This game had some big shoes to fill. Coming on the heels of MvC2, a game that spanned 3 generations of consoles and was one of the most sought after and played fighting games in the past decade, Capcom had to make this sequel a big one and boy did it deliver. MvC2 pioneered the fighting genre as it stands today and seeks to throw in a few crossups with it’s newest iteration of the game.
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The game has slimmed down it’s roster from 56 characters to 36 which some fans will cry foul about but let’s be honest, who actually used Servbot in MvC2? And don’t lie to yourself, War Machine and Iron Man were the same character. I wouldn’t mind the addition of a few more characters, a thing that Capcom has promised down the road but I really don’t want to pay huge amounts of imaginary Microsoft money for them. I think 200-400 MS points would be the best range for these if Capcom chooses to go that route.
Fans will have a lot to reminisce about in this sequel, tons of fan favorites make reappearances; Wolverine, Magneto, Storm, Ryu, Chun-Li, Hulk, Sentinel, Akuma and Iron Man to name a few. MvC3 throws in a few new faces that are sure to shake up the place as well; Chris Redfield and Wesker from Resident Evil and Dante and Trish are a few of the new comers that are sure to be put through their paces. Deadpool is sure to win the hearts of many with his funny antics and his constant breaking of the “4th wall.” Amaretsu from Okami and Viewtiful Joe are some of the more “flashy” characters to be added to the roster but both can be used in the own unique ways.
The mechanics of the game are mostly the same but MvC3 features a new combo system that gives every character a “launch” button that allows any player to easily go into an air combo if they so choose, not letting only the pros figure out how to do it. The combos may seem simpler to old veterans but pretty much any combo can be pulled off if the timing is right, the only limiter is your imagination. Instead of distinguishing between punches and kicks as in MvC2 and Street Fighter, MvC3 only has a Light, Medium and High attack button as well as their launch. Each character has a very long list of combos and those are usually interchangeable and can be combo’d into each other.
The online mode is fantastic, offering Ranked and Player matches for choosing whether you want to really focus or just practice a little bit, the bad thing is Capcom hasn’t seemed to get their servers straight yet. It’s almost impossible to find one of these games. Online lobbies feature sort of a ‘king of the hill’ gametype where the winner of a battle stays and everyone else rotates against him until he loses. It makes for lots of fun but one glaring mistake is that you can’t watch the battles as they happen if you aren’t playing. The downloadable MvC2 for Live Arcade and PSN offered this and it seems that it should have been easy to put back in.
Overall there is almost no story to the game but anyone who is playing this religiously won’t be in it for the story. I’ve had multiple people ask me why I paid full price for an “arcade fighting game.” Personally, if that’s how you classify the game then it’s not going to be the game for you. MvC3 goes so much further than the arcade. Like it’s predecessor MvC2, I garauntee this game will be used in fighting tournaments around the world for years to come. This game fires on all cylinders and if you’re any kind of a fighting game fan, pick this up.
Final Score: 5 out of 5