User Reviews

Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: A Good Time Worth Fighting For

Tim Gruver — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 06:10:00 GMT

The fighting genre is much overlooked among the hot 3rd-person shooters and action games of the industry, but a few like Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 are rare and enjoyable exceptions that warrant attention. As other games are worried about depth and scope, MvC 3's wacky and wild fun hardly cares to pay attention, and it's all the better for it. Decked out with an awesome character roster and flashy gameplay, it proves that games can just be fun and not always revolutionary. As DC's Injustice nears release, there's every reason to look back at this last great fighter of Marvel's, and Warner would be better off for it.

Premise:

In a few brief comic-book panel descriptions, MvC 3 follows the tale of Doctor Doom and Albert Wesker's assemblage of all of Capcom and Marvel's greatest villains in an attempt to unite and conquer both universes. This awakens the wrath of the master of the universe, Galactus, who then can only be stopped by Marvel and Capcom's greatest heroes as they try and put a stop to the disaster before all is lost.

Presentation:

Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 doesn't try to be a work of art, but what it does do is provide a wonderful visuals and that faithfully interpret its beloved franchises. The cartoonish, comic book animations of its levels' backdrops and characters are glorious to see in all of their nostalgic charm. The characters themselves look fresh off the same comic-book panels, yet still retain the essence of their series appearances and wield all of the same personality you love them for. While characters like Dante and Deadpool are comically narcissistic, Doctor Doom and Wesker are vain and arrogant. Chun-li and Chris Redfield demonstrate their typical amount of cool confidence and others like Nemesis and Hulk are just there to destroy stuff. It's a shame that this awesome roster of fighters aren't voiced beyond of a few one-liners and grunts, but you'll probably be so entertained watching them beat the crap out of each other that it hardly matters.

Gameplay:

Flair and pizazz fill Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 with a lot of entertaining spectacles, and that includes its gameplay. The action is fast and furious with blinding visual effects that blast their way straight from a comic-book page with their striking precision and over the top action. Characters will be flung high into the air only to be mercilessly pummeled back to earth with crazy, cartoonish finishing moves that will invoke both laughs and cool satisfaction. Your fighters control and move fluidly and sport abilities that fit their characters. Wolverine claws away at his opponents with destructive ferocity, Dante fights with his trademark sword and guns, Viewtiful Joe's small frame is fast and quick, and the Hulk simply smashes opponents to bits. Attacks can be stringed together for special combos and released in powerful hyper and team combos of multiple fighting partners that pull of quite the spectacular chain of almost unbeatable attacks. Fighters like Super-Skrull and Phoenix will decimate their opponents with crippling blows while others like Deadpool and Phoenix Wright's will take down foes with comedic moves that feel just right for the game's nonsensical tone.

Outside of the basic on-line multi-player duel matches, MvC 3 features a robust single-player experience. Through arcade mode, players will fight randomly selected AI opponents and work their way up to fighting the final boss of Galactus to complete each fighter's individual ending cinematic. On high difficulties, these tricky fights are nice to play even if your reward for them feel generally unfulfilling in what character endings you get.

In addition, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 sports a wide range of play modes. Players can choose from Hard, Medium, Easy, and the new Very Easy modes if they beg for mercy (and you'll need it) from the arcade's challenging AI opponents. Furthermore, the game is highly accessible to newcomers and beginning players will much appreciate the tutorial "training" modes that are offered to hone your skills outside of the arena. It's disappointing not to see any more unique modes other than these and there's every hope that

A Note on the Ultimate Edition: Aside from its "Fate of Two Worlds" version, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3's "Ultimate" edition contains much of the original's DLC and several exclusive characters, including Jill Valentine, Ghost Rider, Hawkeye, Rocket Racoon, and Phoneix Wright. All of these fighters are a blast to play, especially for the hilarious antics of Phoenix Wright. Thus, newbies to MvC 3 should certainly lean towards the Ultimate version for the sake of this great extra content.

Final Call:

In many ways, Marvel Vs. Capcom is must of the same from its 3rd entry and its shows in how much they could've done. However, what great things are done in Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 are nothing but enjoyable to see of its popular characters and more fighters would do well to take notes from such consistent quality. DC has much ground to make up from Marvel's gaming successes, but if Injustice is any bit as fun as MvC 3, I'll be a happy fighting camper.

An Epic Edition

Jonathan Harrison — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 01:53:45 GMT

MvC 3's iconic fighting experience is back and better than ever with great character appearance updates, lights, sounds, all-around visuals, and control scheme. I highly recommend this game to anyone who adores Marvel, Capcom, and fighting games.

Truly a Smash Hit

Daniel — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 18:41:00 GMT

I've never been a huge fighting game guy. I enjoy Super Smash Bros, and I played Soul Caliber 2 and 4 (but those got real old real fast). So then Marvel Vs Capcom 3 came along. I saw that several characters I liked were in it like Iron Man, Chris, and Wesker. It also seemed pretty fun looking. When I picked up the game I was first in awe of the awesome opening cutscene, which immediatley led me to pick Dante as my main fighter (I never played DMC before this game) and I was suprised at how fun at how easy to play and fun the game was.

To boot there is a nice selection of characters. I became attached to Dante, Wesker, Deadpool, and Chris quickly. Each character takes some skill to master, in fact I still haven't learned the extent of Dante and Chris' power despite my constant usage of them. One thing that cracked me up about the characters is how much the Marvel and Capcom characters look. Capcom characters range from normal looking (Chris) to really Japanese looking (any street fighter character) while almost all the Marvel characters look flat out ridiculous as opposed to their movie counter parts. That didn't stop me from enjoying the graphics though. The graphics are gorgeous with really vibrant comic book colors though.

Fighting is really easy to jump into. That's easy for me to say because I'm an experienced gamer. However people like my sister and other family members had an easy time jumping into it too. The handicap actually works really well and assures an even match. There is also a simple mode that we never bothered using. The combat is way more fast paced than the slow Soul Caliber fights. Dante was so awesome in the game I decided to end up checking out the Devil May Cry series and I'm now loving it.

There really isn't anything in the way of story mode. There are opening movies that kind of pull some vague plot together, but that's about it. I wish they would have done something more with it. They also failed to put in many unlockables. A couple of characters, opening movies, art work, and models is about all there is in the way of that section. The "mission mode" is really nothing. Just a bunch of short challenges that act almost like a tutorial.

Despite these short comings I still play Marvel Vs Capcom 3 a lot and has found its way into the selection of games that I will openly offer to play multiplayer with anytime. If you like fighting games, get it. If you think it looks cool, chances are your probably right. It's cheap now anyways. I imagine the Ultimate edition is better, but I haven't bothered buying it yet.

Mravel vsapcom

shao cow kahn — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 20:45:00 GMT

lets face it Mk is way better than this. Sure good graphics, cool characters, and neat stages, but you can barely what is going on in the game. Also when beat story mode there is really nothing eles to do

Pretty Fun

Kyle — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 18:29:00 GMT

I never played the earlier games but i heard they were all great fighting games, so i decided to pick this one up. I'm not that great at fighting games but i enjoy playing them anyways, and this was no exception. All the characters were fun to use, and i enjoyed learninng all their specials and beating up on the computer. There weren't that many modes to play, but i enjoyed this game a lot anyways

Creedal Review

Creed Morganna — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 22:04:00 GMT

When i bought this game i had decent expectations, i hope it would be entertaining easy to get in to and fun and i was right. Offering easy to get used to controles and a balanced character list that can be made to fit most peoples fighting styles. This game can offer hours of fun, I've caught myself playing the game well into the night. The only problem is when you have online play the opponents they set you up with are not balanced to your fighting experience. After you reach the rank of Fighter they opponent matcher may have you fighting against someone with 300 or more battle experience than yourself. My best advice would be to play offline for a while until you feel confident in your fighting ability then move to online play. Except for that lone factor MvC3 is a great buy for anyone who enjoys fighting games. So thank you for reading and "Good Luck True Believers.

Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds Game Review

Nick — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 20:57:00 GMT

So, I did something just a bit out of character and picked up a brand new game on release day. That doesn't happen often. Usually I try to be a bit more frugal with my purchases and wait until they're used at Gamestop or something. However, there was the perfect storm of having a couple of beaten games waiting to be traded in, a good deal at Gamestop where they were handing out an extra 50% on all trade-ins and the release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 on Tuesday. I like my fighters. I'm not especially great at them, but they are a lot fun in my opinion. For a glance at this review including images and video - peek at my blog.

I played part 2 a ton in the past, and have been looking forward to part 3 for quite awhile now. The premise is pretty basic stuff. There's a large pool of fighters from both the Marvel and Capcom universes, and you put together teams of three to duke it out in Street Fighter-like fashion. It's all very over-the-top and people looking for a solid storyline need not apply. However, if you enjoy a fast-paced, balanced fighting game with a good number of characters to pick from, this might be the game for you.

For those familiar with Street Fighter or Marvel vs. Capcom 2, you will find that the controls are a bit different. Instead of buttons mapped for various strength punches and kicks, now they are simply mapped for power to the face buttons - light, medium and hard with a fourth 'pop up' button for attacks meant to pop your opponent up into the air. The shoulder buttons are used for things like calling in a special attack from a team mate, or swapping out your character for another one on the squad. As the combat progresses a power meter slowly increases and allows you to pull of big attacks that can rack up the hits and damage.

There are some online modes - ranked or unranked matches against people and there is a lobby system where up to 8 people can occupy a virtual room and you take turns playing one another in a sort of 'winner stays' style you might see at an arcade. There is a story mode, though it's really little more than characters talking at the beginning of rounds as random combinations of characters are pooled together and increase in difficulty on your way through several matches culminating in a big end fight against Galactus. Whichever member of your team that deals the killing blow is the one whose ending you get to see, which consists of a few static images and some text overlay with music.

There are also mission modes, which try to teach you how to do combos and learn a player's moves in a sort of stage-by-stage training progression. There is also the requisite training mode, where you go against a computer opponent you can help tailor to specific situations. So, with this game having been hyped up quite a bit now, what are my thoughts?

Graphics - 8:

This is not the most technically amazing game. Backgrounds look good and are heavily animated, though sometimes you don't even really get a chance to sit back and enjoy them as you're participating in the frantic fights themselves. Characters remind me a bit more of the chunky style used in Street Fighter 4 than the prior Marvel vs. Capcom game, which does a good job of making the game look like it is taken from a comic book or cartoon. Still, the game is loaded with vibrant colors, explosive-looking super attacks and the framerate doesn't tear as it moves along at a smooth clip.

Sound & Music - 8:

The music matches the feeling and tempo of the game itself, and the voice work is decent - what there is of it. It generally consists of a few one-liner comments between the lead characters right before the start of a match. The sound effects are pretty solid, with a variety of tones and special effects. It's not going to blow you away with surround sound technical proficiency, but it's not going to make your wife complain about hearing nothing but gunfire and explosions either.

Gameplay - 9:

The game feels like it has been slowed down from part 2, but I think the game actually plays better for it. It is still very fast-paced, and you don't feel like you can take any 'time off' in most matches. One of the keys is to always be moving. Seems like any time I try to stop and 'think' - either cpu or human opponent drills me. The game is best played instinctively. The controls feel pretty good - some of the super moves can be a tad difficult to perform under duress, but most are just fine. Throwing out my fireballs or doing dragon punches all come very naturally after years of playing Street Fighter games. The menu is nothing special to look at, but it gets the job done. The roster of characters also feels very well-balanced. In my online matches, I saw almost completely different characters every time. That's unusual in my experience, and gives me the impression that people can find favorites and play them while not feeling like they are hurting their odds of success.

Intangibles - 7:

The game is a lot of fun. You're going to spend most of your time fighting and that part of the game is nice and tight. There's also a fair amount of unlockable content - including 4 fighters (that were probably a bit too easy to unlock as I got them all in about my first 40 minutes of playing). There's a lot of characters here, but like 20 less than in part 2. I've seen that bother a lot of people, but honestly I'm good with it. The characters feel a lot better balanced than in the later iteration. Plus, most of the characters feel unique from one another. Sure, you might use the same move input, but that same control scheme might make one character do a rising uppercut and another character launch a flurry of missiles. That's a far cry from version 2, which had several characters who felt exactly the same, just skinned differently. There are 2 additional characters coming out for download soon for purchase (or for free if you bought the special version of the game). There are some omissions that fans will consider glaring, and a few added in who just seem goofy or out of place. My youngest wanted to know where the Fantastic Four were at, and I admit a few favorites of my own like Psylocke and Cyclops were nowhere to be found. I suspect we'll see a bit of DLC come out - already Capcom has announced some new costumes. I'm rather hoping for more modes or characters though than outfits. I also can't help but think that given Capcom's history, that there will be a super-duper-shiny-edition that comes out in about a year, though nothing's been announced that I'm aware of.

So, why this score? Well, the game does get some demerits. It seems like there should be some more modes for one. Also, while there is a fair amount of bonus content to unlock, none if it is terribly compelling. You can look at 3D models of characters, or get new titles or icons for when you play online. There's also a fighter's card that keeps track of your record, stats and playing style, which is cool - but it comes at a bit of a cost. This extra content and this card seem to force the game to do a lot of saving, which is not a super quick process. It's not a huge deal, but when you just really want to get back into a match and hit someone, waiting for the profile to save can be at least mildly annoying.

Also, the online lobby sounds good in theory, but there's a lot of sitting around. It would be nice to actually spectate the people who are fighting, but I didn't see a means of doing so if there is a way. Also the single player ranked matches are hit and miss. My lag time was good in all but one match, which is huge for a game like this built on twitch reflexes. But, a lot of times it just does not come back with a match. Tonight for example, I only got to fight 4 times out of 13 attempts to find an opponent, and I left my settings wide open to have as many options as possible. Considering the game's recent release date and popularity, it sure seems like there should be plenty of people playing right now.

Overall - 8:

I've sunk in probably around fifteen hours so far overall, and have unlocked over half the trophies. I've beaten the game now with about 1/3 of the total cast of characters. I've enjoyed the game quite a bit - and so have my younger two children. There is a simple mode to the controls I did not really talk about much because I only used it for a few fights. The idea is that it can help you perform some techniques that might otherwise be too complicated for the player. It's nice to see my daughter be able to use moves that she normally would only see once in a blue moon by complete accident. Some people worried that making special moves a single button press would give an advantage to these players, but I don't think that's the case. From what I have seen of it so far, it lets them do things they normally would not be able to consistently, but it does take away from their flexibility. I think someone on the normal controls has a better repertoire to react with for given situations during a fight, so skill still tends to win out more often than not. The key is, the younger kids are having fun with it, and so am I. There is a lot of addictive fun to be have with this game, and its broad cast of characters really helps with the game's appeal as well.

Take You For A Ride

StriderNo9 — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 20:10:00 GMT

Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 is exactly what you thought you’d get from a Vs. game. The Characters are colorful, the action is frantic, and the game is deep. Beyond anything else though Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 is fun. The characters available are plentiful, They threw in a lot of fan favorites like Deadpool, and Ryu, and Spiderman, while also bringing some really obscure characters like M.O.D.O.K and Dormammu. If you remember how complicated MVC2 was, rest assured MVC3 is a lot easier to get into. The control scheme has changed to 4 buttons, 3 speeds of attack, and a special. With just those four buttons and quarter circle, back, forward, and "Z" angles with your controller you can pull off almost every move in the game. It makes it easy for anyone familiar to Street Fighter to get into without being overwhelmed with options.

Marvel vs Capcom 3 does a lot of things right, the game is just a ton of fun to play and learn. The advanced tactics are super rewarding and the game's balance plays a big part in that. A lot of the major offensive tactic can be countered by the defending player doing the same move. A lot of attention was put into a fighting system that looks button mashy (and can be for new players) but actually plays with a lot of skill and lets players take the fighters they like and really learn how they fit together. For example, lately I have used Iron Man, Captain America, and Spiderman. I usually use Spiderman first, to set up my fighters since he is fast but less powerful than Iron Man. Captain America is pretty good all around so I use him too for setting up a juggle, and always finish it with Iron Man since he isn't as good at juggling but can end a match with a powerful Hyper Combo. The game makes almost every character feel unique and if you've played other Vs. games you know that sometimes a lot of the peripheral characters used to feel like other characters with a palate swap.

I have yet to play an online match because Capcom refuses to fix it's old broken multiplayer code but I have played some local multiplayer and the game shines like every other Capcom fighter before it. Some of the UI really makes sense like setting up reserve characters so you can choose your presets quickly and jump into a fight, while other things are left out for no reason. Having to pause the game to get the moves every time is silly. I want to see the move while I am fighting.

As for fighting modes, there aren't many, you have your standard arcade mode, and training mode, mission mode which isn't as exciting as it sounds, and of course online play. The main thing that matters is that the meat and potatoes of Marvel Vs Capcom 3 is a fun game for everyone. Young and old fighters alike.

Marvel Vs. Capcom 3

Paul Shade — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 20:25:00 GMT

Over a decade of waiting, playing imitators and tournaments on its predecessor Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 arrives. Does this fighter's new moves and look hit hard and fast or is it just an assist spamming pile of junk?

Gameplay

One of the big problems with MvC2 is the balancing issues and the assist spamming. Both of these concepts are the most important parts of fighters, assist more so in the "Versus" titles. MvC3 does address these problems and the results are fairly good.

Assist spamming was a big problem online on XBL with MvC2. Everyone that played it remembers Cable's electro-whip while Sentinel and another beam character continuously spammed attacks across the screen. This was a problem before the game was launched on XBLA but I played it more on that than in arcades or on Dreamcast. This problem has been fixed in a few ways. The plays faster for one which makes it harder to bring out assist characters without them getting hurt. The second is there are less full screen beam assist. Lastly is that assist take a few seconds to recharge once used.

One of the biggest, if not the biggest, change are the controls. Instead of having three buttons that do punches and three that do kicks like in SSF4 or MvC2 Capcom streamlined the controls into light, medium and heavy attacks with a button that is used to pop up opponents, one that is all attack for hyper combos, and one that when pressed does a hyper combo combination. This setup allows new users to jump right in and gives a little bit of a new learning experience to the vets of the series. I personally like the new setup because it allows the games to be played at a faster pace and the combos are easier to do. However, many vets and some professional reviewers thought Capcom was playing to much into the non-veterans hands and don't like it.

Another new option is simple mode. By pressing a button instead of putting in the combination your characters do special moves. This mode does limit how many attacks you can do and it doesn't really teach you how to play but it is good for players that have never played or friends and family that will never own the game but want to try to compete with you in offline modes.

The last major add-in is X-Factor. When you hit all the face buttons your character in engulfed in a red aura. That has a different effect on all the characters but always regenerates their health. Other affects include: faster movement and stronger attacks.

One problem that seemed to pop up didn't have much to do with any one area so I'll put it in gameplay. Many vets complained that the roster wasn't big enough. There are 36 characters, some new faces but many have been in the series before, a 20 character drop from MvC2's 56. DLC will be a huge part of this game and there might even be something like a "Super" version later on. While I don't mind the roster size I do mind some of the picks, M.O.D.O.K and Thor are just awful. I don't love the idea of DLC but I will get it.

Another problem is a lack of game modes. Other than online and arcade mode you have training, mission mode(learning combos), and versus mode. No time trial, challenge or other modes that are in other fighters on the market. Even a story mode would have been nice to bring some light onto the endings which make no sense.

Overall the gameplay changes are for the best and are mostly an improvement over MvC2. However the lack of game modes and a shrunk roster have many of the fans worrying or complaining.

Gameplay: 8.75/10

Multiplayer

The reason you buys a fighter, to fight on and offline against people.

Offline is just that. You can play people or CPUs in a match. Nothing more nothing less.

Online is where it is at with MvC3. It has player matches that are lobby formats that hold up to eight people in one lobby. It also does ranked matches that you find someone around your ranks and fight to gain exp and for bragging rights on the leaderboards.

The ranked matches seem more competitive than the player matches. All matches show your playercard with your win-loss, title, emblem and win streak. the difference I think is that the win-loss in player matches, as well as the win streak, only deal with that lobby whereas in ranked matches it is in all ranked play. If you see someone with a 5 or 10 match streak in ranked play you want to beat them but at the same time you might be thinking they are pretty good so you try to plan out how to attack them.

Ranked matches can take a little bit of time to find. I tried to find one yesterday and I was searching for over a minute before I just quit looking. Other times I get right into a game so it seems more of a by chance system, if someone else is looking you will get a match. This can be annoying and it would have been made better if there were lobbies for ranked matches too.

That being said when you get into a match, ranked or player, there is no lag at least that I have experienced. Most players used different parties so you normally don't see the same characters twice in a row. Even if you do no two players play alike.

I do have a few issues with online modes. In SSF4 you had theater mode and could save replies or watch others replies. This is missing from MvC3 which I think is a pretty big mistake. It was fun to watch others and try to learn from them or put up your own matches for friends to watch. Another MIA mode is spectator mode in lobbies. You can't watch others fight while you wait in a lobby. This was a poor exclusion because most people don't stick around in a lobby if they can' watch the matches. I hope these come out in a patch sometime.

MvC3 is one of the best online fighters this generation. It captures the speed of and flashiness of the offline game with near zero lag online. Everyone plays different which means a different game every time you join a match. Missing modes hold this back from being a bright golden color but a slightly dulled gold is still a great reason to buy.

Multiplayer: 9.25/10

Sound/Music

The sound in MvC3 adds a lot of the fighter/comic feel to the game. The voices sound right for the characters as do their lines though they do get annoying to listen to after awhile, Deadpool most of all. The hyper combos and special moves sound like they look, Wolverine's claws sound like metal slashing across something for example.

The music is alright. The title music is catchy and some of the stage music is neat but nothing really catches you enough for you to care about it. It doesn't take away from the gameplay but it really doesn't add enough to help out the game overall.

Sound/Music: 7.25/10

Graphics

MvC3 has ditched the sprite look of the older games for a new, 3D look while fighting 2D battles, On a whole the game looks fantastic but it isn't without some down falls.

The characters at a distance look great with their new 3D look. They remind players more of the game characters from the Capcom side and really try to bring the comic book characters to life. However, when you zoom in on characters they seem to lose the detail that the sprites of MvC2 had. The hair looks flat and bland, outfits don't look as sharp and even some of the weapons just look plain. It's almost forgivable because 99% of the time you don't see them up close but you still see them up close at times.

The backgrounds look awesome. The 3D effect is really cool to look at even if some of the stages are a little busy. They are constantly moving around which adds in a neat atmospheric affect that a lot of fighters just don't have.

The game is very colorful too. All the characters seem to have bright colors pouring from their bodies. the combos are still flashy and brightly lit.

Graphic: 8.5/10

Replay

Technically this game has unlimited replay as long as you find people to play with. However, after you beat the arcade a few times all there is to do is mission mode and play online which can limit you. You can go for all the titles if you want and a new Shadow Mode, playing against famous people or players AI characters, which can add game time to this title. But being a fighter many will play it for a few months and it will die away.

Still this game will keep the fans going for a long time.

Replay: 9.0/10

Other

This is one of the better fighters out right now with SSF4 and Blazblue: CS. It is a great addition to the MvC series but I wonder if it is really enough after waiting more than a decade. So few modes and less characters seem to me like a bit of a rip-off. Nevertheless I love playing it despite getting slammed online.

Overall: 8.5/10

(My review is not an average of my numbers but what I feel the game as a whole should get. The numbers under each category are based on what I think those categories are in general when compared to most games on the market today.)

Maverick Reviews: Marvel Vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds

Maverickx25 — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 03:41:00 GMT

Maverick Reviews: Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds

I'll start off by saying that I am only ok at fighting games (or just about any game for that matter(. I seldom find a game that I click with and then proceed to unleash wrath of biblical proportions on my enemies. This game...just might fall into that category.

Again, I'm ok at fighting games. Usually my strategy is pick a character (which inadvertently ends up being the easiest characters to use like Ryu in SF or Jin in BlazeBlu), get familiar with said character and leave it at that.

The difference between Marvel vs Capcom 3 and the others is that with so many iconic characters that I know and love, it gives me a reason to break the one character/team habit. This game's been in the making for ten years and it doesn't disappoint.

Come! Let's enjoy chocolate flavored crack together, Reader!

Graphics: -0 (10/10)

Epileptics (and people with weak constitutions, small bladders, diabetes and heart disease) should seek video gamage elsewhere. This game is a pure visionary overload of fast-paced (think a baby spawned of speed and meth, dipped in sugar) awesomeness. Being a fighting game, graphics are nowhere near as important as everything else (duh!) but this game spouts out some great imagery and runs at a consistent sixty frames per second. The character models are all great (and look even greater with some of the alternate costumes). The character animations seamlessly flow together amidst the chaos.

Visually, this game is intense. During mission mode, performing the same combo repeatedly strained my eyes and I needed to take a break for a minute. So, again, epileptics stay clear.

Sound: -0 (10/10

Superb. From the great soundtrack of crazy, techno metal to all the well placed sound effects, the sound is solid all around. They really make this game sound hard-hitting. The thuds, cracks, whacks, sacks, heart attacks, bings, bangs, booms, bing-bang-booms, zings, zangs, pows and yow-sas all pack their punch (pun intended) and enhance the game's feel.

The English voice acting is all up to snuff. The likes of Dante and Deadpool are perfect: kickin' ass and shooting out one liners like bullets. Nothing is more satisfying. And if you don't like it...then just change their voice to Japanese. That's what most people do.

Control: -4 (16/20)

The control scheme has gone through some changes in the past ten years and it works great. It's pretty much the scheme from Tatsunoko vs Capcom, with some changes and triple tag team. You have a light, medium, heavy and special (air launch) button. The front triggers are tag buttons and the back triggers aren't used unless you map them to do so. If you press all four face buttons, you initiate X-Factor (speed and power buff cancel). Very easy to pick up. However, implementing them into amazing, epic and pack-a-punch combos that flawlessly transition into another is quite challenge. The fight stick is obviously still the best option over a controller. Also, there is a simple control option for beginners to fighting games and those who aren't committed to their craft.

Style: -3 (17/20)

This game series still delivers its massive amount of over the top awesomeness and then tops it with sprinkles. Yeah, you heard right: Sprinkles...get some.

Anyway, we have seizure inducing graphics, great sound and a solid control scheme that is simple to learn but heard to master. Now, there's already a reason this game gets an almost perfect score. Three words: Marvel...Versus...Capcom.

Right there! You have the top heroes and villains from the most critically acclaimed comic universe and throw in some of the most iconic characters from Capcom and you have a gravy train that exploded, rolled down the mashed potato mountain and crashed into a gourmet chicken pot pie. Massive nostalgia here.

Old favorites return (Iron Man, Spider Man, Ryu, Morrigan, etc) and new favorites emerge (Deadpool, Phoenix, Dante, Amaterasu, etc)and they are all mostly welcome (I still hate you Sentinel). Many will piss and moan about characters they know and love from the previous installment getting the axe but this is a new game, folks! We don't want a carbon copy, plus in this day and age, in a world where DLC, online patches and the like are so constant, you know they will be releasing characters (with more costumes) via PSN/XBL on a regular basis (Jill and Shuma-Gorath will be released in a month) and right now, there are many polls out there for DLC characters (Megaman X and Strider lead equally for Capcom and Venom and Gambit lead Marvel). So, be patient (being gamers and especially if you're playing this game, the old adage "Patience is a virtue" is valid).

All of the characters are great and for the most part, diverse. Most of the characters play exactly the same from their respective series (SF or previous MvC) and haven't changed. Wolverine is still a fantastic rush character (add X-Factor and his Berserker Charge hyper, he's a nightmare), while Dante is one of the most diverse characters, having possibly the biggest move set and chaining them together in one devastating combo is just oh so stylish and satisfying. Since there aren't many carbon copies of characters in this game, it'll be interesting to see the combinations of teams that players will create. The possibilities are endless in finding a trio that complement each other in battle. In the end, hopefully what you have is a flawless symphony of ass-kicking, projectile-firing, bum-rushing, air juggling and obscenity inducing badasses that make the little piggies cry all the way home.

Like any fighting game, you have your standard arcade mode, training mode and versus mode for offline. My favorite is the new Mission Mode. There are ten levels for each character and each level is designed to start off with basic special moves (down to forward attacks) and then move onto air combos and finally combos that if pulled off, take most of a character's health and make you feel like a god. I did all of Dante's (an hour long endeavor, give or take) and what's great is by learning the long ones, you can find other, more simplistic approaches to perfroming a combo that does the same amount of damage, if not more. For online, you have (again) your standard ranked and unranked matches. Now, you also get different lobby types depending on how you're feeling that day. If you're feeling blue (from getting your @** repeatedly handed to you over and over again) start a lobby with the title "Looking for Tutor." You can find someone who can be your test dummy and possibly even show you some new moves. If you feel murderous, start a lobby with the title "You Yellow Bas****! I'll bite your legs off!!"...hem hem, sorry. But you have your options and enough of them to keep you going. Oh and X-Factor is king.

Finally, I'm going to talk about the moisturizer the developers used on this game. Cause this baby is sooooooo smooth. The game runs at a consistent sixty frames per second and it also plays a huge factor in the gameplay. A frame (or a sixtieth of a second) could be the difference between a win and a loss. Certain moves have a certain set of frames where the move you perform renders the user invincible. There are also moves that are faster than others, meaning if your opponent performs a hyper that doesn't activate until say the tenth frame and you have a move that does at the ninth, your move will cancel his out. And the frame rate NEVER drops in doing all of this. It's a beautiful thing.

The deductions come from only a couple small things. The first is the character endings. Now, while it didn't kill me, SFIV had gorgeously rendered endings via movie cut scenes. The ones in MvC3 use comic stills. It's Marvel (hence a comic strip) but it would've been interesting to see Dante get into a battle with Ghost Rider. I mean, everyone knows that a story/plot is important and relevant to a fighting game right (You can't sense the sarcasm can you?)? But I digress

The last thing is the deduction related to online play. No Spectator Mode and the inability to watch replays sucks, as well as some other online modes that would've been a great feature. But again, patience, they will come. Then there's the online servers, which more than half of the time, give you nice messages like "Failed to join lobby session," or "Connection to host was lost." There's the occasional lag as well (ranging from not so much to WTF mate?).

Fun -0 (20/20)

Duh!

Special Deductions:

-1 for Sentinel...Is any explanation needed? Ok, how's aboot "Sentinel Force, Sentinel Force, Sentinel Force, Sentinel Force..." shall I go on?

-2 Just so the deductions are rounded off at an even 10 :)

Total Deductions: -10 (90/100)

Special Bonuses:

+2 for Marvel Vs Capcom

+1 for the X-Factor- An amazing buff cancel

+1 for the long ten year wait paying off wonderfully

Final Score: 94/100 A

If you're a fan, you most likely own the game and are enjoying it. If you're a fighting game enthusiast, you will love it. If you're a new comer, welcome to a franchise long thought dead that has come back to kick ass with a vengeance. If you want to know if I think the game is worth $60, then I say:

Shield Slash, Light punch, Medium Punch, Heavy Punch, Air Launch, LP, MP, HP, switch to Spidey, LP, Web Swing, MP, HP, switch to Dante, LP, MP, HP, down strike, Cold shower, Prop Shredder, LP, MP, Sky Dive, Cold Shower, Jet Stream, Jackpot, X-Factor, Triple Crossover Hyper Combo (Jackpot, Hyper Charging Star, Crawler Assault) K.O!!!

And I'm just getting started.

one of the best fighters ive played

Daniel Quiroz — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 18:06:00 GMT

I've been playing Marvel vs. Capcom 3 for a while now and its not too bad. The story or what fragments of a story I could get is the characters of both universes come together and figure out how their worlds came together while the villians are using the opppurtunity take conquer the world, but theres someone more sinister working behind the scenes and spoiler alert its not abyss. The gameplay is really good you still get get to choose three fighters and their assist types and fight in fast paced tag team brawls but now you have a few new toys to play with like the x factor which boosts your speed and attack power for a limited time to turn the tables in a losing fight, the team aerial combo where you switch between characters during combos to make quick work of the opponent, and a team aerial counter to prevent your foe from comboing you to death. The new characters feel right at home with rest of the fighters and add alot of change and balance to the game like dante works great for up close combo attacks and dormammu works great for distance deffense. The visuals are great the game feels like a comic book on your screen with page turns to rips in thescreen during hyper combos and the final boss rips the srceen open like paper. The new controls are something that didnt for because it felt unneccesary to change from two punch and kick buttons to three attack buttons and an uppercut button but it does work well when you get used to it and theres a simple mode for newcomers to figure out the controls. One problem I have with this game is the online play you have wait through lobbies and a lot of fights for your turn to play and theres not that much of options in the menu other than arcade, versus, practice, mission, options, and gallery and thats it. Theyre suppose to have jill and shuma gorath as dLc and i hope that they do that for the rest of the cast.

A BIG BLOW TO FANS EVERYWHERE.

Angel Rivera — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 01:14:00 GMT

When i first brought Marvel vs capcom 3 ,i thought to myself that this would be the best fighting ever,but i was wrong.This game have no real story ,there's no real replay value,and the roster is not really a crowd pleaser for me.They should add a story mode that could be like the Marvel comics Civil War,but no!Capcom i rather play lost planet 2!At least that has loads of replay values.So let this be a lesson to all who love MVC or other true sequels,Don't ask much in a sequel,they'll just ignore the wishes that every gamer want in a sequel.

Definitely Worth a Rental

Mista Brightside — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:06:00 GMT

Check out my review on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFRbAox8BLo

Capcom Does it Again

l0rdx3nu — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 03:37:00 GMT

Being a huge fan of Capcom games like Megaman and Street Fighter, as well as a lover for Marvel characters and comics, I had to try this latest game in the MvC series. Having played, and loved, Street Fighter 4, I knew Capcom wouldn't shoot out a bad game. After playing for some hours, this is what I have to say:

Graphics: Beautiful. The thick, comic like shading creates an amazing effect. My only complaint is on some levels it feels just too dark.

Gameplay: Smooth. The controls are simplified from Street Fighter 4, with the hold move types eliminated (for the most part), but are still fun to play with. There is also simplified move sets for beginners.

Content: Good, but lacking. Though the 36 characters included in the main package are great, there is few levels and few extras to dwell on. This is disappointing, considering Super Street Fighter 4 had a plethora of levels and content. It is speculated though by other review sites that it will be loaded with DLCs.

My Favorites: The Capcom characters are diverse and fun to play as. The 3 on 3 tag team style is awesome compared to SF4, and Deadpool is hilarious.

My Dislikes: Some of Marvel's characters could have greater move designs, such as Doctor Doom and Iron Man. The lack of levels.

Overall: A great fighting game, and as quoted here "Capcom is bringing back the genre". I give it a 8.75 out of 10. It is not as great as SF4, but it is an excellent fighting game, and definitely worth looking at by any fighting game fan or zealots of marvel and Capcom

This will keep my buttons being pushed for A LONG TIME

DR FRANKENTHUMB — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 03:20:00 GMT

When I picked up this game I knew it was going to be awesome but i never expected it to be THIS PERFECT. Everything is balanced perfectly, for the fast button mashers, the strategic combo breakers, and the all around fighter. The Art in this game is BEAUTIFUL in hd, the music reminds me of the good old days and when i heard the old want to take you for a ride tune my gf and i started dancing haha. the only thing that would keep you from playing this game is NOTHING. even if you are not good at fighters you can still have a hell of a time playing this game. It is perfect 10/10 welcome back Marvel VS Capcom...welcome back