When Marvel vs. Capcom 3 first came out, I wrote a couple of blogs about all the characters. One blog for the Capcom side, and one for Marvel. You can go back and read them if you want to. Now that Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom has been released, with 13 new playable fighters, I thought I’d do another blog featuring them!

But before I start, I just wanted to claim my stance on the game itself. A lot of people have complained and said they are not going to get this game or buy it used because it’s the same as before. And they have a lot of good and valid arguments as to why they are doing that. But the reason why I bought the game is because playing as new characters like Phoenix Wright sounded like fun. And that’s the main reason why I buy games. Not to support a company or make a statement, but to have fun with them. I guess that makes me a terrible video game industry martyr, but I’m not going to deny myself some fun with a game. Life is too short not to do that.

I guess there’s also the point that if Capcom just released the characters as DLC and not in a new game, it would’ve cost more. I think it’s just one of those things where Capcom couldn’t win regardless. If they released characters as DLC, people would complain. But making a game with them in it, people complain about that, too. I’m not defending Capcom in any way; they’ve been losing a lot of face lately. I just think fans and gamers are being persnickety, too.

Well, enough of that. On to the characters! We’ll do the Capcom ones first since I know more about them!

Phoenix Wright

People who know me, they know that I’m a HUGE Phoenix Wright fan. I even named his games my number one favorite series on the DS! The only way you’ll get me to play another Prof. Layton game is to have Phoenix Wright in it (oh, wait). And I’ve been asking for him to be in a Vs. fighting game ever since! And finally Capcom delivers. What’s strange is that it almost seems like Capcom didn’t want to put him in a fighting game, because he’s not really a fighter at all. He’s really hard to use, and the perfect definition of a joke character. For instance, his aerial attacks don’t have him kicking, but sneezing instead! And you’d think that they would make him easy to use since most Phoenix Wright fans may not be very skilled at fighting games, since the Ace Attorney games are simple point and click affairs that aren’t big on fast action.

But even though he is hard to use, I do appreciate Capcom’s level of detail on relating his moves to the actual games. He has three phases you can switch from. In the Investigation Phase, you can do special moves to find three pieces of evidence. He even has a special meter above one of the power bars that has three folders in it so you know how many pieces of evidence you need to get. Find evidence by performing certain moves. Then in the courtroom phase, you can present the evidence. And finally, in the Turnabout phase, Phoenix does his ultimate attack (behind his desk), and they even play the driving turnabout music theme! Most of Phoenix’s physical attacks involve him tossing papers, summing Maya (or the judge’s gavel) to wail on the opponent, and he’ll even sic Missile the dog on the other team! I can’t take credit for figuring out all of Phoenix’s moves, though. I’m not good at fighters, so my brother Jeff helped me with some of this.

I was also impressed with the level of detail on Wright’s alternate outfits. He has his regular blue suit, a purple suit like Edgeworth’s, as well as suits based on rival lawyers like Godot and Gantz. But what was really impressive was the last outfit. It’s a red suit with a white tie, and Phoenix has blonde hair. That outfit is actually making reference to Ghost Trick. It’s a DS game that has nothing to do with the Ace Attorney series, but the creator of Phoenix Wright DID work on Ghost Trick (and Missile the dog is in it). So I thought that was cool. In his ending, Phoenix brings Galactus to court, and Galactus asks for another lawyer! And when you fight Hulk, he says, “Hey you not bird lady! Hulk confused!” At any rate, you may think I am giving too much attention to one character, but just so you know, Phoenix Wright IS one of my favorites, as if you couldn’t tell!

Firebrand

This guy is another one of my favorite fighters here, too. He was an enemy in Ghosts N Goblins, but somehow was popular enough to star in his own game series. The first was Gargoyle’s Quest on the black and white Game Boy. I played a little of that back in the day, and from what I remember, it was pretty good for an early GB title. The sequel was on the NES, but I never played it. I did play a bit of the last game in the series: Demon’s Crest (SNES), which was one of the pinnacles of 16-bit 2-D visuals. And it was pretty fun (albeit hard). Firebrand as a fighter retains a lot of his moves from the games. He can breathe fire, use slashing claw attacks like Wolverine, and can even fly for a short time. He has one really cool swoopy attack, too, where he tackles the other fighter and drags them along the ground while breathing fire on them! I love how they translate his win quotes, since all he says is “Ack ack aack ackk!” And when Phoenix Wright fights him, the lawyer says, “Man or demon, nobody is above the law!”

Frank West

This Dead Rising star is no stranger to fighting games, as he was also in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom on the Wii. He’s kind of the same here, but not completely. For instance, by taking pictures as you fight, Frank can level up, which means you have access to better crazy weapons. In one of his new special moves, he’ll try to put a Servebot head on the other player, but I can’t figure out how to get him to do that. There is a Servebot head in the cart of his Shopping Cart attack, though! In case you can’t tell, I also like Servebots a lot. But yeah, just like in the Dead Rising game, Frank is a fun character to watch here, too. Brother Jeff is a big fan of the Dead Rising titles.

Nemesis T-Type

Hey I actually know who this guy is, even though I don’t play Resident Evil games! I saw him in one of the Resident Evil movies. I’ve seen all the RE movies (for one reason that I’m too embarrassed to admit). Nemesis also made a cameo appearance in another Capcom game on the PS2 that nobody has played. It was called Under the Skin, and starred a little alien who enjoyed bugging the crap out of people by disguising himself as them. One of the people you could change into was Jill Sandwich, er, I mean, Valentine, and you could fight Nemesis. It was actually a pretty fun arcade-y game and I recommend trying it if you see it. Anyway, in MvsC3, Nemesis is HUGE and really strong (but slow). He carries around a bazooka but he mostly just bashes people with it instead of shooting it. His win quotes just have him going “Uaagogogaahhh” and stuff.

Strider

Hey this guy’s back! I think fans have been asking for him, too. He pretty much plays like he does in MvsC2. He even makes that “Dew, dew, dew, dewwww” sound when he dies. If you want to play the spiritual successor to Strider, try Moon Diver.

Vergil

Yeah I don’t know much about this guy. He was in one of those Devil May Cry games and I don’t care much about those. He wears a long coat and has a bunch of sword attacks.

The Marvel Side: Cary’s Ultimate Weakness

All right, now we’ll do the new Marvel characters. Since I don’t know much about comic books, I’m pretty clueless as to who these guys are. So maybe you comic book fans can help me out a bit. If you read my last blog about the other Marvel characters, you KNOW how bad I am! Most of my knowledge of Marvel characters comes from these games!

Doctor Strange

He’s a magic guy who can float and teleport and shoot fireballs from his hands. He also whips out magic books for his special attacks. And that’s all I know about this guy!

Ghost Rider

I can’t help but think a bunch of ten year old boys came up with this character. “Hey, let’s make him ride a motorcycle with fire wheels!” “Yeah! And let’s give him a flaming skull for a head!” “Aw, that would be so awesome!” I think they made a live action movie about this guy a while back, but I never saw it. In the game, he swings around a chain that has quite a long reach and is unusually powerful, too. He also runs people over with his flaming motorcycle as one of his special attacks. I was mad when he told Phoenix Wright that there are a lot of lawyers in Hell. But Phoenix Wright won’t go to Hell because he’s a good guy!

Hawkeye

I don’t know what’s so special about this guy. He just has a bow and arrow. I THINK he was one of the playable characters in the old Captain America and the Avengers arcade game. But I could be wrong. I liked that old arcade game because you could pick up soda machines, the engrish was horrible, and when your guy died, he would say, “I…can’t…moooove!” The only other thing I can think of about Hawkeye is that he hits on every lady in the game, even though he says he’s married.

Iron Fist

I guess his power is he can make his fists go on fire and then he punches people. He must’ve been created in the 70’s since his outfit shows his bare chest. I always get him mixed up with Iron Man, too.

Nova

Speaking of which, this guy just looks like Iron Man after eating a can of spinach. In one of his win quotes, he says he’s the Human Rocket. Yeah, and so is my uncle after eating beans. At least Nova’s ending has classic Mega Man in it.

Rocket Raccoon

I don’t know where Marvel got the idea for this guy. Maybe from the same folks who did Howard the Duck (yeah I do know about that at least). I thought this guy might be cool since he’s just a little raccoon who can use guns. But he’s not very nice in the game. He even holds the camera man at knifepoint when he wins. And he says all sorts of bad stuff to everyone, even the good guys. So yeah, I think he could use an attitude adjustment. I do like that in his ending, he goes to Raccoon City. And one of the titles you can earn from him pokes fun at the Rescue Rangers. Which is both making fun of the character and Capcom (since Capcom did make a couple of games based on that). I wish Capcom would make more Disney games like they did back in the NES and SNES days.

Galactus

He’s the last boss in MvsC3, but now you can play as him in Ultimate. Well, sorta. Push a few buttons before going into Arcade Mode and you can play just as him as you fight a wave of about six teams before devouring the planet. It’s a bit easy and kind of pointless, but it’s just silly fun like the rest of the game.

Ride’s Over

Aside from new characters, they made new versions of some of the stages, too. They have Asgard at night, new posters on the Daily Bugle stage, but my favorite is the snow covered Kattelox stage (from Mega Man Legends). You can even see Servebots building a little Servebot snowman! I guess the only characters I wish Capcom would’ve added still are Cammy and Mega Man. But my favorites on the Capcom side are Tron Bonne, Okami dog, Zero, Viewtiful Joe, Hsien-Ko, Chun-Li, and now Phoenix Wright! I think my only favorite Marvel character here is still She-Hulk, but only because she’s green and Phoenix Wright is in her ending. Maybe you folks can help me pick out a favorite Marvel character, and help me fill in the details on some of the Marvel characters I listed here. Also, tell me YOUR favorite MvsC3 fighters and what you think of the Ultimate edition! Later! –Cary

Tags: Game Reviews