If you haven’t seen the above teaser trailer for Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, press that Play button.

In the year and a half since I last spoke about MvsC3, my position remains adamant. I won’t lie; this announcement excites me as much as Street Fighter IV, though I’ve yet to possess any console these titles call home. Where I cringe and suppress violent impulse is in the challenge of congregating with fellow fighting game fans to engage them in mature discussion.

It is said that those who cannot, teach. And that those who cannot teach, critique. The rest dispense their parochial attempts at creativity in message boards or their nerd herd’s local watering hole. These are the dorks that have both annoyed and shamed me for over a decade–their imaginations unable to discern quality over quantity (More characters! Bigger air combos!). Nor do they embrace innovation over simply bloating out a familiar formula (Bigger character teams! More Supers!).

The worst sin of all: They don’t appreciate what they already have. The top argument from fans to produce MvsC3 is that they love MvsC2 and it’s their favorite game ever. My counterpoint has been, “Why don’t you just keep playing MvsC2? If you love it so much, why so eager to retire it?” I wouldn’t protest buying consecutive ports of MvsC2 for each generation of home console. In fact, I openly supported last year’s DLC version with hopes that the rest of the Marvel and Versus series may one day resurface.

Back to MvsC3 specifically, this recent announcement has fanned the fanboy flames of hype, speculation, and demands. Luckily, as more concrete facts are released, the asinine chorus of nerd talk will inevitably dissolve. (Though most likely transition into bitter backlash up to and just beyond the game’s street date.)

I do admit, I’m curious to see how many of my own predictions fare. Let’s break down a few:


This Will Not Be The Game You Asked For

This point is the keystone to all my predictions that follow. As I’ve said in another previous article, fanboys don’t know what they really want. They beg to reach their ideal crossover in the limitless skies of fantasy, with no regard to their substantial value.

Does anyone still play or even remember either Capcom Fighting Evolution or Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe? Of course not. These titles were novelty-driven and ultimately found their fates in shovelware obscurity.

My podcast partner, Kevin, put it best: “These are companies making decisions…with money.” The characters on either side of Marvel and Capcom are no small-time intellectual properties. These are franchises that these companies need to uphold to keep commercially viable. Both companies have learned invaluable lessons from their brushes with near-collapse in the past decade as the result of careless, short-sighted decisions. If their products are to be successful, they will need to be built on the foundation of quality, not novelty.

Put simply: I predict Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 will be a new game. It will carry with it familiar flavors, but will stand strong on its own from its predecessors.

This Will Not Be MvsC2 Plus-Sized

MvsC2 took the Versus series as far as it was ever meant to go in excess. As I mentioned above, fans can only comprehend progress in this way: BIGGER! BIGGER! BIGGER! MORE! MORE! MORE! This does not necessarily make for a better game and thankfully the developers understand.

I suspect that MvsC3 will take several steps backward. Much like the approach taken with Street Fighter IV, this game will more likely be distilled down to its simplest, most definitive elements before engineering any new modes of gameplay. If we’re to look at any recent game as a model for what to expect, Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom should be it.

Smaller Character Roster

Let’s face it, the only reason why MvsC2 was able to reach the ridiculous cast of 50+ characters is because Capcom recycled sprites from every single character they’d used in previous games. We’re in the 21st Century now, where any video game that hopes to be successful must be rendered in 3D. This means that every character must be built from scratch; an expensive, time-consuming process that will drastically limit the number of playable characters that will be available.

I’m guessing no more than 24 will be in the final lineup. This, of course, will infuriate fans of any characters featured in MvsC2 that are now excluded. If you liked Strider, Tron Bonne, Omega Red or Marrow…sorry, these are no longer relevant characters.

So far, I do approve of the new additions for MvsC3. Deadpool and Dante were must-have additions that I gladly welcome. I’m also curious to see how other characters like Super Skrull and Frank West perform. My only request is that of the potential Street Fighter IV characters, C. Viper be that representative.

You Won’t Recognize It At First Glance

The thought of each and every character from MvsC2 and the new challengers being re-drawn by hand and rendered into high-definition animations is alluring…but unrealistic. Revamping the animations for Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix was, as documented by Capcom’s Seth Killian, a developer’s nightmare. Remember, that was for a modest cast of 17 characters. In the time required to put the 60+ Marvel/Capcom characters through the HD Remix machine, two hardware generations will have passed.

As I said, we’re in the future now… The next face of MvsC will be in 3D. I’m comfortable with this, though disappointed that the toon-shaded visuals from Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom won’t be adopted. In fact, the entire anime-inspired art style is out the window.



In-Game Iron Man

Instead, Capcom is trying a new filter: 3D-rendered characters with “ink on Bristol board” styled lines. Supposedly, this will give the audience the sensation of reading a comic book while controlling the action. The trick to this illusion is overcoming the overwhelming variety of distinctive artistic styles.

Cultivating a group of popular art styles for inspiration will still be no small chore. It’s my hope that extensive time is taken to fine-tune this filter since all the money and effort spent on this project could be wasted if the game is painful to look at.

If I had my druthers, the players could have a selection of filters, similar to MvsC2 (DLC) and Street Fighter IV. I’d suggest a simple “Silver Age” mode, a “Modern Age” mode (similar to what we see in the teaser trailer), and perhaps a “Manga” mode that gives a Japanese flavor more familiar with the Capcom characters.

I look forward to seeing updates on the game’s progress as they pop up in the coming year. Considering the stakes and immense weight of the project, I won’t mind any necessary delays. If Capcom’s going to do this, I want them to do it right.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 21st, 2010 at 12:15 pm and is filed under Games, Street Fighter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.