The Fighting Game Corner: My Marvel vs Capcom 3 Experience

Before I begin this post let me clarify something: I am by no means a fighting game expert. I have very small amounts of experience playing fighting games. These include Soul Calibur 2 and 3 (very casual play with my sister), all iterations of Street Fighter IV (constant basis but not much play on my part) and Street Fighter Third Strike (similar to SFIV but I have probably played more), a tiny, tiny amount of Blazblue and also the Smash Bros. series (however I don't consider this in the same vein as the other fighting games, however Marvel vs Capcom 3 was the first fighting game I absolutely fell in love with.

                                                             NA/EU Cover Art for MvC3
Here is my journey into the world of MvC3:
I have been playing since July and despite promising myself (for reasons I can't remember) that I would never play it, I relented (after about 5 months). Marvel vs Capcom 3 drew me in with it's interesting, fast paced gameplay (I had never played a tag fighting game or any Vs series really), colorful cast of characters and relatively simplistic controls. For the first few weeks I played to get to know the game so I could play against my friends but as time passed something I couldn't even believe happened: I actually wanted to get much better at a fighting game. After a mere month I found myself not only playing in online ranked matches (something I had never cared to do in any game, regardless of genre; in simplest terms I am usually a very casual gamer). But by the beginning of August I had placed an order for the Qanba 4 Arcade Stick and haven't looked back. Today (about 3-4 months and 75 in game hours later) I am still quite mediocre at the game (even compared to most of my friends but that likely has to do with my ineptitude with the genre as a whole rather than just the game itself), but feel like I have learned a lot and I am constantly learning and surprising myself with what I can do (I have definitely come a long way from my beginnings with Wolverine, Sentinel and Akuma; currently I have been working on Magneto, Doctor Doom and Wesker).

                                      One of the first matches I played against a friend (on the left)
                                                                        Nice Random

Now let me backtrack a bit. In July (likely a few weeks after I picked up MvC3) Capcom unveiled Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, a "sequel" to MvC3. I was happy to hear this and I immediately made plans to buy it when it was released (still waiting; it comes out 11/15/11). However I was absolutely blow away by an admittedly terrible event (terrible for Capcom anyway), the 8 new characters not unveiled at San Diego Comic Con (there are 12 new characters total) were spoiled via images online and one of them is Capcom fan favorite (myself included) Phoenix Wright (from the Ace Attorney series).

I am a huge Ace Attorney fan and was thrilled to hear that Capcom had finally put him in a fighting game (I knew they had tried before). So as the weeks went by and more characters were unveiled, by mid-October only 4 remained. I attended New York Comic Con and on the first fay of NYCC I saw this video before heading off to the event:

I was ecstatic that not only had I finally seen Phoenix Wright's gameplay, but this meant that at NYCC and specifically at Capcom's booth I would be able to play Phoenix Wright. I got my first chance to play with a friend (who was more than excited to play Vergil), and I was enthralled by how weird his gameplay was. I also attended the UMvC3 panel and witnessed the unveiling of some details of UMvC3.

                  Me (Cosplaying Phoenix Wright) with Ryota Niitsuma (director/producer of UMvC3)
                                                               After the UMvC3 panel
So this is where my journey has led me. I am still anxiously waiting for UMvC3 to drop and really can't wait to get a real grasp for the changes implemented in this new iteration of the game, so in the meantime I constantly check sites like eventhubs, shoryuken and Maximillian's videos (Online Warrior and Assist Me series, especially the Assist Me series, which really helped my love for the game grow and as such I seriously recommend checking out Maximillian's videos if you haven't seen them before, a perfect blend of information and comedy) for updates and new content. I feel that this game can easily appeal to all gamers, from those who enjoy MvC3 to those who have never played a fighting game before. And who knows maybe I'll get into more fighting games, Street Fighter X Tekken is around the corner.