I’ve been aware of Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite for some time now, but have never really given it much consideration. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was pretty enough, but the almost complete absence of single player content resulted in me losing interest pretty quickly. Even seeing the latest E3 footage, I thought “that looks nice” and then just kind of dismissed it, figuring “it’s just a fighting game, how exciting could it really be?”.

I almost didn’t even bother downloading the free demo after seeing this trailer, as the weird facial animations and campy atmosphere felt a little awkward, and I could see where all these people online are coming from, calling this a weird sloppy fanfiction-feeling affair, but hey, free is free so I downloaded the thing.

Oh how wrong I was. It may indeed have some weird faces, and it is absolutely ridiculous and over-the-top beyond belief, but oh the sheer joy of seeing Bionic Commando, Strider Hiryu, Chris Redfield, original proper Dante, Mega Man, and more, teaming up with Captain America, Captain Marvel, Rocket Raccoon, Thor, Iron Man, and etc, all as if they were long-time best buddies, so they can free Thanos and get up to some shenanigans with the Infinity Stones. Sure, it’s like some kind of mad fanfiction, but in the very best of ways. This reached out and touched my inner child in a way I wasn’t expecting at all. I didn’t even care that I had no idea what the moves were and was just blindly fumbling my way through each battle, because everything was so beautifully rendered and animated, and framed with beautiful looking cutscenes.

Point being, this skyrocketed from “barely on my radar” to “MUST HAVE ASAP!”. I highly recommend trying this demo out for yourself if you have any interest in Marvel and/or Capcom characters and…oh dear…look at this Collector’s Edition.

Here comes all my money again, Capcom!