MvC 3 is following the legacy left by its hugely popular predecessor, not an easy act to follow. I am unfamiliar with the series, having only briefly played mvc 2, so I went into mvc 3 without any vested interest or expectations with regards the franchise name. What I have played a lot of is Super Street Fighter 4, which I find an expertly crafted and entertaining game. Having played several hours of mvc 3 I can say that it pales in comparison to Capcom's fighting masterpiece. Thats not to say Marvel vs Capcom 3 is a bad game because its not, what it is is a fun and flashy game with a bones bare set of features and filled with missed opportunities. The game boasts a roster of 36 characters, but the chance of exploring the rich story content of the marvel cast and intermixing it with the Capcom characters has been completely missed. There is absolutely no story mode, and the endings for the characters in the arcade mode are short and downright awful. Its an insultingly bad way to present any kind of conclusion to a game. Having just played Mortal Kombat's fantastic story mode offering, Marvel vs Capcom is a joke in comparison.

Visually MvC 3 is impressive. Its cell shaded characters and back drops are eye catching and the use of colour is rich and varied. The character models themselves look good and the game has a great charm and character about its visuals courtesy of the cell shading. The back drops of the stages are generally good, with a battle in New York being the high point. However the actual number of stages is very limited, with a whopping 9 levels out of the box. The 2D plane which the game play happens in is a lovely stylistic feature, but the camera work does not take advantage of this at all, which is disappointing considering what Capcom achieved with Street Fighter 4. Still, the graphics and art style of Marvel vs Capcom are impressive and the game looks great and colourful.

The sound is serviceable, with some catchy tracks and suitable combat sounds. The use of powers and special moves sound fine, and the voicing for characters is suitably cheesy. There is however nothing particularly memorable or unique here in the sound department.

The controls for combat are based around three attack buttons and a special button scheme. Its a simple system which is easy to use upon playing the game as a beginner. The combat is very fast in this game. Characters dash across the screen and aerial combat seems to be a crucial component. You select a team of 3 fighters and tag between them during battle. You can combine attacks between your team members and this is all done at great speed and commonly results in the game looking CRAZY. The lack of 1v1 fights is unusual to me but it works well in this game. What doesnt work well is that many of the characters feel extremely similar. Button mashing is viable in the game, and actual tactics are a moot point from my experience with it. While I am certain that at a high level the game does require tactics, what I played of it was shallow and lacking in the strategy and pacing that I love on other fighting games. The game has a challenge and training mode but both of these are again very limited. The game does a very poor job of explaining how to play it. The single player arcade mode involves 6 stages of progressively harder 3-on-3 fights, and a boss battle against Galactus. While Galactus is an impressive last boss he is not exactly fun to fight against, and the arcade gets very repetitive fast. Every time the game is the same, the boss battle is the same, and without a story mode to buff it out the single player portion of mvc 3 is very shallow and a flimsy core for a game. Having said that, I found no technical problems with the game. It runs smoothly despite crazy combat, with a great frame rate.

The online of MvC 3 had a lot of complaints when the game released about the problems in the matchmaking, but I have not experienced a problem with it. The game must have been patched because the issue seems non-existent to me, and its a good sign and good support that Capcom patched their product. The problem with the online is that its just bare minimal content. Its just match making for ranked and player matches, but no replay channel and limited ability to have tournaments with friends. The character selection also affects the game, as while many of the characters are cool there are some odd additions to the roster. Capcom has also held back some great characters to be dlc, and are charging a miserable 400 Microsoft points for Jill and Shuma-Gorath individually! This is a disgrace and Capcom should be ashamed of this policy. While I have no problem with dlc as a whole, and have been a fan of it in general, taking core parts of the game out and charging outrageous prices for the content is, at best, a distasteful tactic and everyone should realise that this is how Capcom treats its valuable customers.

Marvel vs Capcom has fun and fast combat with solid fighting mechanics and a great presentation. What could have been a great game has been completely stunted by the lack of content and depth across all aspects of the game. The single player arcade is neutered by its lack of any semblance of a story mode, which is a huge missed opportunity. The character roster has clearly had characters held back from it to be dlc. The 9 stages which the game has to fight in amount to a pathetic offering compared to the games genre rivals. The online is even hampered by the lack of features that this game has. The graphics are great and the art style is lovely, but they cannot make up for the games many short comings. Marvel vs Capcom has the makings of greatness, but has been relegated to mediocrity by the content decisions of its makers.

Pros:

• Great looking game, with lovely graphics and cell shaded visuals
• Use of colour gives the game great charm
• Combat is fast and crazy, and the frame rate is solid throughout
• Match making patch has greatly improved the process of getting a game

Cons:

• Mission and training modes are both short replicas of Street Fighter 4s modes
• 9 stages to fight on is a joke
• Characters have clearly been held back from the roster to be used as DLC
• Arcade mode is short and lacking, and no spectator mode
• No story mode is a huge misstep
• Character endings are horrible

Wtf:

• Mike Hagger is an office holding politician

Score:

• 6/10 - Decent