‘Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite’ succeeds by hitting reset button
After the success of “Street Fighter IV,” Capcom stumbled with the sequel. The decision to release an incomplete follow-up led to a poor first impression that snowballed into a cool response from the fight community.
With “Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite,” Capcom learned from its mistakes, and presents players with a reset of the series, one that has closer ties to Disney’s Marvel cinematic universe. Gone are old stalwarts such as Storm, Magneto and other characters from X-Men and the Fantastic Four. They’re replaced by Captain Marvel, Gamora and revamped versions of older heroes such as Thor.
The fresh start presents an opportunity to lure a new audience while adding needed innovation to the franchise. It begins with a simplification: “Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite” cuts the size of teams from three members to two and introduces the concept of Infinity Stones.
The move streamlines the team building process, as players have to worry about learning just two characters while also understanding the powers of the six Infinity Stones. The gems give characters an additional ability called an Infinity Surge that’s mapped to a button. For example, connect with a Power stone strike knocks an opponent off the wall, while the Time stone gives fighters a dash ability.
Additionally, each gem has an Infinity Stormmove tied to a special meter. Activating the ability gives players a temporary advantage. In one instance, the Soul stone resurrects a defeated partner, while the Mind stone refuels the hyper combo meter.
Technically, the stones could be considered almost like a third character, but players don’t need additional character knowledge. The stones act as a modifier that opens up new strategies and shores up weaknesses of other fighters while maintaining an easy-to-learn approach.
That appears to be the design focus of “Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite.” To emphasize that point, the developers included an easy auto combo that requires a few button taps. Meanwhile, hyper combos are easier to perform by pressing two buttons at the same time, instead of a complicated input.
This newbie-friendly push and above-average story mode are meant to draw the casual fan into the frenetic fighting game. The developer successfully balances that with the need to give experts new systems, and the Infinity stones are the key to that. The team also includes the advancing guard system, which lets players reflect fireballs and push away aggressive opponents. If players are rushed, they can sacrifice meter to perform a counter switch that brings in their partner to take over and deal damage.
With its more polished effort, Capcom recaptures the magic and gives newcomers a chance to fall in love with the “Marvel vs. Capcom” series again.