Ten long years, and it’s finally here. Everybody who loves fighting games are playing it right now, but are there indications that Marvel vs. Capcom 3 will be as bad as BlazBlue, and it is as bad as what the internet makes it to be?
Everybody loves Morrigan.
No, I’m not going to talk about the Western comics graphics, the comic-inspired user interface, the awesome roster, how the ranking system sucks and how it is irrelevant to the experience or the sometimes generic sounding BGM. It seems that a lot of people nowadays forget that it is the mechanics that make the game. Sure, MvC3 is the shiniest diamond of all fighting games to date, but what is it if the mechanics it has is the jerkiest of all?
Elegance in Simplicity
Controls for MvC3 is simple and tight. Three attack buttons and a special attack button — as simple as that. Many used to the usual six-button Capcom set-up would find this new set-up to be a bit difficult to get used to at first, while newcomers to the game should be able to get a good grasp. It’s a good thing because players won’t have to remember which is LK, LP, etc. while maintaining the variant nature of attack input. Along with the directional buttons, players can dish out sick combos without having to worry about tapping the wrong button.
Anybody can do this. The question is ‘How?’.
Simple yet Complex
How about the game’s learning curve? After playing around with all 32 characters in Training, I gave the controllers to my siblings, their friends and girlfriends and asked them to play the game and watched them play. As most of them don’t have that much experience in playing the Marvel vs. Capcom series, I decided not change the game’s input mode to Simple, to let them find their way through it. The neat thing is, after a round or two, most of them got the hang of the game. It’s that easy to learn. Think of a combo, and it is most likely you can pull it off. Even button-mashing is almost encouraged to let the players explore more possibilities. Building your ideal team, though, is another matter.
While the controls are simple, picking and mastering your ideal team is a bit of a hard task to do. As the game gives the players access to really powerful characters, and cool abilities, it’s easy to master each character, but hard to get these characters to work together. The player can build a team according to his fighting style, preferences, etc. but that doesn’t mean that the team he gathered will instantly work out on his whim. I tried building around Dante and Deadpool at first, because I’m quite a fan of these two, but they don’t fit my fighting style, and ended up with Morrigan, Felicia and X-23 instead. And I’m struggling to make these girls work together in harmony.
I hear M.O.D.O.K. snicker like a little girl. Really.
Magneto/Storm/Sentinel, best team ever?
One of the issues of the previous installment AND Blazblue is the lack of variety in competitive play. Let’s be honest. The moment Sentinel, Storm and Magneto were announced as playable characters, it made us think Capcom is punishing us for our sins. If you remember playing Marvel vs. Capcom 2 competitively in game centers, it is almost every one has the aforementioned team. Along with Cable, MvC2 was almost broken and not enjoyable for the arcade gamer who is looking for diversity in each fight. MvC3 fixed that by having really powerful and ‘broken’ characters that require minimal skill to use, both elements evened out each other, making the game completely balanced. In this game, players are almost forced to play different sets of teams and punishes those who try to build around potential spammers. Infinites are possible but not that easy to pull off and not that hard to get rid of, too. I remember playing online against tons of spamming Sentinels, and most of them fall prey to pretty much basic fast attacks. This doesn’t mean Sent’s a pushover though, and this doesn’t mean there will never be a team archetype created. The viability of your team depends on you, the player. It’s like Capcom didn’t give you an excuse to suck at this game.
Shoryuken!
A Game for This Age
The openness of Marvel vs, Capcom 3 is the reason why it is one of the best fighting games to ever come out. The game is like a huge blank canvas, where the players are encouraged to be creative and become technically adept at the game as possible. Capcom has created a game that is fun and engaging, easy to learn yet requires a lot of skill for one to be considered good at it. Maybe we will see this game’s community develop into a diverse and a really competitive environment. I can’t wait too see Ume AKA Daigo, BLG Filipino Champ, Justin Wong or Kayopolice duke it out in this game.
I gotta get back to practicing.
