When the HD consoles first started to appear, I wasn't all that sold on them. Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 were big bulky behemoths that cost a lot of money, and were promoting games that looked too flashy to me. And so for a while there, I didn't think I really needed a new console. I was still content to dig through the bargain bins and explore forgotten gems of the so-called "last gen."
And then one fateful Saturday my wife and I were doing some Christmas shopping at the mall (remember malls?) and they had some Xbox 360's set up with Street Fighter IV running on them. At the time, I thought Street Fighter IV looked awful because the sprites of II and III had been replaced by ridiculously flashy HD art. But then I played the game, and I was hooked. So yeah, Street Fighter IV sold me an entire generation of hardware. And when Marvel Vs Capcom 3 was announced, I picked up a copy day one. I even still have the promo t-shirt. While I never got any good at MvC3 back then, I can tell you that me and my friends were really big on fighting games around this time. In fact, there were a group of us who would meet up once a week online for a fight night. We dabbled with pretty much every fighting game released during this time, but Street Fighter IV and Marvel Vs Capcom 3 were two of the biggest. Oddly, I think that those two games also became a bit of a sore subject at some point. Street Fighter IV in particular got so many updates and not everyone was willing to buy the new version. Meanwhile, Marvel Vs Capcom 3 graduated to "Ultimate" status less than a year after launch. In fact, Ultimate MvC3 is the one I'm playing now as well, though it was eventually ported to Xbox One proper. Obviously this third iteration had some pretty big shoes to fill. Marvel Vs Capcom 2 is still to this day a bit of a gold standard within the genre. And I can understand why. If we're talking about best fighters from the late 90's/early 2000's, MvC2 isn't quite Street Fighter III or Garou: Mark Of The Wolves. But it's up there! And there's no doubt that it's iconic in a way that is difficult to replicate. Replaying Marvel Vs Capcom 3 now over a decade later, I can really see this is a better game than I even remembered. It looks great, it plays great, it has excellent music and impressive roster. What's not to like, really? A big point of derision upon release was the "dumbing down" of the controls. Instead of sticking with MvC2's control scheme, there's now basically a three-button system meant to be a bit more inclusive to newcomers to fighting games. I think this bothered purists, but now we've got the hindsight of the last decade where we've the seen the genre as a whole go in this direction. Heck, in a world where Smash is probably the biggest name in the genre, MvC3 may still seem complicated by comparison. And for me, what I really enjoy here is the awesomeness of the roster. I'm always a fan of fighting games that make some interesting additions (or exclusions) to their rosters in sequels. On the Marvel side there's the super obvious inclusions like Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Wolverine. But it's the deep cuts that real grab my attention here. I mean, there's some genuinely nerdy additions considering the MCU would only finally assemble The Avengers in 2012. There's Deadpool who hadn't yet appeared in his own acclaimed movie. There's She-Hulk long before she had her own Disney+ show. There's X-23 before anyone had seen the noire majesty of Logan. And the Ultimate expansion adds more cult-favorites like Ghost Rider and Doctor Strange, but even cooler is Rocket Racoon way before Guardians Of The Galaxy even dropped a trailer. The Capcom side is just as interesting. Obviously including the usual Street Fighter (Ryu, Chun-Li) and Darkstalkers (Morrigan, Felicia) mainstays is important. But how about Albert Wesker, Chris Redfield and Nemesis from Resident Evil? How about Arthur and Firebrand from Ghosts N Goblins? I mean Strider makes sense, but there's some true oddballs like Ace Attorney, Viewtiful Joe, and Zero. This is a gamers' game, no doubt. Most importantly, MvC3 is fun. Its controls are really tight, and yet it has the verticality of the MvC series that has always been missing from Street Fighter. If anything, the MvC games feel more like Darkstalkers, and since we probably won't get another Darkstalkers game anytime soon, that's a good thing. I always remember loving Marvel Vs Capcom 3 back in 2011-2012, but I guess over the years I've wondered if maybe it wouldn't be as good if I replayed it now. It turns out I had nothing to fear. It's just as good as I remembered. In fact, I think it may actually be better than I remembered.
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