So, I'm back home and in front of my computer. So, I'll write some stuff. I'm sorry if I've forgotten some of the specifics, but Mike said a BUNCH of stuff and to be honest, I wish I could have written it all down because there was a lot that was super promising sounding, and I'm sure I'll forget a bunch as well. Oh well.
I think that a lot of stuff has already been mentioned, such as the ability to break infinites, tag system, assists, lighting, whatever, but I'll go over some of it again. Instead of designing the game to try and get rid of infinites, the game anticipates that players will find them, and is able to recognize when an infinite has been started. When that happens, players can hit a button to break the infinite, which is pretty cool. One thing that makes it really neat also is the fact that you can screw it up by breaking the infinite at the wrong time, and if the player you're playing against is good, you can still get punished if you're dumb about when you break it. Everyone has a different place they can tag in from, so one character may tag in from the sky, another from the side, etc. The game uses 3d models and stuff for the lighting, so even though it's 2d art, the "models" still cast shadows and are lit differently depending on the background, which is really rad. Command throws don't really use too many 720/360 motions, and the game can detect when you're trying to do one and it'll keep you on the ground. Additionally, there are srk/hadouken/whatever motions, and instead of pressing a button you press the throw command, which is pretty cool. There's all the stuff you'd expect from stuff like the Marvel series like push block, DHC, assists, kara-cancels, blah blah blah. You get the gist. Read the thread and watch the videos.
Okay. So. I'll try and think of stuff that hasn't been said before now. So, you know how in Marvel games you can have unblockables when you call in an assist that comes low (or high) and you attack with the opposite high/low? Well the game recognizes when you call in an assist with unblockable timing, and will allow you to block both at the same time. This isn't to say you can't still mix it up by delaying your timing by a slight amount, but it allows you to actually not get hit if you're blocking correctly. Useful, to say the least. I'm pretty sure hit scaling/decay is pretty much non-existant as well. You can also DHC out of a level 3 super, and it'll still use 3 bars, which is pretty neat. Snapbacks are handled in a really cool way as well; each character has to be hit to the corner of the screen, so some characters (like grapplers) can send characters flying out easily, where rushdown/lighter characters need to have you near the edge of the screen to snap you out.
Additionally, the combo system does something that other games haven't done before, in allowing you to start a combo in the air and bring it to the ground to continue the chain. Say for example you start hitting someone in mid air, and they start to fall to the ground. Once they hit the ground, depending on how you're attacking, you can continue the combo instead of it just being a dead situation. Additionally, Mike talked about a lot of the problems that faced Marvel 2 in regards to hitboxes and how you could get stuck in traps in the game. It seems like this game is going to fix most of the hitbox problems that MvC2 had, so you shouldn't really run into many shenanigans where you just want to throw down your controller in disgust.
Overall though, what excites me most as a player is that it really does seem like this game is going to be very skill based, insofar as that when you're really, really beating someone bad, you're STYLING on them. Like you're not winning by infinites, or glitches, or traps that seem to not let up. It's because you're just outplaying them, plain and simple. You're reading them better, and you're just a higher quality player, plain and simple. It's designed to be friendly for beginners, but deep enough for serious fans to the point where when you're better, you're just better. Seriously, for 10-15 dollars this really seems like it's a no-brainer to pick up if you're a fan of fighting games. It's solid, and I had a pretty dang good time with it.
