During our weekly Kotaku Talk Radio podcast, Marvel's Chris Baker talked about the settings, stages, and fan service we can expect from next year's Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. No more generic backdrops? Can it be true?
It's definitely true. While the previous two entries in the Marvel Vs. Capcom series gave us more characters than we ever hoped to see in a fighting game, the stages haven't exactly stood out. Players didn't mind so much, since their focus is generally on the combatants, but for spectators like me, they were at best bland and generic.
Not so with Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, says Marvel Studio's manager of licensed games Chris Baker. The stages in Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 will have just as much character as the characters themselves.
"I can't name anything specifically," Baker explains, "but I can tell you that it's not just random stuff anymore. It's actually kinda themed stages to go along with Marvel and Capcom locations. The last one…they were kinda cool, but kinda random at the same time. It was like there was a pirate ship or something in one of them. They look cool, but they don't really say Marvel or Capcom. This time they're all going to say Marvel or Capcom in some way. "
Saying Capcom is easy enough, but saying Marvel is a bit more complicated, mainly due to multiple universes existing at once. You've got the Ultimate universe; Marvel proper, otherwise known as the 616; the 1602-niverse, the name of which I might have just made up. Which universe will Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 take place in?
"We'll definitely be focused on 616 for sure," Baker replies to a caller's question, with a caveat: "It's really its own universe. The core influence is 616, which is the mainstream continuity, but as far as the game itself, you can call it whatever number you want.
"It's not canon in any way, so whatever happens in the game is its own thing."
And what of the current big Marvel storylines? Would we see elements of the line-wide Siege event, or the all-new, all-unemployed Spider-Man? "I think with this game in general we're going for the classic interpretation," said Baker.
Take Spider-Man, for instance. When the average person thinks Spider-Man, they think Peter Parker, photojournalist, married to Mary Jane. It's classic, iconic Marvel, and that's what Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 will strive to represent.
That's not to say there won't be a few nods to current readers.
"It's probably not going to necessarily directly tie into storylines, but if you're a big fan you might actually get some wink wink, nudge nudge lines that the characters speak, or maybe there will be something in the background of certain levels that if you read Siege or something like that you'd know that's what it's from, while the typical fan wouldn't."
As a borderline Marvel fanboy, that means I keep spending $40 a week on comic books so I don't miss a single reference. Obsession is pricey, but oh so satisfying.