So yeah, I'm back. I know I know it's been a while, but I haven't really had a lot of things anime or video game related that caught my attention. Now granted, that might be becuase for the longest time, I had no way of getting with my usual news sources (which may or may not be g4tv), but now I do. I have this fancy laptop that I'm typing this blog from, and now I can get back into things.
So I figured I'd start off by talking about the reason why I've never been more excited to see the number 3 (Sorry Fable 3! You're a very close second), and that is of course, Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Now if you remember back to my first post, I did state that I was a fan of MvC 2. Well that's a bit of an understatement. I absolutely LOVE that game. I've loved the whole series since it was simply X-Men vs. Street Fighter. Now I'm nowhere near as good at the game as some people are; I cant really fight all fast paced and what not, but I still adore that game. But a lot of us thought MvC 2 was the last game in the series we were getting. So imagine how happy I, and a lot of others were that we were getting another one.
So diving right in to my first look, let's talk about the visuals. Now while initially I was hoping they would keep with the visual style of MvC 2, the new visual style is actually really impressive. It's the first game with fully 3D visuals, and yet it remains very faithful to the Marvel comic books. It's actually very interesting, becuase while it DOES remain very faithful to the comic books, it also remains very faithful to Capcom fighting games (Street Fighter IV to be exact), which isn't an easy task to do at all. Yet the visuals are all on point, with both Marvel and Capcom characters being done proper justice (at least so far).
For the most part, I'm going to skip audio becuase I haven't really heard much of the game's soundtrack, however I do want to state that I'm a little sad that they're replacing the jazzy soundtrack of the last game. I mean, one thing that a lot of fans agreed on is that the soundtrack is actually one thing that set it apart from other 2D fighters, rather than featuring your traditional rock-induced soundtrack. But whatever they replace it with, I hope its just as unique as the MvC 2 soundtrack.
Now typically I would save gameplay for last, but since the big attraction here is the characters, we'll cover gameplay first. Now one thing one should know is, much like Street Fighter 4 or the Super Smash Bros. Series, while the characters themselves are rendered in 3D, the core gameplay remains 2D. So yes, MvC 3 is a 2D game, and there's nothing wrong with that. You're still expecting the tag team warfare that you recieved in MvC 2 as well as the flashy finishing moves, but the biggest change this time around is that they're attempting to simplify the controls. They're cutting down the number of buttons in the hopes of opening up to people like me, who weren't really good at the fast paced action. This decision (as well as a few other things we'll cover a little later), was influenced by simmilar Wii fighting game Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. They've also changed a few minor things about some of the returning characters such as Iron Man being able to fire his Proton Canon at an angle, and the Hulk not completely sucking in arial combat.
Another cool gameplay element is that character specific endings are making a return. Every character will have their own storyline ending, rather than the generic ending of MvC 2.
And now we're on to the characters. First an overall look at the current roster. I'm impressed by some, disappointed by others. Capcom has currently stated that the roster is locked down. That does NOT mean that the current roster is the ending roster, however what that does mean is that they characters they are adding to the game are not going to be changed, and the characters that have been added, (excluding some major reason), are not going to be excluded from the game. This game, while appealing to the more recognized series of the last game (Spider-man, X-Men, Street Fighter, Mega Man), it also attempts to include more of the under/not recognized series of the last game (Dr. Strange, Fantastic Four, Resident Evil, Okami). Now a few of the Capcom characters could have been influenced by TvC from the Wii. Viewtiful Joe, who was included in that game, now makes and appearance in the MvC series too. And Yami, the final boss in Okami, was also the final boss in TvC, possibly leading to Amaterasu's inclusion in MvC 3. So already, you should be able to tell that we can look forward to an interesting roster.
So let's talk about the included (so far). I mean, we can't really touch too much on returning characters like Iron Man, Spider Man (although, on a personal note I'm really happy the wall crawler's back. His fans were worried for a little while), Ryu, Captain America, Chun Li, ect. And odds are, you don't really wanna hear about them anyway. You're probably more concerned about the new characters right? Well let's start off with Capcom fan favorite, Dante. Yes Dante of Devil May Cry fame has been included in the game, and the moment he was announced, Capcom fanboys all over the globe wet themselves. I guess Dante is a widely popular Capcom character, which shocked the hell out of me, becuase I didn't really hear much about him. Honestly for a while, I actually thought he was Castlevania character, which didn't make sense since Castlevania is a Konami game. But he's here, so enjoy.
Cooler and more notable than him however (<- personal feelings, I know), is Marvel fan favorite, Deadpool, who has been gaining quite a bit of popularity between MvC 2 and now. For a lot of people who didin't know who he was initially, their first taste of Deadpool was probably in X-Men Legends 2, where he was a boss and playable character. This increased his popularity enough to where he was included in Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and then MUA 2. He was also featured in Hulk vs. Wolverine, and featured in that crappy Wolverine movie we don't talk about. So here he is, the Merc with a Mouth himself Deadpool. One thing that really got fans excited was that his trailer featured him fighting against Dante, probably becuase not only do they have simmilar fighting styles, they have a simmilar fan base too. So easily the biggest Marvel addition (at least in terms of fan demand), here he is, only, there's one problem. Naturally you would think he'd be voiced by John Kassir, the guy that voices him in X-Men Legends 2 and MUA 1 and 2 right? WRONG! He's actually voiced by that sucky guy that voiced him in Hulk vs. Wolverine. And yeah, that irritates me. I'm convinced that when it comes to Deadpool, John Kassir should be his OFFICIAL voice when not in live appearance. Becuase nobody does it better than him.
Other new Capcom characters include Chris Redfield and Albert Wesker of Resident Evil fame (whether or not Jill Valintine of the same series is coming back has yet to be determined, but here's hoping). I can't actually say much about these two because I really haven't played any Resident Evil games, however I know there are a lot of fans that are happy to see them both included. I know second only to Dante, Wesker was one of the most demanded Capcom characters, same with Chris.
Also included for Capcom is the always interesting Viewtiful Joe. Now the one thing I was worried about was since he's so short, was he going to have a Servebot effect where he can duck under just about everything without even trying. I'm happy to report that that is not the case. Granted, there are a few shots that he's going to duck under, but that okay. For the most part, he's a really balanced character, so Im happy to see him included.
However to me, the BIGGEST new Capcom character is Amaterasu of Okami fame. Easily one of the most underrated Capcom characters of all time, here she is in all of her god-like glory. I am worried that a few of her moves are easily spammable, however, for the most part she seems to be rather balanced, which is nice. I'm hoping to see a lot of people picking her to be on her team, becuase I know I will be.
And for the first time ever, you're able to see one god go toe to toe with another, since one of the new Marvel character is none other than Thor himself. Now I was a little skeptical of his inclusion at first, however, Thor definitely kick ass, and a ton of it. Other new Marvel characters included Dormammu (who I will actually talk about in a little bit) of Dr. Strange fame, Super Skrull (same as Dormammu) of Fantastic Four fame, and X-23, the female Wolverine clone. None of these characters are particularly exciting to me, however the one that sticks out the most as being the least exciting is X-23. I mean, why? We have Wolverine, and nobody really remembers X-23, much less cares, so why include her?
Now while we do have those that are confirmed to be included, we do have a few that are confirmed to be excluded. First off, we want to point out that Mega Man X is not included in the game. Now does that mean no incarnation of Mega Man is in the game? Well that we'll have to wait and see. My guess however is that SOME form of Mega Man will be in there, since Tron Bonne, a minor Mega Man villian is included, but, don't believe that Tron Bonne is Mega Man's ticket into the game, and here is why.
While I did say that the Fantastic Four series was expanded on in this game from more than just Dr. Doom (who has returned), some of the people not representing the Fantastic Four... are the Fantastic Four themselves. Literally none of them are playable characters. I mean, we figured they weren't going to included Sue Storm, and probably not Reed Richards, but no Thing or Human Torch? Instead, they're represented collectively by Super Skrull, who somewhere in Fantastic Four history managed to obtain each and every one of their powers. Now the mystery is however, it was actually Marvel that requested that the Fantastic Four didnt appear, and suggested Super Skrull as their replacemet. Now why that is is anybody's guess, but we can't blame Capcom for that one.
However, we can blame Capcom for Dormammu. Now originally, I didn't have a problem with him simply becuase I had never heard of him. I didnt know what series he was from, or what he could do. However, it turns out that Dormammu is from Dr. Strange, who happens to be one of my FAVORITE Marvel characters in existance. However, Capcom has confirmed that Dr. Strange WILL NOT be playable in this game. Which makes no sense! I mean, why would you put an obscure character in the game, but not the Sorceror Supreme himself! I mean, it was bad enough that he didn't he didn't appear in MUA 2, but now he's replaced by one of his lesser known characters? Why? I mean I understand that you're trying to expand to the lesser known series, but don't you think you should put the TITLE character in the game, and maybe include Dormammu too?
Others on the chopping block who were I guess in high demand included Daredevil, Emma Frost, who I'm personally sad about, The Punisher (who I'm also disappointed to hear about), Ghost Rider, and Pheonix Wright, since I guess people thought that a lawyer would fit in a fighting game.
On top of this, all of the original characters of MvC 2 are not to be included. This includes Amingo, and... it pains me to say it, but it also includes Ruby Heart. This is probably the saddest Capcom character I have to say goodbye to. I loved Ruby Heart and really really hoped that she would be returning, but I guess Capcom didn't want to keep the original characters around for the second game. Sadness. And although he hasn't been confirmed, they also hinted at the exclusion of Cyclops, which also irritates me. I wanna know when exactly Cyclops fell off? I mean, he's the LEADER of the X-Men, second only to Professor X himself, so why is it that not only was he absent from MUA 1 (outside of DLC), COMPLETELY ABSENT from MUA 2, and now he's likely to be absent from MvC 3, even though he's been in EVERY crossover game to date?
And of course, my picks for who I want in the game. Now of course, this list includes only those that have not been confirmed one way or the other. My list includes:
Marvel:
1) Venom
2) Beast
3) Cable
4) CYCLOPS
5) Colossus
6) Gambit
7) Jean Grey
8) Psylocke
9) Storm (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE BRING BACK STORM)
10) Rogue
11) War Machine
12) Magneto
13) Green/Hobgoblin
14) Dr. Octopus
15) Carnage
Capcom:
1) Baby Bonne Hood
2) Anakaris
3) Mega Man
4) Roll
5) Zero
(just as a side note: Please don't include any of those bucket of fail NT Warrior incarnations. I mean I understand its not likely, but the DID get a game, so Im just saying, please avoid them like the plague)
6) Ken
7) Cammy
8) Dan
9)Guile
10) M Bison
11) Balrog
12) Sakura
So there's my first look at the game. Yeah, you can expect a full review as soon as I pick it up. But for now, enjoy the fact that I am back, and I did give a decently lengthy post as promised, although it wasn't the topic I was originally going to talk about (which was, ironically enough, Fable 3). If you want more MvC 3 material, look on youtube, g4tv.com, and all over the internet.
My Perscription: Keep waiting for more developments
Dr. Buck.
