Note, this is from my first days into multiplayer, I’ve only played the single player a tiny bit here and there and haven’t messed with the training mode (which like Blazblue, is supposed to be excellente).
Character selection:
CAPCOM: Some good, but you will definitely miss quite a few the characters missing that appeared in MVC2. I know Capcom was trying to update the roster with more modern games but adding more Resident Evil guys? And not even any of the big spooky RE monstrars? Capcom’s potential roster is just so full of goodness that it’s sort of sad to see what filled the slots in MVC3. No Strider Hiryu, no Jin (my favorite!), and NO ONE from Rival Schools (Batsu and those kids) or Star Gladiator? Nor God Hand (Clover got in there with both Viewtiful Joe and Amerterasu from Okami though)? Bottom line: it’s really a mediocre line up compared to what could have been with all the possibilities Capcom had. I for one heartily approve of Zero replacing Megaman, the Devil May Cry guy is cool, I am glad to see some of the absolute joke characters removed (Roll and Servobot) and the Clover characters but the rest, while not meh, could have been better.
MARVEL: Quite a few on the original roster were pretty lame in MVC2, so most of the cut characters you will not miss at all (war machine, thanos, silver samurai, Spiral, Omega Red were all meh-esque). Additions and retained characters though are a mixed bag. Super Skrull, great! Modok: great! Phoenix? Well, Ok. Shuma Gorath? Seriously who even knows who that is? Has anyone actually read Dr. Strange since the 80’s? It may be my taste, but Deadpool is really lame, Taskmaster and Dormammu are just generic guys with skull faces (one burning, one not). Dr. Doom, Magneto, have to be in there but no other members of the Fantastic 4? No Psylocke? She Hulk as the second bruiser rather than Juggernaut? Let me just lay it out here: The Avengers are and always have been the height of comicbook mediocrity and MVC3 has FIVE of their members (Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, She Hulk and Hulk). They are the blandest, most in-cohesive and thrown together super team there is, just the leavings of other comic books stuck together with some mansion with no coherent vision to justify their existence. Yes they are the Marvel heavy hitters, but have you ever really enjoyed a storyline with them as the Avengers? Compared to Justice League International/America from DC, Avengers writing and character arcs have always fallen flat. Each Avenger has stood on their own, well sort of, but the Xmen are simply better, better designs, better characters — just plain better.
Gameplay:
Ok so it’s insane. Most comboing is really easy compared to MVC2. I can pull off a ground combo to a launcher to air combo to super move with quite a few characters without much trouble, even with the Xbox controllers after just a few plays. It would take me a week of play to do the same things in MVC2. It’s a stark contrast to Street Fighter IV or King of Fighters in that you have to combo or chain every hit to win. It’s even more dramatic in this regard than Blazblue. The 3 on 3 is great fun but man characters go down fast sometimes.
Graphics:
I hate the look of the game and couldn’t figure out why for the longest time. The backgrounds are great, the specials look awesome, the character models are superb but the skins are what suck ass. The psuedo- cell shading and extreme highlighting/black lining they did to the skins that I just absolutely think is atrocious. I can’t really put it into words, it just looks like the characters are fighting at night all the time and some of the skins are just too plain. Look at Modok’s face for a good example of what I mean.
All in all, an absolute must-buy for the fighting fan buried inside me, I would have had to get it eventually. Will it top Virtua Fighter or Blazblue in getting play time? No, but it will be fun to get the unlocks and learn the system and get beat down online for a bit before it only gets pulled out at parties. Just like the old one, if everyone is a scrub it can be a great time to play with peeps that normally don’t get into the fighters.