Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 First Impressions

I've been talking about Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 for some time now, and the endless waiting I finally have my nerdy little hands on it.  So how is it?  After just a few hours of gameplay, not too bad.

If you've played and the of Capcom Vs. games, you probably know what to expect.  The core mechanics are mostly the same, which left me a bit dissapointed.  I know MvC2 is beloved by its fans, but this felt like close to the exact same thing.  While this isn't a bad thing per se, it's not what I was looking for exactly.  I suppose if it ain't broke don't fix it, but at least spice it up a bit.

On a similar note, MvC3 has almost no variety in gameplay modes.  You have arcade, training, mini tutorials, online, and that's it.  No time attacks, survival modes, or anything to give it that extra boost in longevity.  I suppose they were more concerned with perfecting the game's main selling point, the classic Vs. mode, but they could have made a stronger product by giving players more to do outside of fighting constantly.

Regardless, the thing that impresses me the most is how every character has a unique fighting style that reflects the source material.  Wolverine fights like an angry little man, rushing at his opponent and then tearing him apart at close range.  Thor is more challenging to use, with slow attacks and moderate speed, but the combos I've been landing do crazy damage and carry all the devastating power you would expect from the God of Thunder.  The game truly shines in how much depth each character has, and I think it will takes hours of gameplay to master just one character, let alone develop a team.  I've even been having a blast with some of the newer characters like Dante, Super-Skrull, Taskmaster and Zero.

But how about style?  The game has gone to great lengths to capture the old school, comic book vibe.  Despite being a comic book fan, this doesn't really excite me.  I'm not particularly attatched to anything that look like a comic for the sake of looking like a comic.  Despite a few mishaps here and there, like them making Deadpool insanely annoying, the game does a classsy job of bringing these characters to life.

However, if the game has one flaw is that it's still very hard to learn.  Yeah, you can button mash, but learning to pull of these ridiculous combos feels like it would take untold hours of gameplay.   As someone who's much more used to shooting things in video games than punching them, I find it incredibly challenging to compete with people who actually know what they're doing.  So if you want to enjoy the game, be prepared to sink alot of time into learning the ropes.  No one said being a hero was easy.