Ah mang. Where do I even begin? Not only is MVC2 easily my favorite 2D fighter of all time, but it also holds the acclaimed title of Sean Flynn's Video Game With The Most Hoops Jumped Through To Obtain Of All Time. Why, you might ask? Let me begin.
-SPRING BREAK, 2006: A 6 year-old Sean travels to Disney World for spring break. While there, he finds a MVC2 arcade cabinet and must be held by his father in order to reach the joystick and buttons. Not knowing who half the characters are, I choose Captain America, Hulk, and Megaman and somehow get to Abyss through button-mashing.
-FEBRUARY, 2007: While at Hollywood Video on a cold, rainy afternoon, I come across a PS2 copy of the game, which I then decide to rent. As per Hollywood Video rules, I begrudgingly return the game the following week.
-FEBRUARY, 2007 (2 WEEKS LATER): Anxious to get my fix once again, I go back to HV, and attempt to find the game once more. Unfortunately, I turn up empty-handed. I then ask the clerks if anyone rented the game since I'd returned it, and they claim the game has been missing for months. Even back then, I knew BS when I heard it, and I keep coming back each week in a vain attempt to find to track down what equated to the 6-year old me's Holy Grail.
-MARCH, 2008: My many searches having proved to be fruitless (as well as me having figured out one of the clerks pocketed the game on the down-low), I head to the World Wide Web to continue my hunt.
-APRIL, 2008: Having checking Gamestop's website daily for about a month, I finally find a copy at our local mall going for..... 80 frickin' dollars. Although this price isn't quite as daunting nowadays, I still have no idea how they got away with charging such an absurd price for a fairly common game. Remember when everyone got pissed because good ol' G was reselling Xenoblade for 60 bucks? Where was that group when this shiz went down? Armed with only 5.78 and a Baskin Robbins gift card in my wallet, I begin to formulate a plan.
-JULY, 2008: After many long hours of calculating coupons, tracing out various loopholes, and doing chores, I finally rack up enough money to get the game. Triumphantly, I stroll into the Westfield Shoppingtown Gamestop and ask for their only copy of MVC2. Lo and behold, the game is still in stock and I head home, my prize in hand.
-JULY, 2009: Capcom releases a port of the game to Xbox Live, and my stupid, stupid 8-year old self decides the best course of action is to trade in my PS2 copy at Gamestop to get enough money to buy a 20 dollar XBLA card. Expecting a direct port of the PS2/DC/XB version, I am severely let down. No unlockables? No random arcade mode matchups? Quite possibly the worst netcode out of any video game ever? Did I really trade in my ultra-rare 80$ game for a crappy downloadable Xbox port? Yes, I did.
-OCTOBER, 2012: After years of stinging regret, I suddenly remember that Amazon exists and I track down and buy a copy for 40 bucks. Let the waiting begin!
-OCTOBER, 2012 (2 weeks later): The game finally arrives, only for the disc to be horribly scratched and only running about 25% of the time. Ack.
-OCTOBER, 2012 (3 days later): I message the seller on Amazon and demand a refund. Through divine intervention, it turns out he has a collection of PS2 copies and offers to send me another one on the house, one that will hopefully work this time.
- NOVEMBER, 2012: Finally, the day after Halloween, my replacement shows up in the mail. Both incredibly excited and incredibly anxious, I sprint home, leap up the stairs in a single bound, and dolphin dive into the PS3, slamming the disc into the console. Luckily, it works, and my 6-year-long quest has finally come to a conclusion.
EPILOGUE: After leaving my PS3 on all night with the game running, I woke up last week only to find out that the disc somehow got permanently damaged by the console's Blu-Ray drive. Whim wham woo the cow goes moo and g'night ladies and gents.
