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?