Review | Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Fate of Two Worlds

It’s been ten years since Capcom’s last entry in the venerated Marvel vs. Capcom series. This time around, the game sees a home release first on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Where else can you have a shoeless guy in a gi, a mayor with a mustache, and a gamma ray irradiated scientist take on a cosmic world eater… and win?

At first glance, it seems to share a lot in common with MvC2: 3-on-3 combat, hypers that cancel into other hypers to bring in teammates, and over the top action. The reality, however, is that it feels very different from it’s predecessors (though, to be fair, MvC2 had considerable changes from the MvC1). The game moves to 3 attack buttons: Light, Medium, and Heavy. There’s also a Special button that can act as a launcher, tag in mechanism, or a slew of other options depending on the character. The remaining 2 required buttons are the Assist buttons tied to the other members of your team. Tap the button to call for a quick move or press and hold to exchange your fighter.

X-Factor is the biggest addition to the game and will be the one most heavily debated features. You can activate X-Factor once per match by hitting all 3 attacks and the special button at the same time. This returns your character to a neutral state (similar to a Baroque or Roman Cancel from other fighting games), increasing their damage and speed based on the number of teammates still available. It will also heal the red life of your characters, even the active one in the field.

In this iteration of Marvel vs. Capcom, each character does a tremendous amount of damage, making it more akin to Street Fighter 2, where each mistake can potentially cost you the match. Using X-Factor can provide a way to ensure you quickly kill off a problematic character, or to stage a large comeback if you’re down to your last character. This makes even the softest hitting character able to finish off the toughest character in a combo or two. It does introduce an element of randomness (feeling of rather), as the best laid plans can fall apart instantly. A bad assist call could cost you two characters because your opponent decided to use X-Factor and use a hyper combo just at that moment.

As far as paper-thin fighting game plots go, this has one. Wesker joins forces with Dr. Doom and other heavy hitting Marvel villains in an attempt to control both worlds. This results in Galactus to get involved, and both universes join forces to stop the Earth from being consumed. While the main plot leaves a lot to be desired, many of the endings are funny and interesting interactions of the universes and makes me wish the would expound on these in the future.

The game’s visuals are stunning. The character models seem a bit plain at first glance, but the character silhouettes and bold coloring style allows one to keep up with the game’s hectic pace and hyper attacks (that can take up a considerable amount of the screen). From facial expressions, special moves, and Deadpool’s walking back motions, the animation is full of character and help unify an extremely eclectic cast.

The music and character themes work and provide a good mix of remixes of older original themes to more dance driven songs. For those missing the smooth jazz from MvC2, don’t fret too much. The iconic character selection theme makes it’s return in several remixed forms. Character voices are appropriate and I didn’t really run into a single one that seemed off the mark. From Hsien-Ko’s cheerful comments to  Sentinel’s cold robotic tones, each character fits their personalities and provide a nice touch of interaction when they banter in the beginning of match. Small touches in the tag in even show care as Wolverine and his clone, X-23, refer to each other by name.

The game, however, is not without fault. Unless you only know a small handful of friends or only plan to play ranked matches, the online options will be underwhelming. Being able to save and watch replays has fostered overall community learning and interaction (as seen with Street Fighter IV and Tekken), but completely absent in this game. More surprisingly, there is no spectator mode at the time of writing. Rather, you see the participating players’ ID cards bump into each other with small health bars attempting to relay the match results to the rest of the lobby. It grows tiresome quickly and is what I consider the largest blemish on the game’s presentation.

The game has a great training mode to let you practice almost everything you need to use in a match: combos, team dynamics, and spacing. Set your X-Factor level as each character benefits differently from the boost. You can even simulate the latency of a match–allowing you to practice in less than ideal conditions. Trying to combo with a single bar connection is a hilarious endeavor. One great stride games like BlazBlue: CS has made is providing players a way to see combos and attempt to explain the mechanics that exist in the game engine. While Mission Mode doesn’t reach this level of guidance, it takes a great step in the right direction as each section lists what it’s trying to provide an example of and attempts to ease you into the execution of the game.

Will this game still be played competitively a decade later like its predecessor? Is it broken in all the right ways to make it feel balanced and competitive with a wide swath of characters? I honestly can’t answer this with any authority. But for those who may be more casual comic fans who aren’t gamers but want something to play with a family, set the controls to simple and enjoy the spectacle. For those who are more serious about their fighting games, there is so much to discover and the creativity you can form with the combos is unmatched. It’s fast, it’s easy to pick up and most importantly, it’s fun.