Beat Them Down Any Way You Can

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is the reason I decided to get an XBox 360. Well, the inclusion of Rocket Raccoon as a playable character in the game was the reason, but close enough. This, despite the fact I'm nearly as bad at fighting games as puzzle games.

It's been a mixed bag as far as results, though. The closest I've come playing anything in the MvC series was the old Marvel Super-Heroes arcade game. So I was operating on the idea it would be one-on-one fights. Instead, it's more a like a six-person tag team match. I pick three characters, the opposition is three characters, you can switch in and out as you like, characters can do brief run-ins to pile on the damage or buy their teammate some breathing room, things like that. It wasn't what I expected, but I got used to it, though my instinct is still to use a character until they get KO'ed, then let the next one jump in.

Iron Man's Hyper Attack in Marvel Super-Heroes was to materialize a huge beam cannon on his shoulder (even Cable would have been jealous of this thing), and then fry you with it. He didn't have that here, but Rocket sort of did (scaled down for his smaller stature). That's about what I was hoping for from Rocket. That or Groot appearing out of nowhere to smash your enemies while bellowing "I AM GROOT!" Ah well.

Playing Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 led me to realize something about my preferences for fighting games. I prefer fighting games where it's relatively easy to perform the special moves, but they aren't going to guarantee you a victory. Take Super Smash Bros. I'm playing as Mario, so I want to be able to throw fireballs. Good news, all it takes is tapping the B button! I'm not going to win doing nothing but that, but it's nice it's there when I want it. which is why I ended up playing Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 on Simple Mode. I did not feel like going through all the perfectly timed joystick swinging and precise button pushing just do to a Hadouken, or have Spidey web Dr. Doom in the face. It's lazy, sure, but I enjoy myself a lot more that way.

I can tell because if you play the Missions mode, you have to use the Normal Control settings. Actually, the control settings were only the third most frustrating part of Missions mode.

The first problem was I expected something called "Missions", to have actual missions. Maybe something similar to the Smash Bros. series' Event matches. Defeat 15 of this character is X minutes. Protect this character from a giant version of this other character (say Chris Redfield from Wesker). You'd have to adjust it some for the differences in gameplay, but you get my point. Missions mode, instead, is essentially training. They tell you to try and perform some move, or string together a specific combo, and if you do, mission complete. There's no larger goal, except unlocking titles if you manage to complete enough of a character's missions. The Dead or Alive series has something similar with the Sparring option, where you run through a character's moveset, but they place that in the Training mode, so there's no doubt about what it is.

Gripe #2. Fine, this is specified training. If you want me to complete the combo, don't have the other character randomly block. I had multiple times where I pulled off the exact order of the button presses, but because the opponent randomly blocked one of the kicks, it doesn't count. Why block that one, when he was standing there like an inanimate punching bag otherwise? Who knows? It's maddening. After that, then you get to the issues with the Normal control scheme.

OK, so Mission mode is a bust, but I do enjoy Story mode. Some characters play better than others, but I'll try with everyone (which is standard for me with fighting games). The animation looks good, the controls are pretty smooth, each character gets their own theme music. I'm not sure why it always plays my opponent's music. Maybe so I don't get sick of hearing the same three songs over and over again.

I like some of the victory trash talk. The first time I won with Iron Fist, the last guy he knocked out was Deadpool. So I thought his 'losing to you would have set the Iron Fist legacy back decades' was specific for Wade. Which seemed unduly harsh. Turns out he'll just drop that randomly. She-Hulk, on the other hand, enjoys trash talking 'Pool. To be fair, if you had to deal with Deadpool's incessant chatter during a fight, you'd probably throw some back at him after you punched his face off, too.

The game isn't exactly what I want, but I knew that wouldn't happen. There's no way the fights could be as smooth and variable as I can make them look in my head. Even if the game could incorporate every variable, move, assist, whatever that I could conceive of, it'd probably be so complicated I'd be helpless trying to play it.