There was once a time I was foolish enough to believe I was good at fighting games. My brother’s friends would visit from College and they’d bring the coveted modified Sega Saturn with them. This item was legendary because it could play the bootlegged Japanese version of X-Men vs. Street Fighter. This variation was superior to the one released on the Playstation for various reasons, but the only one that mattered to me was being able to swap out the characters on your team at will. My brother’s friends were six years older, but after one or two matches I was giving the best of them, the owner of the Saturn, a run for his money.

Before X-Men vs. Street Fighter, however, it was Rival Schools. Later it would become Soul Calibur. Any game I touched I adapted to, capable of going toe to toe with the champion player after a few short rounds of combat. It never occurred to me that I wasn’t really all that good, even though I never managed to complete Marvel vs. Capcom 2’s single player Arcade mode. I just figured the final boss was really cheap.

Then I myself went to College. Not just any school, oh no, but the Rochester Institute of Technology, a Mecca for nerds seeking to become…some sort of professional. I dunno. Most of us went there because we heard it was a great place to go to become a game developer. As a result we were drawn to the Electronic Gaming Society, where I ran into people that not only loved fighting games, but they were really good at them.

It turns out the genre was more complex than I thought. Players started to manipulate exploits and learn to “count frames” or something, giving them the edge against less knowledgeable foes. It turned out I was nothing more than a glorified button masher. Time moved on and the big studios started to develop more and more for the hardcore fighting fiends rather than the plain flavored gamers such as myself. Challenging any of these players to a game of their choice was the equivalent of challenging a MAC truck to a pair of fisticuffs.

Fighting games stopped being fun, and so I stopped playing them.

Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is an attempt to cater to both crowds of gamer. The attack buttons have been simplified to a universal light, medium and hard instead of six different degrees of punches and kicks. Most characters have the same general button combinations for performing special attacks. The single player Arcade mode has been toned down compared to the previous entry in the series (or even compared to Street Fighter IV), making it “easier” to beat.

Were I still in College, however, I doubt I’d care much. I’d easily be struck down by a five second eight-thousand hit combo. The other players around me would only remind me of all the little nooks and crannies I simply can’t be bothered to care about.

In truth, a fighting game is only really fun if there are others of equivalent skill around you. It is true that Marvel vs. Capcom 3 comes with handicap modifiers so more experienced players can deal less damage (and vice versa), but it’s not the same as two players of similar abilities going toe to toe.

As such, there really is no such thing as an accurate review of a fighting game. You could give a rundown of all the tiny details and exploits of the game’s characters, but that would only be interesting to the sort of gamer that plays nothing but fighting games. Everything else is subjective and completely dependent on who you are playing with.

Look at it this way. Developers can more easily control the outcome of a single player campaign not only through difficulty levels, but by providing tools to make the game challenging for someone that only learns the basics and rewarding for someone that learns the deeper mechanics. Bioshock, for example, can be played as a typical shooter, but anyone that bothers to learn how to manipulate the plasmids and powers becomes a walking war machine. A game intended to be played with friends, on the other hand, will depend on the skill of the competition. I’ve enjoyed playing against the adequately tough computer of Marvel vs. Capcom 3, but let’s say I take it over a friend’s house. I’ve had time with the game and will likely be able to tear down most of my friends simply because I’ve had more time to get familiar with different characters. I’m beating them easy and none of them can defeat me. Suddenly no one is having fun, not even me. If everyone is of a similar skill set, however, then we all get to have an incredible time.

The only positive thing I really can definitively say is that the roster alone makes it a tempting title to own. Pitting iconic Capcom character Dante against “niche” comic character Deadpool is the sort of dueling duo that fan-fictions are made of (or cheesy but loveable comic book spin-offs). Capcom seems to have foregone the typical choice of characters (especially in terms of Capcom choices) for the sake of bringing in some of the most seemingly inappropriate for the genre. It all helps the game stand out, and experimenting with characters like Sir Arthur from Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins keeps a player coming back.

Unfortunately, the allure of unique characters can quickly wear off when no one is having fun. The only way I can really recommend the game is if you’re already a fighting game fanatic (in which case you own the game already) or if you have friends that are going to be able to remain on par with you. Otherwise, may as well wait for the bargain bin. If you ever buy it at all, that is.

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