Marvel vs Capcom 3 Impressions

Playing:
Marvel vs Capcom 3
(PS3)

I was a fan of Marvel vs Capcom 2 and owned the game on both the Dreamcast and the PS2, so I had some pretty high expectations for this one. Fun fact: I actually bought a Sega Dreamcast for the sole purpose of playing MvC2, and it would be the only game that I ever purchased for the console before eventually selling it. Kind of odd in hindsight, especially considering how great the DC library was. But I digress...

MvC3's overall roster is nice, though it's tough to not be disappointed by some of the omissions (Venom? Zangief?) as well as puzzled by some of the inclusions (X-23? MODOK?). The comic book nerd in me kept hoping for Havok, or Blink, or Bishop, or Valeria Von Doom, but it's tough to complain after seeing - and hearing - Deadpool in action.

The graphics are nothing short of spectacular, and the controls are a breeze once you condition yourself to stop thinking in terms of punches and kicks and get a hang of the simplified Light, Medium, Hard, Launch setup. Diagonal air dashing and double jumping seem to be less effective in air combos - good news for the more casual players such as myself - and seem to have been toned down in favor of the flashier and easier to use team aerial raves. Yet at its core, MvC3 is still the fast-paced senses overload that the previous installment was, and vets of the series should have no problems jumping right back in.

The game is unfortunately somewhat hurt by its lack of any real additional modes. After spending some time learning the new controls, I was almost immediately able to jump into arcade mode and beat the game on the hardest difficulty. Beyond that, there isn't particularly much more that MvC3 offers in an offline setting. Mission mode is useful for what it is - an extension of training mode that walks players through moves and combos for each character - but it's essentially a carbon copy of the challenge mode found in SFIV.

The real treats of the game are the countless winks and nods to both the Marvel and Capcom universes that the creators have sprinkled throughout the game. You'll get a kick out of Deadpool mocking Magento with his infamous "Welcome to die!" line and declaring his love for Street Fighter when he meets Chun-Li, or Thor proclaiming his showdown with Amaterasu a battle of the gods, or even Ryu getting ready to fight Marvel's Iron Fist in his ending, a subtle little nod to his upcoming foray into the King of Iron Fist world in Street Fighter X Tekken. There's absolutely no semblance of a cohesive story to be found here, but the creators certainly did their homework and got the little nuances of each character right.

In the end, MvC3 is certainly about fan service, and that's the one thing that really pushes the game over the top. As a huge Okami fan, it's a dream to get to use Amaterasu in a fighting game setting and take out Galactus. My only real complaint would be the relatively modest roster size, but as advertised, the game is both incredibly fun to play and amazing to look at. Easy recommendation for those who have yet to check it out.