Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds

If you aren't a huge fighting game fan it wouldn't be surprising to hear that you might not understand the ins and outs of Marvel vs Capcom 3, as its predecessors weren't terribly prevalent in Australia upon their release. So let's breakdown what Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds is then.

At its core MvC3 is a fighting game along the lines of the Street Fighter series - with one major difference. You choose three characters at the start of a round of MVC3 - let's say you choose my favourite combo of Akuma (Street Fighter), Phoenix (X-Men) and Dante (Devil May Cry).

Each character has separate health bars but only one fights at a time - and they take (and give) damage at different rates. At any point during the match you can swap out your current fighter for one of the reserves.

This is done for a few different reasons - it can be because you feel the current match-up isn't working to your advantage, because you need your current fighter to regenerate health, or even just to get a little distance between your opponent and yourself, as the tag system introduces the new character with a flying kick.

Say I start the fight with Akuma and he's getting his butt kicked by the ultra-quick X23 (X-Men) - I sub in Phoenix with a quick tap of the assist button, she flies in and kicks the Wolverine clone and I'm back in the fight. I can then use Phoenix's combination of speed and attacks which start at range to negate X23's advantage - all while Akuma is regaining a portion of his health.

It gets better - naturally it's illogical for my opponent to simply allow his/her character to get whooped by the reborn Jean Grey, but I can stop them from tagging in their own sub for as long as possible by keeping them off the ground - you can only get assists with both feet on the floor.

I can also force them to block instead of switching by pressing my offense hard - instead they'll have to try to attack back, get some breathing room and then call an assist.

I can use their attacks against them as well - when they make their move they make themselves vulnerable, so if I time it right I can dodge backwards as they attack and then unleash something spectacular of my own - like special attacks.

If you've resigned yourself to the idea that you're terrible at fighters you can select Simple mode, and every button press will be a special attack. If you're hoping to one day be better at fighting games though, the pace of the game and the way the moves are mapped will help you get better over time.



Thanks to the varying range, speed and strength of each character they're all quite different. And each character has their own combos - where you can chain moves into a devastating offence if you get it right.

As spectacular as chain combos are though, the Team Hyper Combo really rams home what Marvel vs Capcom 3 is all about - bright, flashing, explosive, colourful attacks which take up the entire screen.

While normal Hyper Combos are hectic, the Team Hyper Combo (which calls in your two team mates to help you drop the bomb on your enemy) is an over-the-top, chaotic mess - it's fantastic.

The game has flaws, though they're few and far between. It was always going to be a monumental task to balance 36 characters - so it shouldn't come as a surprise to know they failed in a few cases. In my experience so far, Sentinel is particularly overpowered, thanks to being twice as tall as everyone else, taking stacks of damage and dealing heaps back.

The tutorial system is also a bit poor - even compared to other fighters, a genre renowned for expecting the player to pick it up as they go. There's a Mission mode, which tasks you with specific moves to complete across each character (teaching you each character's combos as a result), but it's implemented awkwardly, so you find yourself constantly pausing to read how to do each one.

The roster is pretty good, but it too has room for improvement - the inclusion of awesome characters like Mike Haggar and Thor goes a fair way to allay fears that Capcom is holding all the best ones back for DLC, but it would have been nice to see Omega Red or M. Bison in the mix again.

Still if you're tired of your friends smashing you at Super Street Fighter IV, Marvel vs Capcom 3 might be just right for you. And thanks to a surprising amount of depth to the fighting system it won't make them wince too much either.

Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds is pretty much exactly how I expected it - epileptic, frantic fun. Sure, it has a few balancing issues (Sentinel) and it might be a little too frantic at times, but at its core it's a great fighter for those who don't have the patience to learn SSFIV's endless move lists.