Games Inbox: Which characters should be in a new Marvel Vs. Capcom?

Beyond Infinity
We all know how much Capcom loves a good crossover, and now they have the Marvel license back, can it really take that long before we get a new Marvel vs. Capcom? Infinite didn’t do well, but it was low budget and was held back because Marvel didn’t own the film rights for Fox at the time. But now they own them, so not only can X-Men be in it, but Marvel will probably push for it too.

So you can have Wolverine, Cyclops, Cable, Magneto, Colossus, Gambit, Iceman, Juggernaut, Psylocke, Rogue, Sabertooth, Sentinel, Storm and everyone else that appeared in the original games.

But there are also many characters whose popularity has risen and fallen over the last 25 years, so I expect Deadpool, Phoenix, and X-23 from Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 to continue, and then maybe Magik, Mystique, Armor, Bishop, Sync, and Kid Omega.

Capcom’s is a more straightforward affair, but I hope they look at not only new games, but older ones as well. I’m sure they could somehow revive characters from 1942, Commando, or Forgotten Worlds. I love it when Capcom gets obscure, and I hope they can really hit the ground running with a new game, if it happens.
Johnson

Limited interest
I’ve been looking at the new games announced for Limited Run Games’ physical editions and some of the choices are so bizarre to me. Are there really enough people out there who like Gex and Bubsy to want to buy super expensive port compilations? I thought Bubsy Bobcat was literally a joke, as the very worst of the Sonic wannabe animal mascots?

I know nostalgia is one thing, but this seems to be taking it to the extreme. I remember playing some of these games in the 90s and they were terrible then, so I don’t even want to imagine how they play today.

I guess it doesn’t hurt anyone, but I often wish that people would be as passionate about playing new and original games as they are about all the crap they bought as kids. Nostalgia is a drug, and lots of drugs are bad for you.
LiteWait

A is A
Here’s an interesting point of pedantry: is Metroid Prime a first-person shooter? Of course, the 2D games are Metroidvanias, hence the name, but I don’t think anyone watching the trailer for 4 would assume it’s anything other than a shooter. Those who have played the other games know that’s not true, but it seems a bit incongruous to just call it a Metroidvania.

To be honest, I’m surprised that genre labels have lasted as long as they have, as in many cases they are clearly no longer relevant. You hardly see them in films anymore either. Maybe in certain areas like comedy and horror, but everything else is what it is.
Gorf

GC: We wouldn’t call it a first-person shooter; shooting isn’t the main focus and aiming is hardly necessary.

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Day whenever
This year I want to have two games. This is the first time I have only bought two games in 12 months. The first has to be Assassin’s Creed Shadows but I won’t buy it on day one like I usually do. I’m going to wait a few months not because I can’t afford it yet but because I’m sick of buying them for £70 on day one and a few weeks later they’re available for half or less which is a joke to me. If some players dump it before release the price could drop even faster so I’ll wait for that.

The second is Astro Bot. I love the demo or whatever it was called that comes free with the PlayStation 5, but I hope Sony lowers the price, which, quite honestly, they never do with their own games.

I don’t care at all about Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6. I’ve played it before because it’s Call Of Duty with a different skin, and next year GTA 6 is coming and I can’t wait for that game. It’s going to be huge and sales are going to be higher than ever. Dare I say £2 billion in sales within the first 48 hours. I think I’d pay £100 for that game.
David

GC: Astro’s Playroom was not a demo, but some elements of it may be similar to the new game.

Strange priorities
I read your article about Sony dropping support for PlayStation VR2. I don’t understand the logic, business or gaming wise. You spend a fortune making what I understand to be a very good machine, but you don’t provide any gaming support.

They did the same thing with the handheld business. They were brilliant, had fantastic screens and great games, but after a short time, games production stopped. Seems like financial madness. If that’s your attitude, then why did you make them in the first place?
TWO MACKS

GC: It’s a mystery. The early retirement of the PS Vita can be attributed to disagreements between Sony Japan and America, but why Sony decided to prioritize the PlayStation VR2 so early in the PlayStation 5’s lifecycle, with no plans for any first-party games post-launch, is a mystery.

Bite the bullet
Interesting reader post from the weekend discussing the Xbox 360 as the pinnacle of gaming. I certainly have a lot of nostalgia for that console, but I’m sure I’m not the only one who is pleased that games have become even more realistic and complex since then. However, as the reader points out, this comes at a price that may not be sustainable.

The problem is, what is the solution? To artificially keep all consoles at the same power as the Xbox 360, or just above it? No one is going to do that, especially not at competing companies. As soon as Microsoft or Sony releases a less powerful machine, the other will do the opposite, which is partly what happened with the Xbox One and its ridiculous Kinect obsession.

The fact that Nintendo is sitting there proving that it can absolutely work by keeping things the same (there was little improvement from GameCube to Wii, so they’re at least a generation behind since then) doesn’t seem to matter. It should, but I just can’t imagine Xbox or PlayStation being able to do that.

There are so many ways out of the current situation, but no one seems ready to make the big decisions and you get the feeling that they are only making things worse by putting things off.
Korey

One year later
RE: Crime Boss: Rockay City. According to GameCentral’s 3/10 rating, the game has received many updates and is now a lot of fun. And to make it even better, all DLC is now free on all platforms for a limited time.

The only downside is that you have to restart the game.
Cassius2K

Brief defiance
Since there is so much talk about live service games at the moment, I would like to mention my experience with Ubisoft’s XDefiant, which I initially found to be a really fun alternative to Call Of Duty and now… I haven’t played it in a week and will probably never start again. There’s nothing wrong with it, but while it’s comparable to Call Of Duty, it’s not better than it in any way.

The fact that Call of Duty is such a known quantity means not only that you know what you’re getting into, but that you’re already part of the ecosystem and not starting from scratch. I think that’s why things like Helldivers 2, Palworld and XDefiant have fallen off so much after a few months. They’re decent, but not world-class games and feel more like distractions from other, bigger games.

Fortnite and Apex Legends and whatever aren’t necessarily better games, but they’re so established that no one is going to stop playing them for any length of time in favor of something that isn’t significantly better. That’s why we keep seeing these live service games do well for a few months and then fall off.

And does anyone think it will get better with Concord? Can anyone imagine still playing at the end of the year, let alone in 2034? If I were a developer, the last thing I would want to work on would be a live service game, not only because it’s probably not what I started playing for, but because the chance of it being a success is so slim.
Zeus2

Losers in the inbox
I like it when developers congratulate each other on good work. I could also imagine that CD Projekt and FromSoftware would work well together if they were to create a joint project. Maybe a new DLC?
Authentic

Just to point out, it was the 25th.^th Anniversary of Ape Escape last week. The only positive I can say is that there will probably be a reference to it in the new Astro Bot?
Gamgee

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