When Marvel vs. Capcom 3 first came out in February, many fans were a little disappointed that the game only had 36 characters as opposed to the 56 that were available in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Capcom’s explanation was that time constraints didn’t allow them to include all the character that they really wanted in time.
Fair enough statement. This is the digital age and gamers now have the chance to download extra content to their games to prolong its longevity. Unlike with the in previous generations when the game came out it was all but finished.
As time went by, Capcom went AWOL when it came to releasing further DLC for Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The only things that were released as DLC for the game were a couple of Shadow Packs (which nobody really uses), costume packs and a few game modes. Apart from Jill Valentine and Shuma Gorath, no other characters were released as DLC from then on.
Many fans thought Capcom had abandoned Marvel vs. Capcom altogether. That is until the company unveiled Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 which adds 8 new stages and 12 new characters. This seems all like good news until Capcom confirmed with Silconera that the game won’t be available as a DLC upgrade.
Although the game will retail for the cheaper price of $39.99, it would have been better for owners of the first game to choose which characters they would have liked to download. Mortal Kombat’s DLC is more friendly to gamer’s wallets because only costs $4.99 to download and you can choose which ones you want to get.
In Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, you are forced to get the entire package. The 12 characters have already been leaked and most of them aren’t what you call fan favorites. I understand that Capcom wants to include new characters but it would have been better if gamers had a choice to select which characters they would want to download. I’m pretty sure most gamers wouldn’t want to be the likes of Rocket Racoon now would they?
It’s a pretty lackluster list of extra characters as fan favorites from Marvel vs. Capcom 2 are still missing. There’s still no Mega Man, Venom and everyone’s second favorite Street Fighter character Ken in the game either. X-Men’s Rogue is absent and a lot of popular Street Fighter characters.
Despite Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 having 50 characters in all, it still lacks the popularity of the characters that were featured in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Some people could say “you can always play Marvel vs. Capcom 2 instead”, but that’s not the point. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was released in 1999 and the visuals aren’t as pretty as they were before. People want to see next generation character models of the likes of Venom and Mega Man, not of a complete unknown character like Rocket Racoon!
Not all of the 12 characters on offer are disappointing, but they’re not the type of characters fans have hoped for. Let’s hope there’s a chance Capcom will release further DLC for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Either that or release Marvel vs. Cacpom 4 with better characters, a storyline and cutscenes.