Marvel VS Capcom VS The World

Recently, Capcom released an update to MVC3 which made the following changes:

1. Sentinel’s health reduced. (1,300,000 down to 905,000)

2. Akuma’s hit stun on Hurricane Kick decreased, removing infinite.

3. Spencer ground glitch removed.

4. Haggar ground glitch removed.

5. Dormammu’s Jumping Medium Attack does 70,000 damage, up from 50,000.

6. Spencer’s corner loop has been removed.

Now for those of you who hate Sentinel this will no doubt be good news. However, there is a downside to these changes being put into effect.

The face of the enemy online or just another character?

The first one for me is the speed at which this update has been released. Given that most fighting games take a good few months for things to become apparent, like infinite loops, 100% damage combos, etc. this game has been updated within a month of it being released, without a real in-depth understanding on how players will use characters. I’d say that it’s way to early to be looking at changing characters’ health or properties.

The next one is the history of changes. Most people who play FPS or MMO’s will be used to regular changes and updates to the game; these are usually accompanied with patch notes which detail which changes have been made to the game. As far as I’m concerned, these are pretty essential for players who want to know if the characters they play are going to be affected.

For me, the changes they have made don’t deal with the character’s main problem, which wasn’t health; it was damage output, which is massive, and well deserved for the largest character in the game who also happens to be a metal killing-machine.

The last one for me is that this has actually been done. In the history of Capcom fighting games I’ve played – without a separate release – the only updates to games have been to patch glitches or game breaking bugs. Ono San admitted quite early on in Street Fighter 4 that Sagat was over-powered; Urien in third strike had an infinite, which in the 12 years the game has been out, has never been patched, and there are many well known Magneto/Sentinel combos in MVC2 that are infinite. Again, these have never been resolved.

There are two sides to this story, though;  people are now getting a response to the complaints that they have been openly voicing on the Capcom community forums, so those people who have spoken out about their issues with Sentinel should be happy.

However, those people out there who are happy about this should worry that the characters they are playing could face the wrath of the public and face a similar fate.

I’m fully aware that balanced games don’t sell. No one really wants to play a game where everyone is as good as each other. Characters who are individual should have their own merits and flaws, that’s what makes the games interesting.

Regardless on your point of view on this, this is an interesting development. It’s the first time that quite significant game changes have been released to a fighting game, outside of DLC. Capcom could potentially have started something that may become quite common. I think we will have to watch this space to see what praise/fallout comes their way.

With tournament players all picking She-Hulk, she could be next to be on the receiving end of a nerf, completely changing how she is played

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3 responses to “Marvel VS Capcom VS The World”

  1. Mark P avatar

    It’ll be interesting to see how the health drop affects the Sentinel but I have to agree that a damage reduction feels like it would have had more benefit.

    No doubt this will have null bearing on your ability to grind me into the floor 9 times out of 10. 😀

  2. Walter avatar
    Walter

    Aye, try 10 times out of 10 😀

  3. Mark P avatar

    Forgive me for being optimistic. 😉

    Shall we call it 9.5 times out of 10?

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