Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was released after almost a decade of inactivity by Capcom. Were the fans pleased? You bet. Why wouldn’t they? They have been clamoring for the game for a long time now, but just like Street Fighter IV and its eventual successor, Ultimate Street Fighter IV, Capcom’s strategy has been clear. That’s how we have Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 now, which includes a lot of new characters taking the total to 51. Yes, this is a standalone game. Yes, this took just 8 months to churn out and yes, it is not compatible with the previous game.

Fans of the genre need no convincing, as they must have already purchased it, but for a gamer who is interested in playing this game, is it worth it? Well sort of. As you know this game isn’t priced like the other fully fledge retail games, it’s slightly cheaper, so it comes to the content to justify the price. So the bottom line is, does Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 justify the asking price? I think I have to give it the nod of approval, but only this time Capcom.

So what’s new here? As mentioned above, you get 12 new fighters ranging from Vergil, Firebrand and Frank West from the Capcom side and Doctor Strange, Hawkeye and Ghost Rider from the Marvel side, and of course, these are the important characters in the game I feel. All the characters feel well balanced at a first glimpse, but when it comes to fighting games and RTS games, you really cannot judge it so fast. Balancing issues are usually prevalent after extended play. But after spending some time with the game, Capcom has done a great job here.

The important thing here is the netcode. The one in MvC3 was appalling, and well, most fighting games usually have terrible netcode. I guess the issue being Japan doesn’t really have this problem so it doesn’t show up while playtesting. In this game, it’s a bit better, and that’s actually a relief, because this game is meant to be played online. It’s a team based fighting game, so it’s good to see Capcom has responded well to these complaints. It’s still not as good as games from the other genres though, and I really have no idea why fighting games have such poor netcode.

Coming to the characters, Vergil the brother of Dante has been given a lot of nice attacks here. He is extremely fast and has a good hyper, with swords locking on a target. He can also use up his meter really fast. Then we have Frank West, the main protagonist from Dead Rising 2. He is a good character but at the start of the game, his potential isn’t realized as much as you would want. You need to unlock his skills while playing, which makes him more useful and a force to be reckoned with. Overall, he is a balanced character.

Then we have Phoenix Wright on the Capcom side again. Oh hell yes, he is amazing, and overpowered. But it’s not a gamebreaker as some of the characters in the first game. They have been nerfed here. Wright has stances which need to be unlocked while playing, as you only have access to one at the start. His last stance deals so much damage that it’s insane, but it is very tough to get to that stage, though. But his full screen normals are a visual treat. There are a few more characters but not as unique as these three in the Capcom side. Although, Firebrand the new Gargoyle type character is pretty cool.

On the Marvel side, we have some new characters like Hawkeye, Doctor Strange and Ghost Rider and each of them are pretty unique. Ghost Rider, for example, is a long range character. In offense and defense, so it’s a good choice to pick him in the team, as he offers something advantageous during battle. He is pretty slow, so he can be countered easily. Hawkeye is the opposite of Ghost Rider, as he is a close ranged character. His dash wave attacks are pretty cool and the damage output is pretty high. Doctor Strange is a unique character who relies on teleports and has quite useful counters. He is a good fit in any team.

Capcom has fixed most of the bugs and glitches in this game, that were rampant in the first game, and the balancing is quite superb. There is no overpowered character here, but I suspect the community will find one soon, but so far it’s one of the most balanced games out there.

There are some new modes in the game, especially the heroes and the herald mode. This wasn’t available with the disc though, but was promised in a later update. In this mode you get cards which can be used to grant abilities to your character, and the amazing thing is that, there are 1 million combinations possible. You can pick the heroes or heralds, to unite against Galactus or join him to destroy the planet Earth. Rest is fairly simple, though.

So is this worth your money? You bet, but only if you’re a fan of the first game. The netcode has improvements and will make you sell your original MvC3 copy. For people who play offline and don’t really care about the rest, shouldn’t get this game, as it doesn’t have as much content as you would expect. It is priced reasonably, but a part of me feels, Capcom shouldn’t keep on doing things like this, instead ship a proper game first time itself. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is worth your money but only for the reasons mentioned above.

This game was reviewed on the PS3.