"Oh Morrigan...you are so beautiful to meee,can't you seeee?! Lulz!"

When I was an aspiring illustrator both Marvel and Capcom (Hurr!) played a pivotal role in how I typically designed my own original characters. Whether it was X-men,Spiderman, or Capcom's Street Fighter franchise (A terrible snes port of SF Alpha 2 being my favorite most played brawler for the longest time!) I owe a lot to these companies as an illustrator and creative story-teller. When attending Schenk Job-Corps I'd be exposed to other "positive insanity" such as the Resident Evil franchise (Which back in the 90's looked more realistic and terrifying than anything else at that moment frozen in my memory save for Silent Hill) and later in college I'd pick up Rival Schools,Resident evil Nemesis, Marvel Versus Capcom 1, and Vampire Savior,the third Dark-Stalkers game for my PS1. As unbelievable as it seems I preferred MVC1 over MVC2 for rather silly reasons such as thinking its' soundtrack was superior and Onslaught was a much better boss selection than whatever the heck that "thing" in MVC2 was! Yeah, MVC2 had every character on that ridiculous roster you could possibly fathom but by that point Capcom had already been guilty of recycling sprites (Both from the Alpha series and the previous Marvel entries) so that coupled with the fact there was no story line or endings what so ever reduced MVC2 merely to a passing amusement for me I'd play in arcades yet I wasn't really set on owning it for a console. A good thing too as it probably pushed the playstation 1 to its' absolute limits! (Aka, the arcade version was likely the best version so I doubt I missed out!)

Anyway, "fast forward" a few decades and here I am at 42, having experienced "the good times" and "bad times" of both the comic book and gaming industries. I never thought I'd see an era where comic books got used to push "woke agendas" about gender pronouns,identity politics,the evils of capitalism,how loving your own country makes you a fascist,and "social justice" but alas, here we are! (I also didn't expect all those "game journo pros" to start talking smack about their own audience as if true gamers were nothing more than lepers, literal Nazis,poor wretches with internalized misogyny,pervert neckbeards,incels, and pariahs that should be sent off to the nearest gulags!) Luckily MVC3 was still made within a safe microcosm of that turbulent cultural climate when Stan Lee was still alive whilst Capcom retained enough "common sense" to continue to cater to its' core consumers as opposed to a bunch of easily offended pumpkin latte slurping fake cry-baby fans whose "support" of these companies usually ended after buying a cheap T-shirt with Wolverine or Megaman on it!

From MVC1 we have a return of a story and actual ending for characters. It's not that deep or riveting but I give props because it is there. Additionally every character has their own theme-song and most of them range from awesomely powerful Metal riffs to memorable wind chimes and flutes. Aka,most of that awkward "jazzy-jazz stuff" is gone though when you go into training mode that god-awful riff of "I'm gonna take you for a ride" is still present and as grating as ever! (I know some people "love" that beat out of nostalgia but c'mon, does it really belong in a game where heroes from different universes band together to stop the ultimate evils from destroying planet earth? To me it would be more at home in Craxy Taxi or some other zany driving simulator!)

By now most of you have studied the roster and it's a good one! Not quite as chunky as MVC2 yet unlike "Infinite" we do have actual X-men here and a few of the odd balls actually prove themselves to be exceptionally effective. (Even C-Viper who is one of the few characters introduced in SF4 I did not take an immediate shine to and that random Shape-shifting Skrull guy who none the less looks really fun to play as!) The DLC characters are thrown in including Jill Valentine whose absence even on the best console versions made me originally give this game a hard pass. (Yeah, I adore Jill that much!) Also, if your are a fan of capcom's somewhat more obscure titles this game will put a massive smile on your face! I mean we have Phoenix Wright representing as well as Viewtiful Joe,Arthur,Firebrand,Frank West and Amaratsu! That's pretty darned sweet! I was somewhat saddened there was no Samanoske from Onimusha but frak it,the Inclusion of Dante,Trish,and Vergil made it up to me! Not to mention in addition to Jill I get Wesker,Nemesis, and Chris Redfield! Lastly I realize Megaman fans are gonna feel gyped the Blue Bomber is not present but I was so happy to see Zero and Tron Boone! (Did I mention that there are Dark-Stalkers characters beyond Morrigan too? Why hello Hsien Ko and Felicia!)

What really saves this game though is the game-play. MVC as a series already upped the ante with ridiculously over powered special attacks,higher jumping,and the ability to "dash in" to close distance quicker between you and your opponents either in the air or on the ground but now there's the "X-factor" that can charge up even your most deadly of deadly techniques and it's always fun to chain ultimate super moves together between all three of your choosen characters! (As expected it's easy to switch allies in and out as well) Even on a potato relic pc such as mine MVC3 looks beautiful and runs perfectly. Whereas certain fighters of mine stutter during certain stages or during certain fights I've not once encountered that problem here. Capcom's choice to use a streamlined simplistic yet pleasant to look at graphic style really benefited them in this endeavor as the frame rate is pure silk!

My only beef is there's not much "meaty content" for the less competitive offline crowd. Yet to be honest, fighters were originally meant to be social events that bring people together. (Be it online or in real life) There is simply something about an unpredictable human opponent whom gradually learns from his or her mistakes that the CPU cannot emulate. Nothing is quite like the thrill of beating your long time rival at the arcades as you later bond as friends over nachos and soda! MVC3: Ultimate is that type of experience. Again,despite the lack of modes I'm still having a lot of fun! (As I grew up with all these characters and the gameplay itself is very addictive.) Whether you Get MVC: Ultimate on sale or for the full 24.99-29.99 price tag it's definitely worth it.

The good

+Frame-rate is as beautiful as Legolas surfing down snow-swept peaks using a dwarven shield as his boogie-board!

+Very robust roster,throwing in characters who previously could only be gotten as dlc.

+A superb selection of "character themes" that are mostly catchy and memorable 

+ A box of nostalgia for any comic book or capcom enthusiast

+A good art gallery

+Character profiles for lore-lovers

+Solid tried and true mechanics

+ A "simple mode" to ease beginners into the action without any hassles

+Reasonable system requirements

+Galactus is the perfect "End boss" for this kind of cross over (Though he can be cheap and kill you off with one or two hits with his super moves)

+ Actual endings and an actual story

+Game is simply nice to look at from the characters themselves to the various exotic locales in which they do battle

+Can "unite" boomers,zoomers,doomers,and shroomers

The bad

-Not many modes beyond "mission" (Same as SF Ultra 4) and training except for an awkwardly implemented card game. I would have been happy with "endless survival" instead!

-Makes Infinite look like trash by comparison! (Though I guess that could be percieved as a "+" too??)

- No Blue-bomber (Wot?!)

-Oh sure, put in C Viper but not M Bison or Cammy

-Galactus has SNK levels of "cheap boss syndrome"!