[360|PS3] Marvel vs Capcom 3 Review

[DoctorFinger]

Marvel vs Capcom 3 Review

Title - Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds
Platforms - Xbox 360*; Playstation 3
Developer - Capcom
Publisher - Capcom
ESRB Rating - T (Teen)
MSRP - $59.95
Editor - Michael "DoctorFinger" Chauvet
Favorite Team - Super Skrull, Chun-Li, X-23

What's Hot: Pure, button mashing fun. Large roster of fighters, featuring a nice mix of big stars and unknown characters. Simplified control scheme makes it very accessible while still providing some depth. Online play is smooth and almost totally lag free.

What's Not: The final boss is annoyingly cheap at times. No spectator mode in online play. Thin training modes. The music will at times make you wish for the sweet release of death.

Some crossovers make total sense. Putting Dracula up against Frankenstein’s monster and the Wolfman was a no-brainer when Universal studios did it back in the 30s and 40s. But some make...a little bit less sense at first glance. Marvel vs Capcom was one of those when it debuted back in the late 90s. Taking the most popular characters from Capcom’s library, and pitting them against some of Marvel Comics’ most recognizable creations was just a little insane, but it worked wonderfully. Fast forward to 2011 and we have the latest in what has turned out to be a pretty long running franchise: Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds.

The story of MvC 3 is...well it really doesn’t matter does it? You have the 18 Marvel characters and the 18 Capcom characters, and they’re fighting. What little story is doled out past that conceit is thin and fairly irrelevant, but not in a bad way. At the start of each match and/or play session you choose a team of three fighters. Each fighter has their own life bar, and can be tagged into the fight at any time using one of the shoulder buttons. A tap of those same buttons makes one of your teammates jump in with a quick attack. At the bottom of the screen you have a hyper bar, which fills up as you do cool things. Fill up sections of that bar and you can unleash powerful hyper combos and tag team attacks, all of which are pretty fun to watch. Eventually you make your way to the final battle against the destroyer of worlds: Galactus. That fight begins with you taking on Silver Surfer-ized versions of Doctor Doom and Wesker before you move onto the Big G himself. Galactus is kind of cheap, with a bunch of attacks which can’t be dodged, and others which can’t be blocked. He’s not as absurdly difficult as some final bosses you find in fighting games, but it’s also not a terribly entertaining fight either.

It's Spider-Man fighting a Cat-Woman. Now that's comedy!

The roster is a good mix of big stars and visually interesting B-, C- and D-listers. On the Capcom side you have fighting veterans such as Ryu, Akuma, Morrigan and Haggar alongside other characters such as Amaterasu (Okami), Dante (Devil May Cry) and Spencer (Bionic Commando). Marvel has most of the heroes you see on the screen - Captain America, Thor, Wolverine & Spider-Man - plus some of my lesser known favorites such as Taskmaster, Super Skrull and M.O.D.O.K. (Mental Organisim Designed Only for Killing). There’s a really nice variety in terms of playstyle among the roster. You have your bruisers, your distance fighters, and your speed freaks. I expected each of the characters which came from a non-fighting property to feel like a clone of a Street Fighter character, but few if any felt that way. Each fighter felt pretty unique, and their fighting style truly fit with their characters.

MvC 3 uses a modified version of the standard Capcom fighting setup. The ‘classic’ Capcom fighter uses the familiar 6 attack buttons: light, medium & hard variations of kick and punch, but the controls MvC 3 are a little different. Here you get 4 attack buttons on the controller face - light, medium and heavy attack, plus a ‘special’ attack - with tags managed with the shoulder buttons. The special moves are also a bit easier to pull off than in Street Fighter 4. Almost every move in the game is done with either the quarter circle, half circle or dragon punch zig-zag motion, plus a button push (or two). Even the Hyper combos are done with one of those moves, plus using 2 attack buttons instead of 1. By simplifying the controls slightly Capcom is trying to make the game more accessible to the non-hardcore fighter fan, and on that note they succeeded. It’s no longer a question of if even the novice player can pull off a basic move, just when they want to use it. There’s also an even easier Simplified control scheme, where specials can be pulled off with just one button, but at the cost of a limited moveset. I’m not a particularly big fan of the Simplified scheme, but I can see the appeal, and think it’s a good addition. Overall I find this more casual approach more appealing, but the true maestros of the fighting genre may not find the changes as pleasant.

The team of evil Spider-Man, Teenage Hooker Female Wolverine and the Iron Drunk

Now the presence of simplified controls doesn’t mean the game lacks depth. The included Mission mode teaches some pretty hardcore, difficult combos. The basic moves for each of the 36 characters are similar, but they have enough individuality that it takes time and effort to master them. Unfortunately the mission and training modes don’t do enough to teach the real basics. To find out how to do things like Advancing Guards, Air Tags and Snap Backs I had to consult an online strategy guide. These are the sorts of things a good tutorial mode should teach, or at least include instructions in the manual, but they’re just not.

Visually the game is very busy. At any given time a ton of different effects will be flashing at once, all of this in front of some very pretty and detailed backgrounds. MvC 3 runs a modified version of the Street Fighter 4 engine, and consequently all of the characters are beautifully animated and everything is absolutely loaded with color. But as good as the visuals are, the audio really can drag the game down. The music is mostly annoying and generally omnipresent. And by annoying I mean please God, let me be stricken deaf rather than listen to this crap again. As you can guess, I turned the music off after the second day I had the game. The characters all have their own personalized exclamations but they get very old, very fast.

As with all modern fighters, online play is a big part of MvC 3. You can hop into a lobby with friends, or try your chances with random players. I’m pretty bad at fighting games, so I didn’t go for the public matches too often. But whether you’re playing friends or strangers, the fights are super smooth with no noticeable lag. But everything isn’t perfect in MvC 3’s online play. If you elect to play in a lobby online, you may want to grab a good book, because there isn’t much to do. While most other fighters let you watch the fight going on, MvC 3 simply gives you a bar graph plotting each character’s health, and even more of that hideously annoying music. This is stupid. Fighting games as far back as Dead or Alive 4 (2005) let you watch while other members of your party fought, but this game just gives you a virtual Excel graph to help pass the time. It’s boring and really makes party play, which should be a strength, into a chore.

The battle between a mutant medical experiment gone rogue and a magic karate dude. Place your bets!

The problems I listed are real and irritating, but they’re not enough to ruin an otherwise wonderful game. It’s that near perfect mix of accessibility and depth which so few games manage to pull off, and it’s a must buy for any fighting fan.

* Review based on the Xbox 360 version.

Score: (4.5 out of 5 Cogs)


Michael says, "If you’re looking for a fun, dynamic and entertaining fighter, then you’d be hard pressed to find one better than Marvel vs Capcom 3. It’s not the deepest fighter around, but it may be the most entertaining for the non-hardcore fighter."

[Shrinn]

A very good review. As I said in the thread, I like the simpler inputs and combos because they mean that the game is more about creating and capitalizing on opportunities than remember very difficult combos. Judging by the turnout and hype at some high level tournaments I've been watching on youtube and the tournament play still seems tight and intense.

The only issue I have is that I thought the manual did a good job explaining switching, advancing guard, and other strange combos.

[Ink Asylum]

The team of evil Spider-Man, Teenage Hooker Female Wolverine and the Iron Drunk

Best caption ever.

[Lekon]

Originally Posted by Ink Asylum

Best caption ever.

Even better than:


Strength Training Freddie Mercury?

[ElektroDragon]

The problem I had with this game is that I played it for 5 hours straight the night I got it, had lots of fun, and now I feel.... what else am I going to do? There is no story mode at all and I got all the online achievements I'm ever going to get (I'm no good at online competition). I much preferred how in Tekken 6 and MK vs DC Universe, there was actually a fleshed out story mode.

I agree with the review score, but unless you're a fighting fanatic, I'd advise a rental.

[Shieldmaiden]

A fighting fanatic or someone who has friends they play games with, in person like.

[Uatu]

This game's roster is weak, it could of been so much better.

Also the game is essentially a cutscene of watching Sentinel and Dante's super moves until you die. Heaven help you if someone has BOTH on their team, which actually, is what everyone is doing. The game needs serious balancing for me to take it seriously.

it can be really fun though when people switch up who they play as.

[Iron Past]

I'll agree the game will likely be much better after the first balance patch, but it's still really fun. I just tend to stay away from too many Ranked matches in a row.

[Xydarc]

Originally Posted by Ink Asylum

Best caption ever.

Deadpool is evil Spider-Man? Geez, I've been out of the comics loop for too long.

[Talanvor]

I want a goddamn spectator mode so you aren't just looking at health bars and dancing cards while waiting for your turn in a lobby.

[Pale Ale]

Originally Posted by Xydarc

Deadpool is evil Spider-Man? Geez, I've been out of the comics loop for too long.

Of course not, he's an interesting Wolverine!

[DoctorFinger]

Deadpool's costume looks a lot like Spidey's, and he's also a wisecracker, so I think evil spider-man fits.

[Widgetcraft]

Deadpool isn't evil, he is Chaotic Neutral.

[Exodus]

I'll agree that the roster is weak. They picked a lot of good ones but over all I still think they could have passed over characters like Bionic Commando. Viewtiful Joe and Ammmy though are brilliant. I just wish they went more along those lines, I mean shumogorath? I hate that guy. Jill? YES!

The is definitely more button mashy friendly but I also think that end all be all, it's people who know their characters who will win so it still stays true to the formula.

[Jazztheotaku]

I’m a hardcore fighter fan when it comes to my games, such as Super Street Fighter 4 and Soul Calibur 4. If any new person who plays either game with the same style after playing MvC 3, they will be getting beaten with the button mashing. But what I like with MvC 3 is if you know your effective combos, cross-ups, and everything else that’s technical about the game, including the matchups with each character, you can beat anyone who doesn’t have that knowledge.

No spectator mode really disappointed me. When I first entered a lobby, it was the middle of a match, and I thought “Okay, I just have to wait until the match ends.” Second match, “Did I need to press a button or something in order to watch?” Third match, “Never joining a lobby that has more than three people.” I haven’t read why they decided not to have a spectator mode. I really like watching others play, while learning new techniques and etc. After playing against the computer for awhile in a fighting game, you can start to predict what moves it will perform before they even make it. That’s why I enjoy online play, but taking away spectator mode eliminates half the excitement with online play if you’re in a lobby.