Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was, arguably, the best fighting game of the last generation.
This was a title that took a tonne of fan favourites from the universes of Capcom games and Marvel comics, and pitted them against one another, resolving many of those “who would win in a fight…” conversations you’d have with your friends between classes. The game was innovative and featured pure fan service due to the huge roster of playable characters, but on top of that it actually played very well. These are big shoes to fill, but as the years have gone on the plea from fans couldn’t be ignored any longer, and we’ve been given Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Can this fighter walk in the shoes of its forefather, or will years of hype and hope leave this game less than desirable?
I wanna take ya for a ri-i-iiide
Premise Pretty easy to follow: Capcom has taken their always terrific Street Fighter engine and have applied fresh new graphics to a bunch of characters. Take characters from many beloved Capcom games and Marvel comic books, drop them in an arena together, and watch the fun.
Fighting games don’t need an explanation for themselves, they just have to provide fun, high energy excitement for the player, and when you’ve merged two hugely popular franchises like these together, there’s no explanation required. It doesn’t matter why they’re fighting, all that matters is that they are!
Story Dr. Doom and Albert Wesker, the two biggest jerks in their respective universes, have joined forces to conquer both universes together. To expand on their combined power, they’re also recruiting as many villains from their realms as they can muster. Naturally this would be enough for the heroes of these worlds to take a stand, but just to up the ante it turns out ol’ Doc Doom and Wesker have unleashed an even greater evil than their own and now both universes stand threatened with destruction… way to go, guys.
On a side note, when did Wesker become top evil dude for Capcom? I always thought M. Bison would have that crown forever, at least with Akuma at a close second.
Anyways, the heroes gather together blah blah fights go down, since when has a fighting game ever required a compelling narrative to drive it?
Gameplay I am not good at fighting games. Tekken, Street Fighter, DOA, I always get trounced; I think in one night I lost 100 straight fights to my friends on Xbox Live. Point is, I’m pretty lousy at controls for fighting games.
MvC3 has done a good amount of overhauling to make this game more universally accessible (cue the hardcore gamers crying that their beloved game has been dumbed down). Don’t get me wrong, the commands available to the player can still be pretty overwhelming to the less savvy, but it’s less daunting for new gamers to pick it up.
The controls haven’t strayed far from the previous MvC, but it’s been simplified just enough that someone who doesn’t live and breathe fighting games can get their licks in just as well as the gamer who lives on them.
A nice thing about current fighting games is that, usually, the controls are customizable. The same stands in MvC3, allowing me to set the controls how they’re comfortable for me, not in some locked layout that will be awkward for me.
Don’t think this means that there is no skill involved in this game, I’ve opened the booklet and looked at all the subtle strategic motions, counters, combos and the like, and I still know I’ll be getting it handed to me every other fight when I go online, but I get the feeling it will at least be not as much of a smoke-show as my friends have come to expect from me.
Graphics Street Fighter 4 was a graphical masterpiece as far as fighters go, but MvC3 has upped the ante even more. Where SF4 featured a more Asian, heavy ink-stroke art style, MvC3 looks like a comic book that is alive in front of you. The characters look very slick and have a cell-shaded look that is simple but incredibly elegant at the same time. The environments are all very nice, stretching from backdrops of classic Capcom games like Ghouls and Ghosts, to nostalgic places like the rooftop of the Daily Bugle, right up to head-scratching random areas like the rainbow cloud castle, complete with unicorns hanging out in the background.
Sound Speaking of head-scratchingly random, the music of Marvel vs. Campcom has always been in that department. MvC2 hosted some of the biggest showdowns in gaming history, but it was hard to take it seriously with some of the music; beating up enemies to smooth jazz or the now infamous I Wanna Take Ya For a Ride just doesn’t have that intensity of some music we’ve grown accustomed to in fighting games.
For MvC3, the “so bad it’s good” music has become expected of the franchise, so some have been hoping, and dreading, that the old style of music would hold true. The game meets both audiences, featuring some pretty solid fighting music that you would expect to find in a Street Fighter or DOA title, but also throws in a dash of the random music that makes you chuckle and say out loud “what the hell?”
And rest assured, I Wanna Take Ya For a Ride isn’t just in the game, but there are remixes baby!
The voice acting of the game is also par for the course in fighting games. Some characters have specific lines they spout out to specific opponents pre-match, but mainly it’s a rotation of set taunts and catch-phrases. The mandatory “character shouting out the name of the move they’re executing” law still applies in this title for the most part, with a few deviances from a couple characters who pop out taunts or slogans instead.
Some of the characters can start to get irritating if you’re playing against someone who spams the same move, within a minute I was so tired of hearing Spiderman say “web kick” over and over that I think I had a bit of a twitch by match’s end.
All in all the characters sound how you would expect. Wolverine’s a badass, Deadpool and Spiderman are smartasses, Ryu spouts out phrases of wisdom he found in a fortune cookie and so on. The characters sound right, and that helps submerge the gamer into the experience.
What I liked Varying difficulty systems make the game accessible to more than the hardcore market. Deadpool also does a slick moonwalk when you walk backwards.
What I would improve This is one of those games where the only flaws will come from the community, not the game. The worst aspect of this game is, like any fighter, people will spam the same move over and over. This is not a fault of the developers, so the one thing that can be annoying about this game isn’t even something that’s the fault of those who made it… oh yeah and they could totally cut back on Spidey saying “web kick”.
Final Thoughts This is the fighting game that everyone’s been wanting for years, and it doesn’t disappoint. The controls may be snubbed by some gamers for being “too easy”, but the experience is still very enjoyable, the game performs well and handles smoothly. Let’s face it, if you’re a fighting game fan then you already have this title, but if you’re on the fringes, rest assured knowing this game is safe for those of you who don’t frequent fighting games.
The fighting game you’ve all been wanting is here and it’s worthy of those who came before it, the wait was worth it… now if they can just get around to remaking Killer Instinct…
written by Lee Clifford
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was, arguably, the best fighting game of the last generation.
This was a title that took a tonne of fan favourites from the universes of Capcom games and Marvel comics, and pitted them against one another, resolving many of those “who would win in a fight…” conversations you’d have with your friends between classes. The game was innovative and featured pure fan service due to the huge roster of playable characters, but on top of that it actually played very well. These are big shoes to fill, but as the years have gone on the plea from fans couldn’t be ignored any longer, and we’ve been given Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Can this fighter walk in the shoes of its forefather, or will years of hype and hope leave this game less than desirable?
I wanna take ya for a ri-i-iiide
Premise Pretty easy to follow: Capcom has taken their always terrific Street Fighter engine and have applied fresh new graphics to a bunch of characters. Take characters from many beloved Capcom games and Marvel comic books, drop them in an arena together, and watch the fun.
Fighting games don’t need an explanation for themselves, they just have to provide fun, high energy excitement for the player, and when you’ve merged two hugely popular franchises like these together, there’s no explanation required. It doesn’t matter why they’re fighting, all that matters is that they are!
Story Dr. Doom and Albert Wesker, the two biggest jerks in their respective universes, have joined forces to conquer both universes together. To expand on their combined power, they’re also recruiting as many villains from their realms as they can muster. Naturally this would be enough for the heroes of these worlds to take a stand, but just to up the ante it turns out ol’ Doc Doom and Wesker have unleashed an even greater evil than their own and now both universes stand threatened with destruction… way to go, guys.
On a side note, when did Wesker become top evil dude for Capcom? I always thought M. Bison would have that crown forever, at least with Akuma at a close second.
Anyways, the heroes gather together blah blah fights go down, since when has a fighting game ever required a compelling narrative to drive it?
Gameplay I am not good at fighting games. Tekken, Street Fighter, DOA, I always get trounced; I think in one night I lost 100 straight fights to my friends on Xbox Live. Point is, I’m pretty lousy at controls for fighting games.
MvC3 has done a good amount of overhauling to make this game more universally accessible (cue the hardcore gamers crying that their beloved game has been dumbed down). Don’t get me wrong, the commands available to the player can still be pretty overwhelming to the less savvy, but it’s less daunting for new gamers to pick it up.
The controls haven’t strayed far from the previous MvC, but it’s been simplified just enough that someone who doesn’t live and breathe fighting games can get their licks in just as well as the gamer who lives on them.
A nice thing about current fighting games is that, usually, the controls are customizable. The same stands in MvC3, allowing me to set the controls how they’re comfortable for me, not in some locked layout that will be awkward for me.
Don’t think this means that there is no skill involved in this game, I’ve opened the booklet and looked at all the subtle strategic motions, counters, combos and the like, and I still know I’ll be getting it handed to me every other fight when I go online, but I get the feeling it will at least be not as much of a smoke-show as my friends have come to expect from me.
Graphics Street Fighter 4 was a graphical masterpiece as far as fighters go, but MvC3 has upped the ante even more. Where SF4 featured a more Asian, heavy ink-stroke art style, MvC3 looks like a comic book that is alive in front of you. The characters look very slick and have a cell-shaded look that is simple but incredibly elegant at the same time. The environments are all very nice, stretching from backdrops of classic Capcom games like Ghouls and Ghosts, to nostalgic places like the rooftop of the Daily Bugle, right up to head-scratching random areas like the rainbow cloud castle, complete with unicorns hanging out in the background.
Sound Speaking of head-scratchingly random, the music of Marvel vs. Campcom has always been in that department. MvC2 hosted some of the biggest showdowns in gaming history, but it was hard to take it seriously with some of the music; beating up enemies to smooth jazz or the now infamous I Wanna Take Ya For a Ride just doesn’t have that intensity of some music we’ve grown accustomed to in fighting games.
For MvC3, the “so bad it’s good” music has become expected of the franchise, so some have been hoping, and dreading, that the old style of music would hold true. The game meets both audiences, featuring some pretty solid fighting music that you would expect to find in a Street Fighter or DOA title, but also throws in a dash of the random music that makes you chuckle and say out loud “what the hell?”
And rest assured, I Wanna Take Ya For a Ride isn’t just in the game, but there are remixes baby!
The voice acting of the game is also par for the course in fighting games. Some characters have specific lines they spout out to specific opponents pre-match, but mainly it’s a rotation of set taunts and catch-phrases. The mandatory “character shouting out the name of the move they’re executing” law still applies in this title for the most part, with a few deviances from a couple characters who pop out taunts or slogans instead.
Some of the characters can start to get irritating if you’re playing against someone who spams the same move, within a minute I was so tired of hearing Spiderman say “web kick” over and over that I think I had a bit of a twitch by match’s end.
All in all the characters sound how you would expect. Wolverine’s a badass, Deadpool and Spiderman are smartasses, Ryu spouts out phrases of wisdom he found in a fortune cookie and so on. The characters sound right, and that helps submerge the gamer into the experience.
What I liked Varying difficulty systems make the game accessible to more than the hardcore market. Deadpool also does a slick moonwalk when you walk backwards.
What I would improve This is one of those games where the only flaws will come from the community, not the game. The worst aspect of this game is, like any fighter, people will spam the same move over and over. This is not a fault of the developers, so the one thing that can be annoying about this game isn’t even something that’s the fault of those who made it… oh yeah and they could totally cut back on Spidey saying “web kick”.
Final Thoughts This is the fighting game that everyone’s been wanting for years, and it doesn’t disappoint. The controls may be snubbed by some gamers for being “too easy”, but the experience is still very enjoyable, the game performs well and handles smoothly. Let’s face it, if you’re a fighting game fan then you already have this title, but if you’re on the fringes, rest assured knowing this game is safe for those of you who don’t frequent fighting games.
The fighting game you’ve all been wanting is here and it’s worthy of those who came before it, the wait was worth it… now if they can just get around to remaking Killer Instinct…
written by Lee Clifford
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was, arguably, the best fighting game of the last generation.
This was a title that took a tonne of fan favourites from the universes of Capcom games and Marvel comics, and pitted them against one another, resolving many of those “who would win in a fight…” conversations you’d have with your friends between classes. The game was innovative and featured pure fan service due to the huge roster of playable characters, but on top of that it actually played very well. These are big shoes to fill, but as the years have gone on the plea from fans couldn’t be ignored any longer, and we’ve been given Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Can this fighter walk in the shoes of its forefather, or will years of hype and hope leave this game less than desirable?
I wanna take ya for a ri-i-iiide
Premise Pretty easy to follow: Capcom has taken their always terrific Street Fighter engine and have applied fresh new graphics to a bunch of characters. Take characters from many beloved Capcom games and Marvel comic books, drop them in an arena together, and watch the fun.
Fighting games don’t need an explanation for themselves, they just have to provide fun, high energy excitement for the player, and when you’ve merged two hugely popular franchises like these together, there’s no explanation required. It doesn’t matter why they’re fighting, all that matters is that they are!
Story Dr. Doom and Albert Wesker, the two biggest jerks in their respective universes, have joined forces to conquer both universes together. To expand on their combined power, they’re also recruiting as many villains from their realms as they can muster. Naturally this would be enough for the heroes of these worlds to take a stand, but just to up the ante it turns out ol’ Doc Doom and Wesker have unleashed an even greater evil than their own and now both universes stand threatened with destruction… way to go, guys.
On a side note, when did Wesker become top evil dude for Capcom? I always thought M. Bison would have that crown forever, at least with Akuma at a close second.
Anyways, the heroes gather together blah blah fights go down, since when has a fighting game ever required a compelling narrative to drive it?
Gameplay I am not good at fighting games. Tekken, Street Fighter, DOA, I always get trounced; I think in one night I lost 100 straight fights to my friends on Xbox Live. Point is, I’m pretty lousy at controls for fighting games.
MvC3 has done a good amount of overhauling to make this game more universally accessible (cue the hardcore gamers crying that their beloved game has been dumbed down). Don’t get me wrong, the commands available to the player can still be pretty overwhelming to the less savvy, but it’s less daunting for new gamers to pick it up.
The controls haven’t strayed far from the previous MvC, but it’s been simplified just enough that someone who doesn’t live and breathe fighting games can get their licks in just as well as the gamer who lives on them.
A nice thing about current fighting games is that, usually, the controls are customizable. The same stands in MvC3, allowing me to set the controls how they’re comfortable for me, not in some locked layout that will be awkward for me.
Don’t think this means that there is no skill involved in this game, I’ve opened the booklet and looked at all the subtle strategic motions, counters, combos and the like, and I still know I’ll be getting it handed to me every other fight when I go online, but I get the feeling it will at least be not as much of a smoke-show as my friends have come to expect from me.
Graphics Street Fighter 4 was a graphical masterpiece as far as fighters go, but MvC3 has upped the ante even more. Where SF4 featured a more Asian, heavy ink-stroke art style, MvC3 looks like a comic book that is alive in front of you. The characters look very slick and have a cell-shaded look that is simple but incredibly elegant at the same time. The environments are all very nice, stretching from backdrops of classic Capcom games like Ghouls and Ghosts, to nostalgic places like the rooftop of the Daily Bugle, right up to head-scratching random areas like the rainbow cloud castle, complete with unicorns hanging out in the background.
Sound Speaking of head-scratchingly random, the music of Marvel vs. Campcom has always been in that department. MvC2 hosted some of the biggest showdowns in gaming history, but it was hard to take it seriously with some of the music; beating up enemies to smooth jazz or the now infamous I Wanna Take Ya For a Ride just doesn’t have that intensity of some music we’ve grown accustomed to in fighting games.
For MvC3, the “so bad it’s good” music has become expected of the franchise, so some have been hoping, and dreading, that the old style of music would hold true. The game meets both audiences, featuring some pretty solid fighting music that you would expect to find in a Street Fighter or DOA title, but also throws in a dash of the random music that makes you chuckle and say out loud “what the hell?”
And rest assured, I Wanna Take Ya For a Ride isn’t just in the game, but there are remixes baby!
The voice acting of the game is also par for the course in fighting games. Some characters have specific lines they spout out to specific opponents pre-match, but mainly it’s a rotation of set taunts and catch-phrases. The mandatory “character shouting out the name of the move they’re executing” law still applies in this title for the most part, with a few deviances from a couple characters who pop out taunts or slogans instead.
Some of the characters can start to get irritating if you’re playing against someone who spams the same move, within a minute I was so tired of hearing Spiderman say “web kick” over and over that I think I had a bit of a twitch by match’s end.
All in all the characters sound how you would expect. Wolverine’s a badass, Deadpool and Spiderman are smartasses, Ryu spouts out phrases of wisdom he found in a fortune cookie and so on. The characters sound right, and that helps submerge the gamer into the experience.
What I liked Varying difficulty systems make the game accessible to more than the hardcore market. Deadpool also does a slick moonwalk when you walk backwards.
What I would improve This is one of those games where the only flaws will come from the community, not the game. The worst aspect of this game is, like any fighter, people will spam the same move over and over. This is not a fault of the developers, so the one thing that can be annoying about this game isn’t even something that’s the fault of those who made it… oh yeah and they could totally cut back on Spidey saying “web kick”.
Final Thoughts This is the fighting game that everyone’s been wanting for years, and it doesn’t disappoint. The controls may be snubbed by some gamers for being “too easy”, but the experience is still very enjoyable, the game performs well and handles smoothly. Let’s face it, if you’re a fighting game fan then you already have this title, but if you’re on the fringes, rest assured knowing this game is safe for those of you who don’t frequent fighting games.
The fighting game you’ve all been wanting is here and it’s worthy of those who came before it, the wait was worth it… now if they can just get around to remaking Killer Instinct…
written by Lee Clifford
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was, arguably, the best fighting game of the last generation.
This was a title that took a tonne of fan favourites from the universes of Capcom games and Marvel comics, and pitted them against one another, resolving many of those “who would win in a fight…” conversations you’d have with your friends between classes. The game was innovative and featured pure fan service due to the huge roster of playable characters, but on top of that it actually played very well. These are big shoes to fill, but as the years have gone on the plea from fans couldn’t be ignored any longer, and we’ve been given Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Can this fighter walk in the shoes of its forefather, or will years of hype and hope leave this game less than desirable?
I wanna take ya for a ri-i-iiide
Premise Pretty easy to follow: Capcom has taken their always terrific Street Fighter engine and have applied fresh new graphics to a bunch of characters. Take characters from many beloved Capcom games and Marvel comic books, drop them in an arena together, and watch the fun.
Fighting games don’t need an explanation for themselves, they just have to provide fun, high energy excitement for the player, and when you’ve merged two hugely popular franchises like these together, there’s no explanation required. It doesn’t matter why they’re fighting, all that matters is that they are!
Story Dr. Doom and Albert Wesker, the two biggest jerks in their respective universes, have joined forces to conquer both universes together. To expand on their combined power, they’re also recruiting as many villains from their realms as they can muster. Naturally this would be enough for the heroes of these worlds to take a stand, but just to up the ante it turns out ol’ Doc Doom and Wesker have unleashed an even greater evil than their own and now both universes stand threatened with destruction… way to go, guys.
On a side note, when did Wesker become top evil dude for Capcom? I always thought M. Bison would have that crown forever, at least with Akuma at a close second.
Anyways, the heroes gather together blah blah fights go down, since when has a fighting game ever required a compelling narrative to drive it?
Gameplay I am not good at fighting games. Tekken, Street Fighter, DOA, I always get trounced; I think in one night I lost 100 straight fights to my friends on Xbox Live. Point is, I’m pretty lousy at controls for fighting games.
MvC3 has done a good amount of overhauling to make this game more universally accessible (cue the hardcore gamers crying that their beloved game has been dumbed down). Don’t get me wrong, the commands available to the player can still be pretty overwhelming to the less savvy, but it’s less daunting for new gamers to pick it up.
The controls haven’t strayed far from the previous MvC, but it’s been simplified just enough that someone who doesn’t live and breathe fighting games can get their licks in just as well as the gamer who lives on them.
A nice thing about current fighting games is that, usually, the controls are customizable. The same stands in MvC3, allowing me to set the controls how they’re comfortable for me, not in some locked layout that will be awkward for me.
Don’t think this means that there is no skill involved in this game, I’ve opened the booklet and looked at all the subtle strategic motions, counters, combos and the like, and I still know I’ll be getting it handed to me every other fight when I go online, but I get the feeling it will at least be not as much of a smoke-show as my friends have come to expect from me.
Graphics Street Fighter 4 was a graphical masterpiece as far as fighters go, but MvC3 has upped the ante even more. Where SF4 featured a more Asian, heavy ink-stroke art style, MvC3 looks like a comic book that is alive in front of you. The characters look very slick and have a cell-shaded look that is simple but incredibly elegant at the same time. The environments are all very nice, stretching from backdrops of classic Capcom games like Ghouls and Ghosts, to nostalgic places like the rooftop of the Daily Bugle, right up to head-scratching random areas like the rainbow cloud castle, complete with unicorns hanging out in the background.
Sound Speaking of head-scratchingly random, the music of Marvel vs. Campcom has always been in that department. MvC2 hosted some of the biggest showdowns in gaming history, but it was hard to take it seriously with some of the music; beating up enemies to smooth jazz or the now infamous I Wanna Take Ya For a Ride just doesn’t have that intensity of some music we’ve grown accustomed to in fighting games.
For MvC3, the “so bad it’s good” music has become expected of the franchise, so some have been hoping, and dreading, that the old style of music would hold true. The game meets both audiences, featuring some pretty solid fighting music that you would expect to find in a Street Fighter or DOA title, but also throws in a dash of the random music that makes you chuckle and say out loud “what the hell?”
And rest assured, I Wanna Take Ya For a Ride isn’t just in the game, but there are remixes baby!
The voice acting of the game is also par for the course in fighting games. Some characters have specific lines they spout out to specific opponents pre-match, but mainly it’s a rotation of set taunts and catch-phrases. The mandatory “character shouting out the name of the move they’re executing” law still applies in this title for the most part, with a few deviances from a couple characters who pop out taunts or slogans instead.
Some of the characters can start to get irritating if you’re playing against someone who spams the same move, within a minute I was so tired of hearing Spiderman say “web kick” over and over that I think I had a bit of a twitch by match’s end.
All in all the characters sound how you would expect. Wolverine’s a badass, Deadpool and Spiderman are smartasses, Ryu spouts out phrases of wisdom he found in a fortune cookie and so on. The characters sound right, and that helps submerge the gamer into the experience.
What I liked Varying difficulty systems make the game accessible to more than the hardcore market. Deadpool also does a slick moonwalk when you walk backwards.
What I would improve This is one of those games where the only flaws will come from the community, not the game. The worst aspect of this game is, like any fighter, people will spam the same move over and over. This is not a fault of the developers, so the one thing that can be annoying about this game isn’t even something that’s the fault of those who made it… oh yeah and they could totally cut back on Spidey saying “web kick”.
Final Thoughts This is the fighting game that everyone’s been wanting for years, and it doesn’t disappoint. The controls may be snubbed by some gamers for being “too easy”, but the experience is still very enjoyable, the game performs well and handles smoothly. Let’s face it, if you’re a fighting game fan then you already have this title, but if you’re on the fringes, rest assured knowing this game is safe for those of you who don’t frequent fighting games.
The fighting game you’ve all been wanting is here and it’s worthy of those who came before it, the wait was worth it… now if they can just get around to remaking Killer Instinct…
