For the fans of the original Marvel vs. Capcom 3, the announcement to develop another one of Capcom’s infamous minute additions to a game as another game in itself left gamers with mixed emotions. Nonetheless, with each and every day that grows closer to the release of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, it becomes more and more exciting. Not only will we be seeing new characters from the Marvel and Capcom universes, such as Nova, Iron Fist, Ghost Rider, Hawkeye, Dr. Strange, Rocket Raccoon and Nemesis, Vergil, Strider, Firebrand, Phoenix Wright and Frank West, respectively, but Capcom announced a series of new game modes at their panel at NYCC as well.
Capcom confirmed the implementation of a Spectator mode, which is something that the original game should have had in it from the start. For those of you who haven’t experienced the grueling online matchmaking system in a lobby of more than 2 players, Spectator mode is something of a salvation. Being able to actually watch the match going on while you wait tends to be a lot more effective and productive than watching two green bars whittle down in a lobby. This game mode was something that we all anticipated, and our knowledge of it was something that Capcom anticipated as well.
As the room darkened in the crowded press conference, a trailer went up with the colorful words, “Do you want to save the world or destroy it?” The crowd went wild and the epic music played. This was the introduction to the all new game mode Heroes and Heralds. In this mode, the player has a choice to answer the initial question and play as the Herald versions of their favorite characters (Silver Surfer-esque models) or the original Heroes. The excitement doesn’t stop there. Capcom also announced that this mode allows players to collect trading cards of characters not playable in the game, granting your team a number of special abilities. There are 100 total cards in the game, and you can equip three at a time, allowing for approximately 1.2 million combinations. What are some examples of these abilities? The Nightcrawler card seems to allow the team to jump multiple times, and the clip of the teaser trailer ended with Ryu parrying Chun-Li’s ultra combo. Yes, parrying. I think it’s safe to say that November 15th can’t come a moment too soon.
