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.
I saw Iron Man 2 last night, and long story short; I had a lot of fun watching it. I was a little wary after hearing a few bad reviews until I realized that these are probably the same kind of critics who only enjoy movies in subtitles and pretend to enjoy pretentious Oscar-bait. I wasn’t expecting Iron Man 2 to be Citizen Kane or anything, but it surprised me that there was some depth and substance to what on the surface is another comic-book action movie. I just came for the nerd-gasm, and got a little more than I expected.
The character of Tony Stark came across as a much more charismatic, steampunk version of Steve Jobs who owns a metal super-hero suit. Downey’s Stark comes off as a little more arrogant than he was in the first movie, which serves to have him knocked down a peg and make him a better person. He’s a jerk, but you still kind of feel for him. Now that the origin story is out of the way and we’ve established the characters and the world they live in, we can get right to a meat and potatoes Iron Man story and introduce elements of classic Marvel tales. Two classic Iron Man stories came to mind while watching this movie; Demon In a Bottle, which saw Starks battle with alcoholism and led to James Rhodes filling in as Iron Man while Tony got sober, and Armor Wars in which Justin Hammer steals Stark tech in order to make his own iron-person armor. I even caught a hint of Warren Ellis’ Extremis storyline as Tony deals with a biotech-virus.
Believe it or not, Mickey Rourke’s Whiplash was one of the most enjoyable elements of the movie as he played a deadpan Russian criminal. Throughout the film I would whisper to Jenni, my Fiancee’, that it’s not a character he’s playing, it’s just Rourke being himself with a Russian accent. Best quote from the movie; “I want my bird!” In the comics, Whiplash is just a dude in tights and a cape with a regular old whip. The souped up Mickey Rourke version is much more menacing than the original, and less pervy than the gimp-mask incarnation from more recent continuity. I had read in Entertainment weekly that Whiplash’s ever present cockatoo was Mickey Rourke’s idea, and I gotta say that it worked. Meanwhile, Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer is weasly and hilarious. Also, how fitting is it that John Slattery (aka Madmen’s Roger Sterling) plays Tony Starks dad?
The way Marvel Films, and particularly the Iron Man movies are establishing an expanded universe in a way that is similar to how the comics have a cross-over continuity is really cool to me. I spazzed out at the end of the first Iron Man when Sam Jackson came strolling in as Nick Fury like he was right out of the pages of the Ultimates, and Downey as Tony Stark was present briefly in the Incredible Hulk. We know that there’s going to be a Thor movie pretty soon that will be followed by a Captain America movie, leading to an Avengers team up film. I really like how the movies tie together the wide world of the comic book version of the Marvel U. by introducing characters like the Black Widow, Nick Fury, and the agency of SHIELD. You can tell this is all leading to the Avengers movie. Hopefully they can maintain the quality of story-telling they’ve set in motion in the past decade.
If there is a lesson to be learned from the first Iron Man movie, it’s this: Stay after the credits roll. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’m just going to say it again. STAY AFTER THE CREDITS. It’s amazing.
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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