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EA Vs. Marvel Fighting Games Announced
ADD Boy writes "Reuters reports that Electronic Arts and Marvel have come together to 'develop a series of fighting games pitting newly developed EA characters against Marvel superheroes like Spider-Man.'" This cross-media deal also sees Marvel "acting as licensing agent for the new [EA-created] characters and publishing comic books based on them", and "the deal includes more than 100 of Marvel's superhero characters, such as Spider-Man and the X-Men." However, the deal does not include the Hulk or Punisher characters, who are licensed to Vivendi and THQ respectively.
I'm not normally one to balk at a fighting game unless the premise is horribly bad, but half the fun of the Capcom v. Marvel series of games was the idea of your favorite Capcom characters taking on your favorite comic book characters. It's definitely going to be a hard sell for EA to push these new characters against Marvel's well loved character set.
And where is a decent DC v. Marvel game when you need it?
How Jaded Are You?
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Hilarious. Mod parent up.
Seriously, Marvel has just been swept off its feet by EA's sales numbers. EA obviously wants the Marvel licenses - they've brought some success to other publishers in the past, not the least of which is Capcom (for fighting games, at that). But Marvel is getting the short end of the stick: EA has no marketable characters that would make a "Marvel vs. EA" worth a second mention by a prospective game player. In comparison, Capcom has infinitely as many, and that - combined with appealing gameplay - translates into successful marketability.
One thing's for sure. If some Tasmanian tiger comes anywhere close to throwing a boomerang at a Sentinel, even on a storyboard or in some EA monkey's sketches, this franchise as published by EA is DOOMED.
Besides, the words "EA" and "fighting game" don't mesh very well in my mind. Neither do the words "EA" and "original characters."
Seriously, without using licensed characters (Spiderman being the most notable) what character are they going to use? EA is most notable for its line of sports games and team based PC games (Battlefield 1942 of course). This is not a Capcom or Nintendo company which has a very broad cast of characters to choose from.
Not only that, look more carefully at the title.
EA Vs. Marvel Fighting Games Announced
Games, impling more than one. What are they going to do for an EA Vs. Marvel 2 game?
"Now fight using the Battlefield Vietnam grunt and the generals from C&C:Generals Zero Hour!"
... that they will make this a well-balanced fast-paced 2-d fighter instead of a 3-d one (Street Fighter EX3 anyone?). Personally, I don't think EA will pull it off, unless they pursue their normal strategy of buying over companies that do know how to make games, and then just distributing it :P
How can EA possibly think they can make characters that could rival Marvel's? The only reason Marvel Vs. Capcom worked was because Capcom's characters already had a following. A fighting game with just Marvel characters would be good. Adding EA characters will simply dilute the game.
How much do you want to bet that EA's characters will be cookie-cutter fighting game fare that are made "extreme" to appeal to kids? I'm guessing there will be a karate guy who's looking for strong opponents, the karate guys rival, a big wrestler/grappler type guy, an army guy, a funky black guy, a token woman, and any number of other Street Fighter ripoff characters. I'm sure EA's focus groups will add enough attitude to turn them into instant Poochie's.
-"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." -EH
The key formula IMHO in any fighting game is the pace. Whether you have a million moves or 10 moves, pace makes a big difference.
I have yet to see a 3D game pump polygons faster than the marvel vs capcom series. EA better know what they are doing.
This new game better be along the lines of Marvel vs. Capcom 3. It's gotta be of that quality for my money to swing that direction.