On this day, June 29, 17 years ago in the year 2000, two incredible and genre-defining games released on the world’s greatest video game console. That console was the Sega Dreamcast, and those games were Jet Set Radio and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. These two games pretty much defined my childhood in some formative middle-school years, and I’m willing to be that these games meant a whole lot to you too. So, of course, we’re going to pit them against each other.
Which game was better, and which game was more influential at the time? Which game has stood the test of time and remained an engaging and entertaining fan-favorite over these 17 years? If you had to pick one, and only one, to play for the rest of your life… Which would it be? Let’s take a brief moment to assess each game’s strengths and weaknesses before voting.
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If you already know which game means more to you, then feel free to cast your vote below. You’ll find the poll at the very bottom of this article, and we urge you to consider not only your favorite game between the two, but also the game that you feel most heavily influenced the industry and left a larger legacy. Alright, let’s take a look at our contenders.
Jet Set Radio
Known as Jet Grind Radio in the West, this game forever changed that murky middle ground where real-world counterculture and video games often meet. Jet Set Radio absolutely blew us away when it landed on the Dreamcast, and cemented Sega’s console as the home for the industry’s most creative games.
It boasts gorgeous cel-shaded graphics and a comic book color palette that still holds up to this day — it’s one of the best-looking games ever made, and was way ahead of its time. So too was its soundtrack ahead of its time, and Hideki Naganuma’s original productions live on in the car stereos and boomboxes of hip gamers all around the world.
This is a game that you can return to any day, any year, and still have fun with. Skating around Tokyo-to and tagging walls, cars, and crooked cops with your own custom graffiti is always a blast, and our cast of characters are as lovable today on our flat-screens as they were back in 2000 on our CRT televisions.
The controls, however, do feel a bit dated by now, and some of the more demanding platforming sequences can be absolutely infuriating — especially with that damned timer.
Marvel vs. Capcom 2
I’m gonna take you for a ride! Or… or was it I wanna take a ball-room ride! What the hell was she saying? Whatever, it doesn’t matter.
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was another game that blew us away when it came out. June 29 was a great day for the Dreamcast. The mixture of 2D character models and 3D animated backgrounds provided a trippy aesthetic mashup that, surprisingly, still holds up. If we had a 4K remaster of this game playing on a 70-inch screen, it’d be something we’d proudly play and display alongside more modern fighters. Hell, we’d go so far as to say that MvC2 looks better than Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite.
Aside from the incredible visuals, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was a blast to play and was very likely the first fighting game that many of you played competitively. It’s a game that players around the world still play competitively, and it’s not unusual to see Dreamcasts and CRT televisions set up and smaller tournaments for the Marvel vs. Capcom 2 faithful.
And holy hell at that roster of 56 playable characters, all of whom found their ways into and out of our rotations. That’s because we were young and naive, though. Older players probably found out pretty quickly that the game was pretty unbalanced. Only a small selection of fighters were competitively viable. Storm and Cable will never NOT be obvious choices when you want to win, and sometimes that can ruin the fun for the comic book nerds who just want to play as their favorite characters.
What’s the Verdict?
So what’s the verdict? Which game has the more meaningful legacy, and made the bigger impact on you: Jet Set Radio, or Marvel vs. Capcom 2? Vote below.
