Strategy Informer also posted an interview with Ryota Niitsuma this morning. This covers some of the ins and outs of the character selection process, while also recapping a few other known Marvel vs. Capcom 3 bits, here's a slice from the page.
Strategy Informer: Are there any Capcom or Marvel characters you personally made a push to include?
Ryota Niitsuma: In terms of Marvel characters we pushed for Shuma-Goroth - that’s one of Capcom’s favourite Marvel characters and he appeared in MvC 2. We really wanted him but Marvel were quite reluctant to have him in the game because they felt there were more appropriate characters that could fill that slot out of the limited number that could be included in the game. In the end our passion was acknowledged by Marvel and they’ve allowed us to include him as DLC.
In terms of Capcom characters we wanted to push for one of the most popular franchise heroes we have which is Dante from Devil May Cry. There was a lot of work involved in this. People seem to think that because it’s internal that it’s easy but in fact within Capcom each franchise is heavily guarded by its individual producer. We had to have a pretty lengthy conversation with the producer of DMC but we finally won approval from him to have Dante from Devil May Cry 3 in the game.
Strategy Informer: Street Fighter’s Ken is a notably absent from the roster of playable fighters. What were the reasons for leaving him out, especially given his popularity with players of Street Fighter IV?
Ryota Niitsuma: A big difference between the last game is that MvC 3 doesn’t have any clone characters - every single character has a unique fighting style. Even though Ryu and Akuma appear similar we considered those two to have different fighting styles. We have limited ourselves to four Street Fighter characters since this is a vs. Capcom title and not a vs. Street Fighter one. We wanted this to be a celebration of Capcom and the addition of Ken would make it a lopsided roster toward one franchise.
Lol even this guy says ken is a clone, argue with that whiners. Ahh yea..i think there are better characters that they could have added besides one of my old bad drawings when i was bored too, but the game will be awesome anyways.
MODOK,Trish,AMaterasu FTW, you heard it here first
@ iMaim
Hold your lies! My comments in those posts were totally relevant! I legitimately will not miss Mega Man or Frank West.
@Sakura
Shuma is great because he's different. I'm a huge Marvel fan, and even though Shuma is such a tiny part of their history, I see his value in that he's not a normal person in a costume. He's cool for the same reason MODOK is cool. Get a few oddballs in their for those of us who like them. There are only 3 or 4 non humanoid characters, so if you don't like them, use the other 30+ people.
@ LordTerminal
Can you really be an elitist for "not missing something"?
Understood. Honestly, I was 100% genuine when I said I wasn't going to miss Mega Man or Frank West. I kept going with the syntax format because news stories kept getting posted. Think of it was my way of saying, "first."
And yes, I (now) realize saying first is against the rules. I will back off now.
Differing opinions, people. Leave it out.
@Butterknife
He may be a smaller part of their history, but Doctor Strange is certainly awesome, and Shuma was an awesome villain who to this day is still a major threat. He was so powerful that even in death he wreaked havoc AND made Doc kill himself. And no, neither stayed dead long.
Although I'm becoming more and more suspicious that ol' Doc isn't why Capcom loves Shuma. I can just see them snickering about his tentacles in their offices now...
Ryu and Akuma are clones. Their logic is flawed. Why can't they just admit that they put Akuma because idiots like him a lot.
"Even though Ryu and Akuma appear similar we considered those two to have different fighting styles."
NOPE.avi
agreed with 14 and 15, that logic is rediculous.
both have roughly about the same moves
only diffrence is that akuma has the air fireball at a angle and he has the dive kick, which in all honestly isnt enough to consider them completly diffrent characters....
ken is my favorite charcter, but honestly im ont offended by the fact that ken isnt in the game (i didnt expect him to be) but more offeneded that they gave akuma that spot when a COMPLETELY diffrent chracter could have been introduced.
At least this can finally end all those whiners begging for Bison. And I agree with @ButterKnife, Shuma is a good character to have in the game just because of how unique he is. He probaly won't be played much (unless he has some abusable tactics), but it'll be fun just to watch those that do.
P.S. I haven't been posting much lately, but its good to see that the mods are finally cracking down on some of these utterly braindead comments.
"We wanted this to be a celebration of Capcom"
... and no megaman? seriously? you think this was a stab at Inafune? i mean, a flagship character like megaman doesn't make it in, and inafune leaves after badmouthing his own company. im no conspiracy theorist, but when capcom doesnt put megaman in, thats like mario not being in smash bros.
but who knows maybe he'll b dlc, they could be saving him to make ppl buy him later, sorta like milking him.
I'd honestly prefer the latter, idc if they make me pay extra for him, i want mm/mmx... i guess that makes me a fanboy.. huh..
Truthfully, I don't see why people wanted Bison so much. Artistically, he is boring and dated as all hell. You could argue perhaps from a gameplay perspective, but I think MvsC3 needs a charge character like Bison.
#14
I'm pretty sure they put Akuma in because he was the first Capcom character to crossover to an X-men game (by Capcom). Not because "idiots" like him.
@#22.. Bison has all the moves to fit in mvc3. Yes he's boring in ssf4 but in mvc3 all his moves would actually a use and not just scissor kick like ssf4. Teleport could be really good if like in mvc2 and his supers could be potentially REALLY if they actually thought 2 seconds about it.
Ever think maybe they like Shuma's tactics instead of his tentacles?
Shuma plays a somewhat good keepaway game with long-range normals and those sticky-bomb Mystic Stare. You just keep them away until the unblockable explosion triggers, but you can't get hit in the interim, so you just keep assisting and hitting them from afar with the eyeball Hyper or HP. Then you have the traps to get Chaos Dimension on your opponent. You can use the eyeball explosion or a blocked Mystic Smash to get close and whomp all over their health meter.
had no idea CAPCOM loved Shuma as much as i did. i couldn't believe he was put in the game and wanted the game even more after learning. he's been my favorite VS character since Marvel Super Heroes on SEGA Saturn. i really hope he's not a charge character this time around though. i hated that change
oh lord, people are still calling akuma a clone of Ryu in THIS game??? They share several specials moves, that's obvious and won't be changing any time soon, but playing ryu like akuma and vice versa in this game will make you look foolish. They are different enough to warrant both of their inclusion to the roster.
At this point who still thought Bison was on the initial roster? I'm sure he'll show up as dlc in the future. Remember, all those "whiners" are just fans demanding Bison. And dlc will be based on fan demand. So if enough people want Bison, he'll be in. No need to be an arrogant db, right? The same applies to Mega Man X, Phoenix Wright, etc. But not Ken apparently.
I actually like Shuma-Gorath because of his combos and his Chaos Dimension Lv3. Hope they implement Chaos Dimension in this game.
I defintly think that akuma is not the same as ryu by far, unlike ken who is basically shoryuken differences, akuma has teleports, air fireball, demon flip, can combo off his hurricane kick, multi-hit fireball without using EX, and can be played as zone/keepaway or massive rushdown, unlike ryu who is different on so many levels. Besides Gouken, Akuma is defintly unique among the shotos compared to all of them combined and defintly not a clone. That being said id rather have megaman in this game XD
KEN MASTERS IS SO DIFFERENT FROM RYU ALSO THEY DIDNT EVENT EVEN HAVE THE SAME PLAYSTYLES IN THE VS SERIES THIS GUY!!! megaman, ken, strider,jin saotome,captin commando. those characters alone will bring in the the money this producer is LAME i'm so hoping he gonna pull them out as dlc.
Me personally i would've preferred Ken on Ryu any day. Ken's style is much more flashy and would seem perfect mvc3.
If you base it off their move list then, Yes Ken is a Ryu clone the only difference is their supers. With Akuma even going into SF4 he is different his style of play is different he has a lot more different moves. Ken doesnt have any new moves Ryu have one additional move more than Ken and thats the dash foward kick they gave him in SF3. All Ken has is his dragon punch, spin kick, and fireball the same move set nothing new. Thats what they mean by clone and thats why Akuma is not considered a clone cause he has more moves. Plus everyone knows that Ryu is the poster boy for Street Fighter. There is no way in hell they were gonna put Ken in over Ryu nor Akuma so get over it.
Their move list I'm just saying?
Ryu
-----
Fireball
Dragon Punch
Spin kick
Dash Kick
Akuma
-------
Fireball
Dragon Punch
Spin kick
Dive Kick
Ashura Warp
Hyakki
Ken
------
Fireball
Dragon Punch
Spin kick
Capcom could have replaced Ryu and Akuma for E.Ryu but ofcourse Nice Ryu is too much of a mascot for Cap's to just drop off to the side. Honestly, I don't think any fan would mind Evil Ryu outright replacing Nice Ryu at this point for the Street Fighter series.
#39 There is no EX in VS series you must be talking about sf4 which is not the same type of game.
ken shoryuken full invincibility up/ryu and akuma partially invincible.
Ken air shoryuken/akuma and ryu no air shoryuken
ken fireball half screen at max (if that)/ryu and akuma full screen fireball
ken and akuma air fireballs same only kens has no distance
ken hurricane kick upwards and diagonal and multi hitting/ryu horizontal once or multi hitting if sandwiched or in corner/akuma horizontal and multi hitting
ken and akuma air hurricane kick same
akuma teleport/ryu nothing/ken command roll
supers
ken and akumas super shoryu same/ryu 3 peice
akuma and ryu super hadoken same/ken none
ryu air fireball beam/akuma air fireballs(now has airfireball beam too)/ken none
ryu kinda slow normals and normal jump light heavy chains/akuma kinda slow normal and normal jump light heavy chains/ken fast normals and magic series normal jump. Now tell me whos more of a clone. There reason is bs ryu and akuma are pretty much the same move set and combo ability wise and anything akuma has different ken has it in a different or identical way.
mvc3 is the sequel to mvc2 and mvc not the sequel to ssf4 or sf4 or AE so take all your sf4 and throw it in the trash bin, im cool with viper a sf4 rep im cool with ryu classic im even cool with chun first lady of fighters, even akuma fan favorite but dont say oh kens a clone and akumas not because thats garbage say hes a fan favorite and in japan and US and we wanted him in. I would have rather seen a sf ex rep like skullomania in it though or garuda
@GodPride #44: You are absolutely correct, but the thing with that is that then they would have said Evil Ryu would be a clone of Akuma. Considering this is a battle of good vs evil. It would have been cool to incorporate that with in the story line though with the fact he is battling the evil within him the dark hado.
But I can say this after seeing Oni Akuma thats who they should have put in instead of regular Akuma..
Oni Akuma is the DAMN BOSS!!!!
Sorry can I say Damn boss?LoL?
@BigQuell757 #41: Yeah, Ken's moves are killer, but think about how many people in MvC3 they have now that have fire related techniques..Hmmmm, Lets see:Super Skrull, Phoenix, Dormammu,Amaterasu, Dante, & C.Viper.
ONCE AGAIN ONI AKUMA FOR MVC3...
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