Recommended Soundtracks: Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes

The late 90s was a good and experimental time for 2D fighting game soundtracks, especially those from Capcom. Japanese-developed games in the genre relied heavily on New Age music for most of the 16-bit and 32-bit days, while their western counterparts relied on mellower and slightly subtler instrumental music, with some variation. (Many games in the latter category followed in Mortal Kombat’s footsteps, unless they were licensed games.) But several composers in Japan branched out of their comfort zones to utilize different musical genres, including hip-hop, R&B, hard rock, heavy metal, and jazz near the decade’s end. This happened after they started mastering the technology they were using, and tried other options when they were given improved sound capabilities.

One of the biggest and most unique examples here was Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes. Previous Capcom-developed Marvel games at the time relied on New Age music on the CPS2 arcade board with some examples that slightly deviated, though the QSound sound processing algorithm made its games sound better than competing titles. But Capcom’s composers had more flexibility with the sound capabilities on advanced arcade boards like CPS3 and Atomiswave, which is why MvC2 composer Tetsuya Shibata chose to heavily utilize jazz for this game’s soundtrack.

Feelings towards MvC2’s soundtrack were divisive at the time, since jazz was an unusual choice for fighting game music. It’s easy to see why, too; several stages didn’t have the types of tracks they would have been expected to have for a late 90s fighting game. But it’s tough to dislike a soundtrack this funky, especially for someone who grew up around jazz and R&B like me, and it’s grown on many others since then. You’d never think there was any negativity towards the soundtrack these days. It’s the case of fighting game fans not knowing how good they had it at the time.

It’s a crying shame that Capcom never released an official soundtrack for MvC2, leaving fans to rip the music and create their own. Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, the first game in the series, was the only MvC title to receive one, which leaves me to believe there might have been licensing issues involved.

It would have been impossible for me to highlight MvC2’s soundtrack without featuring the Character Select theme, more commonly known as “I’m Gonna Take You for a Ride.” It’s one of the finest examples of earworm to grace a video game, and is legendary to the point that it was the only track to be remixed for the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 titles. Feel free to use it as a ringtone, if you’re still into those, so every surrounding person will want to take you for a ride whenever someone gives you a call:

Every MvC2 theme is heavy on the synthesized trumpet and piano use, and one of the best themes to showcase that is the Clock Tower theme. As hinted above, this isn’t the kind of theme that would be expected to accompany this kind of stage. But does that matter when it’s such a joy to listen to? Of course not, but you knew that:

The theme for the River Stage is as jazzy as all the others, but this one contains lyrics construable to English listeners. Some fighting games contained at least one stage track with lyrics at the time, and even the first MvC title had one. But it was mind-blowing for a Japanese fighting game to have some in English. This isn’t the only stage track in the game to have them, but it’s the catchiest of the bunch:

Several of MvC2’s stage tracks have ill-fitting themes for the backgrounds, but they’re so catchy and quality that it doesn’t matter. This doesn’t apply to the Carnival Stage, the fast pace of which and tempo actually fit quite well. Yet, it’s still jazzy, so it also fits with the overall soundtrack’s musical theme:

The music accompanying the Staff Roll is a relaxing piano-driven one. It’s the perfect conclusion to a funky soundtrack that also fits the overarching theme of not being the kind of track expected to accompany the credits — in a good way. It sounds like music you’d hear in a bar, in a video game or otherwise:

Marvel vs. Capcom 2’s soundtrack has aged gracefully, more so than several soundtracks for fighting games Capcom made after this title. It’s a pity this didn’t start a trend of jazzy and funky soundtracks in fighting games. This included the succeeding Marvel vs. Capcom 3 titles, which leaned heavily on techno. The only fighting game to utilize this style since MvC2 was Skullgirls, the soundtrack for which is stuffed with delightfully jazzy music. I have no hope that Capcom will make a fighting game with a soundtrack as funky as MvC2’s again, but hopefully games from other developers do.