Story & Playability
Marvel vs Capcom 2 pretty much defined my teenage years. I remember first playing it at the state fair on a nice arcade
machine and finding myself blown away by what it had to offer. Instead of riding rides, I kept throwing quarters in
this machine. When I left the fair that day, I just had to have more of this game. I took one of my first paychecks
from my first job and bought a Sega Dreamcast (the only system it was available for at the time) and started perfecting
my skills. I played for hours a day, fought in tournaments and became a master at it. I remember really pissing off my
friends in the military when I would pick 3 Spider-Mans and never letting them hit the ground. 10 years later and I
still find myself plugging in the Dreamcast and firing up...
HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!
What's this, there's a 3rd one to play now? Alright, let's get this underway.
Alright, this section is about story and playability right? Well here's your story synopsis: fight 6 battles with
your 3 chosen characters and then kick Galactus' ass in the last battle. Whoever finishes off this planet eater
gets to have their happy or not so happy ending shown. Deadpool's will be goofy, Wesker's evil and
Morrigan's sexy. There's your story. But who really plays fighting games for their story? Probably the same
people who claim they play hentai games for the story... you're not fooling anyone you horny liar.
Hey, it gives you a comic book feel and is pure fanservice for those fans as well as the ones who enjoy the Marvel vs
Capcom lore.
Rating: 7
Graphics
If you wanted really pretty 2d sprites, then get ready to be disappointed. This game is much more of an HD Tatsunoko vs
Capcom in the way it's presented. Very shiny character models with lots of bright colors. It's different
than what we all expected but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
In an age where it seems every game is all about gritty and realistic, Marvel vs Capcom 3 is a breath of fresh air.
It's colorful with dynamic colors. Every character is meticulously crafted to feel next generation while still
maintaining their old school appeal. It's like taking a muddy Jeep through a car wash; the basic form and function
is all there but now it's much prettier. The animation is smooth as silk, there's never a framerate issue, it
is visually assaulting in every single match, the backgrounds are detailed and brimming with life and... well it's
just plain pretty.
Be aware that it could possibly be the most seizure inducing thing out there though. I still think a video game causing
a seizure is a legend, but if you know it's true out of your own experience, you should probably walk away.
Rating: 9
Sound
There are two big aspects that come into play when reviewing the sound on this game: background music and character
voices. The background music is probably one of the biggest improvements over Marvel vs Capcom 2. Yes, you do still
get the infamous "I wanna take you for a ride" music during character selection, but it's not just like a
5 second loop that leads you to want to punch puppies when the person you're fighting takes too long to select
their character. Instead it's a fast paced techno remix accompanied by the games announcer.
The rest of the game's BGM is, for lack of a better word, solid. Unlike it's predecessor, that only played
one song on each level, Marvel vs Capcom 3 actually changes the music based on the character you're fighting. The
battle starts with Dante and the iconic metal music. After you land the killing hyper combo and Dante falls to the
ground, Chun-Li enters the fight accompanied by her old school Chinese inspired music. This is how the whole game plays
out and it's really a great way to do it. The music is always fresh and it makes each battle more personal.
The voice acting is a homerun for a lot of reasons. There is selectable English and Japanese voices, which is always a
plus. There's even an option that will set the voice actors to their game defaults, i.e. Ryu will automatically
speak Japanese and Captain America will automatically speak English. Every single voice can be tweaked to your liking
so you'll never have to sacrifice the Japanese sexiness of Morrigan because you like English Dante more. The other
thing that truly makes the voice acting stand out is that the characters will actually interact with one another based
on who you have chosen. Deadpool will make fun of Magneto at the beginning of a fight quoting his hilarious
"welcome to die" line from the X-Men arcade game. Chris Redfield and Albert Wesker will exchange threats.
Dante will comment on the woman he's fighting. There's a lot of awesome details that it will take a long time
to discover.
Rating: 8
Fun
Here's where the glowing review will lose a little bit of it's luster.
The first thing that should be mentioned is that if you were a master of Marvel vs Capcom 2 and you expected those
skills would carry over... well, think again. There's no more LP, HP, LK, HK going on, instead it went for Weak,
Strong, Fierce and a pop-up button. You don't ever have to wonder if a character pops up the other with a down+HP
or just a HK, there's one button that does that for every character. It takes some getting used to and definitely
takes a while to reprogram yourself from your Marvel vs Capcom 2 days. It's also a bit simpler to chain together
combos than it was before as all you really have to do is climb the chain of Weak+Strong+Fierce, so the cost of entry
into this game is low but it does take much more skill to truly master than its predecessor.
Air combos can now result in Team Aerial Combos. You can pop someone up with one character, hit them with an air combo
and then trade out your character in mid air to continue it. You finish with one character by hitting X (on the PS3)
and a directional button. If the opponent presses X and the same direction the attacker does, then they execute a Team
Aerial Counter and stop the onslaught. If they guess wrong, then your partner gets to come in and continue bringing the
pain. This is actually where the majority of the fighting takes place. Reading your opponent and what direction they
usually choose is the key to breaking out of their combos and gaining the upper hand.
The game does feel a bit more balanced than did it's great grandfather. You'll have a character like Phoenix,
who can actually revive herself as Dark Phoenix if you have a full Hyper Combo bar and does huge damage, have such low
defense that she can be dropped in one good air combo on high damage settings. You'll have characters like Chris
Redfield, who seem to have good damage potential brought down by his limited reach and more clunky speed. There are
still cheap characters *cough Iron Man and Sentinel* but it does feel more balanced.
One of the main problems with the game is that it's just too limited. There's a story mode and online
fights... that's pretty much it. There's a few events that you can do, but they are mostly just beating story
mode with a few handicaps or winning a certain amount of fights online in a row. When you have these robust fighters
coming out like Mortal Kombat offering so much more to do that just arcade mode, this one feels really stripped down.
When you consider that you can rip through a run of arcade mode in 10 minutes if you're good, this game
doesn't have as long lasting of an appeal.
Of course one of the other problems this game faces is competition. When Marvel vs Capcom 2 came out, it stood above
all other 2d fighters. Arcades were still in existence and there was a competitive scene for it. Now you have games
like Blazblue, Mortal Kombat, Arcana Heart and more out there vying for fighter enthusiasts. Those games have much more
of a degree of challenge to them and draw the more dedicated fighting game fiends. This one just doesn't have
enough to offer to them, so if you find yourself liking this game and getting fairly skilled at it, you just won't
find the online offering all that challenging.
Marvel vs Capcom 3 is a worthy follow-up to the series. The teenager inside of me with fond memories of the old game
does find itself a bit disappointed by this offering but this one is fun on it's own two feet as solid fighter.
The character list is smaller, there aren't all the fun unlocks to earn and you don't feel as accomplished in
the end, but it's fun, and that's what matters at the end of the day.
It's cheap now, so go ahead and pick it up. Or, you could just wait until the Ultimate edition comes out later
this year. I'd probably wait for that one actually. The thought of fighting with Phoenix Wright and Frank West is
too awesome to not take advantage of.
Rating: 6
Final Verdict
7.1667 (above average)
Reviewed by shoujoboy, Jul 23, 2011