While its a decent update to the original, I still can't say that I agree that its enough to warrent its release.
Are the characters any good? Yeah, most are great and few are just a waste of space imo. New flashy moves and hyper combo finishers...what fan of the series wouldn't welcome this? However, here's the thing: As unfortunate as last year's the japanese tsunami was, its still no excuse to package all of this new content into a separate game. Heaven forbid that Capcom push back the release date on MvC 3 in order to deliever a complete game! Still choosing the route that they did, other means of adding on the things they wanted was still possible by other mean. The tweeks made to the game's engine...could have been adjusted with free patches. The new characters added to the roster...could have been sold as DLC. There are 2 new modes to play in, Galactus Mode and Heroes & Harolds Mode but still neither enhances the game in any way over its predecessor.
Online was still the bittersweet experience it usually is with the series, the endings are still a combination of being cheesy yet funny and I did have fun collecting the new trophies. Though again, I recieved the game as a gift and doubt if I would have gone out to buy this otherwise.
My Breakdown:
What's Good:
- New Charactersr
- New modes of Gameplay
- Tweeks to the game engine balances offline and online play a bit more
- Keeping Jill and Shuma Gorath as DLC is the most fair thing Capcom did
What's Not-So-Good:
- The new game modes aren't anything to write home about
What's Bad:
- That this is an actual stand alone game
In all, I don't mean to feed into this popular debate but its just how I feel about this game. It feels more like a cheap way to cash in on 9 years of absence/the effects of a natural disaster. Maybe if this came from the direction of any other company other than Capcom, but I just can't ignore the fact that they have a very active history of doing things like this. So, the best that I can do is recommend this over the original for those that have yet to purchase either.