Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds Review

1 Mar, 2011

Title: Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds
Platform: Xbox 360/PS3
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
TWOLS (Ten Word or Less Summary): Fast paced, vibrant and easy to pick up fighting action.

Warning: This game may contain flashing images, vibrant colours, and some of your favourite game characters and super heroes beating each other into next year. I have never been a huge fan of fighting games, I mean I’ve played a bit of Tekken and Street Fighter in my time but who hasn’t, right? Since the announcement of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 I was determined to make the game my diving board into a previously unexplored genre. So I write this feeling rather fortunate that Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was indeed a well-planned leap of faith into fighting games.

Fans of Capcom and Marvel will obviously be the ones who are anxious to pick up this game. The sense of smugness you get from recognising a character from a lesser known game or comic is a reason to buy a game in itself really. With that said, the roster is full of fan favourites on both sides. Capcom has the likes of Chris and Wesker from Resident Evil, Dante from Devil May Cry and Amateratsu from Okami whilst Marvel supports the comic book heavy hitters like The Hulk, Deadpool and various X-men. All the characters have a few costumes (which are more like different colours) and each has a unique move-set. This is one of the wonderful things about Marvel vs. Capcom 3, the joy of exploration. Fighting games often have you search through the characters to find your ‘one’, but Marvel vs. Capcom is less about finding the ‘one’ but more about finding your ultimate team. A well balanced team is essential for success and players need to be able to make use of each character to their fullest. Players who are akin to heavy combos are likely to go with more complex characters such as Taskmaster, whereas newbies can go for more simple characters like Captain America. It’s not that some characters don’t have depth in their moves; it’s just that some can be picked up and played with more easily than others. This obviously leads to a degree of imbalance. I hate to point fingers but certain characters *cough* SENTINEL *cough* are just too overpowered, acting as tanks that can just annihilate a whole team with only a few moves. This somewhat cheapens the game and almost forces you to turn around and say to whoever you’re playing with ‘Please please please don’t use Sentinel’. This is often followed by the response ‘Well if you were good then you would be able to beat me despite the fact he is ridiculous’, to which you can but sigh and try your best.

Marvel vs. Capcom takes time. To avoid mashing buttons (which can be done, but to little effect) you should really learn the combos. Unlike many other fighting games Marvel vs. Capcom doesn’t present you with an endless list of superhuman button combinations to pull off to do more than just punch. Characters often have only a few pretty easy to learn combos and therefore don’t feel overwhelming. Players can even choose a ‘simple mode’ which totally refines the controls and allows those less patient or simply not as good to have a quick go and stand a chance. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is more about how you string together your attacks, when to strategically switch out your players, and when to use your specials. Some of the most intense games I have played have been turned around by losing players in the blink of an eye just by utilizing these three factors.

Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is not an ugly game, not by any stretch of the imagination. The character designs are well thought out and the cell-shaded graphics make the game feel somewhat cartoony but not immature. There are colours coming at you left right at centre, like a unicorn has just thrown up a rainbow all over your TV (what a pleasant thought). Those with huge HD TVs beware; you may be going to see a doctor about your eyes after executing some super combos.

There is a disappointing lack of game modes in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Offline mode consists of Arcade, Versus, Training and Mission mode. Arcade pits players against different teams over 6 matches before facing the final boss Galacticus. The fights themselves are not too hard (if the difficulty is not set above your skill level), but that bastard Galacticus can cause a few problems with his one hit KO moves. On beating the arcade mode, which shouldn’t take more than an hour each go, you receive a special ending for the character you finished him off with, a few ‘player points’, and maybe some new titles and logos for your online player card. The problem with Arcade mode is that it doesn’t really offer that much in terms of incentive, especially to those of you who don’t really care about collectables. Versus is pretty self-explanatory, as is Training mode. Mission Mode gives you the challenge of performing certain combos with each character in order to complete each individual mission. This almost feels like a glorified Training mode as it allows you to learn the moves, but doesn’t offer much more than player experience as a reward. Online is as you would expect, fighting against players from all over the world with your (hopefully fully experienced and functional) kick-ass team.

There is a few niggles that I have with Marvel vs. Capcom. These niggles come in the form of downloadable content. It is easy to tell that more characters will be released and more costumes will become available. Heck, Capcom even released the game with two characters on it that must be downloaded for a fee for those who didn’t get the extravagant collector’s edition. The extra, more interesting, costumes will also cost to download, which is pretty annoying for those disappointed by the simple colour scheme change that are regarded as ‘alternate costumes’ on the standard disc. It is almost impossible for those who really enjoy the game to resist all these extras, especially additions to the roster. I know I will be downloading them, begrudgingly of course. I can understand Capcom want to make money, but please, just give us a couple for free.

I really enjoyed Marvel vs. Capcom 3. So much so that me and my friends spent a rather shameful amount of time playing it in one go, and I’m still not bored of it! Fans of the genre will love the game and will find endless joy learning the combos and kicking ass with their own perfect team. It is also a good stepping plank into the scary swamp that is fighting games, as it is enjoyably in-depth without isolating newcomers. The game offers little in terms of game-modes which will automatically put some off, but Marvel vs. Capcom seems to cope without them just fine. The graphics are wonderful, even if some of the special may burn your retinas. The DLC issue is certainly an annoyance. Players will pay for extra content, especially in a game where content is considered lacking, which ultimately feels a bit bad-mannered by Capcom. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 gets my big thumbs up (not that I have big thumbs), and for those who are sitting on the fence about buying it then go ahead. You never know, you may be progressing up the leaderboards faster than you can say ‘OH GOD NOT BLOODY SENTINEL’.

Rating: 4.5/5