Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds

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Capcom has scheduled to release on 15 Nov 2011 a new disc-only version called: ultimate marvel vs capcom 3 (UMVC3 as follows), which will have:

12 New Characters

8 new stages

Improvement in online versus such as spectator mode

The new version will be completely REBALANCED such as X-factor being nerfed. There will also be new moves for characters. Therefore you may need to learn from scratch again for your favorite characters.

The exact and complete changes are not fully announced at the moment. But the retail price is already set at US$39.99. You will get more value for your money if you can wait for November release.

And most importantly...THERE WILL NOT BE A DOWNLOADABLE VERSION FOR UMVC3! You cannot enjoy an improved version without buying ANOTHER MVC3 on disc.

In accordance with Capcom usual tradition, this inferior version will be left obsolete with no more updates. Just like street fighter 4 being abandoned when the super version comes out. In fact, the developers have expressed that a downloadable version is not feasible to incorporate so many changes to the core. A new disc release is the only to go.

With all these being said, you may want to rent this game for the time being and see if the game is worth your money. You can refer to other detailed reviews for the game itself. And remember when the UMVC3 comes out, there could be yet another upgraded version in the future (similar to arcade edition for super street fighter IV).

P.S. I have never written a review on Amazon before. But the disgusted act by Capcom to abuse fans' loyalty is irritating, and this forces me push a review now.

P.P.S. This inferior version may be preferred if you want to take advantage of the unbalanced aspect of the game.

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After more than ten years of waiting, the follow-up to one of the most successful and well-known crossover gaming franchises at last arrives. Marvel VS. Capcom 3 breaks into the scene facing a great deal of expectations and anticipation, and in most aspects it delivers, but unfortunately it falls just a bit short of being the spectacular game it could have been.

The gameplay and general mechanics are essentially a mishmash of those from both Marvel VS. Capcom 2 and Tatsunoko VS. Capcom. You're given three characters and a series of four core buttons to work with, those being Light, Medium, Heavy and Special attacks. This closely resembles the setup of TVC, simplifying things a bit from the punch and kick commands of MVC; a wise move, given that it generally trims the fat of the previous game's complexity.

The Assists, Hyper Combos, crossovers and many other advanced tactics all return, but there are a handful of new alterations and quirks. For one, unlike TVC, there is no Mega Crash (although it is possible to break away from certain long combos) or Baroque; instead, there's the X Factor, a completely new tactic that may only be used once per match. X Factoring allows each of your characters a brief speed and power boost, along with gradual health recovery. These effects are strengthened depending on how many of your 3 characters are remaining (it is at its maximum if you only have one character left). This occasionally adds an interesting element to the gameplay, but many have argued that it's an unnecessary feature which can unfairly turn the tide of a fight, and there is definitely some validity to this complaint. Adding to the imbalance of this is the fact that different characters receive different boosts, leading to some characters gaining ridiculous power boosts while others don't really become much more of a threat.

Switching out, or swapping characters, is unfortunately now a sorely obnoxious task, requiring the player to press and hold the Partner button until their other character appears; mistakenly tapping the button will cause a crossover Assist, and as many veteran players know, initiating an Assist when you're intending to switch out can cost you a character, or worse, a match. Needless to say, this can take a bit of getting used to, particularly for those accustomed to the simple back+/Partner command that came before.

`Simple mode' from TVC also returns, allowing a significantly simplified control scheme in which special moves and Hyper Combos can be more easily initiated. This may sound unappealing or unfair to those more willing to adjust to the traditional controls, but simple mode also disallows certain attacks and abilities, so it's more of a tradeoff than a wholehearted handicap; it's ultimately a more accessible and user-friendly version of the control scheme.

The roster has been among the most debated-over aspects of the game; MVC2 had a whopping 56 characters to choose from, while so far MVC3 only offers 36. Granted, unlike MVC2, you'll find no recycled sprites here; each and every character is brought to vivid new life and design. Many staples and favorites return, so fans of Ryu, Wolverine, Morrigan, Storm, and many others won't be complaining. Devil May Cry's Dante and X-Men's Deadpool are among some of the exciting new additions, while a surprising number of more obscure fan favorites also managed to make the cut. Some of the exclusions are rather upsetting, however, particularly the lack of Venom, certain X-Men characters and most shocking of all, Capcom's flagship character Mega Man. There's more downloadable content to come, however, so we'll have to see what the game's future has to offer.

Some of the game's modes and single-player options are more disappointing than others; the online mode is overall pretty satisfying so far, allowing players to either log on for a quick match with a random player or friend, or join a lobby of several players in a sort of informal tournament system. Players can `friend' opponents they'd like to play again and even speak to one another through console-compatible microphones. Lag is generally minimal or non-existent, and thankfully you'll be forewarned of the connection strength in the lobbies before joining. There are also of course leaderboards and rankings for the best of the best, but you can only gain ranks through random Quick Matches, and sadly there's no spectator option; this is particularly frustrating when you're waiting around for your next match in the lobbies.

The single-player modes aren't quite as satisfying. MVC3 has a rather standard Arcade mode which features nothing but a series of random battles followed by a boss fight and usually anticlimactic ending sequence which differs by character but is merely a brief series of still pictures and text. The end-game credits are nice the first time you watch them, but they're the same regardless of which character you win with, and therefore aren't nearly as interesting the second, third or fourth time around. Super Smash Bros. Brawl's Subspace Emissary wasn't what a lot of people were hoping for, but it was more engaging than what's offered here. Although the Arcade mode serves its generic purpose, a few more cutscenes or character-specific individuality would've made it really worthwhile.

MVC3's biggest asset is it succeeds in a few of the key areas where both TVC and MVC2 failed. TVC offered an overly simplified control option which occasionally allowed for disproportionate advantages, and yet was oftentimes preferable to the needlessly complex alternative. MVC3 manages to find a healthy balance between MVC2's ice-cold complexity and TVC's desperate attempt at accessibility; both regular and simple mode in MVC3 are useable without being cheaply advantageous or impossible to understand. Although deeply advanced tactics will be reserved for deeply skilled players, as they always have been, most players will gain a deeper understanding of the control schemes offered here more quickly than they would have in MVC2.

Unfortunately, as expected, opportunities to be cheap present themselves in MVC3 just as they do in most fighting games. Thankfully only a small handful of the characters seem genuinely broken or overpowered, but the ones that are can be truly frustrating to go up against; both Sentinel and Iron Man can fill the screen with enormous and heavily damaging beams and projectiles, while Phoenix becomes virtually impossible to approach, let alone defeat, once she transforms into Dark Phoenix. Ryu spammers are also expectedly back in action, but thankfully so far it doesn't seem quite as common as it was in TVC.

The game has a visual style that is distinctly American and heavily influenced by comic books; as where MVC2's artwork and aesthetics felt more authentically Japanese, this game comes off as though it belongs a little more to Marvel than it does to Capcom. This works both for and against it; most of the Marvel characters look amazing, and several of the Capcom ones do as well, although the heavy Americanization of the likes of Tron Bonne and Morrigan can come off as a bit wonky at first. Aside from that, however, the visuals are vivid and gorgeous; one thing you'll never be bored with is what goes on onscreen during matches.

Although the complaints may have seemed heavy, MVC3 is in fact a very entertaining and visually appealing game; the online mode is extremely fun and engaging, and some of the downloadable content to come, namely the new characters and complete costume revamps, seem very promising. Tuning up the roster and 1-player mode-adding more modes in general, for that matter-would have really made it nothing short of excellent, but here's hoping they really take popular demand into consideration for DLC.

Buy Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds Now

**WAIT FOR THE ULTIMATE EDITION WHICH IS HERE: Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3

The new heroes are here to kick butt and take names, and after a decade of wondering if this game would ever come into being, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is finally here. If you've never played the series before, let me just inform you this is not your typical fighting game. This is more of an action fighting game, in the sense that the first few matches are going to be chaotic looking. There's characters popping in and out of the screen. There's combos popping up all over the screen. Before you know it, you're dead without even getting a hit in. But with much practice comes great benefits.

Your first choices in the game will be to take it offline in arcade mode or training, or take a chance in online battles via ranked or player matches. Offline modes are limited to arcade, training, versus, and a mission mode. Arcade is just the basic story mode. You'll pick three characters to battle, all with different abilities to battle round after round until you defeat a special boss. When you beat the final boss, you'll unlock a comic strip ending for the character that you were last using. You'll also unlock some badges and titles for your win to show off online. If you're having a difficult time learning moves, training mode is there to help. However, mission mode is going to be more helpful in teaching you how to successfully complete moves. Mission mode is more reminiscent of the challenge modes in Super Street Fighter IV. You have a training dummy in front of you, and you're mission is to provide a certain attack to it.

Online modes are limited to ranked and player matches. I don't really find this to be a bad thing, but it's apparent some people wanted more modes. You can party up online much like a "quarter mode", which is great, and it's also the downfall of online play. While you're the observer, you never get to watch the battle. You're treated to two player cards of the fighters with the health bars moving up and down during their match. But you'll never get to see the moves they're pulling off, making tournaments seem almost pointless. There's also no replay feature, so watching some of the cool moves you distributed to a player is long gone. Hopefully Capcom will reintroduce this in a patch in the future, without a DLC cost.

Everything in a match is fast moving and player momentum is natural in a game like this. You want to keep moving, providing damage, and repeat. In Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and while the animations have been slowed down they compliment the game atmosphere nicely.

One way Marvel vs. Capcom designers have tried to help remove the anxiety new gamers feel during their first match is by introducing a new mode: Simple mode, or button mashing mode if you prefer. It gives high hopes for beginners to be able to win a match. With this mode enabled, you literally can just press the same button over and over while moving the stick around to pull off sweet moves. By using simple mode, even the most novice player may have a chance at winning. While simple mode may be good for grandmas and tottlers, it is going to limit the amount of special moves a player can use. It enables easy access to simpler moves, and that's it. Now, this doesn't mean that in simple mode, you're not going to need any skill at all. You'll probably want to focus on blocks to get you ready for the real fighting of the game: the online modes.

Another huge change is the inclusion of X-Factor. This mode enables to you increase your attack power and speed for a limited time, depending on how many characters are still alive in your party. It also resets your animation, giving you access to chain more moves together that would be impossible otherwise. It sounds like a gimmick move, but in the game, it's been quit helpful and I haven't experienced it being overused.

Graphically, this game is well done too. The game feels much like a comic book opening up in front of you. The dark shadows look amazing, and can't simple be justified to how amazing they look in screen shots. The animations are smooth, and you'll rarely see a hick-up in the game. The backgrounds are slightly muted to bring the characters forward a little bit. It almost looks like you're playing a 2D fighting game at times, which isn't a bad thing. They just mastered how well to do the visuals in a sense that it looks old school, yet 3D at the same time.

Let's talk roster for a minute. There's 36 characters to choose from, half from Marvel Comics, and the others from Capcom games. This is a lot less than the roster of Marvel vs. Capcom 2, but is that a bad thing? Marvel vs. Capcom 2, while a terrific fighting game, had some huge holes in the balancing because of so many characters. Most of the time, the balancing wasn't from over-powered fighters as much as under powered characters. So Capcom decided to keep the roster a little smaller while fine-tuning each character with pros and cons. This is obviously a good thing, but coming from Capcom, this might have been a way to milk a little more money out of the game. We can expect some DLC to come out shortly after (March has two new characters and a costume pack scheduled for release). What worries me is how much this stuff is going to cost. Capcom knows people will buy it up, so are they going to charge the extra mile because they know this?

However, even though I'm not a fan of overpriced DLC, Capcom is at least listening to the fans on the DLC they want. On Capcom Utility's website, you can actually vote for characters you want to see in the game (hint: Gambit needs to come back, so vote!). I find this to be really neat and I hope they truly listen to their fans. If anything needs DLC fast in the game, I feel they need to add some more maps. The maps are awesome that are already in the game, but there's hardly any to really look at. I wouldn't even mind some recycled maps from the previous installments of the game.

The only other complaint I have is the controls on a standard controller. They work, but they never feel comfortable. The game begs for a fight stick of some sort. I haven't played on the Xbox 360's D-pad yet, but I can imagine it being atrocious given that the 360's D-pad isn't exactly the most impressive on the market.

If anything, the game is going to hold it's own for a while but it will probably not be in the ranks of classic like it's predecessor. It's all a matter of time to how well this game will rank in the end. With DLC coming out, one can hope that Capcom listens to their fans and keeps the community strong.

+ Great character list with balance issues in check

+ Outstanding graphics and sounds.

Being nerfed online by Iron Man. Over. And over. And over...

No replay modes.

Read Best Reviews of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds Here

Alright, I'm going to start right off by explaining how come I give this game 4 out of 5 stars. The reason is simple: character choices. It's not that there aren't enough characters to choose from, cause there are (however Capcom has had years to develop this game and easily could have included more), however its the fact that some of the characters that "made the cut" are just plain...weird. M.O.D.O.K? Seriously? Was there really a NEED to put him into the game? Taskmaster? I don't recall people lining up begging to have him as an addition to this widely anticipated release. However, despite some of the character selections currently available (omitting current and upcoming DLC characters of course), that's not what this game is all about, is it? No, it's about having FUN, and when it comes to having FUN, this game definitely delivers! The graphics are absolutely top-notch and the colors displayed on-screen are simply breath-taking. The online mode is pretty good as well, however I do have one minor complaint in that when you join a lobby (a type of mode that allows you to join with up to seven other players to fight against), you aren't allowed to watch the match that is taking place between two of the players within your lobby (if that makes sense). This is one of those cases where it would be much easier to see it than to explain it through text. However the bottom line with that is, you end up (sometimes) with a lot of idle time while waiting for a match to start (unless you enjoy staring at a dull screen until your time to fight commences). Each of the characters bring to the table their own unique fighting styles, some are more powerful, some are quicker, and some are ridiculously slow (a-hem...Arthur), however the developers at Capcom did a great job in balancing this all out (in my opinion).

Having said all that, I definitely am impressed by what this game has offered so far, and I look forward to what lies ahead as far as future DLC is concerned. So if you're "on the fence" about picking this one up, I'd say at the very least, at least rent it, and if it turns out to be something you'd enjoy, buy it! I'm sure glad I did! :)

Want Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds Discount?

This is an awesome, fast-paced action fighting game. If you buy it expecting a slow fighting game style like street fighter, you will be disappointed. But if you enjoy fast-paced, quick-thinking, fast-reaction type fighting games, this is your game to buy for this year.