Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 is a worthy successor to a great fighting game series.
Thanks to many dedicated players who believed in the game, it was accepted into the scene and earned a very loyal following. There is not much that I can say about this game's legacy that hasn't already been said by critics, fans, pro players and in the many retrospectives (including my own) that have been popping up all over the internet recently. The game has enjoyed a decade of play and has been over due for a sequel.
During the 2010 Evo tournaments, Capcom attended the event with an early build of MvC3. It was played feverishly by fans and from that point on, comparisons were made and speculations were constantly devised on Fighting game message boards. Now, the time has come. The game has been released and the previous question must be revisited: How will the third installment stack up against the legacy of MvC2? I've spent some time with the previous game, not as much as others, but enough to get a good idea of how the game plays and why it is so revered. After hours in arcade, training and online modes with every character in the new game's roster I can say that Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 stacks up very well.
Many MvC2 staples are present in the new edition. You can create a team of 3 characters to do battle with. During the match each character can be switched out as the player sees fit. Sideline characters can also be called upon for assistance. This feature has become a staple because it enable players to create some very devastating combos. Another reason why this is an essential part to MvC game play is because it's so damn fun. The action gets ramped up as air combos can be lengthened by switching out the characters while in mid air. If done right, all three of your characters can join in the assault. In certain situations this may not always be the best choice, but it is always visually gratifying. Speaking of combos, they're perfectly balanced.
After playing for a while, combos are easy to pick up. Most of them are started with pressing the three attack buttons in succession. The game uses six main attack buttons: light attack, medium attack, hard attack, special attack (which will launch your opponent into the air) and the two partner buttons. In addition to combos, the fighting system is also very generous when it comes to canceling normal attacks into special moves. It all reminds me of Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom. There's also some new features that have been implemented in this edition to make it unique from the others.
X-Factor is a new ability fighters have that can be used to make a come back. To activate the XF, all four of the main attack buttons must be pressed simultaneously. It recovers the character's red life, speeds up their movements and maximizes their damage output. If done at the right time, it has the ability to shift the balance of the fight, making one hell of a come back. Among the community, this is already being scrutinized as a game breaking move. Many are saying that it needs to go altogether. Since it can only be used once per battle and both players have the ability to do it when they choose, I wouldn't call it game breaking. It's just another factor that makes MvC3 different from its predecessors. XF can also be used as a cancel to lengthen combos or give a chance for a player to get some breathing room; there are a myriad of possibilities. Something that actually had the potential of being game breaking in MvC2 were infinite combos, but this incarnation has a new reaction system that helps curb the use of combos that can last for a whole match.
Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 has been played for about 10 years. In that time, dedicated players have discovered some amazing things. One of those things were infinite combos. With perfect spacing and timing, a combo could be repeated over and over until the end of the match. This is one of the reasons why Capcom included something called 'Hit Decay' in MvC3. What Hit Decay does is increases the character's recovery time each time he or she gets hit. The more hits that you land on an opponent the quicker they will recover and eventually they'd recover too fast for the combo to continue. This all works well as far as I can see, but that isn't to say that some very dedicated players won't find some way to manipulate the hit decay in their favor. This also doesn't mean that long combos can't be accomplished. I found it very easy to pull off some very devastating combos, perhaps much easier than in part 2. However, if you want to go beyond mashing out combos and want to learn some staple ones for each character, the game has a couple of modes that will help you learn.
There are several ways to enjoy Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. The menu screen greets the player with two options: an Online mode or Offline mode. Online mode is very similar to the ones found in Super Street Fighter IV and Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom. There are a few different ways that you can play online. Ranked match is for players who want to play matches to increase their player points and ranks–perfect for someone seeking bragging rights. The other modes allow you to create or join lobbies, where a group of players will take turns beating each other's brains out. The only down side to the online mode is that you cannot watch matches that are in progress, like with Super Street Fighter IV. Instead, you see two gamer cards hump each other. In actuality they're not humping, but rather bumping into each other in a repeating animation until the match is over but I think the comparison is justified. Early in the game's release, the online match ups have been experiencing some difficulties due to the volume of players. Capcom released a statement saying that they are currently working on the problem. Good thing there's an offline mode.
Offline mode is, in my opinion, where the real work begins. There's the obligatory Arcade mode, where you will face off against several AI opponents and the final boss, Galactus. Beating the arcade mode is one of the ways new characters can be unlocked. Each character has a unique ending that somewhat explains their appearance in the game. Overall, the story isn't the most fleshed out aspect of the game, and I can excuse that. When it comes to making a good fighting game, a lot of time and resources will be spent on making sure that the game play is balanced and the characters are unique. Even though some characters end up more useful and becoming top tier, there usually isn't a completely unbeatable move, combo or strategy. Offline mode also has some features that will help you out if you keep getting bodied online.
Mission mode is very similar to the trials in Street Fighter IV and the challenges in Super Street Fighter IV. By similar, I mean exactly alike. To clear a mission, the player has to perform the combo that is indicated on the left side of the screen. Each mission is tailored specifically to the chosen character and is a valuable tool to teach players how each fighter should be played and what bread and butter combos need to be learned. There are 10 missions for each character altogether. The first couple go through the fighter's special moves, then on how to link them together. The last five usually focus on ground to air combos, as those are more complex. After going through some missions, you'll get a better idea of which characters you use best. You can then take said characters into training mode.
Training mode is a staple in all fighting games these days. It lets players practice their combos without the pressure of an AI opponent. There is an opponent, but it just stands there. Its purpose is to get knocked around while you practice some combos. To challenge yourself further, the training dummy can also be set to automatically block, jump, or even fight back.
I bought the Xbox 360 version, and while it is still a very playable game, the controller was not made for fighting games. It makes sense because I'm pretty sure that developers created the game with the arcade sticks in mind. I went to my friend's house later that week and tried the Playstaion 3 version and found that I liked that controller much better but the button placements still made pulling off certain combos a little awkward. Don't let the controller hold you back from playing the game; it's still fun and highly playable. An arcade stick is only a must if you're seriously considering becoming a competitive player.
I really have no complaints about the game's characters and stages save for one: there should have been more. This may sound like a petty grievance and it may be, but compared to the roster of MvC2, one can't help but ask for a few more characters. It's understandable that Capcom wanted to get the final product out and ready in a reasonable time frame. There are probably a lot of other reasons, i.e. financial, programming, data, space requirements, why more characters were not included, so I'll try not to harp on this too much. However, Capcom did announce that more characters will be available in the future as DLC. I just hope the price will be reasonable.
From a player's standpoint, I can see that a lot of work and love went into this game. The voice acting is great, and there is a lot of Marvel and Capcom fanfare to be seen and heard. Comic book aficionados will recognize a lot of the Marvel characters' alternate costumes as they come right from the source material. If two specific characters are chosen, there is a lot of fun banter at the beginning of the matches. For example, if Deadpool and Magneto are chosen as opposing fighters, Deadpool will taunt Magneto by saying, "Magneto, welcome to die!" This a reference to a mistranslation in the localized version of X-Men: Children of the Atom.
When it comes down to it, the game's combo system makes it easy enough for the causal player to get a lot of fun out of it. It is also deep enough to satisfy the more hardcore player, as I'm sure they'll spend a lot of time in training mode, creating some very awesome combos. Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds is already hitting the tournament scene and will surly be one of the main reasons to watch this year's EVO stream. I'm sure that this game will be creating a legacy of its own in the coming years.