One of the biggest announcements to come out of the recent PlayStation Experience keynote was the grand reveal of Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite, the latest entry in the series. In the age of remasters and backwards compatibility, fans have been hoping for a way to play Infinite’s predecessor in the meantime. Just for those waiting, Capcom has now responded with the re-release of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 on PS4.
The Marvel vs. Capcom series has always taken groups of the most popular characters from both companies and placed them into an incredibly fast paced fighter, with Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 already providing some of the best gameplay in the series to date. The animated aesthetic still works very well for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 here, with the resolution getting a bump up from a native 720p to a native 1080p. The speedy fighter continues to flow seamlessly with fantastic performance throughout, which luckily did not run into any issues as a result of the increase in resolution.
One of the complaints about the base release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was the lack of available characters, with only two DLC characters available in Jill Valentine and Shuma Gorath. This was greatly improved upon in the Ultimate release by adding six additional characters each for both Marvel and Capcom. This latest release on PS4 not only includes the on-disc roster of 48 from Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 from last-gen, but also Jill Valentine and Shuma Gorath for the impressive 50 total characters, as well as the respectable number of stages available.
Among these 50 characters, there are plenty of fan favorites among the bunch that offer an array of different playstyles. Considering the upcoming Infinite is supposedly moving more towards the Marvel Cinematic Universe side with characters, this may be the last opportunity to play with some characters like Wolverine, Doctor Doom, and even the more popular than ever Deadpool. Other staples like Spider-Man and Iron Man are present on the Marvel side, while Capcom offers expected characters like Ryu and Morrigan, as well as nice surprises like Amaterasu and Viewtiful Joe. In addition, most of the Marvel characters that were added in the original Ultimate have moved to the forefront of Marvel in recent years like Rocket Raccoon, Hawkeye, and Doctor Strange.
While this re-release maintains the same name as the original, you could definitely call this the complete version of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The original Ultimate added the aforementioned characters, but Capcom still charged quite a bit for additional costumes on top of that. Across 12 costume packs with four costumes each, minus one controversial Magneto costume, you would have had to spend $40 separately or $20 for all of them as part of a pack. However, all of these are included as part of this PS4 release of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, which really makes this one a real bargain in that department.
On the other hand, the overall amount of gameplay modes is still lacking here. The base release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was pretty bare bones with game modes and while Ultimate added a few, it still feels lacking in this re-release. Strictly offline modes are limited to Arcade, Versus, Training, and Mission, with there not being much depth in most of these.
Arcade is a simple multiple level ladder arcade where you pick your team of three characters and face off against trios of different characters, which is all capped off with a fight against Galactus for the fate of the planet. The first character you choose does get an ending after completing this, but there really isn’t all that much to it. On the plus side, there is plenty of banter and quips between characters at the start and end of different fights, so the characters get a chance to shine, albeit in a limited setting.
Plenty of fan favorites among the bunch
Versus is disappointing in that you have to have a actual second controller active to use this, when there should have been an easy way here to just play against the computer instead. There is training where you can face the enemy, but replenishing health makes it not quite the same. Missions are also available where you are essentially performing moves and combos for each character, but these get pretty boring after awhile.
The older a game gets, the more difficult it usually is to find online matches, so one of the best features of the new release of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is that it has provided an entirely new player base to compete online. The questionable netcode is still present like it was on PS3, but it works well enough most of the time for you to jump into a match with your favorite characters just for fun. However, for those who are looking to play online on a more competitive level, this could be very problematic. There is also the Heroes & Heralds mode that was added as free DLC in Ultimate that is included right in the game that mixes cards as upgrades in both online and offline faction based play, which is good to see back again.
Even though this is mostly a straight port of the original content wise, one very neat addition is that of the Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Official Complete Works art book inside the game. This previous physical art book is added into the game as a digital bonus within the Gallery section of the game, which is definitely worth taking a peak at while playing the game.
The Verdict
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 became pretty elusive after being delisted awhile back, so getting a chance to obtain and play the game with ease again at a solid price is great. The single player content is still lacking and the netcode is pretty shoddy, but an impressive character lineup and the number of costumes included in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 for a bargain price is just the recipe to whet your appetite while you wait for the upcoming fourth entry in the series.
