Marvel vs Capcom 3

Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds

Rating: T

Score: 9.5/10

                For gamers, what's better than Capcom? For comic nerds, what's better than Marvel? Bring the two together in a flashy fighting game, and how can anything go wrong? That was the logic behind the original Marvel vs Capcom, yet even today that question remains unanswered. This game is available for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

                Now, for those who remember, I reviewed Marvel vs Capcom 2 on Xbox Live and Playstation Network. It received 9.0, so this game already has some standards to live up to.

                Some of the characters from the original return. Some do not return because the character screen has been butchered away to about half the size.  Although you now have only half the characters, it's more diversified.  Each character is more fleshed out combo-wise, so each character is more significant individually, meaning having less is only natural. It's comparable to Mortal Kombat nowadays, who has almost a hundred characters, but how many of those characters are used any amount? Everyone knows Sub-Zero is the man.

                Anyways, back to the Marvel vs Capcom characters.  On the Capcom side, we have Chris Redfield, Zero, Viewtiful Joe, and even Arthur from Ghosts And Goblins. On Marvel's, we have Spiderman, The Hulk, Thor, and even Deadpool. There isn't any Ice Man, or Megaman, or even any of the Fantastic Four, which is odd because those are big-name characters.

                They also upgraded the corny only-for-arcade jazz music to remixed character themes. They also changed the art style, making it much darker. If this is for best or worse is a matter of opinion, but it loses some of its arcade style with the loss of some of the bright color spectrum.

                It may be darker, but it's still the same fighting. Three vs three fighting where characters can assist at any time.  They can jump in and let the defender recover any time, and they can all come out for a super-move to drain a health bar in moments. All that is nothing new.  What is new is the added team air combo. You can hit opponents into the air, hit them around a bit, and jump back out and let another teammate hit them around...in midair no less! After the third one deals his/her damage, they finish by smashing the opponent into the ground. Talk about teamwork!

                But Matthew, (I can here you say), I can't play fighting games! I'm terrible at them! No problem. The game has Simple and Normal fighting modes. Normal is the standard light/medium/heavy attack and whatnot, while Simple uses normal/upwards/special attack, and your specials themselves for your buttons. What's the purpose? You can get used to the timing of individuals, and makes it incredibly easy to pick-up and play. Keep in mind you can't use Simple during online play.

                This game actually features a story mode as well, as opposed to its predecessor's one-trick-pony of just versus: Offline, online, training, but all the same. The story mode is actually just your team beating six others and facing a tough (but silly) final boss. Then, the one to deliver the final blow is the one that gets an ending geared towards that individual. Some are much sillier than others.

                Marvel vs Capcom isn't perfect. Some characters that should've been in aren't (Like Jill Valentine. Guess what fate she gets? Downloadable character. Shameless Capcom...), some characters are more effective than others, which can become really annoying when your close-combat character is getting continuously knocked back by projectiles. Even with all that, it's still a very fun game. Nothing less was expected from super nerds Capcom and Marvel, both of whom know their stuff well.