Marvel vs Capcom Infinite is probably one of the most upsetting games I have ever played. As someone who enjoyed Marvel vs Capcom 3 so much and followed the community of that game religiously I feel like this game is a slap in the face for fighting game fans in general.
Function vs. Function was a game people thought would never come out. After Disney acquired Marvel and pulled any online versions of games with Marvel licensing off PSN and Xbox Live, it seemed that all was lost when it came to this beloved franchise. Later MvC:I was shown and it blew our goddamn minds. We never thought we’d see a Marvel game ever again but here it was and we were so stoked.
But later on when more trailers started dropping, some cracks started to show. The game just looked bad. The roster was smaller and reused way too many characters, the characters looked like sin and gameplay looked a little slower and much more casualized. How you can casualise one of the easiest fighting games ever is beyond me but moving on – people quickly tempered their expectations.
Now that the game is out, reviews are mixed. Sure, it’s being played quite a lot competitively and people seem to like the gameplay – but we just can’t ignore the butt ugly characters; the scarce amount of content and dumpster fire of a story.
Let’s get into the details.
Let’s start with the story. The worlds of Marvel and Capcom are brought together for REASONS and Sigma from Megaman and Ultron from the Avengers have fused together to become Sigma Ultron, they fused Asgard and Abel City from Megaman X. Now it’s up to our heroes to stop him and there’s Infinity Stones thrown in there because why not. This setup sounds hype as hell and seems like it could be a fun time. But primarily because of the gross character models and horrible voice acting I just couldn’t enjoy it as much as Capcom wanted me to. I would have preferred an arcade mode with endings for each character rather than the big cinematic story modes that fighting games feel that they’re obligated to do now.
Now when it comes to gameplay the game is solid. To put it simply I feel like the game plays the same as Marvel vs Capcom 3 but a lot slower and easier. One of the more insulting things was that the game’s equivalent to the Simple mode back in MvC3 are hidden in the controller settings menu and are turned on by default. So I was mashing my way through stuff thinking the game was easier than it was. Once those were turned off I got a pretty fun learning experience learning how to use combos with the Infinity Stones and different character variations.
Which brings me to my next point – Infinity Stones. I think they are a welcome addition to the series as they all have their own pros and cons and spice up the Marvel formula quite a bit. Overall the gameplay is good and different in both good ways and bad. People are fairly impressed with how it plays in the competitive scene and I only pray it can become as legendary in the FGC as MvC3 did.
Now let’s rant about the characters, shall we? I despise everything about the roster of this game. Most of all the characters in this game are just recycled from MvC3 and sure, you always have to have your fan favorites like Ryu, Morrigan, Captain America and Iron Man but besides these characters, Capcom had so many slots they could have filled with ballsy picks and whacky decisions but instead they played it safe to the point of making things boring. This is how they could’ve made this roster at least 100x better. Pallette swap Chris with Leon. Remove both of the Ghost n’ Goblins characters because nobody gives a shit. Add back some off the walls Marvel characters like Taskmaster and even Deadpool. Make Dante not look like a meth head. And bring back the goddamn X-Men. How can you have a MvC game without Wolverine? That’s like having a Tekken game without Kazuya or Mortal Kombat without Scorpion. The roster by far is one of the worst things about this game, it takes the amazing concept of a crossover game and throws it out the window just to be safe which is a damn shame because this is the fighting game series which had the balls to make Phoenix Wright a playable character.
Ever since Capcom have become all about bleeding their customers dry of money, their fighting games have been hit the hardest with the lack of content. The best thing I can say about the content in this game is that it has more stuff on launch than Street Fighter V did which is one the lowest possible bars to ever overcome. It has a challenge mode, campaign, arcade mode with no character endings, and a gallery with everything already unlocked. This is all fine but the one thing that gave MvC3 any longevity was the character endings and challenge mode. Some of the hardest combos possible were presented to you and overcoming them was the best feeling in the world. In MvC:I, I finished all of Jedah’s challenges in maybe 20 minutes.
Overall I can’t help but feel disappointed in this game. It may never live up to the legend status of MvC3. Its definitely making waves and people are enjoying the game competitively but the ugly characters, shitty story, lack of any longevity and downright awful roster won’t keep my attention for long. I don’t even find joy in saying, “WHEN’S MAHVEL?” because now it’ll bring back memories of this game.
I give Function vs Function: Infinite a 5 out of 10.
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