At a recent press event, Capcom finally announced Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, the fifth game in the Marvel vs. Capcom series that places characters from Capcom's games against superheroes and supervillains from Marvel Entertainment.
For 10 years, fans have waited for a sequel to Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, a 3-on-3 fighter that continues to draw large crowds at fighting game tournaments. But because Capcom couldn't retain the Marvel license (due to legal conflicts over copyrights), the series was placed on hiatus. Capcom, though, managed to score back the license, and has been developing MvC3 for quite some time. "We started working on [MvsC3] midsummer 2008 -- it's been a while," says producer Ryota Niitsuma, whose recent work includes Tatsunoko vs. Capcom -- which happens to be a 2-on-2 fighter starring characters from Capcom and Tatsunoko (a Japanese animation house). "As for contract and legal issues, we started way before then."
The brief teaser trailer hints at a possible roster, with several silhouettes behind the two brand logos at the start of the trailer, followed by familiar faces battling in the city. Wolverine and Ryu, both in previous Versus games, slug it out across the roof of a skyscraper. In the following scene, Morrigan performs her signature move (the Izuna Drop) on Iron Man -- dropping him in a spiral above the city streets. And finally, Hulk tears the asphalt open and uses it as a projectile -- replicating his special move in past games as Resident Evil's Chris Redfield (a new character in MvsC3) dashes for cover on the ground. Capcom didn't confirm how many characters would be in MvsC3, but stated the roster will be around 30 characters, including new fighters from recently released games.
While the trailer hints at the roster line-up, it doesn't provide clues on how the game will play. Besides several recognizable special moves -- Hulk's asphalt projectiles, Morrigan's Izuna Drop, and Ryu's super fireball -- MvC3 is something of a mystery. We do know that the characters are rendered in 3D, though the gameplay is strictly 2D -- in the same direction as Street Fighter 4 and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. Even the series' trait, the team battles, remains to be seen. "We're still looking if it'll be 2-versus-2 or 3-versus-3," says Niitsuma. However, he adds that fans will recognize the fighting system: a mix of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. "It'll be definitely be faster than what you saw in TvC, and for the mechanics, we wanted to make it easier for people to get off moves easier than, say, Marvel vs. Capcom 2." Niitsuma's words will likely please MvsC2 seasoned players, who thrive off the adrenaline rush provided by MvsC2's frenetic pacing.
Streamlining inputs, however, may start heated discussions within the community. "We're also looking at the possibility for some moves to be one button." MvsC3 isn't the first time Capcom has attempted to lower the execution barrier for neophytes. The GameCube port of Capcom vs. SNK 2, a crossover fighter starring Capcom and SNK properties, implemented a similar one-button command for special moves (which was aimed at beginners). "It would be exactly like that [Capcom vs. SNK 2], but the trade-off is that you'll lose something else. You can have the simple one-button command, but we have to decide if that means the amount of damage done to the opponent would be less than damage done with a full command move." Would this mean a damage handicap for beginners who can't perform even a Hadoken? And why is there a trade-off when previous fighters didn't penalize players for using an easier input system? Perhaps the handicaps are exploitable. With easier inputs, deft players could string together combos impossible on normal execution. For instance, many combo videos made by the fighting community are performed with help of a programmable pad, which eliminates the physical barrier needed to execute commands. A single press of a button is much faster than inputting the command's motion.
When asked about the online component, Niitsuma couldn't discuss the details, but did acknowledge that the dev team is exploring new possibilities. "We're trying a lot different things and improvements on old things," he says. "But whether that ends up in the final product, we'll have to wait and see." This could bring hope for fans asking for GGPO (a popular netcode most recently featured in Final Fight: Double Impact) in Capcom fighters.
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is scheduled for a "Spring 2011" release date on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. There are no plans, however, for an arcade release. But things may change, as Capcom initially aimed Super Street Fighter 4 as a console-only release, but later added an arcade release to be released shortly after the console version's ship date -- perhaps due to popular demand from Japanese arcade operators and arcade players. In the meantime, we'll have to look for additional details at this year's E3.
Source: 1up: http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3178896
For 10 years, fans have waited for a sequel to Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, a 3-on-3 fighter that continues to draw large crowds at fighting game tournaments. But because Capcom couldn't retain the Marvel license (due to legal conflicts over copyrights), the series was placed on hiatus. Capcom, though, managed to score back the license, and has been developing MvC3 for quite some time. "We started working on [MvsC3] midsummer 2008 -- it's been a while," says producer Ryota Niitsuma, whose recent work includes Tatsunoko vs. Capcom -- which happens to be a 2-on-2 fighter starring characters from Capcom and Tatsunoko (a Japanese animation house). "As for contract and legal issues, we started way before then."
The brief teaser trailer hints at a possible roster, with several silhouettes behind the two brand logos at the start of the trailer, followed by familiar faces battling in the city. Wolverine and Ryu, both in previous Versus games, slug it out across the roof of a skyscraper. In the following scene, Morrigan performs her signature move (the Izuna Drop) on Iron Man -- dropping him in a spiral above the city streets. And finally, Hulk tears the asphalt open and uses it as a projectile -- replicating his special move in past games as Resident Evil's Chris Redfield (a new character in MvsC3) dashes for cover on the ground. Capcom didn't confirm how many characters would be in MvsC3, but stated the roster will be around 30 characters, including new fighters from recently released games.
While the trailer hints at the roster line-up, it doesn't provide clues on how the game will play. Besides several recognizable special moves -- Hulk's asphalt projectiles, Morrigan's Izuna Drop, and Ryu's super fireball -- MvC3 is something of a mystery. We do know that the characters are rendered in 3D, though the gameplay is strictly 2D -- in the same direction as Street Fighter 4 and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. Even the series' trait, the team battles, remains to be seen. "We're still looking if it'll be 2-versus-2 or 3-versus-3," says Niitsuma. However, he adds that fans will recognize the fighting system: a mix of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. "It'll be definitely be faster than what you saw in TvC, and for the mechanics, we wanted to make it easier for people to get off moves easier than, say, Marvel vs. Capcom 2." Niitsuma's words will likely please MvsC2 seasoned players, who thrive off the adrenaline rush provided by MvsC2's frenetic pacing.
Streamlining inputs, however, may start heated discussions within the community. "We're also looking at the possibility for some moves to be one button." MvsC3 isn't the first time Capcom has attempted to lower the execution barrier for neophytes. The GameCube port of Capcom vs. SNK 2, a crossover fighter starring Capcom and SNK properties, implemented a similar one-button command for special moves (which was aimed at beginners). "It would be exactly like that [Capcom vs. SNK 2], but the trade-off is that you'll lose something else. You can have the simple one-button command, but we have to decide if that means the amount of damage done to the opponent would be less than damage done with a full command move." Would this mean a damage handicap for beginners who can't perform even a Hadoken? And why is there a trade-off when previous fighters didn't penalize players for using an easier input system? Perhaps the handicaps are exploitable. With easier inputs, deft players could string together combos impossible on normal execution. For instance, many combo videos made by the fighting community are performed with help of a programmable pad, which eliminates the physical barrier needed to execute commands. A single press of a button is much faster than inputting the command's motion.
When asked about the online component, Niitsuma couldn't discuss the details, but did acknowledge that the dev team is exploring new possibilities. "We're trying a lot different things and improvements on old things," he says. "But whether that ends up in the final product, we'll have to wait and see." This could bring hope for fans asking for GGPO (a popular netcode most recently featured in Final Fight: Double Impact) in Capcom fighters.
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is scheduled for a "Spring 2011" release date on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. There are no plans, however, for an arcade release. But things may change, as Capcom initially aimed Super Street Fighter 4 as a console-only release, but later added an arcade release to be released shortly after the console version's ship date -- perhaps due to popular demand from Japanese arcade operators and arcade players. In the meantime, we'll have to look for additional details at this year's E3.
Source: 1up: http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3178896
