Review: Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Ten years is a long time to wait for a sequel. In that time, genre’s change, new consoles release, Brett Favre retires twelve times, and core audiences move on, but fans will always be fans.  Those loyal to the Marvel vs. Capcom series have been dreaming of a new iteration for a long long time. It’s finally here, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is a reality, but is it a dream come true?

“Doctor Doom has assembled the greatest villains of the Marvel Universe and has joined forces with Albert Wesker in order to unite their respective universes in an effort to conquer both. However, this course of action awakens a great and powerful threat that could potentially destroy both worlds. It is up to the heroes of the Marvel and Capcom universes to put a stop to this evil before it is too late”

This is the 5th game in the vs. series where Capcom characters face off against the Marvel universe’s mightiest warriors. In 1996, X-Men vs. Street Fighter released and made geeks everywhere have aneurysms from experiencing the gnarliest of gnarlyisms. If there were any other company match ups before, they were forgotten. If there were any tag team fighters before, they were forgotten. If you had a go-to game every time you went to the arcade, it was forgotten.  X-Men vs. Street Fighter revolutionized fighting games and for good reason. It brought together two amazing worlds of geekdom, placed them in a cool 2D sprite animated fighter with hyper combos, amazing visuals, awesome sound, fast paced action and tag team character support. Looking back, it was far from perfect but who cared, I was fighting X-Men with Street Fighters Yo!  To keep the franchise fresh, a sequel was released every so often and it would always outshine its predecessor in every way….until now.

Like most people, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was my favorite in the series. It had its flaws, sure, but it was just so damn addictive. I would play it for hours until my thumbs blistered. In fact, MvC2 is largely responsible for my love of the fighting genre. I played Street Fighter II Turbo a lot when I was a kid, but I really had no idea what I was doing.  MvC2 made me think about my choices, my button inputs, my timing but most importantly it satisfied my A.D.D. and brought me closer to my buddies. If I had to name my favorite thing about MvC2, it would have to be the roster. It is massive. I don’t care if character styles or move sets overlap, each character doesn’t need to be unique, I just want lots of choices. After all, people don’t play the vs. series for the gameplay alone, it’s more about playing as your favorite heroes and villains from your favorite games and comics.

So naturally the first thing I noticed about MvC3 is that the roster is half the size of MvC2.

Whoa, what happened? I quickly look for some of my favorites…Gambit, Venom, Mega-Man, Ken…all gone! Somebodies got some explaining to do! Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is less about character choice and more about a unique and strong move set. Each character has their own style and feel, no two are the same. Even Wolverine and X-23 play differently. I like that; I can respect that choice, it’s important to distinguish each fighter from one another. Normally, a roster of 36 fighters would be a good number for a fighting game, but not when you are following up something as crazy as MvC2 and its whopping 56 character choices. Maybe I’m just spoiled, but why would you take out some of the fan favorites?  I hadn’t even started to play the game yet and I’m already stricken with disappointment. We aren’t playing MvC3 to see if it can stand its ground against Street Fighter IV or Blaz Blue, we are playing it for the characters.  I should also mention that four of the characters listed above are not playable at the start of the game. As you rank up in points you will unlock Akuma, Sentinel, Hsien-Ko and Taskmaster. I love unlocking characters; the reward and mystery of who could be next are always welcome. All of the unlockable characters are great to play as, but maybe not as fun to play against. Sentinel can be a real pain to defeat. Not as bad as Seth from SFIV, but still very annoying.

A DLC pack is on the way and will feature two new characters. Jill Valentine from Resident Evil and Shuma-Gorath, a demon from the Marvel universe. Both will be familiar to fans of MvC2 but both are pretty boring characters. I mean does anyone get excited when reading those names? Why not get creative with it and include Nemesis from Resident Evil, or Mimic from X-Men. In fact, it’s the newer unique characters that I enjoyed the most. Dante, Zero, X-23 and especially Wesker, these four are easily my favorites. I kept coming back to them; they were very familiar but fresh, fun but challenging to master.

While I’m talking about characters, I need to give an honorable mention to Deadpool, the obvious standout in this game. Capcom did a fantastic job with this guy. They captured him perfectly and you never get tired of hearing his big mouth. When he walks backwards, he literally moonwalks, when he gets the crap beat out of him he claims to have “hit the wrong button” and will literally use the health bar as a weapon.

Actually, you know what, I lied. The roster wasn’t the first thing I noticed. The FIRST thing I noticed was the change in graphics style. When the first trailer came out, I stared at my computer screen and uttered the words “Oh no…” That’s where the disappointment really started. The vs. franchise has kept an almost identical graphical style of hand drawn character sprites. MvC3 has obviously gone in a totally different direction. The characters have this 3D character model feel where everyone looks like they were sculpted out of wet clay, then apply a pencil filter on top of that and finish it with this dark inky shadowy filter. It looks awful. I can see it being pitched in a board room right now. “It’ll be like Street Fighter IV but we’ll change it a little to reflect a more comic bookish feel”. Sounds great on paper, I love the way SFIV/SSFIV looks. But the style of MvC3 just doesn’t seem to fit.  I’m willing to bet that this idea came from Marvel. Ultimate Alliance 2 had that wet clay look to it and I hated it then, but now I hate it even more.  Is hate too strong a word? No, I don’t think so.  Keep the style that we all love, keep the hand drawn sprites. You can still change it up a little if you want to. Hell, why not give it this sketchy water color feel like Valkyria Chronicles? And have Udon Crew do it (the artists who made Street Fighter II HD). Now THAT would be cool.

Let’s get into the meat of it with gameplay, the next thing that was dramatically changed for the worst. (Noticing a pattern yet?) The arcade style button setup is gone and a simpler layout is put in place. The fight system has been downgraded to a simpler four button scheme. Light attack, medium attack, heavy attack and special are all you need to know. The face buttons on the controller do almost everything. The shoulder buttons are reserved for character support. The three character team system stays intact and I actually found it easier to call in support when I needed it. That’s really what this game is all about, making it easier for the player.  Fans of Tatsunoko vs Capcom will certainly feel right at home with this MvC3.

If you still struggle with the button configuration you can switch to the all-new “Simple” system. Wherein, the player is allowed to pull off hyper combos and special moves with the push of a button. Simple mode also seems to remove some characters moves all together.  The game becomes so easy that a retarded chimpanzee could master the game. Is Capcom so desperate to get an audience for this game that they need to make it easy for toddlers and old folks alike? From a basic gameplay standpoint the game truly is simple to pick up and play. The vs. franchise has always been a comfortable button masher but this game takes it to an entirely new level. The hyper fight style of the vs. series is definitely cranked up to the max. So much so, that I never really had any time to pay attention to the backgrounds or alternate costumes. I just don’t think I have ever played a game that was so easy to button mash. It’s these easy to input moves that make this game so off-the-wall. You might as well call it Hyper Crazy Flash 3 cause that’s the most definable characteristic to this game. The fights are cluttered with bright flashy explosions of color, blurry hazes of where a character once stood and combat so fast paced that a character with full health can be killed in a matter of seconds.  Of course you can change the settings and handicaps to draw out the gameplay if you want.

Tactically, MvC3 doesn’t offer much. It really feels like more of a social gathering fighter than can be quickly picked up by the next drunk slob at the party.  If Street Fighter IV is the “chess” of fighting games, MvC3 would be the “Uno”. It’s less about outsmarting your opponent or waiting for an opening and more about throwing everything you can as soon as you can.  Don’t get me wrong, MvC3 can get incredibly in-depth but the jump to start developing some real skill is gaping.  You really have to work hard to start to play this game like a pro, especially when you consider the change in button scheme. I had a difficult time pulling off Ryu’s infamous moves because the buttons had changed and I was so used to putting in specific inputs. I had to retrain my mind to pull off smooth chain combos and crossover attacks.

Beyond the basic fighting modes, there is virtually nothing else to this game. It’s extremely surprising considering the competition of fighting games over the past few years. Even last year’s flop Tatsunoko vs. Capcom had more challenges and game modes. While Capcom seemed set on making MvC3 a modern fighter they seemed to have forgotten the most important parts of what make modern day fighters so good. Would you believe that there really isn’t a way to spectate fights online when you’ve set up a lobby with all of your friends? Its things like these that almost guarantee that MvC3 will fall off the map in no time at all.

While Marvel vs. Capcom 2 felt like a Marvel game with Capcom characters in it. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 feels more like a Capcom fighter with Marvel characters added to it. The predecessor also seemed more creative. MvC2 had more WTF moments to it. Whether it be gorillas who shoot plasma beams out of their mouth, giant robot hands smashing down from the sky or raining cactus spurs, there was always something unexpected going on. MvC3 feels much more rooted in reality. Obviously it’s still unrealistic, characters can fly and summon massive shoulder guns, but there really isn’t that quirky inventiveness to it. Speaking of flying, just about half the roster of Marvel characters has the ability of flight. You would think this would offer them a cool little unifying perk, but no, the game only allows you to stay in the air for a few seconds before forcing you back onto the ground. Another missed opportunity. Interestingly enough, as a Marvel fan boy I found myself enjoying the Capcom characters more. Marvels line up got old quickly and I often found myself going back to Capcom guys again and again.

Overall the game feels unfinished. Almost as if too much time was spent on the polish and not enough on content. Waiting an entire decade can lead to some pretty high expectations. But Capcom didn’t even come close. Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Listen Jon, just tell me one thing, did you have fun with it?” Short answer – “yes”. But only against a human opponent, and even then it was just for a little while. I never wanted to keep playing, I never felt my thumbs get sore, and I will never pick this game up again. There is no desire. Excuse me while I go play Marvel vs. Capcom 2 or Super Street Fighter IV. (Reviewed on March 4th)