MARVEL VS. CAPCOM: INFINITE

Have you got the stones to take on Thor, Hulk and company? Format PS4 ETA 19 Sep Pub Capcom Dev Capcom

Ever wanted to see Mega Man X kick Thor in the face? Of course you have – we don’t know why we asked. There’s something intensely cool about seeing your fave heroes from two separate universes duke it out in a completely unfeasible battle of supernatural strength. There’s something even cooler about actually getting to do it.

The skill barrier for entry was set high on previous series entry Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. Fights had each player control a tag-team of three characters, and were a blur of air-to-air triple-figure-hit combos. Little wonder it was largely left to the capable minds and hands of the eSports pros. But Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite is on a mission to bring proper, ludicrous, fun, mid-air-fist-to-face fighting to the Marvel-loving masses.

If you’re one of the many who skip down to your local cinema the minute a new superhero movie releases but couldn’t be less interested in fighting games, then Infinite’s out to win you over. Fights are now more manageable 2v2 affairs, the other of your two chosen brawlers tagged in with u. Just hitting the ‘light punch’ button several times is enough to trigger a handy ground-to-air combo. Heck, even busting out your Hyper Combo ‘super move’ is a trifling matter of whacking the ‘heavy punch’ and ‘heavy kick’ buttons together. Just about everything is designed to appeal to a broader audience, from the friendlier basic controls to the less comic-y, more cinematic art style.

But it’s not at the expense of complexity. Replacing that missing third teammate are the six Infinity Stones, plucked straight from the Marvel universe. Before every match, you’ll choose one shiny, supernatural pebble to augment your team’s fighting style. Power, Space, Time, Mind, Soul, and Reality are available to choose from, each one offering a different ‘Infinite Surge’ buff that activates – cooldown-free, no less – at a press of o. The Power Stone, for instance, ups the damage your fighters can deal, and introduces more juggle combo opportunities by having opponents bounce off the floor when hit. The Time Stone will be a favourite for those who enjoy the ‘rushdown’ style of play: it gives you an unlimited, short-range teleport-dash. And if you’re about to face an opponent who won’t stop spamming long-range attacks from miles across the screen? You’ll benefit from equipping the Space Stone – it’ll drag shoryuken shirkers straight towards you.

The real fun starts when we begin to experiment, like mad scrapping scientists, with different Stone and character combinations. Equipping the Time Stone with a Hulk/Strider Hiryu tag-team is ridiculous fun. The tricky buff makes our sluggish green brawler unthinkably nimble, and turns Strider the speedster into a new, special kind of menace we’re dubbing an ‘impossiblur’.

ATTACK THE BOX

But as our hands-on demo continues, it’s the Space Stone that becomes an unexpected favourite. Once we’re able to fill our meter enough, we can then trigger our ‘Infinity Storm’ super attack. When we bust it out, the Space Stone traps our opponent in a handy transparent box. It’s like being delivered a punching bag on a platter. We whizz in as Captain Marvel to deliver the hurt – but quickly discover that although we’ve got the advantage, our prey is still able to fight its way out of the cage with enough projectiles and determination. Erk.

We now know, of course, that our prey could be Guardians Of The Galaxy favourites tree-man Groot and wise-cracking, gunslinging furball Rocket Raccoon. Although we’ve not been able to take the awesome twosome for a spin just yet, we’ve already seen Rocket’s super in action: a sci-fi bazooka that makes fireworks out of anyone that falls fouls of its range. Marvel fans: Capcom has you more than covered.

Infinite is shaping up to be a brilliant blend of broken and balanced. It’s powerful and crazy enough to make every second exciting, but with thoughtfully designed and counter-designed mechanics and characters to avoid anything feeling unfair. Capcom’s latest is about letting everybody feel like a hero, whether they’re a fighting game pro or a total novice.

But of course you will already now how good MVC: Infinite is, as a free story demo released on PSN. If you haven’t tried it, why not?

“ON A MISSION TO BRING PROPER, FUN, MID-AIR-FIST-TOFACE FIGHTING TO THE MASSES.” Breaking all the rules that are established, giving this game its own rule set, and letting players go wild – that’s where the ‘hype’ comes from. In MVC 2 and 3, watching the old-school guys like Yipes [Michael Mendoza] and Justin [Wong] play, it was like, ‘How do you land that hit?’ And after that hit, it was just about getting crazy after that. Except now you have a different way of doing it – with your partner, your Infinity Stone, and what you do with the opportunity when you land it. That’s what’s going to equal ‘hype’.” Peter ‘Combofiend’ Rosas, associate producer, Capcom