After 10 years the wait is finally over with Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds finally gracing us with it’s presence. This time we’ve got a fantastic cast of 36 characters that range from series favorites like Wolverine and Ryu to newcomers such as Viewtiful Joe and Super Skrull. The game is still the same button-mash fest the previous games were known for but don’t expect an easy ride to the top of the leaderboards because players who take the time to actually learn how to play will be able to slap you around silly.
Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds
Developer: Capcom
Price: $60.00
Platform: PS3 (reviewed) & 360
There are some slight gameplay changes such as having simply just a Light, Medium, & Heavy attack button plus the two assist buttons. The most significant change (in my infinitely flawed opinion) is the change to moving each characters launcher to a single ‘Special’ button. Now anyone can launch their enemies into the air by simply hitting the launcher button, then of course jumping up and following that up with some sweet combos. Oh yea did I mention they added a fuck-awesome simple mode for people who suck hard at fighting games? Hell yea now you can pull off some sweet combos by just pressing a single button.
Of course the first thing most people are going to do is jump straight into the Arcade mode which is where you’ll fight through 6 waves and then face off against a boss. Each character gets their own comic book styled ending with many of them being quite humorous and even featuring cameos from characters not in the game such as Ghost Rider and Phoenix Wright. You’ve also got versus where you’ll trash talk with your friends and the training mode to test your stuff against either a mobile or paralyzed bot. The training mode does offer some nice tweaks to test various situations and even allows you to see how the game would be played on various internet connections.
Capcom decided to add a nifty Mission Mode where you’ll have 10 missions per character to learn various moves and combos specific for that character. This is pretty helpful in just going in, trying out a character, and then testing them out later in training mode but other than that don’t expect anything amazing from it. That’s about it for the modes in the game so there’s not much else to do besides try to 100% the gallery/mission mode (good luck) and play online. Personally I was never big into extra modes in fighting games, just give me a good game and I’ll make my own fun with friends in versus mode.
When you pop online you can expect to find a ranked mode where each fight will count towards your overall rank and you can decide to just get your ass kicked by anybody of any rank or specifically decide to get your ass kicked by somebody of the same region, language, or rank. Then there’s non-ranked (player match) and lobby mode which is just a room of up to 8 people going at it. For some stupid reason Capcom didn’t include the ability to watch the other guys fighting while you wait in the lobby but apparently they’re going to patch that and replays in for free pretty soon so whatever I guess. Sure does rock having to wait for a bunch of dicks turtling in this game but sure whatever.
The last bit I’ll talk about is the License Card. This is where everyone can view your stats, favorite teams, and your overall score. You’ll be able to choose an avatar and title which is neat I guess but the meat and bones of the LC is seeing your stats. On the first tab you’ll notice that the game is constantly tracking how well you do in your games by scoring you on defending, attacking, stability, etc. and it’s all shown on a nifty circular diagram. You can also go to the other tabs to see how many times you got your ass handed to you and even pick which teams you like to use along with color/assist for the characters too.
Some people seem to be upset at the 20 or so less characters MVC3 has compared to MVC2 and I’m going to address this point quickly: Stop bitching. Most of the roster in MVC2 were simply cloned reskins of each other and Capcom has decided to do away with that and simply focus on the gameplay with each character feeling unique and all playing differently. Instead of catering to fanboy demand Capcom decided to go the right way and focus on the gameplay, to which I salute them.
Capcom has done a phenomenal job with the graphics in this game. They’ve taken the 3D models, added some cell-shading, and have done some of the most impressive comic-inspired looks I’ve seen in a game with all the characters looking crispy fresh and the backgrounds full of life. All the characters animate fantastically at a smooth 60fps . The biggest perk about the characters is all the dialog they shout out which all sounds pretty spot-on even for the characters who have never been voiced before. Definitely expect to chuckle at some of the unique dialog between certain characters. The soundtrack is full of catchy techno songs that are surprisingly well done, and I say this as a person who doesn’t really enjoy techno.
It’s also pretty funny because now Morrigan really isn’t ever going to get a new sprite.
The Final Word
The 10+ year wait have totally been worth it. Fighter fans should pick this up to join the fun train and non-fighting fans should also pick this up because the controls are ridiculously newbie-friendly (that and I seriously need some free wins online). Buy this game now or else.
– MonsterVine Rating: 5 out of 5 – Excellent
