Oh Comic Con… Oh Capcom… I just don’t know how I feel about this… But one of the first things to trickle out of SDCC2011 that made it to my eyes and ears were some announcement trailers for new characters in Marvel Vs Capcom 3. And at first, I was delighted, but the I was taken aback. The rumors were true. This wasn’t a downloadable update, this was a retail disc. I get to buy MvC3 again… And to rub it in, I get to buy it this November… That’s NINE months after the release of the previous version. And hey, I get it. Capcom likes to reissue and update the same game multiple times. Most egregiously with the Street Fighter franchise throughout it’s history. But also with Resident Evil, Dead Rising, Lost Planet, Ghosts ‘n Goblins, Dead Rising, Darkstalkers, Rival Schools, Capcom Vs SNK… The list goes on… But the thing is… With the ‘Vs Marvel’ series, they’ve always been decent with us. A new game meant a new roster and play mechanics. This is the first time they’ve just done an update for that particular series. The play mechanics remain virtually the same, with only minor tweaks here and there. The only noteworthy additions for the moment seem to be the addition of a spectator mode for online play and new characters. And as far as those characters are concerned, I have mixed feelings… But first, watch this trailer.
So now you’ve seen the first of 4 of 12 new characters. In case you didn’t watch it, they are Ghost Rider, Hawkeye, Strider, and Firebrand/Red Arremer. Naturally, Ghost Rider and Hawkeye are members of the Marvel Universe. As for the Capcom characters, we’ve got Strider Hiryu of the Strider action-platformer game series. He’s a super-ninja with robot animal sidekicks. His games were also hard. Then there’s Firebrand (Also known as Red Arremer)… He’s not the main villain of the Ghosts ‘n Goblins franchise, but he does still the princess at the start of the game. He’s also the protagonist of another game series entitled, “Gargoyles Quest” for the original Gameboy, as well as the sequels on the NES and SNES. He was also a playable character in the SNK effort known as SNK vs Capcom: Chaos… Anyway, I suppose these characters are fine and all, but what about who I want? Where’s Cyclops? Where’s Captain Commando? Well… One might say, “Don’t worry, there’s still 8 more characters to be announced.” And to that person, I’d say, “NO.”
[Featuring Firebrand and Hawkeye]
Unfortunately, the rest of the upcoming roster was leaked on the Internet before a single day could pass, and images of the remaining characters were found and displayed for all their glory. It was later confirmed by UMvC3 producer, Ryota Niitsuma, that these characters were the real deal. And I’m gonna tell you who they are, right now.
On the Marvel side, in addition to Ghost Rider and Hawkeye are; Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, Nova, and Rocket Raccoon.
On the Capcom side, in addition to Firebrand and Strider are: Frank West (Dead Rising), Nemesis (Resident Evil), Vergil (Devil May Cry), and Phoenix Wright (Ace Attorney).
[Featuring Ghost Rider and Firebrand... Again, because I like Firebrand.]
And that’s that. Bonus points for Rocket Raccoon… But where is Cyclops, dammit!? It’s like Marvel spit in my face and laughed about it, by not including him twice. And I know it’s Marvel that’s being restrictive about him and not Capcom. But whatcha gonna do, brother? I’ll try them all out when the new game comes… Still debating on whether I’m gonna buy it or not though. But I can’t be completely mad about the new $40 disc… As I understand it, half of this stuff was originally being created for downloadable content for the vanilla version of MvC3, but when the Earthquake in Japan hit earlier this year, it put a halt on development and distribution… So the developers saved it all up and added it in with unplanned content to spice it up. I still don’t like it, but I understand why. And I can’t stay mad at Capcom. It’s too hard because I love fighting games and at the very least, they continue to put out new things.
Star Clipper recently installed a live-action Angry Birds shooting range in our art gallery. Since I’m constantly around Angry Birds merchandise it made me realize Angry Birds is a pretty strange game. You take birds without wings (Seemingly the reason why they’re so angry) and shoot them with a slingshot at disgruntled pigs. That’s a pretty strange premise, but it’s nothing compared to some of the bizarre games that have come out over the years. Here are my top 5 strange video games:
5. Super Noah’s Ark 3D and other Biblical video games produced by Wisdom Tree.
During Nintendo’s reign in the late 80s, early 90s, a Christian company called Wisdom Tree created unlicensed Christian video games for the NES and Super NES. If you were to go into any used video game store today, Wisdom Tree games are easy to recognize because of their light blue cartridges. Original Nintendo cartridges were all grey, with the notable exception of ‘The Legend of Zelda,’ which came in a gold cartridge. When Nintendo launched their Super Nintendo console they designed a lockout chip for the system so only officially licensed Nintendo games were playable. In order to get around this dilemma, Wisdom Tree created ‘Super Noah’s Ark 3D’, which worked kind of like the Game Genie, by plugging a licensed game into the top of the cartridge it would bypass the lockout chip.
Not only is the story of the game strange, but the gameplay is completely bizarre. Essentially, ‘Super Noah’s Ark 3D’ is an exact modified version of ‘Wolfenstein 3D,’ but with downplayed violence. ‘Wolfenstein 3D’ is notable for being the prototype for all subsequent first-person shooters. However, instead of killing Nazis like in ‘Wolfenstein 3D,’ in ‘Super Noah’s Ark 3D’ you go around with a sling shot and shoot food at sheep that are rampaging through the ark. I’ve never actually seen a physical copy of this game before, but the rumor was you could only find the cartridges at Christian book stores during it’s initial release.
Check out the game play of ‘Super Noah’s Ark 3D’ and a review of other lousy Wisdom Tree games by The Angry Nintendo Nerd:
4. Revolution X starring Aerosmith
‘Revolution X’ was a rail shooter arcade game starring Aerosmith, that was eventually ported to multiple home consoles. The story goes that in 1996 the New Order Nation or NON has banned all forms of television, music, magazines, and video games. When Aerosmith is captured by NON soldiers, it’s your mission to save the band. What weapon do you have? A gun that shoots CDs, because as the game’s slogan promotes, “Music is the weapon.” Literally. The game has a rockin’ soundtrack with classic Aerosmith tunes like ‘Walk This Way’ and ‘Love in an Elevator’ and if you beat the game and save all the band members you get to hangout with Aerosmith backstage. Score! Overall, this is one weird game. Yet, I think the strangest thing about ‘Revolution X’ is that KISS didn’t think of it first.
Here’s Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith encouraging you to, “join the revolution!”
3. Seaman
This might sound weird, but I have more experience with ‘Seaman’ than of all the other games I’m writing about on my list. ‘Seaman’ was a virtual pet game for the Sega Dreamcast that came out in 2000. The unique element of the game was that it utilized the microphone on the Dreamcast’s controller so as you raised your Seaman, a fish with a human face, you could talk to it or insult it like I did with my friend Ethan all summer long back in 2000. Seaman was narrated by Leonard Nimoy and would talk back to you. The final stage of Seaman’s growth was to become a frog with a human face, but Ethan and I always got in arguments with Seaman and would boil his tank and kill him before it reached that stage. Since gaming in that era was generally a male hobby I doubt many people ever nurtured Seaman to maturity. Here is some typical gameplay:
2. Muscle March
‘Muscle March’ is my absolute favorite party game. In fact, every time I have anyone over I insist they try playing Muscle March at least once, much to my girlfriend’s dismay. Available exclusively for WiiWare download, ‘Muscle March’ is ported from an abandoned arcade game and the story is absolutely ridiculous: when an alien thief steals a group of bodybuilder’s creatine powder they chase after him by avoiding crashing through walls and tackling him.
The game is a giant stereotype that is so flamboyantly over-the-top that it is beyond offensive. In fact, it’s so ridiculous that you can’t help loving it. Undoubtedly, My favorite part is when you get a game over and your bodybuilder wistfully tosses rocks into a river.
1. Avoid The Noid and Yo! Noid
‘Avoid the Noid’ is not only one of the strangest games of all-time, it is also one of the the strangest ad campaigns of all-time. The Noid was Dominos Pizza’s Mascot in the 80s and for my money he is easily the most butt-ugly mascot ever. The strangest thing about him is that he doesn’t actually promote Dominos Pizza, he destroys it. I can’t understand why any company would want a mascot that destroys their product but apparently Dominos thought it was such a great idea they made multiple video games about him.
Many food mascots have had video games based around them, including the 7UP Spot and Cheetos’ Chester Cheetah, but the Noid was the first I can remember. ‘Avoid The Noid’ was originally released for the Commodore 64, and was later adapted for the NES as ‘Yo! Noid.’
the goal of ‘Avoid The Noid’ was pretty self-explanatory. You control a pizza delivery boy who must, well, avoid the noid because he destroys pizzas. ‘Yo! Noid’ was somewhat different because it was originally based on a japanese game called Kamen no Ninja Hanamaru. You play as the Noid and battle his evil duplicate Mr. Green using a yo-yo and a pogo stick (What is this 1955?). The reward was Dominos Pizza of course. I can only assume the goal was to beat the game in 30 minutes or less or the Noid gets your pizza for free.
Alright folks, it’s been awhile since my last blog on MVC3. But a lot has been going on at Star Clipper, which has kept me from keeping up with a variety of ongoing blogs, such as “Fleet’s Favorite Comic Book Adaptations” and “Name that Superman”. But don’t worry, I’ll get back to those in due time… For the moment though, I’d like to fill everyone in on what’s been happening with Fleet’s most anticipated upcoming game, Marvel Vs Capcom 3.
The last time, I blogged about this game, there were only 10 officially announced characters. At the time of writing this, there are officially 30 characters in the game (including 2 characters that are to be added to the game through download). At the end of the blog, I’ll post the names, but for now, let’s talk about a few fun tidbits about the game. For starters, the game has been given a release date of February 15, 2010. So that means that I’m shutting down my Valentine’s Day early, so I can go stand in line at Midnight so I can be one of the first to play the completed retail copy of the game. Secondly, it would appear that Capcom’s standard practice of palette swapping (making different colored variants of characters) was frown upon by Marvel higher-ups, so instead of getting awesome colored characters, we are getting Marvel heroes and villains in the various costumes that they have adorned over the years. As you’ll have noticed below, Spider-Man is showing off 4 of his costumes; Standard Blue and Red, Black Symbiot, The Iron-Spider, and the new “Big Time” suit. I think that’s pretty cool. However, not every marvel character has as many costumes as Spidey, so some of the other characters will have more inventive costume swaps. For example, there’s a video out there, somewhere, where we get to see Deadpool in an interesting “Blue and Yellow” get-up that comes from a certain DC mercenary’s wardrobe.
Also new to the franchise are these things called, “Player License Cards.” Now, these aren’t a new concept for fighting games, but they are always a welcome addition. So, what that means for the player is that a variety of that user’s stats would be collected upon the finishing of an online match. Eventually, their “play style” will have been determined through a variety of factors and ultimately, the card would be used by your potential opponents so they can know what to expect out of you during a match. The cards also record who your favorite characters are to play with, as well as your win/loss record and your overall rank for online play. Also included in the game is a little thing called, “mission mode.” What that actually means is that this is a glorified training mode that gives you objectives for each character, in an attempt to help you become a better player. This is almost a standard affair with fighting games these days, so it’s not really exciting news, unless you’ve never played a “______ Vs Capcom” game.
Now, all that’s left to discuss are the characters, and if you’ve been keeping up with our facebook page, you’ll have surely noticed the MVC3 videos that get posted whenever a new character is announced. That is my doing, but in the event that you don’t want to check those links out, here is a quick list of all the confirmed characters in the game as of the past week, as ripped directly from Wikipedia for ease.
And don’t worry, this isn’t the final list of characters. The head of development for the game has stated that he intends to have at least 2 characters announced to the game for every month leading up to the release of the game. For this month, 4 characters were announced, so there doesn’t seem to be a limit. But at the very least, there will be at least 6 more characters… But that number shouldn’t include Downloadable Characters. Now, I don’t really care for having to pay for extra characters, but I think that I could possibly make an exception for this game, seeing as Cyclops has yet to have announced. I’ll pay for Cyclops. Otherwise, that’s about all the fresh news for MVC3. See ya next time.
There is a new addition to my household that arrived recently, a bouncing bundle of Nintendo Wii! Yeah, I’m sure most of you out there are hardcore gamers and I’m just now catching up to the times, and I’ll admit that I’m already hooked on gaming.
I’ve been playing some classics from back in the day like Mario 2 and 3, the original TMNT game (I still can’t get past the underwater bomb detonation level), old school Legend of Zelda, and Megaman. This all got me to reminiscing about the late, late eighties when Nintendo merchandising was exploding, and even the face of Saturday morning cartoons changed to reflect the popularity of gaming.
Captain N the Gamemaster looks really bad today and was essentially a half hour commercial for Nintendo games, but it was awesome when I was 9. Does anyone remember the saga of Gameboy? or how Simon Belmont was a pompous jerk? or how Megaman prefaced everything he said by saying “mega!” all the time?
Also from the late eighties through 1990 was the live action Super Mario Bros Show starring pro wrestlings Capt. Lou Albano as Mario in some pretty ridiculous sketches with some animated features to go along with the zaniness.
Around the time of the syndicated Mario Bros cartoon was the Legend of Zelda cartoon which characterized Link as kind of a smart-ass, kind of chauvinistic punk.
Also, how many of you remember eating this cereal? Ahh, the 80’s.
When I originally started this ongoing series of my favorite adaptations, I stated that this wouldn’t just be about movies, but so far, the list has read something like 8 movies and 1 television series. For that, I apologize. It was always my intention to write about a variety of different types of adaptation and so… I bring you, the first videogame on this list. That game? Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.
You see, it’s not often that a video game that’s based off a comic is so great that a person would put it in a list of their favorite games. Especially if you’re talking about games that were created after the decline of the American Arcade scene. For example, every 20-something or 30-something that I talk to about comic book games tends to bring up how awesome the X-Men arcade game was. I actually wrote a blog about it back in February, if you were looking for more information on that one… People say that all the games that feature Superman are crap as well, I’d like to think that to be false. The Superman Arcade game was awesome, and so was The Death and Return of Superman for the SNES. Then there were the Spider-Man games on the original PlayStation…. But I’m not here to talk about those… I’m here to talk about the Hulk game that could.
So what do you get, when you put the Hulk in an open environment that is filled with destructible objects? You get fun. That’s what. Hulk: Ultimate Destruction is essentially about Bruce Banner running from General Ross and Emil Blonsky. Blonsky becomes the Abomination during the course of the game, and proceeds to make life hard for the Gamma Green Giant. But that isn’t the fun of the game. In the previous Hulk game (Based off of Ang Lee’s movie), you were required to play as human Bruce Banner. This meant that you had to sneak around and do boring things. However, in this game, you were Hulk, and only Hulk. You could super jump across buildings, rip cars in half and wear them as gloves, you could pick up folks and chuck them across the map. You could be whatever kind of Hulk that you wanted to be. But what made the game even cooler was, like the PlayStation Spider-Man games, you could unlock “skins” that would allow you to play as a different version of the Hulk. Some of which had different dialogue. Fun stuff. And let’s not forget the Devil Hulk. That guy featured in the game a a villain that you had to face within the Hulk’s subconscious. And let me tell you. That was fun.
Anyway, we had a game that was designed with the basics of a Grand Theft Auto, but with the Hulk. So no hookers or cocaine packages or gun violence… All that was replaced with Teen approved Marvel violence, but it was ok, because sometimes its fun to do bad things. And it’s even better when you’re in control of a misunderstood beast. Trust me when I say I did the Hulk’s reputation no good. But what else was fun about the game? For one thing, the guy who voiced Bruce Banner (Neal McDonough) in the 90’s cartoon returned for the game. Ron Perlman also did some voice work in the game, but it’s pretty sweet when he does the voice of anything. But yeah, the game was developed by Radical Entertainment and published by Sierra Entertainment for release in August of 2005. You had a choice of playing the game on any of the main consoles at that time, which were the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube. When I worked at certain videogame retail store (that is now out of business), Hulk: Ultimate Destruction was one of the easiest games to sell, when one was asked for a quality game with a reasonable (cheap) price.
In 2008, a game based off of The Incredible Hulk (The Ed Norton movie) was released. It featured the same style of gameplay, however, it just wasn’t the same. The magic was missing in this one. And that just really comes down to the original developers not being the ones to create the game. While the game sure did look prettier than its predecessor, shiny graphics are not a replacement for solid gameplay… or fun for that matter. So if you’re out looking for a fun Hulk game, be sure to look for the one with “Ultimate Destruction” in the title. You might cry if you play the other one…
So that concludes this edition of this favorites list of mine. I’ll see you next time, hopefully with something that isn’t a movie… Or at least, not just a movie. I might even double it up. Who knows? I do. But there is one thing that I’ll let you in on. Once I get to Part 12, I’m done. This was never going to be an indefinite thing. It was originally designed to help me have a topic to write about to meet deadlines. But now, I’m finding that there are things that I’d like to write about that are more current, so this kind of blog eats up my options. So… 2 more to go, then I’m done. See ya next time.
Here we are with the Third Update for Marvel Vs Capcom 3. This time, I have some videos for you. Straight from E3 (The Electronics Entertainment Expo), I bring you the new extended trailer for the video game, as well as one game play video. As of typing this, there are still only 10 characters that have been announced for this game; Ryu (Streetfighter), Morrigan (Darkstalkers), Chris Redfield (Resident Evil), Dante (Devil May Cry), Felicia (Darkstalkers), Hulk, Iron Man, Wolverine, Deadpool, and THE Captain America. So, no new news in that department. Just awesome game play. For those of you not familiar with the Marvel Vs Capcom series, I warn you, be prepared for bright colors and fast action. That’s it. So enjoy the trailer, then enjoy match.
Oh yeah, looks like I lied. There is one more character… Surprise Villain! You gotta watch the trailer to see who I’m talking about… Anyway, here’s the other video!
As, you’ll have noticed, I chose a video where Freedom reigned over everything else. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this update. See ya next time.
It’s not often that video game adaptations of comics or movies, or more specifically comic book movies, turns out good. More often than not they’re epic failures. From the looks of the Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World video game trailer though, it looks like for once someone got it right. The side scrolling beat em’ up allows for 4 players, including the main cast of the graphic novels Scott Pilgrim, Ramona Flowers, Kim Pine and Stephen Stills loosely following the plot of defeating Ramona Flower’s seven evil ex-boyfriends. The game will be released as a timed downloadable exclusive this August from the Playstation Network and Xbox Live.
Really the best way to bast in it’s epic epicness is to watch the game trailer:
Fleet also asked that I post game creator Paul Robertson’s early animation called “Pirate Baby’s Cabana Street Fight,” which is equally awesome:
Comic book crossovers are so 2005. If you want to be hip in 2010, you’ve got to get behind 8-bit video game crossovers. That’s the new black. Now for your playing pleasure, here’s The Super Mario Bros. Crossover. Major props to my buddy Jack from Euclid Records for sharing this with me on facebook. In the Super Mario Bros. Crossover you play the orginal Super Mario Bros. Nintendo game as either Mario, or a number of other classic Nintendo characters. The rooster includes Nintendo mainstays such as Link from ‘The Legend of Zelda’ and Samus from ‘Metroid,’ as well as third party icons like Capcom’s Mega Man and Konami’s Simon Belmont from ‘Castlevania’ and Bill R. from ‘Contra.’ Now you’re playing with crossover power!
You may think that this is a gimmick, but as an avid classic video gamer I’d give the crossover 5 out of 5 mario invincibility stars, and maybe a fireflower for good measure. If you’re tired of King Bowser Koopa taking over the Mushroom Kingdom, maybe it’s time to stop him with Mega Man’s megabuster or Link’s Master Sword and defeat him once in for all. Sorry but Zelda, Dr. Wily, Metroids and Count Dracula are still in another castle…
Late last month, I posted about the announcement of Capcom’s brand new fighting game that features the comic characters of Marvel. At that time, there were only 6 characters confirmed for that game; Ryu (Street Fighter), Morrigan (Darkstalkers), and Chris Redfield (Resident Evil) rounded out the Capcom side and Iron Man, The Hulk, and Wolverine rounded out the Marvel side. Earlier this week, exclusive information about the game was leaked onto the Internet from a magazine (Game Informer) that was not yet out for public release. The information focused on the confirmation of 4 more characters to be added to the roster of the game. I want to take this time to give a quick rundown on those 4 characters.
These are your new warriors.
First off, I want to go over the two characters that have previously appeared in the various Marvel/Capcom games: THE Captain America and Felicia. Captain America (Steve Rogers) makes a return to the fighting game series with his trademark gameplay intact. One of the special things about playing with The Captain was his ability to throw his shield. It worked like the majority of other characters with a projectile with the exception of having to recover the shield after you have thrown it. If you were to hit the opponent with the shield, and it went unblocked, the shield would return to Steve. However, if the shield were blocked or dodged, the shield would fall to the ground and remain there until you could get Cap back to it. While shield-less, Cap’s attack range was shortened and he could no longer use a projectile. It appears that Captain America has also retained his Cartwheel side-step ability. This is a move were he simple does a forwards of backwards cartwheel that would allow him to avoid any attack on screen. I welcome the return of Captain America. But then, I welcome the return of Captain America in any media format. The other character to return is that of Felicia, from the Darkstalkers game series from Capcom. Felicia is simply put, a catwoman. She’s a naked lady with strategically placed blue and white fur that barely covers her body. Initially, she was designed to be the sexy female protagonist of her respective game, but as Morrigan (a Succubus) was developed, Felicia became the “cute” character while Morrigan became the sexy one. Felicia, as a character, is some sort of demon pop star. She dances with other catwomen as backup. Her fighting style is fast-paced and flashy as she uses her giant cat paws to claw and scratch, as well as rolling across the screen like Sonic the Hedgehog. A unique ability that Felicia uses in battle is to call upon other catwomen to maul her opponent in a comical commotion cloud for cat noises. This is generally used as a “Super Move”, but it is implied that in the new game, she’ll be able to call out a fellow catperson to fight along side her.
Now on to the new folks! First off, we have Dante from Capcom’s Devil May Cry series of games. On a personal note, I don’t very much care for this character. I mean, it’s great that he’s made it into the game, I just don’t like how his personality is designed. He just rubs me the wrong way, plus, it seems that he can not canonically die. This makes for some awesome and ridiculous action scenes in his games, but I don’t know… On the Capcom scale of power, it generally seems to be agreed that Dante is one of the most powerful characters in the entire roster of Capcom, save for a few Gods and Demons that are usually only defeated due to some deus ex machina or their vanity or something like that. But I don’t know… I probably don’t like him because he’s the kind of guy who doesn’t wear a shirt under his coat. I mean, what’s the point of having the coat if you aren’t going to at least try to wear something warm before you jump to that? I don’t like it one bit. But enough of the complaints. From what’s been described, the version of Dante being used in this game is his DMC3 appearance. This means that it’s him at his youngest chronological point in the game series, but also during the time when he doesn’t wear shirts under his coat. >:O Aside from that, his fighting style is supposed to be an amalgam of all the various styles that he has shown in the various DMC games. He has his sword, he has his guns… He even has his guitar. And what’s more, his Devil Trigger (An ability that allows Dante to access his Demon form for overwhelming power) is also apart of this game… More than likely, that ability would be temporally available through a Super Move input. A lot of fans have been waiting for the day to see Dante in a “VS” game. I haven’t. But more power to them, for their dreams finally coming true.
The other new character is none other than Marvel’s Deadpool. That’s right. Wade Wilson has finally made it into a fighting game. Unless you want to count the bootleg version of Deadpool that is accessible in the PC mess of a program called Mugen. In MVC3, Deadpool is believed to have access to his swords, however, it is yet to be seen how much they factor into his gameplay. Deadpool also has access to his shortrange teleportor that he hasn’t really used in a few years. I’d imagine that his teleport move would work like most other teleporting characters in these games. Depending on the direction and button pressed, Deadpool should appear in one of six (or so) positions on the screen. However, in keeping with his character, should this move be spammed throughout the match, the teleporter is supposed to malfunction in a comical manner, possibly making the ability inaccessible for a period of time, or for the rest of the match. Also, as we know, Deadpool is one for breaking the fourth wall, so one of his super moves in the ability to rip his health bar from the top of the screen and beat his opponents with it. That should be fun to see in action. Unfortunately, at the time of writing this, there are no pictures or videos of the four new combatants. Which is ok, we’ve got a year to wait before this game is released. I’m a patient guy. However, I’d like to try and keep everyone updated about the game as new information comes out… At least, when it comes to the revealing of new characters in the game. So that’s it for now. See ya next time.
Finally. A sequel to one of the most beloved/hated fighting games of all time is on its way to bring us yet another “New Age of Heroes”. That of course, was the subtitle to Marvel Vs Capcom 2. A week or two ago, depending on when you read this, Capcom held their annual “secret” announcement event, Capcom Captivate. This year, the meeting was held in Hawaii and featured a few major announcements for games that had yet to have been spoken about. Among the titles, “Marvel Vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds” came as the biggest announcement of the event, igniting loads of conversations across the Internet from subjects ranging from the character roster to storyline to the mechanics of the game. For the uninitiated, Marvel Vs Capcom 3 is the 7th fighting game designed by Capcom that features characters from the Marvel universe. Here’s a not so quick rundown.
The first game was entitled, X-Men: Children of the Atom (1994), and featured 6 X-Men and 6 Villains and the secret character of Akuma (Hidden boss character of Super Street Fighter II). The X-Men selectable were as follows: Cyclops, Colossus, Iceman, Storm, Psylocke, and Wolverine. The villains were as follows: Omega Red, Spiral, Silver Samurai, and a Miniature Sentinel. The other two unplayable villains were Juggernaut and Magneto. This game set the foundation for the over the top action that is a stable of the Vs Series of games. Following the X-Men game, Marvel Super Heroes (1995) was released, featuring characters like Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, The Hulk, Shuma-Gorath (weird choice, right?), and Blackheart. Also among the playable were returning characters from the X-Men game; Wolverine, Psylocke, Magneto, and Juggernaut. And to complete the game, there was also Doctor Doom and Thanos (only playable with the input of a code) and Anita (From Capcom’s Darkstalkers… This was only in the Japanese version). This game loosely followed the events of the Infinity Gauntlet story line and introduced a number of game mechanics that would remain with a few of these characters throughout the rest of these games. Then, along came X-Men Vs Street Fighter (1996) which introduced the tag team system that has remained a feature in every Marvel/Capcom crossover ever since. This game introduced 3 “new” Marvel characters in the form of Gambit, Rogue, and Sabretooh as well as various characters from Street Fighter Alpha 2. The boss of this game was a giant Apocalypse who was so large, that only his upper body could be contained on the screen. That was pretty cool the first time I saw it.
In 1997, we were given the awesome Marvel Super Heroes Vs Street Fighter. The majority of the mutant roster were swapped for characters from the earlier Marvel Super Heroes, save for Cyclops and Wolverine. The final bosses for this game were a combination of a round with the giant Apocalypse, then another round featuring Cyber-Akuma (A souped-up cyborg version of Akuma as created by Apocalypse to become the Horseman of Death). What’s cool here, is that there were a number of secret characters to chose from that were “extra” versions of existing characters. For example, one could chose to play as US Agent over Captain America, or as an armored version of Spider-Man that was based off of the grey & black armored suit that Spider-Man once wore for a short period of time. Next up in the line of games was Marvel Vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (1998), which featured the debut of Venom and War Machine on the Marvel side and the Street Fighter roster was cut in half to introduce a wider variety of Capcom characters. Characters like Megaman (Megaman), Jin Saotome (Cyberbots), Strider Hiryu (Strider), Captain Commando (Captain Commando), and Morrigan (Darkstalkers) rounded out the Capcom side with the leftover Street Fighter characters. What this game introduced to the series was the ability to call out an “Assist Character” to help dish out some damage. The storyline of this game loosely followed the plot of the Onslaught story, featuring a battles between a regular-sized Onslaught as well as a giant-sized Onslaught. And that brings us to Marvel Vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000). This game introduced a 3 on 3 tag team system and featured a cast of 56 characters. It included every Marvel character that had been created since X-Men: Children of the Atom, with the exception of Apocalypse, Onslaught, and the “extra” versions of characters that had appeared in previous games. In addition to that roster, a few more Marvel characters were put into the game; Marrow (X-Men/Morlock), Boneclaw Wolverine, and Cable (X-Men). This game was pure madness. But alas, there was no sequel… Until now.
Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (Due out in Spring 2011) was just announced for the Xbox 360 and the PS3. At the moment, there are only 6 confirmed characters for the game, with a suggested roster of around 30 characters to be split between the two companies. Now, I’d imagine that part of the reason it’s taken 10 years for another game to come out has to due with licensing. Some time after the home releases of MVC2, the license to produce games featuring X-Men and Marvel characters ended up going to game companies; Activision and EA. As I recall, it may have had something to do with money, but whatever. We got a few good games out of the other companies… We got a few bad ones too… But at the end of the last year (2009) Activision lost the license to Marvel games and EA and Marvel ended their partnership back in 1998. You may remember the mini series, “Marvel Nemesis”… I remember that I didn’t like it at all. I don’t think Marvel liked it either. But that was a part of the EA/Marvel deal. I’m glad that’s done with. But here in the now, the license is back where it belongs. So what do we know about this game?
Well, like I said before, we know of 6 characters. Hulk, Iron Man, and Wolverine are representing the Marvel side, and Ryu (Street Fighter), Morrigan (Darkstalkers), and Chris Redfield (Resident Evil 1, Code Veronica, and 5) are representing the Capcom side. What we also know, is that we shouldn’t expect any of the Fantastic Four to be in this game, however, in one of the promotional pictures above, we can see a silhouette of what looks to be Super Skrull… Which is just as good, seeing as he has all the powers for the F4, so that’s not really a loss. Another thing that we know, is that the majority of the Marvel characters that have yet to be announced are going to be relevant with the times. Characters that are going to be doing big things in the comics by the time the game comes out. Then there’s the story. MVC2 didn’t really have one, at least, not one worth mentioning. This time around, every character is said to have a strong storyline or motivation for this game. MVC3 is designed to bring in both old fans and new fans to this world. And the last thing that I’ve heard about is the rumblings of a possible mini series that would be a companion to this game. I’m excited. Are you?
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One of my favorite bookstores in St. Louis. Star Clipper offers not only the best selection of comic books and graphic novels in the city, but also a cornucopia of art, design and pop-culture related books and magazines. 
