I would have to disagree with this, because I feel MvC2 is much better than the first, and ultimate marvel 3 is better than both.
The music in the 2nd game does suck, for the most part. There are a few tracks like the airship level which are good.
The shopping method is kinda annoying but it doesnt take too much playtime to unlock all the characters. It does take forever to unlock all the alternate colors though, and with the Japanese version you would have to take the VMU to the arcade machine and play there to get points to unlock stuff, so THAT is annoying but I assume that you could probably download a save file off the internet somewhere.
I will say that MvC2 is quite broken, and some characters are way more powerful than others. The first and 3rd marvel games are much more balanced in this regard.
Probably the biggest reason I think MvC2 is better than the first is because it has bb hood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI76VV4_ghg
Also regarding the music on the 2 games, most of the music tracks in the first are just remixed version of the character themes where the music tracks in the second game are original.
The music in the first is still better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKOMP...C7012&index=25