Infinite

Two Trailers: Cinematic and Gameplay

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udJXP1qjfUM]MvCI

This past weekend was the 3rd annual PlayStation Experience in Anaheim, CA, and Sony came out swinging with announcements. Among the biggest and most pleasant surprises was the announcement of Marvel vs Capcom Infinite. A shiny cinematic trailer was shown with X and Ryu, from Mega Man X and Street Fighter, facing off against Iron Man and Captain Marvel. During the rebroadcast of the Capcom Cup on ESPN2, both Morrigan from DarkStalkers and Captain America were also confirmed.

Both Ryu and Captain Marvel were each wielding Infinity Stone to help their side in battle. This wasn’t just for show though, as later in the evening during the game play reveal, these items were used as power ups mid-battle. They seem to be following the color scheme of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so in addition to the Green Time Stone and Purple Power Stone shown, so expect the Red Reality Stone and Yellow Mind Stone to make appearances in the final game as well.

Power StoneThe biggest departure from the three previous installments is that Infinite is returning to the series 2v2 roots established in Marvel vs Capcom instead of the 3v3 formula from Marvel vs Capcom 2. Because of the addition of the Infinity Stones, I don’t expect the Guest Partner system from MvC to return.

Here Comes a New Challenger

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 has 48 characters, and MvC2 has 56, so I would expect the final roster to be at least a solid 44 characters. The trailer and gameplay footage already showed off two new characters to the franchise, X and Captain Marvel (X was an alternate DLC skin for Zero in UMvC3), so there are bound to be more new additions. Sadly, because of the blacklisting of the X-Men and Fantastic Four by Marvel, series staples like Storm, Sentinel, Magneto and Dr. Doom, probably won’t be making any appearances, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t great new characters to look forward to. The list below is just speculation and a wish list of characters I hope to see.

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Scrooge McDuck

Hear me out on this one. Capcom made the legendary platformer Duck Tales for the NES and oversaw the HD Remaster that came out in 2013. His high jump abilities lend themselves very well to the super juggling nature of the MvC franchise, so one could hope.

Ms. Marvel

Kamala Khan has been making huge splashes in the comics community since her debut in 2014, and her embiggen and stretchy powers could make for some fun mechanics to throw into the fighting genre. Plus, the call back lines you could have if she was paired with or against Captain Marvel would be a great treat to fans.

SilkSpider-Gwen/Silk

I would settle for either one of these web swinging ladies showing up alongside the heroes of the Marvel ‘verse. They could fill the X-23 sized gap of a super fast closer character with attitude to spare. I foresee the Marvel side of the roster leaning heavily on the Avengers, so having a non-Avenger thrown into the mix would be great.

Protoman/Blues

While X will be representing his own side of the Mega Man universe, the 200x side of Mega Man needs some love too. His shield and projectile based gameplay could give him a move set that has all the mix-ups of Captain America and the long range punishment of his blue helmeted brother.

Likely Rookies

Some new characters are pretty easy to predict, especially given the momentum and strength of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Star LordWinter Soldier

This is a no brainer, especially with the success of the Guardians of the Galaxy movie and a sequel coming out the same year as Infinite. The all-singing all-dancing space pirate should not be a shock to anyone when he is eventually added to the roster.

Winter Soldier

I feel that Bucky will be in Infinite only if Chris Redfield from Resident Evil is not. I imagine Bucky having a very similar moveset based on knives, grenades, and general badassery. Plus, I could yell “Bucky NO!” at the game every time he dies.

0110-600x566Leon Kennedy/Claire Redfield

Both Chris and Jill have already been in a MvC title, so we should give the other lead characters their chance to shine in combat. Leon could lean heavily on Resident Evil 4, and summon the super fast Los Ganados while Claire could rely on makeshift weaponry similar to Resident Evil: Revelations.

Black Panther

T’Challa is on the upswing right now. After being introduced in Civil War and the fantastic ongoing series by Ta-Nehisi Coates, getting him into a fighting video game shouldn’t be that hard of a hurdle to jump.

Survive Cancellation

DeadpoolFrom the Capcom side of things I want Okami, Viewtiful Joe, Frank West, and Phoenix Wright to stick around. They were all a little goofy, but they all brought way more than the standard fireball affair to the game. As far as returning Marvel characters, I would love to see Rocket get a rework more in line with his MCU counterpart (although I will miss the British accent), Hawkeye, Ghost Rider, and Shuma-Gorath.

Of course I would love for all of the X-Men and Fantastic Four characters to return, but that seems incredibly unlikely. I want Cyclops to make a comeback, as he was sorely missed from both iterations of MvC3. Super Skrull brought some great abilities to the table, while Dr. Doom and Wolverine were staples of the series. Having them absent is going to sting a bit. The only hope I have is that because Deadpool is such a valuable property that Marvel won’t drop the ball, but I am not holding my breath on that.

Ryan M. Holt
ry.holt@gmail.com
I am a Colorado based freelancer and graphic designer who loves games, movies and technology. I love seeing cool characters do cool things. My wife, son and two stupid cats keep me grounded. Follow me on twitter @RyanMHolt

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