Why Capcom? Didn’t you learn anything from Marvel vs. Capcom 3? Didn’t you see what I said about the game in my half-year special of the worst games of the year? Apparently not, because you went out, acting like the previous game was a beta, just adding elements that should have been in the original game to begin with, like new characters and stages, and made it a full retail package.
Yet even with these additions, you could not fix what I wanted fixed most in the game: the controls. Yes, I’m talking to Capcom, those responsible for the most iconic fighting game series in the industry. I have always been partial to the SF’s 6 button control scheme that was used in the first Marvel vs. Capcom, and even when Marvel vs. Capcom 2 cut down the buttons to four, it still felt the same. But when MVC3 changed the controls to three basic attack buttons and one special buttons, it ruined the game for me.
But what hurt most for the controls was tagging partners. Instead of hitting two of the face buttons, it’s now holding down the bumper buttons to select. But you have to hold for a set amount of time, as a simple tap just executes an assist move. Most people wouldn’t mind that, but just wait for when fighting against Galactus and his clone allies as they are ganging you and you can’t get the tag in on time, and you will end up throwing your controller in anger!
If Capcom would have at least fixed the control issue, I might have enjoyed the game a bit more, but they decided to keep it the same. And that’s the biggest problem with Ultimate MVC3: it’s the exact level of sameness from the original game.
The biggest addition is eight new stages and 12 new characters, six from each side. On the Marvel side there is Rocket Raccoon, Hawkeye, Iron Fist, Nova, Ghost Rider and Doctor Strange. The Capcom side now includes Phoenix Wright, Nemesis T-Type, Vergil, Firebrand, Frank West, and who should have been in the game all along, Strider Hiryu! Not including Galactus, the game now has 48 characters, which still falls under the 58 that were available in MVC2. Both Jill Valentine and Shuma-Gorath are still available only as DLC.
I still wonder why the other characters were not just made available as DLC? Nor why we have to pay $40 for eight additional stages. Even something simple such as a spectator mode should have just been made available as a patch.
But that’s what makes Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 into what I consider the poster child of everything that is wrong in the industry today. We are forced to pay full price to get a handful of features that should have been available for the original game in the first place. Mortal Kombat 9 did that with the costume downloads, free compatibility updates, and an a la carte option for the four extra character downloads.
Even Capcom, despite offering Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition as a retail product, offered the Arcade Mode as a DLC option. So why make this a full purchase?
Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 just feels like a chance to cash in on those who were disappointed with the previous game, a game that infuriated me beyond belief. Usually an update is to make a game better, not make it worse, but somehow Capcom succeeded in doing that. Sure there will be those out there who will enjoy what Marvel Vs. Capcom turned into, but I’m not one of them.
PROS: At least Deadpool is still funny! Galactus Mode is interesting. 12 new characters, and eight new stages…
CONS: …which SHOULD have been made as DLC! In fact, this whole game should have been made as a DLC option. Not to mention adding Spectator Mode for multiplayer? Also, why can’t I have the original SF style controls from MVC2?