Marvel vs. Capcom 3 retains the same crazy 3 on 3 tag team fighting system as MVC2 and generally feels similar in many aspects. Battles are lightning fast, combos are heavy hitting, and the action never lets up. The game is a lot easier to play than MVC2 with four attack buttons (light, medium, heavy, and special) and two assist buttons tied to each tag partner. A simple good damaging combo for most characters is now as easy as hitting light, medium, heavy, special then follow up in the air with medium, medium, heavy, special. Assist are simple too, as in press the button to use an assist attack from your tag partner or hold the button to switch out.
It may sound a little intense but once you try it out it is rather very simple. Even with this simple button scheme, I think the game will have a lot of depth in the future as people learn the ins and outs of the game. As I got more experience with the game, I discovered that it is less important about choosing your three favorite characters and more about choosing characters that go well together. EX. To use the powerful Dark Phoenix, she needs to have 5 supers when KO'ed, which means pairing her up with someone like C.Viper is a bad idea because her moves drain a lot of special meter. However with Morrigan, who has an assist that actually raises special you can begin to see how certain characters compliment each other. Also the biggest addition to the game is X-Factor. Basically once per round you can activate this at any time to give your characters an incredible boost of strength and also negates blocking (chip) damage. It is better used with the less remaining characters as it will last longer and be stronger when you are alone. This alone can change the tide of any battle as an X- Factor Hulk can wipeout an entire team in about 15 seconds. It may be a tad too strong but it does give someone with less skill a chance to win.
Deadpool is one of best characters ever.
The characters are the real stars of the show and Capcom certainly did a good job of making all the characters feel unique. The roster is quite a bit smaller at around 30 or so (MvC2 had around 50) but at least most characters are quite different. You won't find a War Machine or Ken or characters that just seemed like extras. Unique characters on both sides of each company join the fight. Interesting choices on Capcom side are characters like Arthur from Ghost n Goblins, Spencer from Bionic Commando, and Dante and Trish from Devil May Cry. You get the standard characters like Ryu, Chun-li and Akuma also but perhaps the strangest thing are some glaring omissions such as Strider Hiryu and Megaman. The reasoning is that the developers said they didn't fit the style of the game or something which just sounds like an excuse but that's just me. On the Marvel side, you get some awesome new characters like Deadpool (probably the coolest character in the game), X23, Dormammu, Thor and M.O.D.O.K. Half of these new characters I haven't heard of but that doesn't make them any less cool. Although I would have rather seen Venom or Gambit instead of She-Hulk or Shuma-Gorath (DLC). All the characters are rendered beautifully and the game runs without a hiccup at 60 frames per second. Some of the stages are also quite vibrant and varied. My only gripe is that there are very few stages and with this many characters, there can be a bit more inspiration to draw from.
You get the standard when it comes to modes. Offline mode gives you the standard arcade run through complete with cheap last boss (though no where near as cheap as any SNK last boss) that fights you as if were tiny insects at his desk, Versus mode to play with a friend, a training mode which actually has an option to fight with lag which is a pretty cool idea and lastly a mission mode which can give you a heads up on combos and assist setups.
Online is a bit of a mixed bag. The net code is real good and I hardly get any lag when playing which is great in a fast game like this. Also you can check a pretty good summary of everyone you fight by checking their license card which keeps track of wins and losses and their play style. Also I like the level up/Ranking system instead of the BP/PP mess that was Super Street Fighter 4. This sounds all good except that as of now finding an online match is a pain because it always sends you out of the online menu to a loading screen every time you fail to connect to the host which happens a lot. A patch is on the way but this is rather annoying. Also the online is missing some great features that Super Street Fighter 4 got right such as online replays and the option to watch fights that go on as you are waiting in a lobby which is a huge mistake. It makes losing in a lobby with your friends terrible because you have to sit and watch a static screen with life bars go down instead of actually watching the fight. I hope they can fix that soon.
All in all you get a completely fun fighting game that knows what it is and doesn't take itself too seriously. It is better balanced (yes, I know Sentinel is still a bit cheap and way too strong) and easier to access than the previous games in the series yet still has a surprising amount of depth. The great use of both universes is on display and more characters are coming in the future which is a great idea
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