Infinite Problems?
What do you say about a game that feels like it wants to have the most underwhelming release possible? This is the question I have asked myself when I look at Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite over the last few months. Announced back in December, fans were ecstatic to see the next game in the series at long last. X was going to be playable! The Infinity Stones were coming back! A return to the classic 2v2 action! This was set to be the fighting game to get in 2017! The stars lined up for Capcom to make this a huge release and get more people now more than ever wanting more Marvel. So what happened to Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite since the premiere trailer last year? In the months leading to now, interest for the game has ranged from unimpressed to offended. Some had found it hard to consider that a Marvel vs Capcom game can generate so much hate and “Anti-Hype” that it has. How did it come to this when Infinite is coming out next week? Why are people talking more of the negatives of the game rather than the actual game play itself? To summarize these issues, allow me to provide a brief breakdown to three key points.
1) The (Lackluster) Roster
Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite will be launching with 30 characters. While this may sound like a lot of characters, the problem here is how many of those are actually new. If we look at who is actually make their debut in Infinite, you only have five (Six if we count Thanos having a new move set). Out of those new inclusions, the balance is off as we have four Marvel newcomers and only two Capcom guys. X and Jedah are nice additions to the roster, but for them to be the only two new Capcom characters feels wrong. Out of the entire library of Capcom games, they could only muster up two and that’s it? Alongside with them, we also have Captain Marvel, Ultron, Gamora, and Thanos. It is a nice spread of characters, but still a shame that it Marvel’s picks look much better than Capcom’s side.
That leaves us with 24 returning characters from Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3; the other 75% of the roster. It isn’t uncommon for a series to have returning characters from previous installments. The problem was gamers felt that returning characters were a “Copy and Paste.” Characters that looked like they had little to no changes outside of aesthetics. Upon play testing, characters did actually have some changes to moves and abilities. One key example is Rocket Raccoon using Groot as support, while Dante has a different feel from MvC3. There have been updates, but players wanted to see more “new” out of the sequel, and not a few special additions. It’s made even worse when we have six more brand new characters coming soon behind a season pass. You can get characters like Sigma and Black Panther one by one, but to have to pay $5 each? people feel like they are paying for a lackluster roster.
2) The “X” factor (and the lack thereof)
There are plenty of problems with the roster, but the lack of a select few got players infuriated. With Fox in ownership of the X-Men and a Fantastic 4, complications can rise up to add them to the roster. It isn’t to say it is impossible since we did it once before in Marvel vs Capcom 3. The problem raises up when we look at the status of where the Marvel Cinematic Universe was at the time. Back when MvC3 came out, we were getting ready for the first Avengers movie. There wasn’t much to the Marvel films quite yet, so having a few X-Men and Doctor Doom wasn’t much of a problem. In fact, Seth Killian had to fight to get Storm and Sentinel on the roster. It wasn’t easy, but an amazing roster still came out in the end. A couple of years later though, there were changes to the approach to Marvel Games and it left us with… well… Of course, if Marvel Contest of Champions is good now, I wouldn’t know, but you get the point. The future of Marvel games was uncertain. When we first saw the MvC: I trailer for the first time, we got one clue that things were going to change: No Wolverine. When we look at MvC as a whole, we always see Ryu fighting Wolverine in the promos. In the trailer though? Ryu was fighting Captain Marvel. As more characters join the roster, it didn’t take long for people to ask: “Where are the X-Men?” One can argue that they were “legacy characters” to the Marvel vs series and their exclusion made no sense at all. Even Dr. Doom got the short end of the stick due to Fox owning The Fantastic Four. It was clear that the focus Marvel gave Capcom was to include character within the MCU and TV shows. It’s a shame that happened, but this leads to the final point that was the “Last Nail in the Coffin,” for Infinite.
3) The Functions (and Mishandlings) of Marvel
Issues were popping up with the game, such as how character faces looked bad or the game demo was terrible. Yet, if there is one thing you should never do, it is to sidestep a reason with an excuse. That is how some people have viewed the interview done with Gamespot back in June with the producers. When asked about the lack of X-Men characters, Associate Producer Peter Rosas stated,
“If you were to actually think about it, these characters are functions. They’re doing things. Magneto, case and point, is a favorite because he has eight-way dash and he’s fast, right? So our more technical players, all they want to do is triangle jump and that kind of stuff. Well guess what, Nova can do the same thing, Captain Marvel can do the same thing. Ultron can do the same thing. Go ahead and try them out.”
Needless to say, people didn’t care much about that response. Some people don’t see Wolverine as a rush down character: They only see Wolverine. People don’t look at Magneto as someone who can dash in eight directions, they see the Master of Magnetism. It would be the same as saying “Who cares about Ryu? Akuma is the better function!” People love to see and play as their favorite characters. Only in the case of those who play would actually then consider the functions of each character. Something to which Mr. Combofiend might have misunderstood. For what he says about a character’s function makes sense to a pro, but a casual player? They only want to see their favorites as playable characters. If we only focused on functions, this would be how some would view Marvel vs Capcom: This only gets worse when Producer Michael Evans also provided his response to the lack of X-Men. To quote:
“…A lot of fans wanted to see X, so we brought him back. Then also we talked with Marvel very closely about their future roadmap, about what’s gonna be happening. Your modern Marvel fan, maybe they don’t even remember some of the X-Men characters, but they know some of the Guardians characters or Black Panther. You know what I mean? Captain Marvel may seem like a strange pick, but she’s fantastic. She fits the gameplay. She fits the story, and they’re gonna be really pushing her as a strong female lead all the way up into the movie. We’re trying to take everything into account and choose the best characters. “
So if we take this response at face value, the reason why X-Men characters aren’t in because… modern Marvel fans don’t remember the X-Men? Even if that were somehow true, I would imagine that Marvel Fans were still aware of some X-Men Films. Hell, Deadpool was one of the biggest Superhero films we got last year and guess who he hangs with? And I get it too: You can’t say the obvious if you’re working with Marvel. You can’t say, “Marvel said they don’t want these characters in at launch,” and leave it at that. With the responses given, it led a lot of people almost feeling betrayed by Capcom. Even going as far as saying, “When Dragon Ball?” and saying that Dragon Ball FighterZ is more Marvel than the actual Marvel vs Capcom game.
The Remaining Goods of Infinite
So in conclusion, there were several missteps that we saw during development. While some could be nitpicking, others are legitimate concerns. People feel as though that they can hold off and wait when the price drops due to the content not matching the cost. This is the biggest crime of them all considering that for those who have played the game, they’ve enjoyed it. The versus demos were works in progress, but those who went hands-on had nothing but positive words to say. There are no more assists, but instead, you can tag your partner in to extend combos and apply pressure. If you get stuck in a combo, you’re not going to die a minute later. Each of the six Infinity Stones can change team dynamics and act almost like a third character. The build up for Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite definitely could have done better. There is this weird divide between those who did get the chance to try the game out and those who haven’t because of it. In the end, we can only hope that it is a success and that it doesn’t come crashing down. It would be a real shame if this didn’t succeed and Marvel decided this would be the last “Marvel” fighting game. At the same time, it is understandable that people would hold Capcom to high expectations. It is one part of Marvel vs Capcom being a long running series, but another of the kinds of games we’ve had this year. Injustice 2 plays as well as it looks. Tekken 7 has been blowing people’s minds with the execution in the presentation. And Dragonball FighterZ will be the fighting game everyone will be looking out for next year. More than ever, Capcom needs to show us that they still got it. The final question now is this: Is Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite Ready For Next Week? and what will the DLC fighters bring to the table when they come out? Time will tell, but in Capcom’s case, time is about up. Stay Tuned with Culture of Gaming as we will be covering Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite and any future updates.
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