Vergil may be Dante’s twin brother, but the two characters have different attack styles in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Dante is a combo heavy character where practically every button rolling combination does a different move, which can also change if you repeat the motion. Vergil is more of a trickster. He can fire orbs at three different distances depending if you press light, medium or heavy. These act kind of like Dormammu’s black holes, but they don’t suck players into them. The projectiles stay on screen and can act as a trap.
Capcom also gave Vergil three different kinds of teleports. You can appear above or behind an enemy and just for mind games the light version of the teleport is a fake out. These moves make Vergil a tricky character, but my favorite attack is his level one super. Vergil can summon blue blades that spin around him. These extend his reach in front and behind. You can cancel into this super too and use it as a combo finisher. Alternatively, you can use this hyper combo as a defensive move and force players to block or retreat. The swords can also shift into throwing formation where Vergil tosses the swords similar to Spiral from Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Vergil’s other level 1 super is similar to Wesker and Spider-Man’s maximum spider move.
Dr. Strange is another tricky character who can teleport. He can toss projectiles and can leave energy mine traps screen. Glyphs are another kind of trap, these change the path of projectiles and make them bounce around. You can either use this to distract players or turn a straight projectile to an anti-air. Since glyphs stay on the screen for awhile you don’t have to commit to using them right away. Dr. Strange may be the perfect counter against players who like beam supers. One of his hyper combos fires a blue blast that reflects energy beams. Dr. Strange’s other super sends a blast of energy from the ground, it’s similar to one of Blackheart’s attacks.
I tried Nemesis a bit and he has a punch similar to Juggernaut’s, except Nemesis chains it by firing his rocket launcher. I think this could make Nemesis a useful partner character since he takes up a lot of screen space. Nemesis also has a tentacle grab attack (a la Omega Red), which can cancel into a combo. Iron Fist was also playable at Tokyo Game Show, but I don’t think I got a good feel for him other than his punches are slow, but damaging. Plus he has a laser-like surge fist. Compared to Vergil and Dr. Strange, Nemesis and Iron Fist are less agile characters.
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 comes out for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 15.
