Marvel v.s. Capcom 4… or Infinite as it’s being called. What should be getting large amounts of hype as instead earned a collective response of “meh” – and while fighting games in general don’t interest me that much, public reactions do; especially when it’s as underwhelming as MvCI has been. And so, I decided to think about why this game looks so lame.
Most people have been comparing this to Dragonball FighterZ – another fighting game on the way that’s also taking it’s IP back to it’s roots. And I get the comparision. But for the sake of this article, I’m [for the most part] going to compare this game to Skull Girls: Second Encore since it is basically it’s own take on the Capcom vs formula.
Graphical Issues
I have no issues with the graphics. In fact, the textures and the lighting effects are pretty good. And given how most special moves are just particle effects, that’s rather important. However, this game has two problems with it’s visuals that bother the hell out of me.
The first is the modeling. MvCI doesn’t look like anything belongs together. While this is somewhat to be expected for a crossover, the actual models themselves don’t look right aside from Hulk. Thor’s face is too flat, whereas Frank West has too much depth in his face making his nose look about a good few inches too big. Chun Li’s face has no detail and looks like a discount doll, and Iron Man’s armor looks like it’s made of plastic thanks to it being overly shiny. All in all, the game doesn’t look good at a stand still.
The game isn’t that impressive in motion either, namely thanks to it taking 3D models over 2D sprites. That’s not to say that one is inherently better than the other; both have their ups and downs. 2D sprites have the benefit of being smoother thanks to each frame being independently created, but often these smooth frames were limited in how they could interact – characters would not often respond differently in terms of animation due to the trouble have having to draw and then program that many different cells. This problem is only compounded by the fact that animation has to keep layers in mind as well. 3D models often lack fluidity of 2D sprites, but also don’t have to concern themselves with these issues; this should allow for more variation and attention to detail in animations.
Skull Girls made the most of it’s animation style, as many characters would work as well in the typical 3D fighter. Such as Big Band, a giant of a man who uses musical instruments that appear out of hammer space for literally every attack. Or Mimic, this game’s take on the “copycat” by having Mimic transform into different characters at the press of a button to preform an attack and than revert to it’s original state. A zombie who can detach her head and have it attack separately. A love letter to 1950’s animation and an attitude to match the era. While it’s possible the cast of Skull Girls could work with 3D models, the style of the game keeps it’s animation in mind, making the lack of animation variation a non-issue.
MvCI lacks the smoothness, and has no real variation. The Hulk grabs everyone the exact same way, and they all respond the exact same way. Iron Man’s proton cannon will get the same response from everyone it hits – and they all treat it like a normal hit. Characters seem to all share the exact same animations between the combos and even the specials.
But okay, the gameplay is what matter the most, right?
“Back To Its Roots”
One of the game’s selling points is the idea that it’s going to to the roots of the franchise. This… already sets a handful of issues.
The first one is actually thanks to Dead Rising 4 – a game that sold itself on being a love letter to the first entry in the series. CAPCOM allowed the EA dev team that made up this game’s development team to constantly boost how it’s a what fans have wanted from the get go. Only for it to be the most detested Dead Rising game to date instead, thanks in no small part to the #FrankIsBack campaign – only for this Frank to look, sound, act, and breath differently from the Frank of old. Thanks to this game, CAPCOM saying “We’re going back to our roots” has less impact than Ubisoft calling something “Iconic.”
But even getting past that, what does “Going back to our roots” mean in this context? Well, it’s going back to 2v2 fighting… and that’s about it. There will be some sort of implementation of the “Infinity Stones” but this is starting to feel more like a promotion for the MCU rather than a new mechanic for the series. Compare this to how Skull Girls turns the team numbers into a balancing mechanic. In the female-based fighter, you can choose to have a team of 1-3 fighters. Thing thing is, the less fighters you have, the stronger the individual warriors become. This alone makes the game’s small roaster a lot more dynamic and interesting.
And amidst all of this, this isn’t even the first one to return to it’s roots. Tatsunoko vs CAPCOM also saw a return to the 2v2 formula with some new mechanics. Namely in the form of Juggle mechanics. In TvC, you can only juggle players if you follow up before the player starts to fall to the ground or they’d be un-attackable until the regained their footing. On top of that, one could give up any of their “red health” (health lost but that could be regenerated via resting or healing factor) to escape combos and/or reset animations.
What’s New?
I brought up the other mechanics in these other games because that’s what sets them apart. TvC tried to have the player look at their health meter as more than hit points. Skull Girls too the idea of an animated 6-button fighter and ran with it. Mortal Kombat and Injustice are franchises that have surface level differences despite basically using the same engine. Same for Soul Calibur and Tekken. What does this Marvel vs Capcom game have going for it? What stops me from just saying Marvel vs Capcom: Another One? What defines this game?
Well, so far the defining element of MvCI is how it seems to generate infinite disappointment.
The Squid Chamber 