It’s always nice to get hands-on with a game that is nowhere near the actual release date. It’s nice because you can tell everyone exactly how it plays, with tongue sticking out and a head full of “check me out, I’m awesome!”. The downside however, is that having a moment with a gem makes the actual release date seem so damn far away.
So as a huge Marvel fan and a massive gamer, it was both a huge privilege and pleasure and a major tease that I managed to get some hands-on time with Capcom’s next huge beat ‘em up, Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. As a massive comic book fan I was eager to play as Thor and Hulk – two of my favourite characters in the Marvel Universe; and on the Capcom side I was anxious to check out Amaterasu (Okami) and Dante (Devil May Cry). But before I go on and tell you what these, plus other characters, were like lets talk about looks and gameplay.
So first things first how does it look? Well for those living in a cave and haven’t seen any screenshots or videos you’ll be happy to know that it looks great. It’s stylish, with vibrant colours and great animations just as you would expect from the series. The characters are designed perfectly and animated beautifully, somewhere between cel-shaded and comic book style.
The stages and very comic book and the specials have been done in a way that just make everything look even more epic than it already is. Almost as if it’s jumping right out of the page. The soundtrack is also great and makes the game have this ‘oh it’s on!’ moment to give you a little adrenaline rush before kicking serious virtual butt.
The previous two Marvel vs Capcom games have both been very fast-paced and heap loads of fun for both the technical fighters and the ‘button bashing’ types, and this one is no exception to the form. There are loads of moves and techniques for you to learn if you wish to or if you are a little more like me, you can button mash until your thumbs are red with contentment, but you will begin to learn moves eventually.
As you would expect there are a vast amount of moves and combos that you can perform, and just like the recent Street Fighter IV there are a few Ultras and Supers too. Before you ask yes you can do the triple character attack in mid-air and yes it is indeed very effective and super awesome. In-fact, all the moves and animations are really fluid and smooth and for me they give the fighting that extra edge compared to most beat ‘em ups, regardless of which character you are fighting as.
As is the norm with the series, the matches that I played were all 3-on-3 tag team match ups. As you select your three fighters you can assign the Specials that you want each character to have, giving you that extra strategic angle, particularly for the more experienced players in these types of games.
With two franchises that offer such a unique and vast bunch of characters, it’s fair to say that Fate of Two Worlds caters for every style possible. You have your large, slow and powerful ones like Dormammu, and you have your quick and agile ones like Viewtiful Joe or Deadpool. Then there’s the charge and shot characters, all of which are quite easy to pick up and play. The range is really expansive, and there really is something for everyone and that’s with only testing out a third of the entire roster.
Admittedly, even though I tried to make a point of playing with all the characters that were available I ended up being drawn to the trio of Thor, Dormammu and Dante. That’s what I would call an invincible trio that would be painfully hard to beat. In fact I would go as far to say that Dante was one of the most hardcore of all; he’s fast, he’s powerful, his sword is a great weapon that has great reach and inflicts great damage. Other characters that I tried out were Chris Redfield, Deadpool, Viewtiful Joe, Captain America, Amaterasu, Iron Man, Trish, Felicia, Morrigan, Hulk, Wolverine and Super Skrull, there were more like Ryu and Chun Li.
So on to some of the newer characters in the game, as mentioned before Thor is fantastic, his Hammer is powerful and his specials are cool, he is technically good and fun to play as. Thor is as you would expect him to be but I suppose his only real flaw would be his speed and range. Dormammu is the slowest of them all and is huge in size as his head touches the health bars at the top of the screen. But despite his slowness he is also insanely powerful and has a silly amount of specials. He is very much a distance player or an impact player, bring him in when you can use the special as he is practically unblockable.
Dante is seriously quick in fact it’s actually quite ridiculous, he is great for button bashers making him loads of fun to play with. Trish is the female version of Dante and the only major difference is that she is considerably weaker (she is female after all). Amaterasu is quick and effective, but due to the nature of the character he is also a little inflexible as far as variation of moves go, but don’t get me wrong he is still cool to play with and he gives you that extra bit of variation as all the other characters are all humanoid.
When they were announcing the game a lot of people were hoping to get the Fantastic 4 but in my opinion they went one better and gave you the Super Skrull. Now for those that don’t know he is a mash up of all four of the Fantastic 4, so you have the stretchy arms and the rock fists and the fire abilities and invisibility. He plays pretty well, he has a large range of moves and specials due to the various abilities he has, definitely one for the technical players potentially one of the best in the roster.
Just like with the Street Fighter and Tekken games of this generation of consoles there will be customised arcade sticks and they look pretty awesome. They work well and look really cool. I do recommend to play it on an arcade though as the game felt most natural on that than through a pad or stick. So do look at getting the arcade sticks if you get the chance to.
All in all as you’ve probably noticed there is something for everyone in this game. I am seriously excited about getting it when it comes out so I can open up a can’o'whoopass on XBL (or PSN). I actually can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a fighting game this much, I was like a child that has just been taken to Disney world. Pencil the date in your gaming diary – February 18th 2011.
