MVC3 Preview - The Writeup

[[NIUE] BIRRY WONG]

Hey team,

As you guys are probably aware, Myself, Lenny, Graeme and Dave all had the opportunity to play the CES build of MVC3 this afternoon. Each of us is going to do a short writeup of our thoughts on the game, and Lenny and I will be doing a podcast on Saturday if anyone is keen for more information. Just be aware that the CES build isnt the final build, so a few things are liable to change.

Right off the bat, I can say with 100% certainty that this game, is awesomeness incarnate. I can't begin to describe how good this game feels. Anyone that is even remotely hype for it will be absolutely blown away, and anyone expecting it to be the best game ever will be damn close to being satisfied. Does BIRRY WONG think that MVC3 is the greatest fighting game ever created? Given that I've had only 3 hours with the game, I can't answer that. But its looking pretty damn likely. The possibilities in this game are absolutely endless. When we were at KFC afterwards having a big discussion we came up with about 10000 more things that we wanted to try, that, truth be told, would probably work within the games engine, and be every bit as godlike as we philosophised. Also, EVERY character has game. The characters are all really diversified, but they ALL have awesome shit that is going to wreck people when they pull it off right. This game...I wish there was something I could compare it to. Its incredible. Absolutely mind blowingly incredible.

Gameplay

Onto the gameplay. As a lot of you probably know from my posts, the assist system was the big thing for me. A bad assist system would be a major down point. The assist system is awesome. Assists arent like MVC2, in that they cant be spammed as often, but theyre a LOT more usable than TVC. They open up a lot of possibilities for mixup setups, traps, and combos. Like I say, theyre not as spammable as MVC2. 1) They can't be called as often, and 2) If you screw one up, its going to eat a MASSIVE punish. You really have to think about them, and cover them. Even more so thatn in MVC2. But as someone who was really skeptical about the assist system, im totally 100% happy with it. All the players i've seen in their youtube videos maybe use them to 10-20% of their potential. Being able to utilise your assists well is going to probably be the biggest skill hurdle for players to get by, but the game is amazingly simple at the entry level, but incredibly complex in terms of the possibilities and situations you can create. MVC3 assist system is a winner imo. And as BIRRY WONG, arguably the most awesome guy in the world, me saying that really means something.

Damage is massive, as you can probably tell by the videos. Assists get CANED by stuff. Like, absolutely wrecked. Pixie (Rushdown) characters all generally have really low life. Even larger characters die quickly, but not nearly as fast as pixies. I think capcom are going for matches to be as fast ass possible. Damage is HUGE, and the clock ticks down fast. Some people might not like the sound of this. But I can tell you right now that it definitely works with the way the game is.

Combos. Magic series felt a little weird at first (particularly with some characters. I'll get into that later), but after we all got used to the timing, the combos were flowing A LOT easier. The standard air combo into exchange is NOT tech rollable. But you cant tag the grounded opponent with a crouching normal and go for a relaunch. Specials will hit them (Skrulls tenderizer, vipers seismo etc) as long as they hit low enough. Most characters have an option to OTG in this situation. Can't say ALL characters for sure, but we didnt come across one that couldn't do this. Combos are every bit as flashy as MVC2, and you can do cool stuff without much effort. An hour in training mode and all you guys will have bnb's into massive damage in no time. The combo system is simple, but again, like the rest of the game, the possibilities are endless. I think the approach and the setups are where people might struggle at first, particularly if they plan on using rushdown characters.

I mentioned tech rolls in my last paragraph, and ill touch on them again. You cant tech roll an air combo that ends in exchange, but any other knockdown, as far as i can tell, can be tech rolled. Tech rolls are a lot easier to perform in this game than in MVC2. It barely even qualifies as a command. To tech roll, you just hold a direction when you get knocked down. Thats it. Predicting tech rolls will be a big part of high level offensive games by the looks. But there are definitely general zoning techniques that will allow you to close the gap and keep pressure on. An easy tech roll is definitely not a free escape from pressure.

Pushblocking. This is an interesting, and somewhat enigmatic element that isnt quite the same as in previous titles. It seems that the more powerful the attack, the further that it pushes the opponent back. For example, if you push block the medium attack in Iron Mans ground blockstring, it pushes him back to a perfect distance for him to go for a tri-jump. But if you hold off pushblocking until he does a fierce, then it pushes him back further, somewhat limiting his follow up options. You can't just mash on it. Its a bit like crouch teching in SSF4, or TVC pushblocking. It needs to be timed properly to get maximum effectiveness. But like everything else in the game, youll get SOME milage out of pushblocking whenever you get the chance, just like crouch teching.

Character movement. Obviously character movement differs between characters. Ill get into a bit more of that when I talk specifics. But the general trend is that most characters have really good ground dashes. And wavedashing is really really quick. I can also confirm that wavedashing DEFINITELY needs to be cancelled with a down motion. You cant just mash two buttons and wavedash, which is something im really pleased to see. Dashing is also with 2 buttons, not 3.

Im gonna briefly touch on button layout then get into character specifics. The button layout will be entirely synonymous with what youre comfortable with. I had a lot of trouble with the TVC esque layout. The MVC2 layout will suit me a lot better. And because dashes are 2 buttons, its not going to feel awkward. Easy as shit to hit the 4 attack buttons for a KFC in the MVC2 layout as well. Although we didnt actually HAVE this layout, I found myself doing this quite a lot, since my muscle memory is telling me thats where the buttons I want to push are. Blazblue and TVC players will probably find the TVC layout the best. Since its basically the BB layout but with assist buttons. Anyone thats played anything will be able to get comfortable with SOME setup of the buttons methinks. A lot of people arent thinking about exchange as an attack, but as a special button. This is not true at all. The way the buttons work, the scheme is overwhelmingly like MVC2, so people wo have experience with that will be able to jump right in. TBH, I think the way the combo and movement system works, if youre used to the MVC2 layout, configuring your buttons like MVC2 will make you feel right at home. The TVC layout felt really awkward to me. Some people will definitely prefer it though.

Character specifics.

As I have said, we only had 3 hours, so the specifics will be pretty limited.

Super Skrull.
I spent easily the most time with Skrull. Hes fairly easy to get in to. AMAZING ground dash. His standing normals are all pretty good. His standing light is his fastest normal, and his best combo starter. His crouching light is actually a bit disappointing. Its pretty slow compared to his standing one TBH. I dont even think it hits low. I dont think his standing one hits low either, but its basically a shin kick, so its not gonna whiff on midgets. Air combo into tenderizer -> super does OK damage, but is pretty easy to do. His grab is INCREDIBLE. I wish I had used it more. His teleport/overhead thing is great for punishing and getting in on people trying to zone you from the other side of the screen. It definitely not safe though, so if they block it, he's in trouble. None of his supers are safe either. Hes not the kind of character you can just cancel into super and be safe, you need to be reasonably cautious. Tenderizer is pretty safe on block. Instant long range punishes will probably get it though. (shinkuu hadouken/amaterasu elements etc) His airdash is weird, and I hadn't got used to it even by the end. It goes slightly upwards, so he cant use it as a ghetto tri jump or to close distance. He has a followup that hits overhead, and is an abiguous crossup that he can combo off of which is pretty nice, but easily counterable. Hes going to need a fair bit of assist support so that he can close distance on the ground to do his damage. Easy character to use, potentially fairly easy to fight against as well. Biggest downpoint was that tenderizer comes out in 3 button pushes. Picture hondas hands coming out when you jab 3 times. If i wavedash fast, and then push jab, tenderizer comes out. This is kind of a pain, but there are workarounds for sure. Cool character overall. Really balanced strengths and weaknesses.

Storm.
Oh Storm. Youre the same, yet youre different. Hailstorm is godlike. If storm had damn near nothing else, Hailstorm would just about make her worth putting on a team. Typhoon xx hailstorm rips shit up. If it hits an assist, its gonna hurt. Chip is incredible. Its everything you hoped it would be, and everything that you hoped it wouldn't be. GREAT super. Unfortunately, theres not much else I can say about her. Phenominal mobility. Blindingly fast ground and air dashes, but none of us could time or distance her basic combo's properly. Her normals are all really weird. This is just a practice thing im sure. Definitely potential to be a REALLY dominant pixie character. But yea. Similar to MVC2 storm, but different. Thats a terrible analogy but thats all I can muster for her TBH. And hailstorm is VERY strong. Punishable if you think youre just going to use hailstorm and win though. Things like TK Shinkuu hadouken will eat it alive if its done badly. Which brings me to...

Ryu.
Yes, I, BIRRY WONG, used Ryu. He's average. Tbh, probably worse than average. Slow as all shit. No air dash. His fireballs are pretty good, and thats what 90% of his game will be. Jumping around throwing fireballs, and calling an assist like Iron Man with Unibeam to control space on the ground. This is potentially an ok thing to do, but yea. Not much else to say about it. His general game sucks. But Bill, why would I use Ryu? Two reasons. 1) His Anti Air assist is pretty damn good. Invincibility on startup, decent height. A really solid choice for Anti Air. One of the best in the game hands down. 2) Shinkuu-motherfuckin'-hadouken. Can you say instant full screen punish? Can you say a really decent damaging instant full screen punish? Can you say "Oh look, an assist. Shinkuu Hadouken xx KFC xx Shinkuu Hadouken = assist dead. DEAD. Stone fucking dead. From full screen. Hailstorm cant do this. Ryu can. Oh yea, and you can aim it. And it OTG's. Its really really good. Its a shame that's all he has.

Amaterasu. The dog feels good. Really REALLY solid. Particularly on the ground. I couldnt for the life of me get her BnB out though. (L, M, H, H, c.H, H, c.H, H, Launch xx j.M, j.M, j.H, j.H, j.H) Gonna have to hit training mode when this drops. Brilliant assist for lockdown and helping your characters get in. Amazing versatility. I wish I had played her more. Elements super is awesome. Slower than it looks though. Its fast, but no shinkuu hadouken. And its full screen. I like full screen. Seriously though. She can control a lot of space in bead stance. I think i only used this for one game. I really really wish id experimented more. This is my biggest regret. Not playing her enough.

Tron. Feels a lot different to MVC2 Tron. Her drill command is different. Its RDP + attack. This will be fine when you get used to it. But God it was frustrating coming from MVC2, and the muscle memory dicking me over every combo. Drill is MAD safe on block. Drill -> grab super is awesomely satisfying. Holding up and back after drill will probably kill this though. Shes not bad. Just feels weird if you played her a lot in MVC2. I think her grab mixups will be really strong. And she has good health. Wavedashing will be a must for her to cover distance on the ground outside of using drills to move around. But given how safe they are, this probably isnt a bad idea.

X-23. She is extremely fun. EXTREMELY fun. Wicked fast on the ground. Faster on the ground than a wavedashing storm. She has amazing ground pressure. I wasn't utilising my assists with her properly, so I wasnt getting the most out of her. Not great in the air in terms of mobility, but shes INSANE on the ground. Absolutely insane. Takes damage like a wet tissue though. I think I ate like 3 Arthur projectiles and she was at 50% Health. She closes distance like a fucking demon, and her hop mixups are fucking awesome. Not getting hit is going to be her biggest thing. But she's slippery enough to pull it off. Really really fun character. Couldnt get the ground BnB to connect properly, I was mostly just in MASH OUT DAT PRESSURE mode. Can't tell you enough how much fun she is though. Picture Cammy in MVC2, then double the speed, and half the HP. Thats X-23.

I played a fair few other characters that I really didnt do much with. Used a lot of assists mostly. Trish I didnt really get much out of. She was on my list of things to do (HEY OHH) but i never got around to it. Vipers seismo assist is a great get-off-me assist, but unfortunately it knocks them too far away to do anything amazing with as a followup. That being said, I never got a chance to use it in the corner. Im gonna leave the other characters we used to the other guys, and most of the noteworthy assists i used im sure will be covered by them

In closing, this game FUCKING RULES. It is unbelievable amounts of GODLIKE. Anyone that hasn't played it should be really REALLY jealous. It is THAT. DAMN. GOOD. You will not be disappointed by this game. I can't fault it at all. The most fun I've had in a fighting game since I started learning MVC2. Absolutely a phenominal, incredible, outstanding game. Prepare yourselves. 2011 is the year of MARVEL.

[massi4h]

Man Bill that was an awesome write up. Making me so hype now.

Also yes I am very jealous.

[[NIUE] BIRRY WONG]

Also guys if you have any other questions, if I can answer them I'll happily address them in the Podcast that Len and I will be doing this weekend. Throw them up here and the ones I can answer I definitely will.

[Lennysaurus]

Introduction

So it's important to note that we were playing a development build of this game, and that things we mention in this thread may very well change upon release of the actual game.  But I will say this right now, with relative ease, that this will possibly be the greatest fighting game you will ever play.  I have been playing fighting games since before Street Fighter One  (IK+ Baby!!! hahaha), at least 13 of those years competitively in arcades and I have no problems with making that statement.

Shane from Monaco set us up in their office, and we had roughly 3 hours to jam away as much as we could.  For the first hour and a half roughly we just tried stuff out.  Worked out Bread and Butter combos etc.  Then spent the last half of the session thrashing it out against each other.

Presentation.

This game looks absolutely beautiful.  I know you've all seen the game on youtube etc, but when you actually see this in the flesh, it blows you away.  The game remains fluid the whole time, and the characters really stand out from the backgrounds, even though there is sooo much going on in them.  Although the characters don't feel as detailed as maybe SSFIV, they very much look like a comic book come to life.  You will love the way it looks.  The sounds are great.  Loads of fan service with old school capcom tunes coming through, and all the new stuff for the marvel characters is awesome.

Game play

The game plays really well.  While it is indeed pretty simple execution wise, there is alot of depth to the decisions you make while playing.  For example, playing against a team with Storm in it, if you leave her to the end with 3 bars and X-factor available, somebody is gonna take a shitload of chip damage.  So you really have to think about how to manage your resources and make sure that you plan ahead to be able to deal with that situation when it comes up. 
There certainly seems to be a nice balance between offensive and defensive play.  I also enjoyed the fact that the game didn't seem to put you in situations where there was always a brain-dead go to option, (e.g.: crouch tech, DP FADC) and you had to really think about what you did next, on both offense and defense.  Making rash frantic decisions often resulted in you getting punished badly.  Rush-down characters didn't have a simple "button" to press to get them in, and zoning/trappers had to think a lot about which part of the screen they were going to fill in order to minimize the risk of the opponent zipping through their wall and applying pressure.

Resource management is really complex.  You have three characters life-bars to maintain, up to 5 levels of super, and one X-Factor per game.  X-factor (lets you cancel a moves recovery, regenerates your "red" life, and either increases your characters speed or damage) has 3 different levels of effectiveness depending on how many characters you have left when you activate it.  If you activate it with all your characters left, you barely notice it, but dear lord if you have one character left your red life regenerates really fast, the X-Factor "buff" lasts much longer, and characters that do damage get an insane damage buff.  If my opponent activated on their last character mid combo, they would straight up 100% that character.  Even just activating on the last character outside of combos was scary, and I found myself playing a very defensive runaway game most of the time until the buff wore off.

X-factor can also be activated while in block-stun.  During this you can even activate a move.  With a bit of experimentation, I don't think it will be that hard to find characters with invincible supers etc, and just straight up, X-factor while in a block-string, and hit them with a super.  Or maybe X-Factor teleport behind someone chipping with a beam super.  Loads of potential there.

Meter building etc was really surprising to me.  Given that you attacks have to actually be blocked by an opponent (or hit them of course) to generate meter, I found that you had to consider using your meter carefully.  You generally had enough to be able to use your meter through out the match, but the strategy of filling the screen with crap and then chipping someone to death with supers was actually alot more difficult.  Also, dropping 2 bars to safe DHC a character in outside a combo is a big choice to make.  One thing we didn't try enough of was using an instant super, and DHCing into stuff like Proton cannon or Hailstorm to try and 1 frame punish.  I'll definitely be trying that when the game drops.

Assists felt really good.  As Bill has mentioned, after watching videos online, it seemed as though assists weren't being used much, but dear god they will be, and they are on the most part really awesome.  Every character feels like they have a worthwhile assist, with some being definitely more standout than others.  Assists take ALOT of damage in this game, I think more than MVC2 possibly, but it seems alot easier to protect your assists in this game, and alot harder to punish them.  Off-screen characters regenerated health at a reasonably quick pace I thought.  Assists also can not be push blocked, and thus setup for certain characters really nicely.  A great example I was using was to have Arthur come out and throw his 3 daggers at my opponent to lock them down, and was able to Tri-Dash mix-up twice with Ironman while they are locked down.  Dave had alot of success with locking down/trapping with Arthur, Modok, and Deadpool while having Doctor Doom's missile assist out, but I'll let him talk more about that in his post.

You could Variable counter one of your partners in while blocking by pushing forward and the assist button.  Graeme at one point did this to me with Thor, who countered my attack with his "Mighty Smash" attack, at which point he Super Canceled into his super combo for nice damage.

Combos on the whole are pretty simple.  Most follow a pretty basic formula, with a few deviations per character.  Although we have seen alot of the videos with characters dialing away huge combos into super etc, when you actually play the game I found meter management of such that I really had to decide whether to go for straight up damage, or to save the meter just in case.  Also, hitting exchange in the air to swap in other characters was interesting.  Although it is a great option, it certainly isn't one that you want to just use all the time.  Getting a full launch in a round can actually be difficult, and taking a gamble on exchange tagging might not be worth it unless you really need to get your character out, or want the extra super meter that doing this provides.  I thought it was a great way to introduce risk/reward into the system.

Pushblocking works much like in TVC I thought.  Meaning the attacker could stagger their attack if they thought and opponent was mistiming their pushblock, much like frame-trapping an OS crouch tech in SSFIV.  And again as Bill mentioned, the length that you would get pushblocked back depended alot on the strength of the attack you were using when the opponent pushblocked.  Also like in TVC, I found that if I could pushblock partway through an opponents string, and make the next attack whiff so that they couldn't chain cancel again, I could punish the recovery of the whiff for good damage.

Movement was pretty varied across the cast.  Felt like Marvel TBH.  Game ticks along at a nice pace, and definitely has that frantic Marvel feel to it.

Characters

Ironman

I spent most of my time with Ironman, and he was easily my favorite character to play with.  He was a jack of all trades, with a fair decent amount of health, and what seemed like decent options at any part of the screen.  While his "Proton Beam" has seen fair improvement in speed, his "Smart bomb" attack has alot less range.  "Smart bomb" now OTG's after an exchange bounce and super cancels into his Proton Cannon.

You can no longer cancel his air normals into dash, and fly/unfly combos don't work as there is recovery on his flight mode de/activation.  His triangle dash is sooooo good now.  I felt like they had taken Mag  and Ironman from MVC2 and mashed them together.  His maneuverability is AWESOME!  And his high/low/left/right mixup while in close is rad.  His damage wasn't too bad, and with the right assist locking your opponent down you will certainly yield damage up close, and even do decent chip from the other side of the screen by tacking on his "Proton beam".

His "Proton Beam" assist worked really well, and held the opponent in place much longer than I thought it would.  Worked well with keep away characters to push the opponent back, and tack on some extra chip.

His Proton Cannon can now be done at 2 angles, and worked really well in DHC combos.  Has a fair bit of startup if you are doing it outside of DHC though, so you definitely dont want to be throwing it out randomly.

Ironman really felt like a character with no glaring weakness, but no particularly huge strength.

Arthur

Another character that Dave and I spent alot of time with.  Sooo fun to use, and will totally be making loads of people ragequit haha.

He easily has the best keepaway tools in the game at this point I think.  Every projectile he has is insanely useful.  His normals are also VERY GOOD.  Quite often I would push block someone away to make them whiff a normal, and then punish into launch.  Launch, into exchange bounce combo, into super into either DHC proton cannon, or X-Factor cancel super again yielded great results.  Has great keep away normals, and can really use meter effectively as well.  His jumping C attack was really good for characters trying to neutral jump dash in.  He is really good at having multiple projectiles on the screen, and pushing you back to the other side of the screen.

His bottle assist (throws a bottle on the ground that erupts into fire) and dagger assist (throws three daggers in quick succession) were both really useful.  As I said earlier, if my opponent was blocking the daggers, I got a tri-jump in for sure.

His weaknesses include horrible mobility.  Like no dashing at all, and the most shit-house jump ever to grace a character.  He also takes HUGE damage and can easily lose 80-90% damage in one combo, and getting caught in random hailstorm like supers really hurts.  So although his keepaway tools are awesome, the are well balanced by his weaknesses in my opinion.

Arthur will be a great battery on your team if placed first.  I think if we muck around more with Gold Armour super DHC into Proton Cannon/Hailstorm that he could really be used to frustrate an opponent.

Zero

Just had a quick dabble with Zero although I played him alot in TVC.  Felt that you would really need to get into training mode for a while to find stuff out with him.  He did feel slightly more sluggish than his TVC counterpart though.  Much more complex character than he was in TVC I think.  His movement changes will require you to think while you play him now, as opposed to the all or nothing zerger he was in TVC.

His supers seemed really good though.  I did a ton of chip by doing his Rain Super, X-Factor cancel, Rain Super, then DHC into proton cannon.  Easily took 35% life from a character in chip.  I think safe DHC into his mirror image super will be really good.

His anti-air assist seemed to work well as a "Get off me button", although you wouldn't want to have it baited out as he is pretty vulnerable afterward.

Morrigan

Once again spent a little bit of time with Morrigan, and I had used her alot in TVC.  She seems to have taken a nerf to her dash/air dash, so the high/low mixup you used to get from it in TVC is a little more difficult.  Her air to ground control via her Air-fireballs is pretty nuts though.  The amount of screen she shuts down with that is pretty cool.  And if your opponent blocks one, you can super cancel into her missile super for good chip.

Her anti air assist is similarly useful as is Zeros, with similar risk reward involved.  Her fireball assist seemed to be useful as a combo extender like it was in TVC, although admittedly I didn't get to actually land it.  Possibly not as good to follow behind to start a rush like you could in TVC due to opponents having loads of beams etc.

Storm

Yeah.  Storm is really interesting.  I feel she is definitely good, but she is different to her MVC2 counterpart.  We didn't really get enough time with her TBH.  Her runaway bullshit is waaay toned down and her air-dash and lightning attacks end really quickly and she drops to the ground faster now after them.  Double Typhoon has a ton of startup.  Her tri-dash is uber fast, so fast in fact that comboing into it will require some practice.  I personally think that people will have to super jump tri-dash to make her high-low mixup usable.  Will take some training I think.

Hailstorm is still GODLIKE!  That super is so awesome hahaha.  And she can combo into it as well.  (Though we kept ballsing it up).  DHC into it from anything anywhere is rad.  I will definitely be putting more time into her for sure.

Magneto

Same boat as storm in many ways.  I noticed that his Slide is really fast, and had good range.  You could also hit confirm it into launch, so I think that this will be useful to punish an opponent when you time your pushblocks well.  Magnetic disruptor is so fast though.

Again his Tri-dash is really fast and I theorize that you will have to super jump-tri dash (like storm) to get the most effectiveness form it.

Doctor Doom

Dave played more Doctor Doom than me, but I can't leave this here without writing how insanely good his missile assist is.  I swear to god that misile assist + plus keepaway characters will reagin supreme at the start of this game.  Many teams will have Doom there just for his missiles imo.

His point play is much different now.  He spends more time on the ground, and spamming in the air is a fair bit more risky than in MVC2 imo.

I am warning you all now, Dave is going to make you hate your lives with Modok/Arthur/Doom(with missiles).

Conclusion

Firstly, thanks heaps to Shane from Monaco and also the guys from Livewire for helping set this up.

This game is insane.  I think it will hands down be the best fighting game for a long time.  While it is easily accessible, the depth and opportunity in the system seem endless.  It sounds like a cliche that you see in every write up made by people from SRK etc, but it's true.

It feels like Marvel.  Not MVC2 mind, but the next generation of Marvel.  It takes the best elements of the game we love, makes it accessible, and then crams some more depth into it.

I literally cannot wait to play this game on release.  Although I am glad to have had the opportunity to play this, I am now sad and suffering from deep depression knowing now the sweet taste of MVC3, and not being able to play it for another 2 weeks.

2011... The year of Marvel baby!!

[Lennysaurus]

saved

[Lennysaurus]

saved

[massi4h]

Oh one thing I don't know if you guys got to test, but in terms of DHCing in combos, can you do stuff like launcher, air tag, air tag, combo into super, dhc, dhc? And is it 1 assist per combo?

I don't know why I forgot but suddenly I want to ask are there any supers that can continue having combos after they land. I know chun's kick super can air combo off. Maybe you could DHC into it after an air tag and then combo into another air tag.

[[NIUE] BIRRY WONG]

Questions we can answer I'll answer in the podcast. Stuff we can't, Ill post here and why. Unfortunately Mason, I cant answer either of those. Of the characters we used we didnt find a situation where we could continue our combos, based on the properties of the supers we were using. I meant to test the multiple assist per combo thing but i totally forgot about it. As soon as I sat down I had a rush of stuff i wanted to do.

You seriously have no idea how awesome MVC3 is. Like...shit I cant even vocalise it. Its amazing. head-explodingly amazing. Ive never been this excited for any game. For any movie. For just about anything. Like...holy shit. Im actually lost for words.

[Lennysaurus]

Nah I tried the 2 assist thing Bill and it doesn't work.  If your assist is in a combo, then no assist are available until the combo ends.

My write up will drop soon.  Cant sleep cause I'm so fucking hype from MVC3.

[Nick4now]

I asked this in the other thread but I wouldn't mind hearing what you guys think in the podcast  Anyways how do command grabs feel compared to MVC2 and do you guys think that grapplers have a chance in MVC3? I'm glad to see that you feel both Tron's and Skrull's Grabs work well. Here's hoping that Haggar's grabs will be just as good lol

[Hydro]

Holy shit good write up so far guys, I'm so jealous right now. I can't wait for more news!

[CptMunta]

Awesome write up gentlemen 
SO hype for this game right now. Cool to hear MvC3 heads and TvC heads are into it. Bill your write up on Ryu is really interesting. Sort of a one trick pony. Like you'd have him on your team as an assist deterrent.

[LN]

Good stuff Nice to hear some of these sentiments echoed by people I actually know and trust.

X-factor can also be activated while in block-stun.  During this you can even activate a move.  With a bit of experimentation, I don't think it will be that hard to find characters with invincible supers etc, and just straight up, X-factor while in a block-string, and hit them with a super.

Zero's lvl3 is supposed to be awesome for this, being super invincible, quick startup and good range _b

[moose!]

Awesome writeup, actually some of the best stuff I've ever read on this site! Wasn't a firm believer in this game before reading that but now I've got some HYPE! I really like how they seem a bit more focused on having a game that moves/plays/ends quickly (as opposed to SFIV)

?/Ryu/Arthur for team scrub??

[LN]

Everything I've heard of Ryu is that he's ass and easily the worst char in the game... so I doubt it.