Marvel vs Capcom 3 Weekend Impressions

I won’t bury the lead, I love Marvel vs Capcom 3. Right from the opening cinema it dizzyingly transported me back to my arcade rat days many moons ago. What was the secret sauce that other recent brawlers lacked? Was it the extremely high production values? The retro feel? Or maybe it was the extremely long gap from MvC 2 to 3 that colored my reaction? It’s the combination of all of the above and more.  

Even though the roster is not as large as MvC 2, there is a richness to each character that motivates me to discover every little nuance. The potential team combos are fun because you not only get to mix and match different specials, but also hear specific chatter between the characters. I love that sort of fan service. SNK was particularly great in that area and it’s a fitting comparison since MvC 3 gives me the good King of Fighters 94/95 vibe. In particular, the impression that this game is truly a monumental event, a gathering of heroes and villains that only happens once in a millennia. Of course SNK ruined it by having KoF come out every damn year with only minor changes, but I digress.

In my previous post I lamented the lack of unlockable costumes and certainly that harshes my buzz a bit. On the plus side the available alternate colors are cooler than I previously thought although only a few have showstopping alternates. The awesome black uniform Phoenix comes to mind. It’s also nice that four characters are there for unlocking along with various movie, still, and art items. The best of the unlock bonuses is the character model viewer thanks to the great detail they contain.

Perhaps in another week I’ll start to venture online. The thing about playing online is that it alters your view of which characters are enjoyable to play versus which characters stand a chance in a competition. I’ve ignored power rankings or anything related to that for now in order to let the characters stand on their creative merits.

Last, but not least, I greatly appreciate the full color manual. This creates a lot of goodwill mileage for fighting games or any other genre that caters to a hardcore following. It certainly makes me more prone to reward this gesture with some DLC purchase.