Marvel vs. Capcom 3: the worst best one

Posted by on May 5, 2011 in Reviews

It tasks me; it heaps me; I see in it outrageous gameplay, with an inscrutable dexterity sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be Marvel vs. Capcom 3 agent, or be Marvel vs. Capcom 3 principal, I will wreck that hate upon it.

After the jump, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 tasks me

I’m kind of exhausted after trying to wrangle Marvel vs. Capcom 3 into a Moby Dick quote. I’m still not entirely sure it works, specifically with that stuff about “agent” and “principal”. It’s a bit like how I feel actually playing Marvel vs. Capcom 3, where I’m at a loss about how certain things work, and utterly out of my depth in terms of the reflexes required. But for some reason I don’t fully understand, it’s currently my favorite fighting game. And it is simultaneously the most disappointing and galling game I’ve played in a long time. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is my white whale.

I’m fascinated by how it’s supposedly accessible, which is true at a certain level. It beats the pants off Street Fighter IV for being fast without being daunting, detailed without being overwhelming, and just crazy enough to be entertaining. Street Fighter IV is so staid in comparison. I couldn’t care less about Street Fighter’s variously flavored punches. But in Marvel vs. Capcom 3, the Hulk rips up chunks of pavement, Iron Man shoots beams 1/3 the size of the screen, Chris Redfield has a freakin’ flamethrower, and Dormammu attacks you with the universe itself, as if he’s got some sort of hadron collider in his pocket.

I’m also fascinated by the licensing potpourri. There’s some great wacky character stuff in BlazBlue, but it’s all cut from whole cloth. Super Smash Bros. Brawl has plenty of familiar characters, but I’m indifferent to half of them and I actively loathe the other half. But in Marvel vs. Capcom 3, I know most of these guys through cultural osmosis. Some of them I don’t hate. Many of them are topical. And the ones I don’t know are pretty, uh, intriguing. Yeah, I’m talking about whatever’s going on with Morrigan and Felicia. Japan, man.

I love the speed, the responsiveness, the feeling of being in the fight. I love the cheerful cartoon presentation. I love having a team of three fighters, with two of them actively covering my back instead of just waiting in the wings. I love the relatively simple move list, which is a delight to call up. I call up the move list in Soulcalibur IV and decide I’m better off not bothering. I love the way the combos intended to maximize damage are consistent and even somewhat intuitive. In fact, for the first time ever in a fighting game, I understand why they work the way they work (thanks in part to BlazBlue’s tutorial). I can’t do those combos, but I grok why they work, and that’s an important first step.

I love the character asymmetry, which can be hard to suss out, but it’s absolutely there. This is the first game where I’ve actually wrapped my head around the balance among speed, power, maneuverability, and reach, which I’d say are the four pillars of gameplay balance in a fighting game. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has taught me a lot, and in return, I’ve decided that this is a game I want to learn.

At which point I’m bitterly disappointed to discover that Capcom couldn’t care less. They simply cannot be arsed to teach me how to play their game, or to even give me options for how to play it. It is yet another instance of Capcom designing a great game, but only presenting it to members of its hardcore clubhouse. What a colossal waste of fantastic game design.

The more I play Marvel vs. Capcom 3, the more I despair at how it’s not made for me. It is so skewed towards online multiplayer, and I have no hope of finding anything there beyond a prompt beatdown. I go online and find myself matched against another beginner or rookie, at which point my character is almost immediately popped into the air and pummeled with aerial team combos. Intellectually, I know how to do these. But in terms of timing and muscle memory, it’s not going to happen. And without a wider player base, it’s going to be a long time before I reach the level of skill of a typical Marvel vs. Capcon 3 beginner [sic] or rookie [sic]. Compare this with the bronze league in the hugely popular Starcraft II, another technical e-sport of a game that allows you to be bad, but still have a reasonable expectation of winning. Marvel vs. Capcon 3 doesn’t have enough players like me online. And without more help from Capcom, I’m not going to get that good at the game any time soon.

The real shame of it is that I don’t feel any burning need to go online. Instead, Capcom could have easily given me other ways to play. If they did even 10% of what BlazBlue, Mortal Kombat, or Super Smash Bros. Brawl did in terms of providing single player content, I’d be in hog heaven. Instead, I get “missions” (what an awful name for Extreme Technical Timing Challenges), I can pay to download computer opponents that should have been in the game in the first place, or I can slog through the inflexible arcade mode of fighting a sequence of battles over which I have no control beyond difficulty level.

Furthermore, these excellent characters and this sleek gameplay system are all but undocumented. Why does every manual for a fighting game assume so much knowledge? Why are tutorials so half-baked? Why isn’t there a better introduction to each character? Why can’t I see their comparative strengths and weaknesses? For instance, why doesn’t Marvel vs. Capcon 3 tell me that Phoenix has so few hit points (she is the weakest character, and half as weak as the next weakest character)? And furthermore, why doesn’t the game point out Phoneix’s unique tweak or turning into the fire-spewing Dark Phoenix when she’s killed if the hyper meter is maxxed out? Because that’s a pretty cool gimmick. It makes me want to include Phoenix on my team and play a particular way, holding her back to keep her safe until the hyper meter is maxxed out, at which point I bring her out and wreak havoc. What a fantastic risk/reward dynamic. So why doesn’t Capcom provide a battle where the goal is to win as Dark Phoenix? Why do they dump something so cool in my lap without explanation?

What’s so disappointing about Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is that Capcom went to so much effort to design a friendlier and more accessible game, but they didn’t build up any sort of gameplay around that decision. They’re a company with no desire to reach out beyond their current player base. That’s cool with me if Capcom wants to keep Street Fighter the exclusive domain of their hardcore technical fighters club. But I can tell that Marvel vs. Capcom is supposed to belong to the rest of us. And I can tell even more keenly that they’ve failed to bring it to us.

But I don’t plan to give up. I’m not going to stand for Capcom’s wretched lack of confidence in their own cool game. I’ll show them. I’ve bought the strategy guide, which is an absolutely marvelous monstrously thorough tome. I’ve been poring over the strategy articles on SRK. I’ve downloaded the additional characters. I only just now discovered that you can set the training dummy to fight back in the training mode and thereby set up custom battles. I fully intend to keep trying to sell my friends on Marvel vs. Capcom 3 when we’re playing games locally. Now that I’m done revisiting fighting games for this series of articles, it’s going to be just me and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 for a while. Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering fighting game; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for 733t skillz’ sake I spit my last breath at thee.

2 stars
Xbox 360

Mortal Kombat review
BlazBlue: you are not ready
Dissidia 2: the real grindhouse
Soulcalibur IV: you’re wearing that?
Super Smash Bros. Brawl: amateur night

  • Mark L

    I have been playing MvC3 as well, and encountering the same issues. I bought the strategy guide, and it gave me a lesson in the fundamentals, which really helps. Once you know the fundamentals, the special moves for your team, and the way to do the most basic combos, I think you are finally ready to, heh, play the game. Beyond that it’s muscle memory for the real combos and lightning fast tactical judgement. Those two things- the ability to make the combos and the wisdom to know when and how to use them- those are the things I keep reaching towards. These are the things that always escaped me when I tried to play fighting games growing up. I believe in combos; the orgiastic fighting game experience that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter – tomorrow we will practice harder, stretch out our arms farther

  • Mark L

    …And one fine morning.. So we played on, fingers against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

  • Manresa

    For a total novice at fighting games, who hasn’t touched the genre since the heyday of the Commodore 64, where’s the best place to start?

  • Alan Kleiman

    Honestly, though, whenever I catch high-level MvC3 footage online I figure it’s not worth the bother. The metagame seems to be about playing that game in an incredibly unfun way.

  • http://www.quartertothree.com Tom Chick

    Manresa, it really depends on what you’re looking for. The long answer is pretty much the series I’ve just written. :) But the short answer is that if you just want to have fun punching up characters, you can’t go wrong with Super Smash Bros. Melee.

  • http://www.quartertothree.com Tom Chick

    Very well done, Mark L.

    So did you pick three characters and just learn those? Which three did you pick? I’m leaning towards Spider-Man (melee), Chris Redfield (ranged), and Phoenix in reserve to try to bring out Dark Phoenix. But that’s just against my buddies who suck at the game as bad as I do. I figure if I ever want to win an online game, I should pick a more versatile and less gimmicky team.

  • Manresa

    Tom: I’m looking for a game that teaches the basic mechanics of the genre, not just one that’s easy to pick up and play. Single player at first: I am terrified of going online and getting squashed.

  • Azih

    3D fighters and 2D fighters have pretty different mechanics so you might want to pick one or the other initially. Blazblue with its extensive tutorial and challenges might be the best bet for 2D.

  • http://plan.thewoottons.com fuzzyslug

    Let’s set up a QT3 amateur night and play some vs. I too am having trouble wrapping my head around the game and would love some fair competition. The online game has not been a friendly place to visit.

  • Rico

    Capcom’s last several fighting games have all had some manner of teaching you to a degree, but they take a more hand-off approach to it. They have had command lists and training modes for you to learn moves and combos, but let you ‘feel’ the game out yourself. They teach you spelling and a little bit of grammar but you have to write your essay in pugilism on your own.

    I do agree, though, that the single-player in MvC3 could very well have more attention, and they could learn something from the ridiculous load of content Namco traditionally puts into Soul Calibur, or even a tenth of what Nintendo does with Smash Bros. Since MvC as a universe is much looser and crazy than traditional SF games, you’d expect Capcom would have done more with, say, unlocking costumes, various play modes and ‘missions’ that would provide something to do other than the core fighting mechanic.

    Not that I’m saying the focus SHOULDN’T be on the core game, but having those other minigames and things to spend earned points on make for a more enriched experience as a whole. There ARE some unlocks in the game as is, but it wouldn’t have been much of a leap to give game owners some other side challenges.

  • Mark L

    I personally go with Domarammu for zoning and his fantastic super, hulk for survival and damage, and morrigan to build meter and because she is so flexible. I also really really want to learn Amaterasu, who I love, but she crumples under like 3 hits :(

    Tom: I am told Spiderman is a heavily execution based character- that is to say, he requires tons of precise button pressing. If that is true, that might be holding you back? I mean, I’m terrible myself, just going by what I’ve heard, here.

  • Kirk R

    I’ve never been into a fighting game before. Hungry for a new (to me) gameplay experience, I decided I would try a fighter, and a good online friend suggested this one for its simple move structure, but great depth.

    My experience mirrors yours rather well, I study, watch video, hit practice mode for what seems like forever, and continue to lose. Badly. Against said online friend I typically win 1/20 (up from 0, at least!) Love the crazy design and the design of the mechanics, but it’s a bit impenetrable at first.

    Maybe 37 is too old to start playing fighters, but I simply cannot stop pursuing this white whale either.

    Anyway, if anyone wants to experience fellow new playing that would be laughed out of the SRK community, look me up (XBL Siegman). My team is Tron/Dormammu/Magneto for now. Happy to just play games, or lab-type work on improving game understanding.

  • Ian H

    I just started in with fighting games as an old gamer with SSFIV and MvC3 is my newest pickup that I’m trying to learn. I have to say that the game speed is probably the biggest issue for me. I’m very much scrub level (I play maybe an hour or two a week of fighting games) but while with SSFIV I could keep up the pace and still do some real damage with MvC3 I just have too many issues with the long, fast combo chains. With less time to think you just have to rely more on muscle memory and I don’t have the life time to put in the training mode time that I would need to develop that.

    I am having a little more luck now that I have a team that suits my particular skills (slow and old) a bit better. I use Chris-B on point Arthur-B in the middle and Hulk-B as anchor. With Chris and Arthur I just zone like crazy while using the Hulk-B AA assist to keep folks away from me in the air (it has hyper armor so it’s pretty dang effective at this). With zoning I end up doing more damage without having to always nail long combo chains like rushdown characters do. And since I try not to burn too much meter with Chris and Arthur I end up having lots of meter to use when I bring in Hulk and X-Factor 3 up. Hulk can get zoned by good players but with his armor moves and easy combos I can smack down other rookies if they are not paying attention.

    One other point that has increased my enjoyment of MvC3 is ditching ranking mode for player matches only. Keeping track of progress just add an extra level of salt onto an already difficult game, I enjoy it much more when I’m not playing for rank. Plus the option to keep running back matches when you finally get an even match in player mode is really nice.

  • http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_W9J6YnnKS3A/SW6w9L_fBLI/AAAAAAAACAI/1ik3m05T8DQ/s400/ricardo-montalban_44517755.jpg Mike Cathcart

    Nice try, Tom. Everyone knows you got that quote from Wrath of Khan.

  • http://twitter.com/kunikos Kunikos

    I find the easiest character to learn is Captain America, and followed by X-23.

  • http://www.quartertothree.com Tom Chick

    Manresa, BlazBlue Continuum Shift will definitely educate, if not easily entertain you. You should be able to find a $20 copy easily enough.

    Mark, yeah, I guess you’re right about Spider-Man. I think I’ll be swapping out that little weirdo with Capgain America, as per Kunikos’ suggestion. Also, having seen Thor, now I want to try Thor in the game. Who apparently has some special move that lets him charge the hypermeter! Sounds like an interest complement to getting out Dark Phoenix…

    Kirk, don’t some sports have brackets based on people’s age? They should do that for fighting games. Also, Super Smash Bros. Brawl has an option to play matches at different speeds. It’s pretty cool watching the timing unfold at a speed that my brain can process. I almost wish MvC3 had something like that, but MvC3 really can’t be bothered to do anything to accommodate anyone who’s less than hardcore.

  • Jonathan

    Great review, Tom. I’ve had the same love-hate experience with MvC3, even having grown up playing Street Fighter and following the tournament scene despite never getting to an actually competitive level. I literally just realized that no, they don’t tell you about Phoenix’s resurrect thing, or what the Christ an OTG combo is. Without SRK’s beginner’s guide I’d be lost. Why the hell isn’t something like this in the game?

    I realized that I’m actually the one who shows my friends all the crazy shit in this game. I hate that I have to be the one to do that. I hate that someone needs to be that person.

  • Granpire Viking Man

    You know, I don’t think I’ve ever read a review that echoes my sentiments so strongly.

    Now, to find me a strategy guide…