After almost a decade of waiting, Marvel vs Capcom is now a trilogy! A lot has changed these past ten years. Arcades stateside have pretty much been replaced by powerhouse home consoles and gaming rigs. Even local competitive play has almost gone extinct thanks largely in part to online gaming. So the question is, can a true arcade classic with a next-gen face lift stand the test of time? Or has the market changed so much that there’s no room for a non shooter title to really make an impact in the online competitive gaming arena? Well, we’ve been playing Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, and here’s what we’ve come up with.

At a glance Marvel vs Capcom 3 has all the needed components to become a generational classic. However, we weren’t too sure if this was gonna be a reboot or an actual sequel. Sure, you’ve got a flashy roster of playable characters, a sexy presentation, and just the fact that it is Marvel vs Capcom 3 flat out sells a lot of people. The problem is when you push all this wonderful propaganda aside you actually have to play the game. This is where things start to get a little bit screwy and a few wrinkles start to surface in the game’s armor.

For starters the game’s roster is significantly smaller than what we were hoping for. Coming from the near 60 playable characters of Marvel vs Capcom 2, we couldn’t help but feel a bit shortchanged. They’ve nearly cut things in half and you’ll come away with 36 playable characters to start with.We understand that this is the age of the download, but having to pony up money for DLC packs of characters that should have came with the game is a major letdown. The thought of this game exceeding its retail price by fifty percent at the end of its life cycle, just makes us wanna go all “HULK SMASH!”

Another gripe is the new but not so improved control scheme. Someone decided to take things the way of Tatsunoko vs Capcom and overly simplify the controls. The end results leave you with a mess of three attack buttons, two tag buttons, and a button leftover for your special. This is something that really rubbed us the wrong way and we felt it should have been placed as an option oppose to a new standard. To top things off, if the overly noobish controls are still somehow too much for you to grasp they’ve got an even easier layout for you know as “Simple Play.” This beginner’s setup is pretty much push button combos. It’s understandable that they wanted to make the game easy for new users, but we’ve gotta call bad form on this one.

Every change isn’t a complete disaster. There is a new feature known as “X-Factor,” which can only be used once per match and gives the player a temporary boost increasing: health, strength, and mobility, by simply pressing all four face buttons. This can really come in handy when you’re on your last leg, or find yourself pinned by long distance attacks. You can even use the X-Factor to further crush a lesser opponent, it really is up to you. We see this new feature as a possible game changer that adds a new strategic way to play against different types of opponents.

In spite of a few botched changes here and there, the game still manages to shine overall. The story mode is what you’d come to expect, the usual: beat oversized boss, score a few unlockables, and see the still shot endings. Online play is decent, but for some reason they left out a spectator view, which we thought was just plain weird. Call us old school, but we just feel that this type of game is meant to be played locally with arcade sticks, but that’s just us.

So after everything is said and done, Marvel vs Capcom 3 is somewhat of a sequel/reboot hybrid. Not completely cut from the same clothe as its forefathers before it, but not so unrecognizable that it requires a DNA test to be considered part of the family. The updated graphics and never before seen characters alone make it a worthy purchase. Marvel vs Capcom 3 may not be the masterpiece that we were hoping for, but it still is a work of art.

Final Verdict: 8.25 out of a possible 10