Nov 17, 2011

Marvel VS Capcom 3 made my fingers bleed!!

I went on a ride and fought for the fate of two worlds. Got my butt kicked a LOT of times... Phoenix Wright takes some time to master... Well to be fair I never played MVC3 before... Wasn't going to buy MVC3 with Ultimate MVC3 coming soon... (well it already came, but you get my point... I guess)

I can't stop loving this hyper move (even if it's a huge pain in the ass to set up)
Also I love beating opponents with X-23... (not cause X is an easy character to use, but cause her voice sounds like an angry Twilight Sparkle... yeah, Ponies are my new Hannah)
The game feels familiar, yet different... A LOT Different...
Due to the changes in the controls characters have some older moves switched... This hurt me a lot while playing as Spidey... Looks like I'll have to relearn how to use him before venturing online... They switched the Web swing, but added a nifty Web zip... also the Maximum Spider seems a lot more badass now.
Heck! Even plain vanilla Ryu got a couple of new moves... Yeah, Hadoken guy has some new moves... How about that?

Semi controllable Shinkuu Hadoken!!

Also for a Final boss we get something bigger than Apocalypse:

Bigger Than Cyber Akuma...

Bigger than Onslaught

Bigger and badder than Abyss

FREAKING GALACTUS!!


It was inevitable... I kinda expected him in MVC 2 but what the heck, The Big G is here (Surprisingly no Silver Surfer...)

I should go more in depth into the review now that I've gushed all over the game... Remember that I NEVER PLAYED the Vanilla version of MVC3... Since this is a game review, the scale is from 1 to 10...

Story: A dimensional rift or something is making the "Capcom Universe" and the Marvel Universe to have people cross among the dimensions. Doctor Doom, being the incredibly nice guy he is, contacts the nicest guy in the Capcom Universe... Albert Wesker... They basically join forces and leech off Energy from Galactus in order for Capcom to invade Marvel and Viceversa... Sadly the likes of Ryu, Spider-Man, Chris Redfield, Captain America, Phoenix Wright, and Wolverine are trying to put an end to this evil plan... Now I'm not so sure if the previous games are in continuity, but that's pretty much the story...
4.5 It's the most coherent set up to have a crossover of this magnitude, but since it's a fighting game... the endings become a non-canonical mess... some of them are incredibly weird and would make sense in the character's universe (Mostly from the Capcom side)

Graphics: Obviously this is a PS3 and XBOX 360 game, so the Graphics, by default are better than a PS2 Game. The good old sprite-based games have been left behind. As a fan of sprite art, I think that this decision sucks. On the other hand, Capcom reuses those old sprites more than Mattel reuses buck pieces... ZING! They went with 3D models cause of SF IV and all that, which helps in making Alternate looks less than simple palette swaps (in some cases) Also the Street Fighter 4 Characters look a bit better in this MVC3 Style than their SF4 counterparts... a bit "cleaner" and more reminiscent of the MVC2 and earlier sprites... but 3D
8.5

Gameplay:
Hoo boy, where to start: I'll start with the controls. The MVC series has suffered through various changes throughout each sequel.
I shall show them as if they were on a normal arcade joystick with the settings as if they were the ones from the Arcade version (on MVC 1 and 2)
W=Weak, M = Medium, H= Hard, P = Punch, K = Kick, S = Special, and A = Attack

MVC (1)
WP MP HP
WK MK HK
Traditional Street Fighter Style Controls, if you played Street Fighter, you can play this one quite easily.
MVC 2
WP HP Assist 1
WK HK Assist 2
I guess you have noticed something: "Where's the medium Punch or Medium Kick Button?" well the Assist buttons ate them... you have 2 partners now... you need one button to summon him/her/it on the fly... The Medium attacks still exist in the combos... by pressing the WP or WK.

MVC3
WA MA Assist 1
HA SA Assist 2
First thing I noticed was that there are no specific punch or kick buttons... What the heck is this SA Button... Special Air Launch... (To start Air combos) This control scheme almost feel like the one from Tatsunoko vs Capcom, but modified to fit the MVC3 style... Simpler, but not necessarily easier... Remember when I said earlier about releasrning how to use Spidey and stuff, this is why.
Old Spidey Web Swing (MVC 1 and 2)
▼◄ Kick
New Spidey Web Swing (MVC3)
◄▼◄ Any Attack (except SA)
If I do: ▼◄ Attack, I do a Web throw...
Ironman's smart bombs changed from a Punch + Kick attack into a Shoryuken type of move (►▼► Punch) which still keeps throwing me off a bit.

It might seem like nitpicks, but after MORE THAN eleven years of having some moves ingrained into our brains by a series of commands, changing the commands DO throw us off...
Once you get that out of the way, the controls are pretty responsive.
and the game is pretty much the same thing we've had since the past 11 years with MVC 2... An insane orgy of flashy attacks in order to drain the energy out of your opponent's bar. As you can see on the previous MVC3 videos, there's flashy, crazy and over the top.
8.5 The changes in controls bother me a bit... Made me shift form an average player to a total newbie.

Sounds/Music: Most of the themes from returning characters (and Capcom newcomers) are remixes from previous themes or from the game they come from. X-23 has some lyrics in her theme, which is kinda weird... First time I heard it I almost crapped my pants.
Voices are pretty good... I think none of the original voices from previous MVC games made a comeback...
Wolvie ain't Cal Dodd anymore... Christopher Daniel Barnes ain't Spidey anymore... Yes Greg Brady, Prince Eric from Little Mermaid are Spidey... Now we have Josh, Spectacular Spider-Man/Young Ocelot Keaton as Spidey, which is OK except his annoying WEB SWING battle cry... Yes, again with the web swing... X-23 is Tara Twilight Sparkle/Timmy Turner/Bubbles Strong... Cause she was X-23 in Wolverine and the X-Men is why they skipped Andrea Libman as X-23...
So, this means that Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie AND Twilight Sparkle have been X-23.
I love Tara's voice but she sounds too much like Twilight Sparkle... Maybe If X-23 sounded more like Pinkie Pie she'd be more Adorable...

On the other hand Jennifer Hale is playing Jean Grey... Dammit! This ruins my chances of having Black Cat in a MVC game... On the Capcom side things are a bit better: The VAs from SFIV and RE5 return to voice their characters. So, aside the annoyingness of Spidey's Web Swing... and X-23 sounding too much like a pissed off Twilight Sparkle, the sound Department gets an 8.0

Fun Factor: (offline) Like I've said before, I'm more of an anti-social player so the online mode does not motivate me much at all... I did got in a few battles online... Beginner's lobby, my ass!
OK, so back to the offline mode. there's the arcade mode, mission mode and training mode (haven't played offline versus... being an anti-social gamer and all that)
SO, arcade is very simple: Beat the crap out of various sets of characters until you reach Galactus and kick his enormous planet eating butt!
Training is where you can practice the moves and stuff.
Mission Mode is like Training mode, but with certain goals...
Offline the game gets a 7.5 While Galactus is easier than Onslaught, some of his moves are a tad too overpowered.

I'm not rating it online cause your mileage may vary.
Now for the overall score of Ultimate MVC 3:
7.4 It's not bad, but for a game that fans have been waiting for 11 years feels like it's missing something... besides Jill and Shuma Gorath... hate that Capcom is once again using Jill and Shuma Gorath as DLC, since they could've just added them to the disc since this is "an expansion" to Normal MVC3.

No comments:

Post a Comment