Nearly a decade in the making, the third installment of Capcom's wish fulfilment fighting series is finally upon us. The game in which the likes of Street Fighter's Ryu, Darkstalker's Morrigan and the supporting cast of the Megaman series face off against The X-Men, The Avenger's and everything in between.
Choose your reserve team...
The roster has always been the main draw and Capcom have excelled themselves once again with a great selection of fighters. There are some noticeable omissions (Cable, Venom, Megaman, M.Bison, Guile, Ken) but these are balanced out by some truly awesome newcomers like Dante from Devil May Cry and Marvel's resident 'merc with a mouth', Deadpool. Elsewhere, there is the mouth watering combination of Wesker and Chris Redfield who are satisfying despite there Resi 5 incarnations. All in all, MVC3's fighters are versatile and balanced, the leaner roster cutting out some of the recycled move sets found in the last game.
"Looks like it's sexy Vs. stylish."
The best thing about the Marvel Vs. Capcom games is it's painstaking attention to detail and flawless presentation. In terms of visuals and sound design, MVC3 represents the absolute pinnacle of the Capcom fighting experience; brash, colourful, smooth as the Silver Surfer's board.
Basically a high def polish of the Capcom Vs. Tatsunoko engine, the beautiful cel shaded visuals work great, adding a genuine comic book feel to the fisticuffs. The fighters themselves are pitch perfect representations of their modern incarnations and each one has a multitude of cool, often hilarious soundbites that make them a joy to play. Amidst all the cries of 'HULK SMASH!', 'UNI BEAM!' and 'WEB-SWING!', there's the cocky wisecracks of Dante, the pantomime villainy of Wesker and the sheer insanity of Deadpool, a character that, much like in the comics, players will either fall in love with or hate with a passion because he simply never shuts up (personally, I think he's hilarious and I love him). There is just so much going on that it's almost impossible not to be charmed, whether it's the familiar voices of the X-Men, the Downey Jnr sound alike Iron Man or the cute little howls of Ameterasu, if MVC3 is anything, it's a sumptuous feast for the eyes and ears.
"This is a hyper combo"
Of course, all the visual splendour in the world is for nought if the basic fight mechanics are garbage, luckily Capcom have crafted another solid fighter that's appealing to newcomers and pros alike.
Again taking cues from the Wii-based Tatsunoko crossover, MVC3 features simple gradient attack buttons and one special button, as oppose to the limb based layout of standard fighters. It seems like child's play at first, with many of the flashier moves and simpler combos being pulled off with the greatest of ease, but there is a depth present that is so hidden that many wont notice it, there are some punishing combos in every fighters moves list that require real skill to pull off.
A controversial choice from Capcom is the inclusion of a simpler control system alongside the standard inputs. Put simply, with the 'simple' controls enabled, it's possible for a brain damaged chimpanzee to take down Galactus with some non-descript mashes of the controller. It's a feature that will be relatively useless to all but the most inexperienced and casual of players but it's presence at least adds an element of variety that is sorely lacking elsewhere...
"You saved the earth..."
Capcom's last major beat em up title was Super Street Fighter IV and while this was a seemingly robust package, it lacked a lot of modes and features (survival, time attack etc.) that have become par for the course in the beat em up genre and sadly, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 has even less content than SSFIV. Solo players have the brief but challenging arcade mode to clear and a collection of missions (similar to SFIV's trial modes), but that's about it. Multiplayer meanwhile, offers straight up versus which, at this early stage, is let down by frequent matchmaking issues.
Overall, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 is a spectacular experience, with excellent presentation and bucket loads of fan service, it's a game as enjoyable to watch as it is to play. Unfortunately, the game has a sting in it's tail in the form of its threadbare content, something that Capcom will hopefully remedy in the future, otherwise is hard to see MVC3 enduring as long as it's predecessor