‘Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite’ Game Review: “Infinitely Disappointing”

Marvel vs Capcom Infinite is a huge failure. If you’re not interested in hearing me complain about a video game with scalding remarks, this isn’t the review for you. That being said, this means no review of Marvel vs Capcom Infinite is for you.

Marvel vs Capcom has been critically acclaimed as part of the pantheon of fighting games over and over, Marvel 2 and 3 are still playable at famous fighting tournaments even after 10-20 years, depending on the game. It’s a celebration of everything Capcom, merging with Marvel’s style and having both sides beat the ever-loving paste out of each other. Original music composition, unique fighting styles, references to previously released comics and games; Marvel vs Capcom was an unbeatable staple, filled to the brim with lovable characters.

Then Capcom ruined it all. Let’s get this started already, beginning with the roster. They removed all the X-men characters, sure, I get that copyright might make things difficult and Capcom can’t change that; but to only put in around 30 characters, 10 of which are new characters? These games are all about the roster. If there’s nothing new, there’s no reason to buy the game. Where’s Leon, Asura, Chuck, Jack, any new street fighter character, any new Capcom character over the past 10 years? Where’s old favorites like Vergil, Viewtiful Joe, normal-looking Hawkeye? I understand companies have to stick with what works to a degree, but in a series where you get to play as your favorite characters and the PREMISE is to PLAY YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTER, keeping the roster as bland and boring as possible is suicide. X-men were around in these games since the days of X-men Vs Street Fighter, I get it, but CAPCOM owns the rights to characters from their hundreds of franchises that would make any VIDEO GAMER buy the VIDEO GAME, NOT MARVEL. Super Smash Bros. had a poll where the highest-submitted video game characters would be put into the game, and this made fans buy DLC with glee. Infinite offers the most boring, copy-paste cast of characters I’ve ever seen; Capcom has forgotten it’s a game company with a 30-year history and has let Smash steal the “interesting character crossover” part of their brain.

The music has the standard remixes of Capcom characters, while the Marvel side has replaced the soundtrack with cinematic, orchestral trash. Each track is indiscernible from another. They actually threw out great, original compositions for a standard, orchestral snooze fest. I just can’t wrap my head around it. In any case, voice acting is also botched with replacements for nearly every voice actor and any singing, like in Dante’s theme, is 2000’s Rebecca Black worthy.

Graphics are abhorrent; they sacrificed style for fluid movement when a fighting game is all about a balance of both. Character models are ugly and they reuse the character select models for the victory models. Stages are devoid of life and style. The menu of Marvel vs Capcom 3 is more stylish than this entire game, not to mention Marvel 3’s slow yet amazingly well-crafted opening using 3-D models. Video games and comic books, especially comic books, are all about style, yet these graphics are average at best.

The story is terrible, plain and simple. In a game about Capcom and Marvel fighting each other, characters never fight each other, you just face wave after boring wave of Ultron clones. At least they were accurate to Avengers 2 because that storyline sucked and so does this one. The final boss fight is interesting and fun, but all characters do is say cheesy one-liners and make cheap references in a story with nothing going for it.

The game itself is good, but when most of the cast are copy-pasted from the previous title who cares? Of course, the game would be good if you just put a fresh, terrible coat of paint over an older one! That’s a basic conclusion! If you steal little Jimmy’s homework and submit it, you’re going to get a similar grade unless the audience — I mean teacher — catches you cheating. After their last game did better than most of the titles of their already magnificent franchise COMBINED, I think it’s safe to say that, yeah, they got caught. This game is only good gameplay-wise because it’s the same game but with more nerfs. Also, you can only pick 2 characters instead of 3, so that sucks.

Capcom’s terrible decisions have finally peaked. Each iteration of the Marvel franchise was greater than the last. Now it can’t hold a candle to new series like Dragonball Fighter Z. There’s a good netcode and it’s worth a play, but it’s not worth a purchase. You may find a need to play considering it’s been so many years since the last Marvel experience, I understand that. Marvel is Marvel and the play-style does offer a handful of new innovations, yet you should know Capcom has made this its blandest fighter yet. If you want to play it, play it, but don’t reward mediocrity with your hard-earned cash; Capcom doesn’t deserve it. In the end, it’s still a Marvel vs Capcom game, so there’s fun to be had, but unless you’re great at fighting games, it’s painfully below average.