It truly hurts when a game franchise that has such a respected and long history fails to live up to its past. This happens more than you might think, and it’s sad every time. One of the biggest examples of this from last year was Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite. The game started out with major hype via its first reveal. As it showed off Captain Marvel (her first appearance in the series) joining Ryu, Mega Man, and Iron Man for a battle. And, they showed off the Infinity Stones, which would have a major impact on battle. Sadly, it went downhill from there.
Don’t get us wrong, the game itself wasn’t bad a whole, but certain elements and creative decisions led to it not being as successful as previous entries. This was proven by Capcom who revealed that Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite has only sold 1 million copies since its launch last September. And while 1 million is a landmark for any game, in context, it’s not that good here.
Funnily enough, Capcom referred to the game as a “soft” performer. Whereas in contrast, the other fighting game that released in 2017 for Capcom, Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers for the Nintendo Switch, was a “smash hit” in their eyes.
So, what went wrong? Well, it honestly boils down to three things. Looks, story, and roster. Let’s start with the last one. This was the first Marvel Vs. Capcom game to NOT feature any X-Men characters, including the legendary Wolverine. Capcom/Marvel’s “reasoning” for this was that fans “didn’t remember” the X-Men…right… When in truth, this was because of the divide between Disney and Fox over the rights of certain Marvel characters that Fox has. So both the X-Men and the Fantastic Four were not represented in the game.
Then, there’s the look of the game, while stylized in some aspects, the character models looked downright terrible at times. Including Chun-Li, who had a very Barbie Doll face, and prompted a massive redo. Sadly, not all the characters got this treatment.
Finally, the story was interesting in some points, but completely nonsensical.
It’s unclear whether things will get better for the series. We do hope for MVC5, but whether it happens or not is now up in the air.
