Full Review:Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds
Developed by Capcom
Published by Capcom
for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3
Released February 15th, 2011
"Let's go on another wild ride!"
After a long decade and countless MvC2 tournaments later, Capcom brings back one of its most beloved Vs. series. This time around, Ryota Niitsuma, the mind behind Street Fighter IV and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, takes the reigns and steers it in the right direction. MvC3 is a perfect blend of fan service and gameplay that lives up to the vs. franchise.
The first thing everyone will notice are the aesthetics. Cutscenes, menus, and gameplay are displayed in beautiful comic book styled cel-shaded graphics. The cutscenes are gorgeous as are the menu screens. The fights flow smoothly with vibrant colors and showcase equally awesome battle animations. The only problems that exist are the choppiness of the character models and the lack of detail of some of the background designs and animations. But of course the action moves so fast and flows so well, you're not going to notice unless you're intentionally nitpicking.
The music is surprisingly good. All of the music is some sort of techno or trance mix which I'm not much of a fan of. However, each character's theme music is composed well and end up bringing a lot of depth to each battle (especially the themes of Amaterasu, Deadpool, and Captain America). It's a nice touch how the music changes when certain characters are switched out. It makes the battle feel more quickly paced and ensures that you won't get tired of any single song. The voice acting is top notch and bring every hero and villain a unique personality. I can't quite put my finger on why but Iron Man's VA sounds brilliant. Wesker, Chris, and Jill's VAs are brought straight from Resident Evil 5 as are Ryu, Akuma, Chun-Li, and Viper's VAs are brought from Street Fighter IV. I just can't get enough of the voice acting and I'll be replaying Deadpool's sound test for quite a while just to hear all of his quirky and fourth wall breaking catch phrases.
The controls feel pretty tight. Just like the previous entries in the Marvel vs. Capcom series, each player picks three heroes or villains to battle. By attacking or receiving damage, the Hyper Meter will fill up and allow you to do devastating Hyper Combos. New to the series is X-Factor which overpowers your character and can turn the fight around. Like any fighting game, the controls may seem unresponsive even though you were absolutely sure you did a half circle light medium for that hyper combo. The controls are much more easy to grasp this time around with punch/kicks replaced with light/medium/heavy/special attacks. Also, every character does a launch by doing the same button combination unlike MvC2 where every character is confusingly different. Even if the simpler controls don't seem simple enough, you can just switch the gameplay to simple mode! This is helps in giving a novice player a fighting chance against a pro. In simple mode, single button combinations will result in massive ground, aerial, and hyper combo maneuvers. This increases the opportunity for more players who are inexperienced with the game to jump in and play all the while feeling like a badass pro.
With all 38 characters, each having their own specific arcade mode ending, unlockable artwork, and mission modes single player has a lot to offer. Or if you're not a complete loner, play locally with friends or play online. You'll spend a lot of time playing online and ranking up your fighting card.
MvC3 is an absolute blast but there are a few things that may make you Shoryuken anyone within a close proximity. The online is fairly smooth with some laggy matches here and there. The game even lets you practice playing with a horrible connection to better prepare yourself for the lag. But all the practice in the world won't stop you from fighting wave after wave of broken characters such as Sentinel, Dante, and Magneto. These characters (allow me to further emphasize Sentinel) who are much too overpowered and can attack from long distances. You'll find these characters a lot online among players trying to increase their rankings. X-Factor, although a pretty cool addition, can allow a character with only half of their health to pretty much take out a perfectly healthy threesome. I also found it much more difficult to break an enemy's combo that wasn't a team aerial combo . These are but a few things that will bring your wonderful experience with the game to a screeching halt.
With all 38 characters, each having their own specific arcade mode ending, unlockable artwork, and mission modes single player has a lot to offer. Or if you're not a complete loner, play locally with friends or play online. You'll spend a lot of time playing online and ranking up your fighting card.
MvC3 is an absolute blast but there are a few things that may make you Shoryuken anyone within a close proximity. The online is fairly smooth with some laggy matches here and there. The game even lets you practice playing with a horrible connection to better prepare yourself for the lag. But all the practice in the world won't stop you from fighting wave after wave of broken characters such as Sentinel, Dante, and Magneto. These characters (allow me to further emphasize Sentinel) who are much too overpowered and can attack from long distances. You'll find these characters a lot online among players trying to increase their rankings. X-Factor, although a pretty cool addition, can allow a character with only half of their health to pretty much take out a perfectly healthy threesome. I also found it much more difficult to break an enemy's combo that wasn't a team aerial combo . These are but a few things that will bring your wonderful experience with the game to a screeching halt.
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has an incredible amount of personality. Each character with lore, a technique, and a style that's so unique. The artwork and cutscenes are beautiful and bring the fans a special comic book feel that's almost as if the Capcom world had merged with the colorful and gritty universe of Marvel. The fighting is an absolute blast with its stringing aerial combos and animated hyper combos. Even if you're not a fighting game fan (like me) you'll find yourself unable to put the controller down. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is the perfect blend of accessibility and hardcore depth that any fighting game can possibly hope to offer.
Details -
Genre: Fighting
ESRB Rating: T for Teen (Mild Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Violence)
Player Options: 1-Player (arcade), 2-player (local and online) [recommended]
Difficulty: Hard
Learning Curve: Harsh
Stats -
Graphics: 4/5
Sound: 5/5
Playability: 4/5
Lasting Appeal: 5/5
Fun: 4/5
