When you think of fighting games you think of Street Fighter or Tekken. In 2008 Street Fighter IV took to the throne to reclaim its position as king of fighters. Since then we have seen a surge of what are mostly budget second rate fighting games. But with the Marvel vs. Capcom series re-emerging, is this about to change? Well in some aspects it does but in others, not so much...
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is all about lightning paced fighting action, it is an extremely fast paced game and everything seems to happen in a flash. Obviously half of the games roster have their origins set in comics and many of your favourite Marvel characters have made it into the game. Pitting two teams of Marvel characters against each other will be alot of fun to fans of the comics, but the Capcom side of things will obviously attract other audiences as well. At first the game comes across as pretty shallow, special moves are easy to come by and you may find yourself spamming the basic attack button a little too much until you start learning the combos, underneath that is an extremely complex and well thought out game which could potentially be up there with the best of them.
At a basic level of difficulty, the gameplay doesn't really offer up too many challenges. Playing on easy mode means you are only going to use light to medium attacks with the possibility of a soft finisher move at times. As you progress through the difficulty levels the game gets abit more interesting. The harder the game gets the more you learn the combo moves which speeds up gameplay alot and makes the game overall more enjoyable, despite it being much more difficult. Combo moves are surprisingly quite easy to remember and are generally in good sequences for your fingers to naturally go to, in no time you will be a combo master and be performing them without thinking. Hats of to the devs for making it such a delightful system to use.
MvC3 adopts a 3 vs. 3 fighting system, which allows you to preserve your fighters health. Yellow health cannot be replenished but red health can, so when the red bar is quite big that is the time to tag out. Holding an ally's respective button will tag them in, but if you would like just a little extra help maybe finishing off an enemy, tapping there button will bring them in for a second and they will perform an attack. High level finisher moves also allow all 3 of your fighters to come in and perform a triple move, providing your team has the right chemistry of course.
With an impressive roster of 36 different characters to pick from the game certainly has lasting appeal. With each character adopting their own unique styles, with different combo moves and hyper combos you really will feel you get your moneys worth. With many endings to the Arcade mode it adds abit more incentive to keep playing, though in fairness you'll have plenty of reason to play through the Arcade mode numerous times trying out the different characters. This variation is hindered somewhat by the fact that only 3 face buttons are for attacks, instead of the usual 4. The triggers and bumpers are used but only 3 button attacks. It makes the game more accesible to new players, but it could possibly hinder the possibilities and the experience for fans of the fighting genre. X-factor is another inclusion in the game which speeds up the game play considerably. Pressing the attack buttons simultaneously will cause your character to enter X-factor mode whichcauses your red health to regen even whilst fighting and your attacks to become more powerful. The power and effectiveness of the X-factor relies on the amount of health your character has left and how many fighters remain on your team, so if you're on your last fighter and are very weakend the X-factor will be extremely strong.
All these pace quickening features can be abit overwhelming for some players. The lightning pace not only causes masses of flashing lights (epilepsy sufferers should stay well clear) but even for a concentrated gamer it is quite hard to keep up, if you're not 100% on the ball you could be knocked out in a few seconds. This leads to the gap between beginners and experts being so wide that it may put off the lesser skilled players for life if they try to enter hard mode or face someone very good online. Speaking of online, the online mode is full of great ideas but does fall quite short of the leading player in the fighting world Street Fighter IV. Not only do you have your standard player matches and ranked matches but you also have a round robin mode, which is essentially winner stays on.
Despite this being a good innovative mode, having to sit and stare at a title screen until it's your turn really can begin to bore you and as a result can unfortunately lead to many people quitting. Being sent back to the title screen if a search fails or the game ends prematurely is also an annoying oversight and can leave you feeling frustrated. When you do play, providing you are against someone of similar skill it is alot of fun, but this is a very rare occurance. Also your online stats are very well laid out, not only do you find out how many wins and losses you have but also how far you are away from certain challenges and ranks which is a good addition. I'm sure the hardcore fighting fans will find alot to love in the games online gameplay, but more casual players may find it difficult to step into the arena.
Overall Capcom have made a fighting game which could compete with the best of them for some people. It will not be to everyones taste and is definently hard to adapt to. If you give this game time it will flourish and you will be enjoying it for many months to come. Getting a grasp of the control systems and speed may be difficult for alot of people but the ones that do get a hold of it will be satisfied when they do. Dispite the games very decent gameplay the replayability is hindered by a sub-par online structure.
Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate Of Two Worlds Gets An Official Game-Pad: 8.2/10
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