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Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Review (PS3, Xbox 360)

Chaos Raiden

Avid Gamer & Reviewer
NOTE: This review is 80% the same as my review on Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

This is the updated version of Marvel vs. Capcom 3, with extra 12 characters, certain gameplay changes, and etc. This is the definitive version of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 so far, so you might want to get this if you missed playing Marvel vs. Capcom 3 last year.

Storyline

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Play as Capcom or Marvel characters, and defeat Galactus to save the world. Simple as that. But not all characters have good intentions after defeating Galactus, like Wesker.

I don't know if the game has a story, but apparently, there is one:​
Doctor Doom has assembled the greatest villains of the Marvel Universe and has joined forces with Albert Wesker in order to unite their respective universes in an effort to conquer both. However, this course of action awakens a great and powerful threat that could potentially destroy both worlds. It is up to the heroes of the Marvel and Capcom universes to put a stop to this evil before it is too late

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_vs._Capcom_3:_Fate_of_Two_Worlds#Plot

There, that's the whole story of the game. Besides that, after beating the final boss with a specific character, you will get to view his/her/it's ending. Some are good, some are not. The ending only explained using texts and comic illustrations without any voiceover, which dampens the ending's impact to players.

In Ultimate version, although you can view a brief prologue of the game on how the game started, the story is still very disappointing. The storyline is weak, and it is not well explained in the game, and most of the endings for each characters in the game are quite disappointing to me. Few of the characters endings are altered slightly. I don't know why they did it, but they did it anyway. Don't expect this game to have a great storyline if you are picking this up.

Gameplay

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Plays like previous Marvel vs. Capcom games, but with better controls. Make your team of pure Marvel characters, pure Capcom characters, or even a mix of them.

The game plays like previous MVC games, except with more simplified controls. There are 4 main attacking buttons. Light attack, medium attack, hard attack, and launcher attack. In this game, it is much easier pulling off Aerial Combos that can devastate your opponents.

As in many fighting games, the objective to win a match is to defeat all characters of your opponent.

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Every characters have their own strengths and weaknesses. This game have slightly rebalanced gameplay with some stat changes on certain characters to avoid overpowering against other players.

You can play with three characters in your team, and you can choose either Marvel side, Capcom side, or both together. There is a lot of characters to be used in this game, as there are more than 30 characters to be used in the game, with some unlockable characters as well as two DLC characters currently.

Each characters have their own pros and cons, depending on player's point of views. Dante has a large arsenal of techniques to fight various types of opponents, but he has lower attack power. Chun-Li has great speed in movement and attacking, but most of her attacks are close ranged. The main idea to make a solid team in the game is to get characters that can offsets' another's weaknesses, like teaming up Iron Man with Chun-Li to offset her lack of ranged attacks, or Hulk with Phoenix to offset her very low HP.
In Ultimate version, the game now has slightly readjusted gameplay, with certain stat changes to most of characters available in Marvel vs. Capcom 3, such as reduced health of Sentinel, etc. This is to avoid overpowering your opponents easily in both offline and online modes. Some characters also have their moves toned down or buffed up, such as addition of new moves for Ryu. The gameplay changes are welcome, but still, experienced players can still beat you easily if they master the usage of their favourite characters despite some stats changes. Skill is still the primary element in playing fighting games against another player.​


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Play another 12 new characters in the game, such as Ghost Rider, Vergil, Nova, Strider Hiryu and Iron Fist

Gamers have each of their own fighting styles to fight another gamer. Some might use a team of Iron Man, Akuma, and Ryu to dominate his opponents in pure Hyper Combo moves as well as projective attacks, while some uses a team of Dante, X-23, and Wolverine to attack his opponents up and close to prevent them from counterattacking. It all depends on you.

Each characters have their own special moves, like Ryu has Hadouken and Shoryuken as his special moves. Some of their special moves have advanced forms called Hyper Combos.

In Ultimate version, this game have extra 12 new characters. 6 for Capcom and 6 for Marvel. Some of them are pretty cool to use, such as Ghost Rider, Vergil, and Iron Fist. Personally, I have difficulty to use other characters such as Phoenix Wright as his techniques are quite hard to master.
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Hyper Combos are not only flashy, but are very devastating.

Each characters have their own Hyper Combo moves. Hyper Combo moves are advanced techniques that can damage your opponent's character a lot. Most characters have 3 Hyper Combo moves, like Dante has Hyper Combos of Million Dollars, Devil Trigger, and Devil Must Die. In order to do a Hyper Combo, you need to deplete your Hyper Gauge, which is filled by attacking your enemies, or getting hit by your enemies. All characters Hyper Combos that requires only 1 bar of Hyper Gauge, but some require more than 2. In order to build your Hyper Gauges, you need to attack your enemies. It can also be filled by being attacked by your enemies as well.​

Crossover Combination are a combination of three Hyper Combos to defeat your enemies. If one of your characters are KO'ed, only 2 characters will carry out Crossover Combination. Although it is a good move that can depletes your opponent's characters health fast, it is not advisable to use it often as it depletes a lot of your Hyper Gauge.​

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Vergil is awesome in this game.

When you see your character has low health, you can switch out immediately with another character to prevent him/her from being KO'ed. This is vital as having KO'ed members in your team can put you in a disadvantage against others. Also, you can use Assists to help your character in assaulting your opponents. You can set up a different Assist move for each character, like Jam Session for Dante, Uni Beam for Iron Man, and Hadouken for Ryu. Setting up proper Assist moves for each characters will help out a lot in playing this game.​

Blocking enemy's attacks is important to preserve your health. It is essential when your opponent uses a Hyper Combo or Crossover Combination, as both can deal huge damage, especially the latter.​

There are few game modes in this game, like Arcade mode, Mission mode, and Training mode. Arcade mode requires you to fight several rounds to view an ending, Mission mode requires you to perform moves to proceed, and Training mode allows you to hone your gaming skills. However, the main draw in this game is the online matches, as you can played Ranked Matches to get higher rank. Be aware that playing with another human player is a different experience than playing CPU. All fighting games essentially like that, as humans are unpredictable in many ways.​
There is also a new mode addition called Heroes and Heralds mode, where it allows you to take sides as the good guys or the bad guys. As the bad guys (Team Heralds), your characters will be coloured silver, like the avatars of Galactus that you fight in his stage. In this mode, you can equip your characters with various character cards for bonuses, such as increased health. The mode itself is some kind of campaign mode, where you choose a team of Heroes or Heralds and try to take control of an area. Total control of an area is 100%, and winning one match gives you a certain percentage of control. As you win more and more matches in an area, the difficulty will increase making it much harder for you to win. It is a fun mode for you to play. You can play Heroes and Heralds mode in either Online or Offline modes.​

The gameplay is refined with proper gameplay balancing such as stat changes, with the addition of 12 new characters. Although the gameplay is refined, that doesn't stop you from being defeated by other players due to lack of skill. Keep playing until you have become much better to fight other human players, like your friends.
 

Chaos Raiden

Avid Gamer & Reviewer
Graphics

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Nice cell-shaded graphics.

The graphics are great, with nice cell-shaded visuals for characters and backgrounds. It gives off the atmosphere of comic book like feeling, where some people like it and some people don't. Personally, I like it as it is very unique kind of graphics used. I also prefer this game's graphics than Street Fighter IV and the upcoming Street Fighter X Tekken. Perhaps because this game's graphics feels much smoother and nicer to look at.​

Sound

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Solid voice acting with both Japanese and English dubs, but with rather mediocre soundtrack.

Voice acting are great in this game, but not utilised fully in the game for the story. Besides intro quotes, victory quotes, and minor lines used in the game while playing, there isn't enough voice acting. This is partly because there is no cutscenes for each characters in the game. Personally, I think Capcom should put some voiced cutscenes for some special interactions between characters, like when Chris versus Wesker. My favourite voice actors in this game are Reuben Langdon (Dante), D.C. Douglas (Wesker), Josh Keaton (Spider-Man), and others. I am also glad to see Daniel Southworth reprises his role as Vergil in the game, because he is great at voicing Vergil. I wish he will reprises his role in future DMC games...​

Most of the music used in the game are arrangements from the character's theme in their original game series or from previous MVC3 games. Some have good themes, some don't as some are too... techno. Think it would be nicer if they just make rock arrangements for every character's theme. My favourite would be Deadpool's theme, as it has great tune and rhyme. Overall, the music is mediocre, with some great remixes of previous character themes and some weaker ones.​

Replay Value

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Playing online matches and fighting against your friends are this game's biggest attraction.

If you have friends, invite them over to play this game! Playing fighting games with your friends are usually fun, as it provides different experience than fighting against A.I. characters in Arcade mode.​

You can also play Online Matches in this game. You can play Ranked Match, or create Lobbies to fight online with other players. Unfortunately, the Lobby Matches are poorly implemented. You can only fight one person at a time. For example, if you joined a Lobby with 6 players, you need to wait your turn to fight in that Lobby. Also, Internet connection is a factor in online matches as well. If you have a good Internet connection, it will not be laggy when playing. If you don't, the game will be extremely laggy and may disconnects you from the host. Hopefully, Capcom will releases a patch to fix this problem.​

Unfortunately as in the Ultimate version, the Online Mode is still laggy, as most online matches need a decent Internet connection to play with. If you want to join a group with specific criteria, it is very difficult to get desired results. And when you join a lobby, you still need to wait for a match to be completed until your turn to play with. Now that they added Spectator Mode, you can see how your rivals and friends play each other. Still, I wish they change the lobby settings to allow more than one matches to be play with, since it gets boring to wait others to finish until your to play.​
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You can now play as Galactus in this game.

In this game, you can play as Galactus by loading up your old Marvel vs. Capcom 3 save file or by getting 30000 PP (Player Points). As you know, Galactus is a very character to use, and he is virtually unstoppable with powerful moves and deadly Hyper Combos. The only drawback is he can't block any attacks, but it is offset by his high health. Playing as him is quite fun, though it offers little value other than getting his ending and experience of playing as him.

Conclusion

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It is worth buying if you have a lot of money and willing to trade in your old Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

This game provides great experience for fighting games fan for it's accessible gameplay, large cast of characters, great visuals, and addicting fighting system. Unless there is a Game of the Year edition (I doubt there is one), this is the definitive version of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 with extra new characters and rebalanced gameplay. If you are willing to trade in your old Marvel vs. Capcom 3 or if this game is selling cheap, get this and play with your friends to have great fun in this awesome fighting game.​

Score

Story - 7/10​
Gameplay - 9/10​
Graphics - 10/10​
Sound - 8/10​

Final Score: 34/40 or 8.5/10.0.​

Pros and Cons

Pros​

- Great cast of Marvel and Capcom characters.​
- Easy to learn fighting system.​
- Solid English and Japanese voice actings.​
- Unique visuals of characters and backgrounds that gives off comic book experience.​
- Stylish looking Hyper Combos by most characters.​
- Some characters' ending are good, like Deadpool's ending.​
- Extra 12 awesome new characters such as Vergil and Ghost Rider.​
- Rebalanced gameplay to avoid easy overpowering.​

Cons​

- Some characters are still unbalanced when mastered.​
- No clear explanation of the storyline.​
- Weak character endings.
- Mediocre soundtrack with hit-and-miss track arrangements.
- Not much addition of new type of matches.
- There are still online matches issues, like have to wait for a match in Lobbies, and connection issues.
 

Sparda's rejected son

For Edenoi!
Premium
Supporter 2014
I agree with this review. At first I only bought MvC3 (than UMvC3) for Dante (and than Vergil) but after playing both I began to enjoy both games and than slowly but surely I began to love them. Although MvC3 doesn't feel "smashed together" as UMvC3 does. Now what to do with my copy of MvC3?
 

Chaos Raiden

Avid Gamer & Reviewer
I agree with this review. At first I only bought MvC3 (than UMvC3) for Dante (and than Vergil) but after playing both I began to enjoy both games and than slowly but surely I began to love them. Although MvC3 doesn't feel "smashed together" as UMvC3 does. Now what to do with my copy of MvC3?

Sell the game, or trade it with your friends for another game.
 

Sparda's rejected son

For Edenoi!
Premium
Supporter 2014
Sell the game, or trade it with your friends for another game.
I was thinking about that, but I'm afraid to because let's say they release some kind of well something that gives extra something (lol) and one needs the Original version to access it? I would be angry if that happened to me.
 

Chaos Raiden

Avid Gamer & Reviewer
I was thinking about that, but I'm afraid to because let's say they release some kind of well something that gives extra something (lol) and one needs the Original version to access it? I would be angry if that happened to me.

I highly doubt it, since it is an unnecessary thing for the developers to do, except that you can carry over all of the DLCs (except Shadow Battles) that you bought for the original game to UMVC3.
 
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