Like reconnecting with an old friend, it might not bring the most content, but it has the most heart.
The first thing that you will notice about that game is the overall presentation of the game. It seems that it took a sleek and overall futuristic look, rather than Marvel vs. Capcom 2's jazzy and upbeat feel. The menus are nicely organized and easy to navigate through, with an offline mode and online mode submenu, along with a menu to see your statistics and your play style, with the option of comparing yours along with your friends. Along with that is a gallery, where you can look through songs, art, and models based on the game. The only thing I wish was that instead of a question mark for character endings you didn't unlock, there can be some indicator of the missing character's extras, because it can get annoying to go through a manual to look for characters you haven't beat the game on Arcade Mode with. Aside from that, the menus and presentation are rather nice and the menu is easy enough to navigate through, despite the slight inconvenience.
The story in the game is simple, with it being that Doctor Doom and Albert Wesker have both combined forces with various Marvel villains to conquer both worlds. Unfortunately, Galactus is awoken and is bent on destroying the Earth. Determined to stop Galactus from succeeding, both worlds combine efforts to bring an end to this fate. Overall the story in the game is weak, albeit slightly improved from Marvel vs. Capcom 2. The thing that bothers me the most is how great the graphics and story trailers leading into the game were, but the end result were comic book cutout endings with the same music tracks playing through. It was just an overall lazy effort by Capcom and all of the promised cameos were uninspired, like Ryu fighting Iron Fist and Hulk beating up Nemesis. It would have been much better if Capcom went with the in game cut scenes, or at the very least have animated ones like in Street Fighter IV. Overall, this was a weak effort and a missed opportunity for Capcom to bring in a neat, or at the very least, entertaining story.
Moving on to the graphics, they are nothing short of spectacular. While the series was always in 2D, the 3D brought into this makes the action so much lively and just as explosive as the previous games. The work from the MT Frameworks engine used in Resident Evil 5 and Lost Planet 2 is obvious, making it a pretty and smooth game. All of the models look fantastic in the game, with jaw dropping visuals, both in the action and on the background. The game also runs at a very fast pace, just like the previous games in the series.
Stages are what steal the show in the visuals. Capcom took notes in what the fans wanted, and made a collection of stages based on the many properties, adding in a sleuth of detail. Stages range from a Ghosts N' Goblins themed stage, having you traveling through a moat with the many enemies on the background, to The Daily Bugle with a giant Spider-Man balloon and many billboards of various characters, to a mixture of the Tricell and Umbrella facilities from the Resident Evil series, with Tyrant in the background and creatures breaking out if you cause enough damage. Overall, this game has some of the best looking visuals that Capcom has made, with fantastic stages. The only shame is the extremely low stage count, which is a total shame, considering how great the others looked.
You can't have a fighting game without a diverse cast, and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has a great cast of characters. The series has some fantastic newcomers, such as Dante, Wesker, Mike Haggar, and Arthur from the Capcom side, and Super Skrull, Taskmaster, Phoenix, Dormammu, and X-23 (who is surprisingly one of my favorite characters in the game) from the Marvel side. What's worth noting is how there are barely any useless characters in the game and how fun they are to play as. Many duos like X-23/Wolverine and Hulk/She-Hulk were originally thought to play similar, but in terms played completely different with their own diverse movesets. Many characters like Amaterasu were also cleverly given movesets to accommodate a fighting game, such as making the Celestial brush attacks implemented in the fighting.
Of course, being a Vs. game, there is plenty of imbalance, meaning that some characters are much more powerful that others, though it's not as severe. Though I think She-Hulk should stick her head in a microwave for her cheap infinites, Sentinel still gets on my nerves the most and he kept his cheap moves, but now has the stamina of a tin can, which is fine with me, because that robotic piece of garbage can die in a fire for all I care (you suck Sentinel). However, the imbalance is not necessarily a fault, considering how it's one of the elements that made the series so chaotic and fun. It's just that the next time I see another team of Dante, Sentinel, and She-Hulk spamming....
The best thing out of the cast is the wonderful exchanges and lines all of the characters have, which are very well done. These exchanges range from Spencer and Iron Man smack talking about each other's robotic parts, to Deadpool mocking Magneto's infamous "Welcome to die!" line from the X-Men arcade game. Speaking of Deadpool, he is absolutely fantastic and steals the show with his witty and humorous dialog. He constantly pokes fun at the other fighters, including the player themselves, and goes as far as asking Capcom to be in the next Street Fighter. With his screaming of "YOU PRESSED THE WRONG BUTTON!" it makes losing not as bad, and at times funny. It's just a blast hearing his constant talking and wit, making him one of the best used Marvel characters by Capcom.
Capcom also took notes of the characters' histories and threw in a few lines comic book fans can easily understand. These range from Deadpools' replication of Ryu's shoryuken, to Phoenix whispering "Scott" when she is knocked out, to Iron Man yelling "Avengers, assemble!" if you choose him along with Thor and Captain America. It's these little touches that mean a ton to the fans, and the attention to detail is tremendous, with many of the character exchanges adding so much uniqueness to the fighting.
The only fault is that the Capcom side could have used a better cast, bringing in some more relatively unknown characters into the mix, or instead of so many Street Fighter II characters, brought in some Alpha or III characters like Ibuki or Rose. Some characters like Trish and Thor could have been exchanged for better choices. It also strikes me odd to see well known faces like Frank West from Dead Rising, Gene from God Hand, and Phoenix Wright out of the picture, as they are very well established characters from Capcom.
Another thing I'd like to point out is that many of the characters have sported different looks from their popular models, with some turning out rather fine. For instance, Wolverine is sporting his Astonishing X-Men uniform than his popular 1990's outit, while Iron Man uses his Extremis suit. Many alternate outfits reference other eras in the characters' histories, such as Spider-Man's symbiotic suit and one of Viewtiful's Joe's outfits being a reference to Captain Blue.
The Capcom side of change felt rather unnecessary. Many characters such as Chris and Rad Spencer have on their outfits from the less popular games like the Bionic Commando reboot and *shiver* Resident Evil 5. Other than Wife Arm and Chris, the other character who I have gripes with is Jill. I mean, seriously. What's your problem, Capcom? After months of hoping that she would be announced, you bring her in, but in the form that nobody likes? Way to go, you made my favorite character in the series my least favorite character in this game. Some of the choices like Wife Arm or horrendous Jill makes it seems as though Capcom was intentionally trying to troll the fans, in which they succeeded.
The gameplay has the same approach as the previous game in the series. You choose 3 characters, with 3 assist types, ranging from projectile to close hits. Assists can be done by pressing either R1 or L1, depending on who you want to summon, and holding either button switches to the specified character. One assist type that I have noticed being gone is the heal type, which is fine, considering how the game is more forgiving in restoring lost health through chaining Hypers and exchanging characters, all which allow you to restore lost health, indicated by the red portion of your health bar. Assists also play the same way, and have the same opportunity to lose twice as much as health if hit during performing an assist, although it is apparent that assist characters have a smaller amount of time to be able to be hit by the opponent, as they are invulnerable once they start their taunt after their attack.
The controls received an overhaul and features a mixture between Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. The square, triangle, and circle button are unspecified light, medium, and heavy attacks, while the x button is a launcher. Launchers, as the name suggests, launch your opponent in the air to start air combos. The air is also where most of the action takes place, where you learn to do air combos and exchange characters to extend the combos. In order to exchange a character during a combo, you must launch them in the air and proceed to start a combo. Once you have a combo flowing, you press the launch button, indicated by a red flash your character has. You can exchange up to 2 times, yet also have the opportunity to chain Hypers together.
Although there is the option of exchanging, the opponent can do an aerial counter by pressing the same direction and launch button as the combo maker. This causes the person to lose their combo and gives the opponent time to regain ground from a safe distance.
Hypers are also done the same way as they were in the previous games, with pressing 2 attack buttons while making a stick movement simultaneously, with regular Hypers taking a bar away from the Hyper Meter, while a Level 3 takes 3 bars away. The Hyper Meter can be replenished by damaging or taking damage from the opponent, as well as blocking, and unlike the previous games, your meter does not increase from attacking without connection. The maximum amount of Levels a Hyper Meter can have is 5, with actions like Snap Backs and Cross Over Counters taking a bar each. Also returning is the dash button, which is used by pressing R2 instead of forward twice. This is a much needed return, as the console versions of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 didn't contain it, making some combos a lot harder than they needed to be. Also, doing a Team Combo is much easier. With the press of L2, you can have your characters team up and perform their Hypers, which sets up for a high amount of damage.
New to the gameplay are Level 3 Hypers, taking the cinematic approach from Street Fighter IV. It also seems that Capcom paid attention to the fact that the Ultras in the game were extremely overpowered, in which they made sure to not make the Level 3 Hypers too destructive. The cinematic approach taken is brief but all look great, with shots of the character giving a sever beating, such as Iron Man dragging his opponent through the floor, then throwing them in the air before shooting a large unibeam from his chest. Many of the moves are devastating and sometimes humorous, like She-Hulk throwing a car at the opponent, or Deadpool literally hitting the opponent with his health and Hyper bar, before taking a giant baseball swing with the latter. Moves like these are absolutely hysterical and never get old. Overall, the Level 3 Hypers are a welcome addition and bring in even more insanity to the already insane gameplay.
If all of this sounds like too much, you can always use the new Simple Mode, which maps special moves and Hypers at the press of a button. I personally found this to be very unnecessary, as it adds nothing to the game and makes the gameplay itself much less rewarding, while adding nothing to the experience of what makes a fighting game fun. Although the Simple Mode is pointless, the control system in this game is a very fun one, and has a good mixture of prediction and strategy blended in together.
The final thing worth noting about the new additions to the gameplay is the X-Factor, which once per match, boosts your stats for a limited period of time by pressing the four face buttons at the same time. The less characters you have, the longer you have it and the stronger you are. The X-Factor omits chip damage and allows you to regain your lost health from the red portion of your health. Overall, I found this to be very unnecessary to the game and it literally adds nothing other than a chance for the opponent to win. There will be plenty of times when you are on the verge of winning, but on X-Factor will destroy you. It's just so meaningless and I would have preferred a better system or a way to disable it.
The fighting overall is pretty deep, but mostly relies on crazy and fast paced action, which is exactly what the fans want. It delivers a ton of explosive action, while being extremely fun. This game will definitely be played for high periods of time just for the insane fun alone, and with the new system you always want to test out new characters and teams to see how they flow together. This is definitely one of the most enjoyable games I have played in a while.
Aside from the gameplay and characters, the sound is another leading triumph in the game. To put it this way, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has one of the best soundtracks in a fighting game, bringing in many old favorites remixed, while also throwing in some fantastic new tunes that match the style and personalities of characters. Many themes such as the Ghost N' Goblins theme have been revamped with a guitar cover, and many well known theme's in the series, such as Captain America's have gotten modernized versions of their themes, all of which sound fantastic. My personal favorite is Spider-Man's, and many others such as Captain America, Amaterasu, Ryu, Deadpool (which is absolute nonsense, fitting the character perfectly), and a ton of others. The only theme that I was not a fan of was X-23's which was just awful. Other than that, the soundtrack, even going as far as the music playing on the Continue screen is nothing short of fantastic, bringing in a mix of revamped and new, making it huge fan service, while appealing to newcomers.
Along with the fantastic music comes the fantastic voice acting, with many of the characters sounding right on par with how they ought to be. The English voice actors in particular did a fantastic job on newcomers like Mike Haggar, Arthur, Super Skrull, and many others. Other characters like Iron Man and Doctor Doom have a robotic tone in their voice, which is appropriate for their voices, while the Street Fighter characters sound like they did in Street Fighter IV (which I switched to Japanese). All of the characters sound fantastic, and it shows how much of an amazing job Capcom did on their characters.
The replayability will mostly come from repeated playthroughs of the single player mode and the online mode. The single player is only an Arcade Mode, Training Mode, VS Mode, and a Mission Mode. Arcade Mode will have you facing 6 rounds of opponents, then ending with Galactus, which is pretty standard stuff. The offline multiplayer options is something I wish had more depth to, as Street Fighter IV has bots that played as they did in Arcade Mode, and it would have been nice if it carried over to this game.
The Mission Mode is basically a tutorial on combo making, starting off with simple combos to do, while eventually moving on to harder stuff like linking attacks and canceling them to extend and add more damage to your combo. While a standard tutorial for newcomers would have also been nice, this is a good addition for those yearning to pull off some well orchestrated combos.
Online flows rather well has the same matchmaking system as Street Fighter IV, which was based on skill. Your skill is determined through your License Card, which states your strong and weak points, and also gives you a rank, which is based on your wins. There are ranked and unranked matches, with the former increasing your experience and ups your ranks, while the latter is for casual matches. So far, the online has not been bad at all, and the slow downs really come down to whether you have a bad connection or not. While the online play is good, one large downer is the fact that you can't save replays or there even being a Spectator Mode, like in Street Fighter IV. This is a huge loss, as sitting in the lobby with a group of friends is very boring and unexciting, as you can only see the fighters' health drop. Hopefully there is a DLC patch in the future that serves this lacking area.
Another fault found in this game is that Capcom never really worked on delivering a story or a mode to accommodate it, rather just throwing in the characters with lackluster endings in an Arcade Mode. There are character bios and unlockable art pieces, but some of the history is a bit sketchy and nor really researched. For example, they put Deadpool's real name as unknown, whereas the comics have specifically stated his name is Wade Wilson, while Wolverine was stated as unintelligent in the game, whereas in the comics, Wolverine's increased lifespan was taken advantage of by him to learn of many cultures and languages, making him a rather intelligent figure. While the inaccuracies are forgivable, the Story Mode felt like a missed opportunity. This is 2011, and many fighters before this have had Story Modes and have done a great job on it, and this laziness is no excuse. Hopefully with newer competition, Capcom can finally work on delivering an actual story with more modes rather than the standard modes we have been seeing for years.
DLC can also play a huge role in replayability, with the opportunity to add new characters, stages, modes, and many other elements to add some lasting value. This is great news, but my biggest concern is that Capcom will try to overprice their future DLC, taking advantage of the fans. This is evident by releasing DLC characters for $5 each, which is absurd, with the absurdity being the fan favorite STARS uniform of Chris being with other remarkable iterations of characters for another $5. This is just taking advantage of fans, and is a very unfair, smart, yet dishonest approach to people supporting the game, and knowing Capcom, a Super Marvel vs. Capcom 3, which makes the original invalid, can very much so be possible.
While many may be turned off by these negativities, do not look into these issues too hard to detract you from the fantastic experience that this game has to offer. Albeit there being a lack of content outside of the fighting, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is one of the most fun fighting games in years, and one of the best times you will have with the fighting genre. The amount of effort put into the fighting and characters surrounding it is tremendous and the joy of playing the series' basis of explosive action and ridiculous outcomes is intact.
Fans of the series will fall in love with the game and have fun like no other. In the end, it might not be the fighter with the most outside content to offer, but it's the fighter that with the most heart and fun. In my opinion, this is a love letter and thank you from Capcom to the fans who held the series dearly, bringing in fantastic graphics, music, dialog, and characters, all wrapped up in amazingly fun gameplay. Thank you Capcom for bringing back a series I loved and thought was long dead, and thank you for allowing me to have the most fun I've had with a game for years, and I will be coming back to this game time after time, for years to come.
I love this game, there's no doubt. My worries I initially had were swept away when I was blown away by the amazing fighting and fun gameplay. Although I wish there was a story mode and some extra content, the fighting is so addictive and fun that it doesn't ruin the experience at all. While some may be turned off by the lack of extra content, the game is perfect for me. Being a fan since X-Men vs. Street Fighter, I was wary that the game might not reach my expectations, but I was blown away. Just the fact that I'm playing a game in a series I thought was long dead is a dream come true, and bringing in my favorite characters along with fantastic additions like Deadpool, Dante, and Mike Haggar makes this even more fantastic. I don't care what anybody thinks of my verdict, but this is the most fun I've had with a videogame in years, and this not only has a firm chance of being my game of the year, but it's the best fighter I've played this generation, with only Street Fighter IV coming close to surpassing it. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is a firm reminder to me that at times the quantity may be low, but the quality is tremendous.