marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds

Marvel and Capcom fans can take it again. With the wildly popular Street Fighter 4 successfully making the move from 2D to 3D, it’s now time for Marvel vs. Capcom to do the same. Will Capcom be able to give the fans a ‘Nerdgasm’ or will it become more of a ‘Nerdrage’?

marvel vs. Capcom 1 and 2 were so immensely popular that to this day almost every league has a booth featuring the best players in the world busily trying to win that prize pool. Making a step from 2D to 3D doesn’t always go smoothly, see the Sonic series, but Capcom has found the secret formula to make it succeed. What is Marvel vs. Capcom 3 turned out to be a beautiful game! The characters are still fighting in a 2D environment with a 3D shaped background and players. This just works, so why change it?

It’s Alive!

In the background you can clearly see that the makers have done everything they can to make every little detail come across as perfect as possible. All the levels are very lively, with movement and explosive or other frenetic things going on there, and fits perfectly with the series intended for them. For example, the player can fight in a laboratory of the Resident Evil games. In the background you will see some glass cages with ‘Lickers’. When the fight gets fierce, the cages break and the Lickers walk through the screen. If the fighting is even more intense, the Lickers will die and drop ‘Herbs’. This says once again how much attention and time has been given to something that is not so important for the gameplay, but is very welcome.

marvel vs. Capcom is not a traditional fighting game. With Street Fighter focusing on 1 vs. 1 battles, is it going to be in Marvel vs. Capcom at 3 vs. 3 fights. Players choose from 3 characters and study their way of dealing. The Hulk is good at air-combos, Chris is good at distance combat and Zero is good at close combat. A player must first determine which figures best suit his/her playing style and a certain tactic can be determined to surprise the enemy. During battles, teammates can relieve or they can be summoned to make a quick attack. What can be annoying for newbies is that it is difficult to estimate which player is the most suitable. There is a very big difference between Ryu and Dante. It’s a matter of time and an incredible amount of practice to get good enough to use it against other players online or next to you on the couch.

In the midst of a fast-paced combo, of course, no quiet music should be played! Like its predecessors, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 ‘up tempo’ songs that encourage the player to tie those combos together. A lot of music comes from old Capcom games that have been remixed. For the Marvel levels, music from the older games of the series has been chosen. This is fun for fans of the games.

‘Love is in the Air’

It is clear that the love for both franchises radiates from it. The employees at Capcom have worked closely with a few writers from the Marvel Universe. This has made for very nice in-game conversations. For example, a fight can arise between Ryu and Deadpool, Deadpool tells Ryu that he is a big fan of the Street Fighter series and then starts fighting. Should Deadpool win, he will demand from Capcom that he can be on the cover of the next Street Fighter.

What really matters in Marvel vs. Capcom3 is the multiplayer. The multiplayer is possible both online and offline in 1 vs. 1 battles. Unlike Street Fighter, in this game you can still tinker while playing online. For example, there are competitions that can be set up with multiple players. Then, when a battle has just started, the player sees two cards colliding with each other until the battle is over. In a competition with 8 players, it is therefore possible to watch for a long time how two cards collide very dangerously. We’re not playing a game for this, are we? Then at least show us that fight or maybe we can party with other extras in the background. This is very unfortunate and this just could have been better.

The 1 vs. 1 fights are fortunately well done. During arcade mode, an option can be turned on that Challengers may disrupt a game to play online. This is almost without lag and in terms of difficulty you can choose to search for players of the same level. This keeps it fun for the beginners among us. What can also be useful for beginners is the ‘simple control mode’. In this mode it is easier to do special moves and it is also easier to tie combos together.

For all the time the player spends fighting, the player gets ‘Battle Points’. If the BP level is high enough, new characters, artwork or sounds are automatically unlocked. Everything relates to how and with whom it is played; if Captain America is a frequently played character, his artwork will be unlocked sooner than others. For online play, there are also other points scored that affect which players are picked online to be an opponent. These points determine in which class the player belongs and against whom he/she can compete best to keep a game exciting.

Nerdgasm or Nerdrage?

marvel vs. Capcom 3 really manages to provide a ‘Nerdgasm’. With all the deep care in details and perks that can be unlocked, it’s all about the fans. I almost get the feeling that the creators themselves are the biggest fans out there. So much love has been put into this game that even complete strangers can see it very well. It’s a shame that, despite the simple mode, it’s not very beginner friendly. Simple mode is fun for a while, but after a while you want something more challenging, and the step from simple to normal is quite big, especially if you also choose a very complicated character. It can also get quite hectic on the screen due to the many special attacks and other characters that quickly come to the rescue. Overall, the love in this game radiates so immensely that a beginner will want to spend the necessary time to master this game, and that is something that only a few games can do.

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Author: Stefan Roest | Genre: Fighting | Release: 18-02-2011 | Publisher: Capcom | Developer: CapcomGraphics: 8.5 † Sound: 7.7 † Gameplay: 8.3 † Controls: 8.2 † Playback: 8.0 8.3+ So much attention has been paid to the details+ Simple mode makes it a bit easier for beginners+ Beautiful graphics- A bit hectic on the screen- Entry limit is still a bit too high- Online competitions could be better