Anti-Heroes: the blog…

As many of you know, X-Men vs. Street Fighter is my favorite video game ever. It combined my two favorite series and used an art style that has more heavily influenced my work than anything else. And although Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is a true sequel, it hasn’t quite improved enough on the original for me to get that excited.

Presentation Art

The intro movies are particularly well done. It takes a lot for CG animation to impress me, and this sequence, which is divided into 4 mini-movies doesn’t disappoint. Everyone moves seamlessly and the action is exciting. The rendering method is beautiful, which according to my partner (who does that shit) is a combination of a toon shader and hand-drawn elements. This is what I like to hear. It truly does look like something out of a Marvel comic book.

In terms of the in-game art style, I am really taken with all the text motion graphics. From the font choice to the cool page-turning effect for some of the transitions, it really does add a breath of new life to this game series. The stage backgrounds are also well-done, but this is something I expect of all non-2D games, given that’s where I think CG really shines– in scenery and environments.

Character Art

I was initially put off by the rendering on the in-game characters, specifically on the Marvel side. The shaders Capcom is using doesn’t look right on the superhero characters (yunno, the ones in spandex.) There needs to be a highlight and there isn’t. Its just a strong shadow and a midtone. This look is fine on the characters who are mostly skin or have loose cloth as their costume, but on guys like Cap America, Spidey, Mags and Deadpool it makes them look like… rubber, according to my other friend who works in CG.

Some of the girls look like drag queens and move really clunky. She-Hulk animates kinda doofy to me and Jean’s walk cycle is stiff unfeminine. Morrigan and Felicia have had their asses robbed from them. Felicia in particular really disappoints me because if you study her classic 2D sprite, her standing animation had this beautiful erotic hip sway, indicative of her Vegas showgirl storyline. I know it’s subtle and kind of a nit-picky complaint, but it’s things like that that made me such a devoted Capcom fan.

I’m very pleased with Storm, though. Her animation (I think because they used her 2D sprite as reference) is very graceful and her look is beautiful. Sentinel too (I think because he actually has strong highlights) looks amazing.

Gameplay

My major gripe deals with the revision of the fighting system. The “Verses” series is derived from Street Fighter, whose fundamental element of gameplay deals with a specific number of buttons assigned to punches and the same number assigned to kicks. It makes anyone who’s ever played a Capcom fighter easily pick up any fighting game in the library. This game however (in an effort to make it more accessible to newcomers) has removed the punch and kick system in favor of 4 general attack buttons. In other words, the button that is supposed to be light kick for everyone will instead be Ryu’s strong punch, Felicia’s light punch, and Cap America’s strong kick. Furthermore, one of the attack buttons is assigned to something called “Special Attack” which is that character’s pop-up (regardless of whether it was a punch or kick in the past.) But get this– “Special Attack” cannot be used to execute more than 90% of the Special Moves! What the hell? It makes up you have to re-learn characters you already know. The learning curve is low because the new system is favorable to the button mashing style of play. But I thought top buttons for normal and special move punches and bottom buttons for normal and special move kicks was easy, smart and made sense (and has been working for 20+ years.)

Sound

I LOVE that many of the characters have retained their themes from older games though. Storm has her kick-ass BGM from X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Morrigan has her amazing theme from Vampire Hunter, even Arthur’s Ghouls and Ghosts music is there! All are suped-up and remixed and sound great! Definitely getting this soundtrack!

Spider-Man has this obnoxious American frat-boy way about his voice that gets under my skin and makes me wish for the old voice actor. In fact, all the Marvel characters sound a lot more annoying than they used to. Thankfully, you can opt to switch the voices of the Capcom characters to Japanese because “Ya like that!?” really doesn’t sound right coming from Morrigan. It’s funny but playing this game makes me finally realize how Japanese the previous games felt. I’m not sure how I feel about the American-ization of Capcom fighters, as it’s something that’s fairly new, only really seen in this game and Street Fighter 4. I mean, yea it’s the norm, yea I need to get used to it and yea saying that I like when a game “feels more Japanese” is slightly otaku of me. I recognize that.

A Weird Homophobic Tone

I wasn’t going to make this a whole section of this review, but enough instances of it have influenced my opinion on the game enough to make it a major issue.

Deadpool has a move where he does this effeminate “sexy walk” with hearts surrounding him and if he’s attacked, he picks up the super bar and hits the opponent with it. I like the idea of Deadpool using the super bar as a weapon since his character is self-aware, but the gay walk really puts me off. I don’t understand it. I don’t know what the sexy walk has to do with the super bar. It’s two unrelated jokes combined into one and just feels like an attempt at disparaging effeminate men.

There is also this crass sodomy joke in the intro involving Deadpool that feels out of place and doesn’t really sit well with me. Maybe I’m out of touch, but I don’t find anal rape all that hilarious. And we all know I am by no means a prude, and consider myself quite the proponent of sexual freedom. But this scene seems to be making a joke out of a gay sex act, thusly making fun of gays in general. Quite frankly, the joke reeks of being written by some pathetic closet case who really does fantasize about being penetrated by magical tendrils.

Cast

I’m not going to harp on the character selection because I know they’re never going to please everyone no matter who they pick. I mean, personally I like X-Men and Street Fighters (given the strength of their designs, it’s no wonder the series began with and has been dominated by them up until now.) But that isn’t enough of a valid argument, given the vastness of the character pool and the fickle/ subjective nature of these character’s fans. I will say though that the current roster of 36 isn’t enough, considering the last one had 56.

I am keeping my hopes up for downloadable characters. From the old games, I’d love for Captain Commando, Mega Man, Psylocke, Rogue, Cyclops, Iceman, Juggernaut, Blackheart and Venom to make a return. In terms of new characters to the series, Marvel shouldn’t ignore the potential of what Dr. Octopus, Hawkeye, Cage or Nightcrawler can bring to the game. And I know everyone has had this idea, but a Mr.Fantastic who plays like Captain Commando, calling upon the rest of the Fantastic 4 for assistance would be AWESOME! On the Capcom side, it’s about time we saw someone from Breath of Fire or Power Stone or for Pete’s sake Rival Schools! (Except for Batsu and Akira.) I mean, imagine how fun the kids from the sports school would be!

Summary

Despite the awkward control, I am still playing it. I mean, what it comes down to is Capcom deemed in necessary to proclaim that this is the “less serious” game by simplifying the control, while Street Fighter 4 remains closer to the classic “complicated” style as possible. From a marketing standpoint, it might make sense to emphasize the difference. (Whenever I dont like something new, I think about it from the money-making angle and always find my answer.) The cast really needs to get much bigger in order for me to keep playing, though. Somehow, though, given that they’re only releasing 2 characters at time, I don’t see us getting a full 20 more, which is a real bummer. Game sequels should never be… smaller than their predecessors.

M.O.D.O.K. and Thor are awesome additions as are Arthur and Haggar. In fact, those four were totally on my list of who I wanted back in 2! And I do like that Capcom is giving a real solid go at reviving their fighting game tradition. I just want them to realize that not much was wrong with the older games, and that they don’t need to stray too far from them to come up with what I think can be better than this. 3 outta 5 stars, and if a big-thighed, bouncy-boobed Psylocke (with her Bruce Lee shake) makes it into the roster at some point, I may be willing to add a star.

Oh, and I just came across this pic while trying to find a screenshot of the character select screen of the new game and… I just had to post. Is it wrong that I kinda wanna do him? >___<