Over the course of two decades, the Marvel vs Capcom franchise has mutated into a sprawling crazy quilt of exuberant brawling. Look for a unifying theme and it seems to be loopy excess, with overflowing character rosters, screen-filling hyper combos and a fondness for mob-handed tag-team battles. “Gonna take you for a ride!” declared Marvel vs Capcom 2’s jazzy selection screen ear-worm, and if the shield-chucking, hellfire-hosing action could occasionally be chaotic to the point of confusion, it was certainly never dull.
Six years on from Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom (a buffed-up version of the third instalment that boosted its warrior headcount to an impressive 48) and here comes a new challenger. In Marvel Vs Capcom Infinite, the conflict implied in the title has become inextricable. A diabolical team-up by Marvel’s tetchy AI zealot Ultron and Mega Man’s lantern-jawed nemesis Sigma has forcibly fused the two corporate universes together, creating an uncanny hybrid dimension.
In the Saturday morning cartoon-worthy story mode, the combined villain Ultron Sigma has also unleashed a cyborg virus to assimilate all organic life, forcing Captain America, Mega Man X, Chun-Li and a dolly mixture of other pugilistic heroes to fight a desperate rearguard action. The third game’s inky art style of thick black outlines has been replaced with more of a Toys R Us aesthetic. The pool of 30 playable characters from which you select your two-person team resembles a rubbery, wipe-clean action figure line.
The revised Marvel roster mirrors the priorities of its cinematic universe, so the Infinite incarnation of Iron Man is now blatantly modelled on Robert Downey Jr’s smart-alecky show-off. Pair him with Spider-Man and he tags his partner in with a cute callback to Captain America: Civil War (“Underoos!”) Rising stars the Guardians of the Galaxy are emphatically in – Gamora is a lithe, lethal multi-weapon specialist while Rocket Raccoon can request thumping help from Groot – while X-Men and Fantastic Four-related characters, their IP currently licensed by rival studios, are demonstrably out.
Previous Marvel vs Capcom games featured an easy input mode so beginners could leapfrog ahead to spectacular special moves and finishers without having to memorise every quarter-turn and double-button press. Infinite folds this training-wheels approach into the game proper. Batter the light-punch button and you automatically unleash an eight-hit combo, while one straightforward button-press triggers a hyper combo across the entire roster. Mastering this simple repertoire means new players can select any character confident they can at least pull off the basics.
While this pivot toward accessibility does not automatically mean a lack of depth, it does inevitably flatten out Ultimate’s personality. The new infinity stone mechanic – with six selectable cosmic gems adding additional special moves – means any character can be specced with a dash, a fireball or a paralysing throw. If Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom rejoiced in the eccentricities and mismatches of its sprawling roster, Infinite seems to want to turn everyone into an all-rounder.
More seriously, after creating such an inviting on-ramp for knockabout play, Infinite whiffs its advanced schooling. After the basic tutorial, character-specific training missions jump straight from simple special move workouts to intimidatingly long input strings. For players not already fluent in the genre’s lingua franca of cross-ups and cancels, there is nothing to explain how to read or react your opponent. While this feels like a missed opportunity, what is actually unforgivable is that Infinite’s move lists are locked to characters facing right. This is irritating if you happen to jump over your opponent and want to quickly pause-check a mighty finisher. It is actively excruciating if you are locally playing as left-facing player two.
The wacky story mode is a welcome short-term diversion but Infinite really comes to life in the wild. For those rightly intimidated by online play, there is a dedicated and so far seemingly robust Beginners League to help players begin their ascent from 15th to 1st rank. But even in this nominal shallow end, ingenious beatdown specialists are already combining disparate characters and their signature movies into elaborate punishments. Jedah, the regal vampire from Darkstalkers with a diabolical arsenal of jaggy projectile attacks, is clearly an early favourite, while the option to tag in Ryu for a jumbo-sized vertical fireball seems to be a popular grace note on which to end extended combos.
These dedicated players who have already pushed past Infinite’s muddled orientation will likely elevate the game to new heights, while the emphasis on pick-up-and-play means it is also possible for dabblers to extract a lot of fun from the giddy free-for-all. But it does feel like something has been lost along the way in the push for slimmed-down accessibility. Smashing two dimensions together should be the stuff of ambitious prog-rock albums, but Infinite seems determined to steer towards the middle of the road.
Capcom; PS4 (version tested)/Xbox One/PC; £35; Pegi rating: 12+
