Marvel vs Capcom 3 is a frustrated rhythm of motion, a negotiation of power, and a place for companions. An iteration nearly ten years in the making, Marvel vs Capcom 3 retains the fantastical whimsy the series is best known for, while also allowing for a shared continuity between its ancestor and being an inviting competitive scene within which experimentation is continually explored. The fluctuation of blows and setups has still not been fully explored and while there are some clearly powerful choices available, there is a complimentary nature that coincides with them to balance the choices available.
While the problems of any fighting game are numerous, all of them tend to stem from the discovery of the game’s core mechanics, though due to the nature of updating in modern games, the changes available to the developers allow them to extend the lifetime of a title while assuring a degree of fluidity in the gameplay as players re-negotiate each set of rules, reconstituted for competitive play. Games as closely monitored and balanced as these are primarily interesting in light of how numerous and frequent patches are. There’s also the unintended consequences of pushing out such patches, which is to often break other strategies or playstyles, some of which is intended.
Even when it is intended, there is often a clear disdain for the frequency with which a game can be reiterated upon via patching, making viable characters and playstyles seemingly irrelevant. Patching thus requires a certain degree of caution mixed with an extreme amount of playtesting, one of which the developer obtains for free via the tournament circuit within which fighting games like Marvel vs Capcom 3 exist. Despite such testing, changes are also problematic due to the resistant nature of the entrenched audience. The audience likes a certain regularity to the play involved and there is a definite danger in wandering away from what felt right versus what feels fair.
The reality is that no fighting game is entirely fair, and balancing it too much towards fairness can actually anathematize or at least negatively distend the competitive scene, discouraging the community keeping the product at the forefront. There is always a certain degree of decision-making necessary to compete, and counter play due to problematic match-ups is frequent. Despite these realities, the competition is about seeing the narrative of any competition, and the technical knowledge acquired along with a competitive fighter can give one a sort of meta-narrative about competition. In Marvel vs Capcom 3, this is not only true, it carries the discussion around tournaments, and also makes it a blast to play. To understand the marginalia of the system is to indulge in discussion behind the system, to manipulate the system into what we previously believed impossible.
Recommended: Yes