When the preliminary screenshots for Marvel vs Capcom 3 were revealed, the way the Capcom characters were portrayed really caught my eye.
Now it wasn’t too long ago that the similarly themed Tatsunoko vs Capcom saw the light of day. Both it and MvC3 portray Capcom characters using 3-D models, but you might see a notable difference between the two games.
Ryu here, despite being in two very similar games, turns out looking quite different. Against the anime characters of Tatsunoko he too looks closer to an anime character, but against the American-friendly grittiness of Wolverine and other Marvel characters, he too becomes almost equally gritty. His design is being adapted differently in order to better match with the types of opponents he’s facing.
In any crossover but especially in video games, visual consistency is important. If the characters do not look like they belong together, then it becomes extremely jarring. The Capcom vs SNK series suffered from this, as the old Alpha sprites of the Capcom characters clashed with the newly designed sprites for the SNK characters. As an opposite example however, Sakurai Masahiro purposely added realistic touches to all of the characters the later Super Smash Bros. games in order to minimize the visual discrepancies between them, so that someone like the relatively realistic Samus Aran matches up with the more cartoonish Mario. If you look at Mario actually, he has much more detailed textures on his overalls than in any other game he’s in.
One last thing that I find interesting is that the old VS games (most notably Marvel vs Capcom 2) actually leaned in the opposite direction of MvC3 by having the Marvel characters designed to better match the anime-style Street Fighter characters used at that time. Either way though, the message seems to remain the same: MUGEN is really ugly.
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May 29, 2010 at 8:30 pm
Jesus159159159
It would be weird having the Marvel characters in an anime style again, especially with the continuous rise of super-manly comic book movies, but I also think the success of Street Fighter IV had something to do with it. If S/SFIV weren’t as successful, I’d bet they would continue the look of Marvel vs Capcom 2.
Also, sorta off topic but not really: I wonder if we’ll have Disney vs Capcom (LOL) since Disney bought out Marvel. Wonder how they’ll match styles with that one!
Haha not to offend anyone, but I think MUGEN is more for the memes/funnies and all that jazz. I can’t imagine a hardcore fighting player taking that game seriously.
May 30, 2010 at 12:08 am
Sub
It’s flashy enough to be a Versus game, but it comes off like it’s a Versus game for people who are worried that the bright colors that are in all the other Versus games will make them gay.
Of course, that’s kind of the AAA aesthetic, and if you want your audience to buy a million copies these days, you gotta do stuff like this. It’s good-looking, but it kinda bums me out.
June 23, 2010 at 7:27 pm
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October 18, 2011 at 1:07 pm
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