Capcom’s finally bitten the bullet and announced Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. It’s apparently going to have more characters than ever before (which will be amazing, as the last one had 56!) and by all accounts looks like it’s going to follow the rather 2.5D graphical stylings of Streetfighter IV.

In case you’re not already a die-hard fan, as you should be, here’s a quick review of the XBLA re-release of Marvel vs. Capcom 2, which we printed last year back in issue 55.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2

Several attempts have been made to convert Capcom’s superlative fighter mash-up to home formats, yet it was always the relatively niche Sega Dreamcast version that had the edge before.
Luckily, the 360 contains more than enough grunt to get everything on screen cooking, so even when you’ve both thrown all your fighters into Team Combos and the screen’s full of lasers, robotic panthers and butt-stomping Juggernauts, not even the slightest frame is dropped. That means that this 56 character epic of a battle is as amusing and immediate as it ever was, with almost literally every character to ever appear in a 2D Capcom fighting game present in some way or other, with one or two new faces along for the ride. Giant cactus in a sombrero, anyone? Check.
While fighting purists will find little of interest after a few hours, the focus of the ‘versus’ series always being far more on madcap specials and outrageous visual jokes than elegant combos or cancelling systems, the rest of us can look forward to a frenetic blowout of fighting, with more famous faces than you can shake a stick at. 5/5