When Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 was announced I was extatic. After playing dozens of hours of MvC2 my little fan-boy brain was having a meltdown over thoughts of what could be in the next installment.  Megaman vs. Havok?  Thor vs. Dr. Wiley?  The possibilities were endless.

Sadly though over these past few months my feelings for the new game have cooled down a bit and I think I know why.  I'm not going to talk about any of the character choices.  Most of them I am happy with.  What bugs me is the art style.  After giving it some hard though I know what has been bothering me.

While the characters look fantastic. Ryu, Chirs, Cap America, Doctor Doom and look amazing, but from what has been shown so far there is something missing.  These character models lack the brightness that MvC2 had.  All the of models and stages shown are dark and gritty.  While that is due to the Street Fighter 4 engine, it has taken some of the magic out of the characters.  

Each character is supposed to be bright and colorful, like they are jumping out of the screen. The characters that have been shown have a much darker tone that doesn't fit well with the crazy pyrotechnics on screen.  The attacks are colorful but pull your eye away from the fight which isn't good.

Maybe I'm showing my age here but I missing the bright cheerful MvC2.  I don't doubt that 3 will be a good game, I just wish that there was a little less realism in it and a little more whimsy.