lot of matches to unlock all the other characters, plus there are gallery shots and new colours to purchase as well. Each time you go into the shop, two characters, an artwork and a new colour appear, but the prices of the characters are not fixed and so you can keep going in and out of the screen until a real bargain shows up. Because the best characters are locked, you'll definitely want to put in the hours to unlock them all and then put in some more to master their awesome moves - a very clever system to keep you hooked!

Marvel Vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes proves that the 2D beat-em-up still has some punches to pull. It combines an excellent cartoon style and awesome special effects with great fighting action and an incredible 56 characters, all with many faithfully recreated special moves to master. This is fighting at its best - addictive, visually striking, fast-paced mayhem!

Reviewed by by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).