Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds First Impressions
By Patrick Klepek - Posted Apr 20, 2010
The decade-long wait is finally over. At Captivate 2010, Capcom made Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds official. The legendary icons of Marvel and the renowned fighters of Capcom are heading into the ring for a third round after years and years of unrelenting fan demand.
What took so long? It's complicated, explained Marvel manager of licensed games Chris Baker.
"I've been with Marvel in their games division in licensing for about two-and-a-half years now, and the whole time I've been there I've always been asked about this game," said Baker. "There's always been rumors, like they [Capcom] were talking about, and we've always been talking about it within Marvel ourselves. 'When are we finally going to be able to make this happen?' I've known about this for well over a year now, it's the hardest secret I've ever had to keep, and we just couldn't be more excited about doing this with Capcom, making it real after all this time. If you think about it, how many series there have a full decade-plus between a two and a three?"
"I've been with Marvel in their games division in licensing for about two-and-a-half years now, and the whole time I've been there I've always been asked about this game," said Baker. "There's always been rumors, like they [Capcom] were talking about, and we've always been talking about it within Marvel ourselves. 'When are we finally going to be able to make this happen?' I've known about this for well over a year now, it's the hardest secret I've ever had to keep, and we just couldn't be more excited about doing this with Capcom, making it real after all this time. If you think about it, how many series there have a full decade-plus between a two and a three?"
Capcom producer Ryota Niitsuma, the same man who shepherded Tatsunoko vs. Capcom into existence, is heading development on Marvel vs. Capcom 3. This time, however, the matchup won't be a Wii exclusive; Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is headed to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. There was no mention made of a Wii version at Captivate, but given the game's intentions of bringing comic book visuals to life, it's possible Capcom and Marvel's visual demands rule that one out.
Though gameplay tends to be king with gamers, more than anything, the questions from the press at Captivate 2010 centered around the characters. Specifically, which characters from the Marvel universe will be making an appearance in Marvel vs. Capcom 3? Iron Man, Morrigan (complete with her now-expected comically large breasts), Ryu, Hulk, Chris Redfield and Wolverine were featured in the initial teaser trailer. But there will be plenty more in the game.
"We'll see," explained Niitsuma, "Right now, we're aiming to have, at least, more than 30 characters in the game, but we're still in the middle of development and going forward until a release date, we'll see how many we can fit in. We'd like to add as many as possible."
Niitsuma was actually wearing a t-shirt featuring Thor, but laughed a "no comment" about it.
The character count doesn't seem anywhere near solidified, so fans still have a chance to influence who makes the cut. No one was yet willing to discuss any possible plans for character expansion via downloadable content, but the concept wasn't ruled out. It's too early, they said.
Like Street Fighter IV, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 follows the design philosophy of maximizing depth while also minimizing complexity. You can have great depth within a simplistic design, argued Capcom, and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is being crafted with an eye for taking that one step further. Making Marvel vs. Capcom 3's situation even more complex, however, is the complete explosion of Marvel characters in the last decade, as the result of their success in Hollywood. The audience for Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is potentially much larger than with previous games and the types of consumers interested in this matchup will certainly be more than just fighting fans.
"There are a lot of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 fans," said Niitsuma, "and they have certain expectations of what this game [is], how it should play and what the controls should be like, and we don't want to turn our back on those fans because we want them to just come in and start playing like they did the old game. But at the same time, we want to expand that audience, reach out to new people, and there are a lot of Marvel fans who aren't familiar with fighting games and they want to see certain characters do these special moves that they're familiar with, but if they're not familiar with fighting games, it might be difficult. So, we want to make sure we implement a system that makes it accessible to them, as well."
Unlike Street Fighter IV, however, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 will not be using the established game engine developed for Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV. Instead, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 will switch to Capcom's proprietary MT Framework technology, seen most recently in Lost Planet 2 and Resident Evil 5. Capcom was strangely vague about the reasons for switching, but the bottom line seemed simple: MT Framework provides the developers with more raw power."This is the technology that brought you Resident Evil 5, Lost Planet 2 -- unquestionably gorgeous games," said Capcom special advisor Seth Killian. "Unquestionably to me. You can question it if you want, but you're wrong. [laughs] They're gorgeous games and we've got the same technology powering Marvel vs. Capcom 3, so this is really the biggest engine that a fighting game has ever had under the hood, just in terms of raw processing power, and they're really going to leverage that in ways that you'll see. Basically, we're bringing the most powerful processors to ether with Capcom's genre-leading expertise in the fighting area and, of course, Marvel characters, which are some of the biggest characters you'll see in entertainment today."
I also have to be the bearer of bad news. As of right now, the game won't feature "Take You For A Ride." However, given the fan love for Marvel vs. Capcom 2’s character select screen music, I wouldn't rule it eventually getting in. Marvel's Baker also promised more of a storyline for Marvel vs. Capcom 3, but made clear it wasn't going to be a story-driven game. There needed to be a narrative reason for the worlds colliding, though, and Marvel wanted each character to have their own individual game ending.
There was no gameplay shown at Captivate and both Niitsuma and Killian would speak about the mechanics behind the game in very vague terms. We were promised more details would be coming soon, however, and given the spring 2011 release date, E3 seems like the right place.
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Comments
Displaying 21–40 of 57
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G0DsLove
yes its for the 360 kool. i hope its for the wii too bcuz im both a 360 and wii fanboy and i would like to play online for freeee if it does support online..
TuRbOyS_1
I freak out for a moment when I tough it was only goin to be for the 360 but now that I have read all the article and see its for the awesome PS3 too fell much better \m/
EvilRyuga
Y'now I 'll be honest I really wasn't expecting this but it looks awesome. I hope Dante from DMC will be in it.
DarthHerter
HEY WHAT HAPPENED TO MORTAL KOMBAT LOL
DarthHerter
chris redfield versus hulk. that match up is perfect for him. SHINPU HADUKEN!!!!!!!!!!!
Ronnie74
Whats this Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 !!!! I'm going to Gamestop to reserve my copy right now. I just hope they have a collectors edition made for this game M.V.C.3 fightstick will be sweet to own to. I'm all set for next year Capcom!!!!
G0DsLove
yes its for the 360 kool. i hope its for the wii too bcuz im both a 360 and wii fanboy and i would like to play online for freeee if it does support online..
Orson
Ada Wong in that sexy red dress playable please.
dbzwig
Wish list:
Viewtiful Joe
Phoenix Wright
Arthur (Ghouls n Ghosts)
Dr. Wily
oldschool Nathan Spencer (Bionic Commando)
anotrZelda_usrname
When it has the Marvel logo in the biginning of the trailer, on the third right, it looks like the silouhette of Deadpool. High hopes for the guy who has a greater healing factor than Wolverine.
DE HOYOS
yipppppeeeeeeeee!!!!!!
exiled_vagrant
hey guys look closely at the promo images. theres a guy holding a big sword behind his back with a coat on and short hair. (fingers crossed its dante!)
exiled_vagrant
finally all is right in the world. this will go down as the greatest fighter in history
SSJ4Pedestrian
Finally my most favorite game is coming out. I get to continue my mega man and war machine projectile spamming. Ho-ray for chip damage.
RockieOllie
In Sheva's Voice: CHRIS!
darkchaos_1000
Man its about time its time to bring back some great battles but i hope its not as broken(unless thats a bad thing) the only thig im wrryed about is the online play i dont want it to lag to much but Yea can't wait 4 that to come out Capcom jus take ur time so it can be the best fighter out there!
dabos90
I hope capcom finally gives meagaman X a shot
blazingkidtes
wow i just wet my pants and drop my face i wasn't expacting that one capcom just 4 the record i retired from marv vs cap 2 because i was 2 good it looks like capcom gave me a reason 2 come out of retiring with so many incarations of this game made in the mugen community it's nice to see the real and official game good job capcom and thank you
Sephirex
YES! YES!!!!!! MY PRAYERS HAS BEEN ANSWERED! MARVEL VS CAPCOM 2 IS MY FAVORITE GAME EVER! THIS IS SICK! MUST HAVE NOW!!!
kyoput
HOORAY!!!!!!!! Finally Capcom is giving us the sequel we've been begging for. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy RE5 and SF4 but, come on,it's Marvel vs. Capcom 3! HOORAY!!!!!
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