Marvel vs. Capcom 3 - Or, "Fighting Games Exist Only to Serve Me My Alloted Portion of Humble Pie"

[Paragon Fury]

So I got Marvel vs. Capcom 3 today. After not playing any fighting games really since DOA4 SSFIV, I was quickly reminded of why;

Because in every fighting game except DOA, the only way I could get any worse a them is if you cut my hands off and made me play with the bloody stumps.

And it drives me insane. I mean, I'm by no measure exceptional at video games, but damn, why is that I can at least hold mine own, or deliver an ass kicking or two of my own, but in fighting games (DOA being the lone exception) I still manage to lose to the computer on Very Easy.

I mean seriously, it gets embarrassing. And what's worse is that I can't figure out how to get around it.

So what of you Escapist? You seem to know about fighting games? How do when you play them? Or is all the bravado I've seen about fighting games around merely just people covering for their pride at getting their asses kicked too?

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

I have a semi-legitimate justification as to why I suck, but I suck nonetheless. I still love a few (Guilty Gear, Arcana Heart, BlazBlue) and tend to play a rusher like Noel in BB.

 

[Flunk]

L M L H P Super Jump L M H P+direction L M H P+direction L M H Super. Repeat until win, there are a couple of other super easy combos like that, but that one works with nearly any character, as long as the last one can do a super in the air.

Marvel vs Capcom 3 is really a lot simpler than Marvel vs Capcom 2, which was a little bit easier than Marvel vs Capcom. Overall that series is pretty ridiculous and if you're looking for a fighting game that won't frustrate you entirely as you try to learn it Street Fighter IV isn't as fast and the combos aren't anywhere near as long.

 

[Cheesepower5]

There only two fighting games I play at least competently - Super Smash Bros. and Soul Caliber. And that's from practice, not skill. I suck at action games in general. Strategy is more my forté.

 

[Mr. Omega]

I know the basics of MvC3. I can beat Arcade on Hard (I'll lose 10 times, but I can do it).There's a guy who has a VERY good basics tutorial on Youtube. I swear, it is a godsend. I figured a lot of the rest on my own, and am still learning. But yeah, online, I tend to lose more than win. Like 1 win for every 2-3 loses. On a good day. My team is M.O.D.O.K, Haggar and X-23.

Also, Super Smash Bros. I'm awesome at that game, as long as I'm not facing a tourney player.

 

[Paragon Fury]

I have SSFIV.

I still suck at that game.

The only fighting game I've ever been good at was DOA. I wasn't great at it; but I was good enough to make it at least look like a fight, rather than a Curb Stomp Battle.

And thats probably because the DOA series isn't very combo-centric. Its very deliberate and reflex/timing based, rather than "30-hit" combo based.

 

[chromewarriorXIII]

Well, the last fighting game I really played (and still do play) seriously was Soul Calibur III. I didn't really have anyone to play against either so I just played with every character, once I got better I upped the difficulty. I just keep going until I find a character that I'm really good with.

If you're losing on Very Easy, then I would recommend finding someone who is good (or at least decent) at the game to tutor you. That's what I originally did with Super Smash Bros. Melee and it worked wonders for me. Get them to run you through the basic mechanics of the game. Practice against them with every character until you learn how to use them at at least a basic level. Then just pick people you like and go more in depth, learn their every strength and weakness. It can be a long and tedious process but it's worth it.

If you don't know anyone who is has the game and is willing to teach you, I'm sure someone on the Escapist would. I would but I don't have MvC3 (the last fighting game I bought was Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection).

 

[VGC USpartan VS]

Although I love MvC3, how come we cant have instead of S we can have the button its pressed for? Seriously Capcom, Arcades went out of style in the early 90s.

 

[DustyDrB]

Don't feel bad. Except for that one fight where the other person was apparently away from the controller, I am 0 and 20 something online in the game. Yep. The game is fun, and I can do OK on the Arcade mode. But I'm really terrible against other people.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

My current record online is 101-71. It's not anything fantastic, but the loss streak soared for me when people finally figured out unbreakable combos. *sigh* I wish I was better at the game, but I just simply don't have the time nor the patience for the game.

 

[Paragon Fury]

I will say one thing though; as bad as

Spoiler

Galactus

is, he ain't got nothing on Alpha Kasumi.

He might have the power of a god, but she has the power of HAX.

 

[-Seraph-]

I tend to be average over all when it comes to fighting games; I'm no pro, but I can deliver an ass kicking and hold my own quite well most of the time. I get a little obsessive compulsive with them, so I try and learn every little bit of the games mechanics and tie them into my play style e as well as possible. I just keep practicing till I got things down and that seems to help with getting at least marginally better at the game.

 

[Trolldor]

I am horrible at Soul Calibur 4... unless I use Mitsurugi.
Probably one of the more complex characters to use because he relies on timing more than combos, and you can't spam his moves either.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

I haven't had a challenge with MvC3 expcept at certain points that are sooo frustrating. I hate being knocked into the air and being comboed to death.

I hate, hate, hate how the AI blocks soooo much. If it couldn't block this game would be to easy I guess.

Galactus is such an ass.

I like the block system more in the Naruto Ultimate Ninja series, it has such a limited time that you can hold it up when being attacked.

I didn't see that with MvC3... they would block I'd used my ultimate attack, they barely got scratched as they crossed their arms wich made my attack almost worthless.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Not sure exactly what you're asking.

Yes, I play fighting games and I would like to think I'm quite good at them. Not pro level by any means but when I've played competitively in the past I was more than able to hold my own against most comers. I've also played enough of them for long enough that I can pick up most of them fairly quickly to at least the point of competence.

While I do enjoy a good single player experience (perhaps more than a lot of people who take fighters seriously) I tend not to measure my level of ability by how well I do in the single player mode. The fact is, the AI in fighting games can and does cheat extensively.. and even after all these years it's still a crapshoot if you're going to get a game with good AI or Mortal Kombat style input reading garbage.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Practice for hours, HOURS! I have over 20 hours of playtime purely in training mode. Literally sit in the training room for 3 hours in a row every day with 1 (ONE) team and figure out how each character works inside out. Figure out how to maximize EACH move. Figure out which moves are easy to land, which are safe to use, how to best approach, what is your maximum damage potential. Master your long combos so that you'll always do them correctly. (look them up on youtube if you don't know them now)


There's countless little things like that, it's called "depth" and it's why fighting games rock.



Btw, the AI even on "very hard" sucks. It may read your button presses and react but it never adjusts and it's extremely predictable. Only against human foes can you truly test your metal.


If you're on PS3 I could show you a few tricks sometime, my online record is something like 700-85 btw, I'm nowhere near unbeatable but most online people who play this game currently do suck a ton .

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Because most fighting games are still stuck with archaic input chains that makes executing moves needlessly tedious.
Sure, there are exceptions like super smash brothers where the focus is in the actual FIGHTING rather than muscle memory and input memorization but those are still the minority.
It's like they don't even acknowledge that controllers have more buttons nowadays.

You're completely wrong on two fronts.

First and foremost, there's a simple input command mode. It dumbs even the hardest moves on a single button and a single direction. Didn't you know that?

Secodnly, the inputs are not archaic, they're there to test your skill and to give you more options since if you are to only use 4 button and a d-pad but you must use 20 different moves you'd be hard-pressed to do it if they weren't assigned unique inputs. The aforementioned simple mode suffers from this, enabling you to only use a fraction of the normal mode enabled moves.


A thing which you need to notice is that buffering the directions while blocking is an integral fighting game element which is LOST if you just dumb the commands down. Take shoryuken for example, you use that move when the foe is about to hit you...which means you input the move before you get it...but to input the move you must press forward, you can't press back...which means you're not guarding for that fraction of a second it takes you to do it.

If you do it right you hit your foe, if you mess up you get hit big time...that's an important skill and it's definitely not a random or archaic thing someone just forgot about.

 

[Kinguendo]

Nah, I beat arcade with Arthur, M.O.D.O.K. and Spencer so you could say I have some skills.

Heres a tip for you, use Dante... there are some other characters but you seem like you need to use Dante. And dont worry, pretty much everyone uses Dante already anyway.

 

[Conqueror Kenny]

I like to think I'm quite good at fighting games, I enter tournaments and do fairly well, I'v even won some money playing them (not actually played in a MvC tournament yet though) and the only way that every good player agrees to get better, is practice.

Don't just run into Arcade mode or Online, hit the training room first, and hit it hard. I've had MvC3 for about 3 weeks now and I've only had my first online match this week, all of my time has been in training mode trying to figure out my team, their ins and outs, what order to put them in, the actual game system and getting my combos/anti-airs down.

The main problem I've seen is people not properly using their assists, either randomly throwing them out or just not using them at all. I don't know who you use but you should try to find good uses for your assists and how they can complement your point character.