one of their off-screen team members to perform a single special move to aid them. Each playable character possesses three different types of assists, denoted by the Greek letters α, β, and γ, which can range from projectile attacks to healing moves. Assist characters receive extra damage if struck by the opponent. As characters fight, the team members not in play will also slowly regenerate their life gauges. A match lasts until one team completely runs out of vitality for all three fighters; if the match timer reaches zero before either team is knocked out, the player with the most remaining health is declared the winner. Similar to prior installments, as characters deal and receive damage, a colored meter at the bottom of the screen known as the "Hyper Combo Gauge" will gradually fill. When the meter is full, the player can use it to perform several special techniques, such as "hyper combos", powerful attacks that deal heavy damage; "delayed hyper combos", which allow the player to execute multiple hyper combos consecutively; and "variable combinations", which summon the player's entire team to use their hyper combos simultaneously. The game also introduces a new gameplay mechanic called the "snapback", which forces the opponent to switch characters. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 features a modified version of the six-button control scheme from Clash of Super Heroes. Instead of six attack buttons separated as three pairs of low, medium, and high-strength punches and kicks, the game utilizes a setup of four attack buttons and two assist buttons. Modes Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes features both single-player and multiplayer game modes. The game has an Arcade Mode, where the player must defeat seven AI-controlled teams to reach the final boss character, Abyss, who sports three different forms. Unlike previous games in the series, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 does not have character-specific endings, as the player will earn the same ending regardless of the characters they used to complete Arcade Mode. Versus Mode allows two players to compete against one another. Players can practice moves and combos in Training Mode, where they can also adjust certain settings, such as the number of bars available in the Hyper Combo Gauge. Score Attack, similar to Arcade Mode, pits the player against waves of AI-controlled characters; however, the main objective is to accumulate the highest score possible without the use of continues. The arcade version of