I love the fighting game genre. It's probably my favorite genre, especially for competitive gaming. I have to admit, when I say fighting game genre, I'm really referring to Capcom fighters. I went through a phase when I was young where I really enjoyed Tekken 3, but no fighting game has come close to captivating and engulfing me as much as SF2, Marvel Super Heroes (in the Ci-Ci's Pizza arcade), MvC2, and SF4/SSF4 each did.

That's why it makes me sad to see Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 offer little to no support for new players. Simple mode doesn't count. It's just a waste of space that would've have been much better suited to be filled by a tutorial for normal mode. Considering that normal mode is the actual game, and simple mode is half of it, it just seems like it's almost made to make the line between good players and new/bad players even more visible. Simple mode is a completely different control scheme and basically a different game. It seems like it would be even harder for someone that used simple mode to to transfer to normal mode. Not to mention, there's no tutorial for that either. So I guess they intended it to be the "press buttons" mode.

I know much of it was because of the name alone, but SF4 was a revolution. Somehow it brought fighting games back to their peak in one release, and it was amazing to see. The world felt like an arcade again. Me and my friend, who lives two states away from me now, that have played SF2 for a decade met up just to play SF4 straight for nearly a week. And at parties at my house, even when there were people there I didn't know, I could say "Do you guys remember Street Fighter? Yeh, they made a new one". And in minutes, our big screen TV would be lit up with hadokens from random people I haven't met, and I would kick their ass with Dan.

Now with the release of MvC3, It seems like that revival is on a downward spiral. We live in an age where for a game to be successful (and I'm using that word purely in financial terms) it needs to be able to capture the hardcore and the casual audience, and It's like they are pushing away the casual audience from them as far as possible. If anything, the casual audience is MORE important these days than the hardcore. With games like Carnival Games selling bank on the Wii.

There is no assistance for new players other than the manual, and there's a reason why those things are 3 pages long now in games like CoD and AC. Because casual players don't want to read them. And yes I know this has been mentioned a thousand times, but the lack of spectator mode really puts a hurting on the arcade feel that fighting game fans and generally everyone that enjoys these games love so much.

Please note that this is not about the quality of the gameplay in MvC3. I love this game to death, and I've probably put in more hours than you have. But that's the reason why I hate this. I want more. I want maybe a Darkstalkers revival (I never got to play the original). I want continued support for MvC3 and SSF4. I want the world to be engulfed in fighting games again.

A good fighting game is just a thing of magic that not many other games can replicate, and the more that experience it, the better. I know there are going to be people that say "we don't need scrubs and newbies in this game", but the fact is, these days, we do need them, and it's about time that we accept that we are outnumbered. Capcom these days needs as many people playing it's game as possible for it to be successful. Not just the ones that loved MvC2 or other fighting games, but people that have never thrown a hadoken in their life. But it doesn't seem to have a good strategy for gaining these people.

I'm not saying dumb down our fighting games, hell no. I'm saying offer a hand for new players to try to get into them. Let them know what the magic series is. Let them know what Hyper combos are. Let them know what assist types are. That way they can get a taste, and decide for themselves whether they want to continue the trek or not. Instead of being face to face with a brick wall that says "Hardcore only."

I'm sure these games will be a success with the community and survive at tourneys, and for some people that's all they need. But I want complete success, because it leads to more success, and more games/content for us to sink our teeth into.