Marvel vs Capcom History: Marvel vs Capcom 3 Fate of Two Worlds/Ultimate

Marvel vs Capcom History: Marvel vs Capcom 3 Fate of Two Worlds/Ultimate

Robert Lewis Knuckles III

“Big Return”

This might’ve been a huge surprise from Capcom at E3 2010 when they announced Marvel vs Capcom 3 coming out in Feb. 2011. It's been a decade since the last Marvel vs Capcom game and honestly I didn’t think we would get another one but looking back at the return of Street Fighter IV and success of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 on the Xbox 360 and the PS3 I shouldn’t be surprised that Marvel vs Capcom 3 was coming.

Marvel vs Capcom 3 enters the 3D world but still plays like a 2D fighting game. Now the roster in this game is very different and what I mean by is that there aren’t many classic Capcom characters. You still have your favorites Ryu, Chun-Li and Morrigan. They are joined by new characters Chris and Wesker from the Resident Evil series, Dante and Trish from the Devil May Cry and a couple of more characters.

Now the Marvel side has classic characters such as Wolverine, Captain America, Spider-Man and others are joined by new characters the merc with a mouth Deadpool, Hulk’s cousin She-Hulk makes her fighting game debut and more new characters join the fight.

You do have many returning characters but a lot of them don’t play the same as their 2D counterpart which shouldn’t be a surprised because this a brand new game. Ryu can shoot his Shinku Hadoken upwards or when performing in the air can shoot it downward. Captain America's shield throws like a boomerang and hit the opponent from both sides. Now the roster got a mix reaction. The roster is a total of 38 characters including the DLC characters. Many people believed that this roster is small because Marvel vs Capcom 2 featured a total of 56 characters. Not only is the roster small but they are missing a very important character and that's the blue bomber Megaman. I mean it's cool to have Zero but you can't have a Capcom game without the blue mascot.

Marvel vs Capcom 3 still features the same three on three tag battles and has almost every feature from Marvel vs Capcom 2. The button layout is different  in this game. Instead of a punch and kick button they have light attack, medium attack, hard attack and special button (which is basically an air launcher). This button layout was used before in Capcom’s other vs title Tatsunoko vs Capcom This kind of made combos easier especially for new players. Another new feature was the air exchange when players put their opponent in an air combo they can tag in their partner to continue the combo. This can be used three times but your opponent can counter the combo if they guess the same direction pad button you press so be careful.

The biggest new feature that had mixed reviews is X-Factor. X-Factor was a comeback mechanic that gave your character increased power, speed and increases your health. There are three levels of X-Factor depending on the amount of active members on your team. The more teammates you lose the longer X-Factor last. Now I wasn’t the biggest fan of X-Factor and I understand that Capcom wanted a feature to help give players a chance but this makes comebacks way beyond easy. Like level three X-Factor Wesker…

Marvel vs Capcom 3 added online and it's pretty rough. Online was especially rough during the first few days it was released. Online lobbies didn’t have spectator mode so you had to watch game cards battle it out instead.

In the end Marvel vs Capcom 3 is an okay game. It had a lot of hype from the trailers and gameplay but it just failed to deliver. I mean sure the numbers of sales were great due to the fact that we're getting another Marvel vs Capcom game. The arcade endings were bad and they had nothing to do with the trailer. Online was rough, the roster wasn’t the best and gameplay felt really easy, really broken and a lot characters can die in one combo especially during X-Factor.

Later that same year in 2011 Capcom released the updated game Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. This new game added 12 new characters to the roster with all returning being patched. Some turned out better while some turned out worse. Ultimate added Spectator mode which should’ve been in the last game. Other than that Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 should’ve been the game that Capcom should’ve released first. Its honestly the same game with new characters. X-Factor was patched to become weaker but it's still a cheap comeback mechanic. If you play this game beware of Dark Phoenix…….