Grab your Pringles and your Haagen Daaz and get started on growing your “Curleh mustache,” because Mahvel is back, baby!
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 can be described as a Super Street Fighter 4-esque psuedosequel to the original Marvel vs. Capcom 3: everything the original was, plus a whole lot more. Ultimate adds 12 new characters, 8 new stages, a spectator mode for online play, improved netcode, and balance tweaks to the original cast – all wrapped up in a nice, neat retail package at a MSRP of $40.
Though it’s unfortunate that these additional characters and features will not be available as DLC for the original game, it’s difficult to argue that Capcom isn’t trying to pack in as many player-requested features into Ultimate as possible. The most recent two characters that were announced for the game, Dr. Strange (of Marvel) and Nemesis T-Type (of Capcom), were both playable on the show floor. Word in competitive circles is that Dr. Strange’s wide variety of projectile-based specials and instant teleport are going to make him a force to be reckoned with in tournament play, despite his low health. Nemesis is a bit more difficult to use due to his large size (he’s almost as large as Sentinel), and many of his attacks can miss some of the smaller characters. However, the guy is a beast – he can take a load of damage (and dish it out, too).
The original cast of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 received a lot of tweaks as well, many of which are based on a slight shift in the design philosophy of Ultimate. Capcom told GamesAreEvil that the team designed Ultimate to place less emphasis on long combos with massive hit counts and instead focused on making the game more strategic and tactical with a wide variety of characters. This caused several characters who were known for trapping opponents in massive combos (such as Dante) to have fairly significant changes to their combo structure in Ultimate. Additionally, the character dreaded by many high-level Marvel vs. Capcom players as a low-skill wildcard, Phoenix, has received several much-needed changes that will force players looking to wield her substantial power to play much more carefully. Other characters, such as Ryu and Magneto, have received substantial buffs in the form of new or modified special moves.
We did not have time to go hands-on with the entire cast, but the team at Capcom is showcasing the game at many events around the country and taking player feedback seriously. Fighting fans should be on the lookout for Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 later this fall.
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