It's weird to even say that, because a lot of the changes to the fighting systems in MvC3 have their roots in last year's Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, which I kind of hated. Like that game, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 does away with separate buttons for punches and kicks, instead moving to three generic "attack" buttons for light, medium, and heavy. It's a dramatic change, and even after hours with the game, I still occasionally reach down for kick buttons that don't actually do what they're "supposed" to do. Decades-old habits are hard to break, and the game doesn't necessarily feel any less complicated due to this change. Though the way it genericizes combos across all characters with its Alpha-style L->M->H chains means that a lot of characters can bust out the same basic air combos using the same basic button presses.
If you've played any Marvel vs. Capcom 2, you've probably seen an air combo, where one player is launched into the air and decimated by a jumping attacker. The system wasn't exactly the easiest thing in the world to figure out, and the developers have simplified things a bit by devoting one button to your launcher, which lets you easily get guys up in the sky. By quickly chasing them up with a jump of your own, you can work your way up and down the attack buttons to execute air combos. You can also tag in one of your reserve characters mid-combo with this button. On the receiving end of a multi-character air combo, you're given the opportunity to break out of the combo by guessing which direction the attacking player is holding while attempting to tag in another character. The guessing game is easy to follow and the timing isn't too difficult to master, making the whole air combo thing feel a lot more manageable to a wider range of players, but since you can only break out when the attacker is tagging, the smarter attackers seem to just work in hyper combos and other single-character techniques instead of giving you an opportunity to escape further damage.
The game has a standard single-player mode with a decent final boss fight against Marvel's Galactus, though the endings aren't so great that you'll feel the immediate need to beat the game with every single character. As in just about every other fighting game ever made, the thing that keeps you coming back is the multiplayer. Locally, you can obviously sit with a friend and fight it out again and again. The game also has online support, which is reasonably good at matching you up with opponents and, when the network conditions are decent, the latency inherent to playing on the Internet isn't an issue. However, actually getting into a game might be harder than you've anticipated. Like Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV before it, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has the same issue of often preventing you from connecting to other players. At one point, I had counted two actual matches sandwiched between over 30 failed attempts to connect. And as if that weren't bad enough, failed attempts knock you back one or two menus, forcing you to navigate back to the online menu before you can try again. With this continuing to be an issue, using the "fight request" system, which attempts to match you into online games while you play the single-player modes, is the best way to find fights. It's sad that this continues to be an issue for Capcom's fighting games.
In addition to playing against one other person, you can also organize lobbies for up to eight players in the standard format, where the winner continues to fight while losers are sent to the back of the line. But this mode doesn't contain any sort of spectate mode, leaving you staring at a menu and the health meters of the currently active players. Unless you're the sort of person who wants to spend eight or nine minutes between matches chatting with other players--or if you're the sort of person that doesn't lose--this is a weak option, at best. And not to keep harping on the past, but this is also something that Capcom did very well in Super Street Fighter IV, making the whole thing even more confusing. Without it, group battles feel like a waste of time.
There are also some nice things at the periphery of the game that make it more inviting, like the ability to create three different teams ahead of time as your "reserve units." From the character select screen, you can pop up this list of teams and quickly select your favorites. Considering you need to pick three characters and three assist types every time you see a select screen, it's a great shortcut to have. There's also an in-game "license card" that shows you how you're doing, what your win/loss records are, which achievements or trophies you're close to unlocking, and a list of titles and icons to select from.
The key thing you need to know about Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is that just because you're a fighting game fan doesn't mean you're going to fit right in and have a good time. Capcom's Marvel-licensed fighting games have consistently been a different breed of crazy, over-the-top fighting that's just going to rub some people the wrong way no matter what. Even this attempt to simplify the action and make it more accessible isn't going to be enough for everyone. But if you've ever had an inkling of interest in Capcom's previous attempts but found them too impenetrable, MvC3 is probably your best bet at finally cracking that code and getting some enjoyment out of all this crossover madness. Just make sure you've got some like-minded, similarly skilled opposition to take on, or else it's going to get messy and decidedly unfun.
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