So to begin this review I have to start by saying I have been a die hard fan of Capcom's Street Fighter Franchise since I played the original Street Fighter at Adventure's arcade in Cross County shopping Center in Yonkers. When I got older and Street Fighter II hit arcades I was playing at Nathans on Central Ave in Yonkers. When MVC came out I gave it a chance but just didn't enjoy it as much as Street Fighter, I gave MVC2 a try when I saw it in the arcade's mainly because seeing Megaman in a fighting game roused my curiosity...but alas I still preferred my good ol Street Fighter franchise.
So when I saw the first teaser for MVC3 last year I'll be the first to admit I was already on the Fighting Game Resurrection band wagon with Street Fighter IV and after seeing the teaser for MVC3 I was hyped, so hyped I actually pre ordered the special edition!
Graphically MVC is stunning, the intro alone is epic, the cast albeit smaller than MVC2 is pretty good, the character models are all gorgeous, the movement is extremely fluid and the 3D models really look incredible in the game.
Marvel's roster includes: Captain America, Dead Pool, Doctor Doom, Dormammu, Hulk, Ironman, Magneto, M.O.D.O.K., Jean Grey/Pheonix, Sentinel, She Hulk, Shuma Gorath, Spiderman, Storm, Super Skrull, Taskmaster, Thor, Wolverine and X-23.
Capcom's roster includes: Akuma, Albert Wesker, Amaterasu, Arthur, Chris Redfield, Chun Li, Chrimson Viper, Dante, Felicia, Hsien Ko, Jill Valentine, Mike Haggar, Morrigan, Nathan Spencer, Ryu, Trish, Tron Bonne, Viewtiful Joe and Zero.
As I mentioned earlier I prefer the game play style of Street Fighter versus the MVC series, I would never attempt to play this game as seriously as I do Street Fighter as such I cannot comment on the quality of the online network or notwork from what I've heard from a few friends from Capcom Unity...you'll have to judge that individually for yourself.
As far as the online features MVC pales in comparison to SSFIV, which begs the question why?
One of the most controversial aspects for me and many veterans of fighting games is MVC3's inclusion of "simple mode" which gives kids today that refuse to invest the time to actually learn (*shudders) combo's and the basic gameplay do's and don'ts. I understand that fighting games have a very faithful...yet aging fanbase and that for the genre to survive and thrive new blood needs to be brought in....and spilt. The problem is everyone expects to be top tier with little effort and that may work for FPS like CoD but fighting games online are much MUCH fiercer and less forgiving which is a HUGE turn off to todays generation of gamers (waves to all the rage quitters and lag switchers out there). So to end my mini rant I'm absolutely against dummying down fighting game's to appease joe-gamer but I understand why Capcom did it.
MVC 3 FTW is a fun, frenetic fighter with jaw dropping graphics, solid gameplay with a decent sized roster that offers near endless replay value.
8/10
