J360 Productions

While taking a break from Fridays @ J360 and testing for the new Powerplays, I took a look back at a special game from the PS3/XBox360 Era.  This was a game that people for a long time didn’t know was coming out due to a license expiration, the Marvel/EA Partnership (Rise of the Imperfects) and The Capcom/SNK Crossovers.

Neither of these things worked out in the long run, well except the SNK games (they were magnificent) but time went by with no progress on the insane crossovers of Marvel vs.Capcom.

For 10 years or so since the last Marvel vs. game, Comic and Gaming fans alike wondered when the next crossover clash of legends would come back and finally on the day after Valentine’s Day 2011 it became true. The slugfest of Wolverine and Ryu, Iron Man and Captain America, and so on.  This game was worth the 60 dollar price tag with the combat right where it should be explosive, over the top, and the characters talking smack to each other before a 3 on 3 beat down.

The Graphics are top-notch looking almost similar to Super Street Fighter IV with the controls having two punch buttons, one kick button and one special move button.   For those new to the game it takes a bit of getting used to and for this Capcom introduced a mode called simple play where the person can use at least one of the super moves with the push of one button.   The Fighting Veterans however will be pleased with special moves such as tag aerial combos, the return of the aerial block, and of course projectile explosions occurring everywhere.

The online play of the game can be smooth like Super Street Fighter IV although there is could be a lag issue here and there.  Once you start playing you’d notice the game has a limited amount of characters ranging from 30 with 4 that need to be unlocked in contrast to where Marvel vs. Capcom 2 had 56 characters and a character unlock function that kept you replaying the game so that you could gain all of them (PS3/XBOX 360 release doesn’t have this).  I originally thought this was because there’s going to be some DLC coming our way sometime after we’re all tired of playing with the same old characters again.  I was only half right because much later we got a whole re-release with a discount price of $40.

The biggest surprise for me was the final boss which is a nod to earlier installments when you had to fight classic Marvel threats like Apocalypse and Onslaught. You get to fight against one of the biggest threats in the Marvel Universe this time, Galactus !!!

You’ll love fighting him as much as I did. It’s all about how you and your team can beat him to save the earth and he isn’t so easy as it sounds considering you have two heralds of his to fight before taking him on with a rigid time limit. While fighting his heralds can be a bother, in battle the world destroyer delivers a mix of cheap hits and devastating damage but when aren’t Capcom bosses capable of this?  This is where your strategy comes into play.

In Ultimate Marvel vs.Capcom 3 you actually get to play as Galactus and must fend off against different waves of 3-man super teams before you can devour the Earth.   To be honest you’ll enjoy fighting with or as Galactus so much, you’ll forget about what Fox did to him in that horrid Fantastic 4/Silver Surfer movie.

If there are cons to this game it would be a minor ones like sometimes certain commands don’t go as planned such as calling the wrong character into battle, or accidentally having two characters caught in the crossfire from your opponent. The controls do feel a bit simplistic than the scheme from the previous games but they can be second nature after some practice. The lag in online play with a diminished roster compared to Marvel vs. Capcom 2.  The very idea of why you would buy the re-released Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 to play as Ghost Rider, Dr. Strange, and Galactus instead of it being DLC.

Although some sources said the natural disasters that plagued Japan in 2011 had something to do with throwing off the development cycle for MVC3’s DLC.  Whatever the case may be, it doesn’t matter because you’ll be so caught up in battles you might not even care about which version you’d play.

The results were so good for MVC3 and Capcom’s fighters in general that eventually Marvel vs. Capcom 1 and Marvel Super Heroes were re-released as a port perfect HD remake on PSN and XBL as Marvel Vs. Capcom: Origins.

Unfortunately due to another license expiration, all Marvel vs Capcom games are delisted, and physical copies are out of print so you won’t be able to download it from PSN or XBL but if you manage to find a copy of it at local GameStops, small game stores, or flea markets give it a shot, you may just love it.

While the entire series is a 10 for me, I’d rate Marvel vs Capcom 3, a 7 out of 10.

(all Marvel characters are copyrighted by Marvel, and all Capcom characters are copyrighted by Capcom)