Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of two worlds review

It took only an entire decade but yes Marvel vs. Capcom 3 makes its rightful return to the fighting scene, sporting some new graphics, new characters and some overly exaggerated hyper combos!
Through colourful effects and 3 vs. 3 gameplay, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 brings the fight to you! But was the decade worth wait it?

Story
The story for this game… Well hasn’t got much depth to it. I understand that most games nowadays would have a decent story to it but for this game it’s just a matter of beating up opponents and stopping an oversized boss that wants to destroy the earth.
It seems a little plain but maybe they should have put a little more effort into it, however since most fighting games don’t usually have a story you may be able to look past it, However it does kind of bring the overall game down.

Ryu and Wolverine, checking out Doramamu's entrance.

Graphics
Time has definitely been kind to the game as it seems that the developers have decided to leave behind the sprite based graphics for full 3d model character animations. It’s a good step forward and feels that the series is moving forward as well.
The crazy effects flying all over the place just makes the battles seem much more epic, through over the top specials and even more exaggerated hyper combos. The only problem I would have with the graphics is that the character models themselves look a little plain but with action as quick as that, you probably wouldn’t notice.

Gameplay
The game plays host to a roster of 36 characters and four of them are locked prior to the beginning of the game. This leads me to wonder if maybe it was intentional to have less characters then before to improve balancing issues or if the developers got lazy. Whatever it was it’s still good to see a few veteran faces in the roster such as Ryu and Spiderman but it was also great to check out the new ones such as Dormamu, using his gravity ball to trap in opponents or X-23 who’s speed is absolutely un rivalled among the characters.

The full Marvel vs Capcom 3 roster.

Gameplay is fast and addictive and it seems that they switched up the control scheme this time, taking the more buttoned approach from Tsatsunoko vs. Capcom. I really haven’t got a problem with this; it just means it allows the game to have much deeper mechanics in terms of combat and skill. But do not fret for there is simple mode for us noobs. This allows you to have certain moves mapped to certain buttons and it should definitely help those new to the series or just the average button masher.

Other note able mechanics are the ability swap out in mid-air and during hyper combo’s for maximum damage. One new mechanic introduced is the “X Factor”. This is like a last resort move which strengthens your characters speed and strength. It can also be used to cancel attacks to add a little more creativity into your combo’s.

Spencer activating "X Factor"

There’s also the mission mode to help you learn a certain characters moves, gallery un-lockables for character art and endings which are like 10 second slideshows and of course the online mode where you can pit your skills with some of the best in the world. A ridiculous amount of stats are recorded for both your offline and online play, characters used, reserve teams and almost anything else you can think of.

Final Verdict
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is a great game for both the hard-core and casual fighting game fan. It’s easy to pick up and gameplay is addictive. There isn’t a lot of choice in terms of modes but with the upcoming announced DLC by Capcom, things like that really shouldn’t be a problem.

Story = 4/10
Graphics = 9/10
Gameplay = 9/10

Final We Know Gamers score = 7.3/10