Marvel Super Heroes 2 fan character select screen

Hey, what's up Marvelites?! Here's my Marvel Super Heroes 2 fan-made character select screen, as a wallpaper

MAJOR UPDATE: I beefed up the roster to 45 characters, similar to USFIV.

Top: Nico Minoru, Black Panther, Hulk, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Psylocke, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Ms. Marvel, Moonknight, Blade and Brother Voodoo.
Middle: Baron Zemo, Dr. Doom, Juggernaut, Venom, Dormammu, Magneto, M.O.D.O.K., Dark Phoenix, Loki, Blackheart, Shuma-Gorath, Super-Skrull, Taskmaster, Thanos and Red Skull.
Bottom: Ka-Zar, Punisher, She-Hulk, Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Iron Fist, Rocket Raccoon, Cloak & Dagger, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Nova, the Fantastic Four, Deadpool, Elektra and Devil Dinosaur & Moon Boy

Ok, for those who don't know, Marvel Super Heroes (MSH for short) was the second VS-like game that Capcom produced with Marvel, released in 1995, the first being X-Men: Children of the Atom released in 1994. Since that game was positively received, they decided to go for another round, but this time with more Marvel, non-X-Men character, like Spider-Man, Captain America and Iron Man. This game was a huge success as well. From that, Capcom went on to make X-Men vs Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter and of course, the Marvel vs Capcom trilogy.

However, much like I've shown with my X-Men: Children of the Atom 2 fan screen, they didn't make a "true" sequel to that game either, which sucks because that would have been great publicity for Marvel to have another exclusive fighting game. So, it was kinda "inevitable" that I would make a fan roster for a sequel for that game as well. Then again, I like the result so I'm not complaining . Furthermore, MSH got a rebirth thanks to the downloadable package with Marvel vs Capcom 1.

Alright, what have I done here this time? Gatling bullets ahoy!

* I've changed a few things here and there.
- a few sprites
- new characters: Nico Minoru, Black Panther, Blade, Brother Voodoo, Ka-Zar, Punisher, Elektra, Devil Dinosaur & Moon Boy, Baron Zemo and Red Skull.
- 5 new spots on each side, leading to 45 characters.

* I changed some of the sprites. Ok, no offense to any of the sprite artists that I removed sprites from, but when I did my first version, I picked sprites for their coolness instead of their similar art style. This time, I tried to homogenize the srpites and unfortunately, some sprites had to be changed.

* I've taken all 12 characters from MSH. That's a no-brainer here because we all know that a sequel should get all characters from the previous game, especially if the game had a small roster to begin with.

* I've updated the roster to 45 characters. Look, Marvel has a truckload of characters to choose from, and I could have gone to 50 if not 60 if I wished. However, I did increase to 45 to make it feasible and realistic, much like USFIV will do with their 45-character roster. For a non-team fighting game, that's a pretty good number. I apologize if your favorites are not present here, but that had to happen, sorry about that.

* I've greyed out the middle row for a reason. Ok, I've been getting comments about my latest works that I don't include many villains in my screens. This is basically because most of the time, Capcom games go for popularity instead of logic; we usually cheer for the good guys, but sometimes they don't make it on the roster because their respective villains are more popular. For this screen, I went with the flow here, but priorized the heroes again.

Here's my explanation: Marvel Super Heroes had 12 characters (Hulk, Wolverine, Psylocke, Iron Man, Capt. America, Spider-Man, Magneto, Shuma-Gorath, Blackheart, Juggernaut, Dr. Doom and Thanos). Half the roster is made of villains... in a game called "Marvel Super Heroes". Yeah, I think that was a weird decision, because they could have taken, say, Thor, Ghost Rider, Black Widow and Hawkeye and have the regular villains (Magneto, Shuma-Gorath, Blackheart and Juggernaut) as unlockable characters like Doom and Thanos.

That's what I did here. You have 30 heroes and 15 villains. The reason why I've greyed out the line is because they would be unlockable. 2 heroes would have 1 specific villain to fight before the final boss and beating that villain with both characters in their respective arcade runs would unlock it. This way, the villains are playable but are volunterally overshadowed by the heroes. You might notice a special villain in the middle of the line, which leads me to my next point...

* I've made Dark Phoenix a villain. Before asking me why, I'll ask you this: why not? First, why not have a female villain? Second, why not have a powerful villain? Finally, why not make Phoenix a mile better than she is in UMvC3?

Here's another explanation: I really hate Phoenix in UMvC3, from a gameplay standpoint. She has half the hit points/defense of Akuma, who himself known to have the lowest in every SF game, except IV because Seth does. Dark Phoenix is quite challenging to obtain in a fast-paced game like UMvC3 and there's quite some ways to prevent the rise of Dark Phoenix. Finally, Dark Phoenix is a nightmare to fight, because she get ridiculously powerful, even if her health drains over time. While her concept is nice, it's not fitting. For my game, give me Dark Phoenix with 3 times the HP/defense and have her powered-up state as a regular super move that lasts for 5 seconds or so, like Strider Hiryu's Ouruboros. Seth Killain kept defending her by saying: "Don't get it". Dude, that's like saying "Don't hit the brakes" in a racing game... kinda hard not to do so. So yeah, Phoenix would be great as a final villain for my game. First stage being her with her regular moves and second stage being with her powered-up state, much like Seth gets more powerful on the 2nd round in SSFIV.

* I've tried to mimic the original screen. It proved to be harder than I thought though .

* There are some characters that I'd like to change or to try different mecanics. For Hulk, I'd like to see his intro being changing from Bruce Banner to Hulk, or as a victory pose, Hulk reverts back to Banner. Seriously, why hasn't that been done already? For Cloak and Dagger, I had in mind a tag-team character, like they switch places with a special move or something. For the Fantastic Four, I had in mind that the player takes control of Mr. Fantastic with special moves which he summons the other 3, much like Captain Commando. Also, they all could get different moves from Super-Skrull. Devil Dinosaur would be the same size as Hauzer from Red Earth and Capcom Fighting Evolution.

* I have in mind a few scenarios. MSH was based on the Infinity Gauntlet arc. Here, it can be the Civil War, the Skrull Invasion or even a brand new scenario in which Dark Phoenix is concerned. I can't really go with the X-Men vs Avengers arc because a lot of characters are missing, but a brand new scenario could be nice, because you can take some liberties from the comics here and there.

* I have in mind the classic 6-button scheme. MSH had it, although I would add 2 shortcut buttons.

* I couldn't find sprites that face forward. So I had to resolve with sprites that face the same direction .

Here's the credits, taken from sites like Crusader Cast (crusadercast.com/), Sinhra (sinhra.com/forum/), The Fighter's Generation (www.fightersgeneration.com/) and Deviant Art, with either the names, nicknames or DA icons.

Capcom: Hulk, Wolverine, Psylocke, Iron Man, Capt. America, Spider-Man, Magneto, Shuma-Gorath, Blackheart, Juggernaut, Dr. Doom, Thanos and Venom.

PrimeOp: Black Widow, The Thing, Human Torch, Invisible Woman and Black Panther

: Deadpool, Dr. Strange, Ghost Rider, Hawkeye, Iron Fist, Nova, Rocket Raccoon, She-Hulk, Thor, Dormammu, Modok, Phoenix, Super-Skrull and Taskmaster.

NicotineFist: Brother Voodoo

Apathy: Cloak & Dagger

Vitamin: Daredevil

Gambit87: Moon Knight

Beja: Ms. Marvel

Darken01: Silver Surfer

Taskmaster: Loki

Rayum: Nico Minoru

Deanjo2000: Punisher

Lance Uppercut: Blade

Kyoman: Ka-Zar

Reiko: Elektra

Gate: Baron Zemo

Gokussj402: Red Skull

: Devil Dinosaur

Credits go to Capcom, Marvel and their respective artists, especially for the portraits taken from UMvC3.

Enjoy, and Excelsior, True Believers!