YMMV / Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite

See also:

• Awesome Music - Capcom vs.
• Game Breaker - Capcom vs.
• Memetic Mutation - Capcom vs.

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• Audience-Alienating Premise: The changing of mechanics from the previous game didn't go very well with the hardcore fighting game community, but the exclusion of characters from the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises, and the signature unexpected characters in general, in favor of promoting the Marvel Cinematic Universe, something that a number of Marvel's fans had already gotten tired of before the game even came out, didn't endear it to more casual fans.
• Base-Breaking Character: Some of the Capcom characters returning from Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (Haggar, Arthur, Firebrand, Chris, Nemesis, Frank West, and Spencer ^note The latter is an odd case. While Bionic Commando is considered a classic, the 2009 installment, which features this version of Spencer, isn't well-regarded, so his claim to fame is specifically from Marvel vs. Capcom 3's competitive play; and they do have the 3D model from the better received Rearmed design as DLC in UMvC3.) are well-appreciated by fans of Capcom's classic library and players who use them for the gameplay, but are also seen as puzzling choices by the uninitiated observers who expected only current/mainstream characters, especially some Capcom characters that are viewed as superior to them. Not helping by the fact that all of the characters mentioned (save for Chris) don't do much in the story.
• Broken Base:
  • Story Mode. Some consider it to be ridiculous and nonsensical due to the small cast, especially since a few of the more recognizable names (namely most of the X-Men and many Capcom characters from MvC3) are missing. Some even consider the story mode being detrimental to the game as a whole, as it stunts the characters' potential and especially roster choices, and says that, ironically, MvC3's handling of the story (being an Excuse Plot that gives more potential character additions) is better than this game. Others love it because of how silly it is, arguing it is based on comic and game characters after all, and that the small cast at least keeps things from getting too hectic to follow along since you know where everyone is during the story.
  • For some fans, simply hearing certain characters speak English when they'd set them in Japanese if given the chance. Sadly for them, English is the only vocal language option in MvCI. Other fans consider it a relief since the consensus among them is that some Capcom characters, such as Chris or Dante, just aren't "meant" to be voiced in Japanese.
• Character Rerailment: Frank West's characterization is more like the jaded everyman from 1 and 2, ignoring his Denser and Wackier personality from 4. His voice has also gone back to T.J. Rotolo, rather than being played by Ty Olsson.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
  • The Reality Stone is one of the most commonly picked Infinity Stones during online and competitive play, as explained under Game-Breaker.
  • In terms of playable characters, Dante is frequently seen online, likely due to a combination of being a fan-favorite character, his effectiveness in battle, and being relatively easy to use.
• Complete Monster: Ultron, upon fusing with Sigma, begins seeking the Infinity Stones to remake both the Marvel and Capcom universes to his liking. Attacking Xgard, Ultron-Sigma uses the Sigma Virus to enslave its people, parading them in front of Thor before infecting him and forcing him to fight his friends while Ultron gloats. He also schemes with Grandmaster Meio to drop a virus-loaded bomb on Earth to infect all living things on the planet. When Dante tricks him with the Soul Stone, Ultron Omega attempts to slowly drain him of his life. Desiring nothing less than the extinction of all souls, Ultron is loathed by every hero and almost every villain.
• Epileptic Trees: After Black Widow was announced as the final character of the DLC batch, some fans speculated that it might not have been the more well-known Marvel character, but the Capcom character from Saturday Night Slam Masters. ^note This was because there was no other information provided about the character at the time of the announcement and people wouldn't believe that — with two Capcom characters and three Marvel characters definitively announced at that point — Capcom would tip the roster ratio in Marvel's favor after two games of even roster balance. A tweet from Capcom Brazil and datamining would confirm that it was the Marvel character.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Big Bad Ultron-Sigma has been well-received as a very cool and threatening villain with one of the best designs and voices in the game. Inflicting an utter Curb-Stomp Battle on the heroes at the start of the story and having a flashy fighting style does help his badass credentials quite a bit.
  • Thanos — for his epic fight against Ultron-Sigma, managing to break the Reality Stone with his bare hands, and stealing Ryu's Satsui no Hado to make Lady Death pay for treating him like an Unwitting Pawn...all while speaking in the smooth baritone of Isaac C. Singleton Jr. and generally being, well, Thanos. Even despite him being shackled early on.
  • Jedah. He's generally considered to be one of the best-produced characters on the roster, thanks to his Darkstalkers movelist translating well, an awesome trance remix of his old theme, and a Large Ham performance thanks to David Kaye.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • The game's contested qualities such as the graphics and perceived toning down of mechanics from the previous games to have 2v2 and no assist system ^note Note that the game offers new mechanics, including a much more flexible character switching system as a replacement for the assist system., as well as leaks spoiling most of the roster, have led to fans unfavorably comparing the game to Dragon Ball FighterZ, which was shown to have notable similarities with Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (including the 3v3 system and assist mechanic).
  • With BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, to a lesser extent. It's another Arc System Works game which is similarly 2v2 and has a system that allows switching characters mid-combo along with the eagerly awaited fighting game debut of none other than Team RWBY. Not helping matters is that Cross Tag Battle gained a spot at EVO 2018 over MvCI.
• Fan Nickname:
  • The cube-shaped prison generated by the Space Stone's Infinity Storm was quickly dubbed the "Shame Box", "Shame Cube", or other variants.
  • Some have referred it as "MCU vs. Capcom" because 14 out of the 15 launch Marvel characters are ones who have appeared in MCU movies and TV shows in some form or another.^note Nova being the exception, and even then the Nova Corps themselves have appeared. In terms of DLC, Venom is by far a more notable exception in the sense that his film is only tangentially involved in the MCU but is mostly retained within Sony's confines.
  • Lightning Loop: Carried over from the third game, it's a combo of Zero that involves his Raikousen special and Sougenmu hyper that traps the foe in a loop, with multiple ways to set it up.
  • Stairway (To Heaven): A special combo that's only possible with Flight and variable air dash (Morrigan, Captain Marvel, Ultron etc), which is done by cancelling a normal air attack to a dash to another normal air attack to another dash multiple times.
  • Monster Hunter has been christened the "U N G A W A I F U". This stems from another FGC meme (originally from Guilty Gear) where big characters with lots of armor and far reaching normals, who are able to do a lot of damage with minimal execution are called "UNGA" or "U N G A B O I S" (based on a sound commonly associated with gorillas and cavemen). Based on her trailer, Monster Hunter seems to fit the mold, with the added bonus of being a girl.
  • "Thicc Girl" became a new fan nickname for Chun-Li. This was due to many fans misinterpreting the nickname the Hulk uses when he tags her in as "Thick Girl".^note He's actually saying "Kick Girl". Her Hartman Hips are a popular subject of the "T H I C C" meme.
  • Thorn Carpet: Dormammu's new "Power of Creation x3 -> Liberation" move. In the previous game, the move simply binds the enemy to the ground, making them unable to jump, and that's it; the move deals no damage. Here, the same move now creates a carpet of energy spikes that not only can do the same thing, but can also do damage, multiple hits, and most importantly carry the opponent towards him even if it's blocked, creating easy lockdown settings.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Due to the game's lukewarm reception, plenty of fans are more than willing to treat Infinite as a Gaiden Game in the series and hope that the next installment is a "proper" Marvel vs. Capcom 4.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: Sigma's Spikes of Villainy look rather tacky on Ultron-Sigma.
• Fetish Retardant: Everything about Morrigan in this game. She's meant to be shown as sexy, but it's instead off-putting, especially when the camera closes up on her face.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • According to Word of God, the reason Mega Man X was one of the first characters to be announced for this game was because of his (and, by extension, the larger Mega Man franchise's) huge popularity in North America.
  • While the Marvel Cinematic Universe has inspired the feel of Marvel's side of the cast, Spider-Man contains a fair amount of Shout-Outs to the original Sam Raimi trilogy, possibly due to those films being held in high regard by the Japanese crowd in addition to Spider-Man's own massive popularity there.
• Ham and Cheese:
  • David Kaye as Jedah is the best reason to play the story mode, if only because he's obviously milking the script for all the glorious cheese it's worth.
  • Chris Tergliafera, Sigma's voice actor, clearly had a blast delivering his lines.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos ended up sacrificing Gamora in order to obtain the Soul Stone. Here you can have both Gamora and Thanos as a playable team, with the Soul Stone equipped. Even worse with Avengers: Endgame, as Hawkeye and Black Widow with the Soul Stone are a possible team but, the two in the film are in the exact same position as the previous two, with the exception that Natasha sacrificed herself so Clint could get it.
• High-Tier Scrappy:
  • Dante: If you play online, you'll run into Dante 90% of the time because he's just as good as he was in MvC3 thanks to his easy chain combos, lockdowns, and ability to respond to just about everything. In fact, he was so good that the 12/5/17 patch gave him some serious nerfs, from decreasing his health, overall damage, and jacking up the recovery frames on his moves. But despite the nerfs, he's still considered the best character in the game because his playstyle is still extremely oppressive.
  • Dormammu: In addition to all of Dormammu's projectiles from MvC3, he has a new move (nicknamed "The Carpet" by players) where he causes burning vines to appear on the ground. It hits the entire screen, and even if you block it you'll still get pulled into melee range very quickly; for this reason you'll see Dormammu paired with Dante a lot, since the Carpet can be used to set up Dante's combos.
  • The Reality Stone is a Game-Breaker Surge and Storm make it the Stones' biggest offender in terms of Complacent Gaming Syndrome online, to the point where it had to be nerfed greatly in a post-launch patch.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The roster was completely devoid of X-Men and Fantastic Four characters because Marvel (specifically, Ike Perlmutter) wouldn't allow them due to their film rights being tied to 20th Century Fox. A year and a half after the game's release, Disney would acquire Fox for $71.3 billion, allowing them to use X-Men and Fantastic Four once again in movies. This essentially makes Marvel's arbitrary blacklisting of those characters entirely pointless.
  • Amusingly, MvCI appears to have left a (perhaps unintentional) mark on the MCU it's based on, as Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War has a scene with a remarkably similar context to one in MvCI. Specifically, both Infinite and Infinity War have a moment where Thanos is assaulting the forehead of a robot containing an Infinity Stone; Ultron-Sigma with the Reality Stone in the former, and Vision with the Mind Stone in the latter.
  • Spider-Man tauntingly called Thor, brainwashed by the Sigma Virus, as Iron Man in the story mode. A year later, Infinity Wars (2018) fused Thor and Iron Man into the Iron Hammer.
• Ho Yay: Ultron and Sigma's team-up begins with them at eachother's throats for the former's intrusion into the city mainframe... but quickly turns to the two of them complimenting each other's coding once they realize that fighting would just kill them both. Ultron in particular comparing Sigma's to a poem with a tone of disbelief and endearment before they begin to make plans to usurp Thanos and take over both worlds. The entire scene plays out like the genocidal AI version of planning to elope.
• I Knew It!:
  • In November 2016, there were rumors floating around the Internet that Capcom was developing "Marvel vs. Capcom 4," complete with fake screenshots and a teaser. While said screenshots and teaser were proved to be false, it did get many fans thinking that a fourth installment really was in the works.^note It helps that this was after Disney Infinity was given the axe and Disney began outsourcing the Marvel license to other studios again, which resulted in Marvel Ultimate Alliance getting re-released and the announcement of a new Spider-Man game being developed by Insomniac Games. This was proven true when Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite was announced during the PlayStation Experience event in December 2016.
  • Most fans were able to guess that the main villain would be a fusion of Ultron and Sigma because of the stinger in the announcement trailer.
  • Roster leaks aside, the involvement of the Infinity Stones in the Story Mode led many to predict that Thanos would also be in the game, either as part of the roster or at the very least as an NPC in the Story Mode. The former ended up being true.
  • Many fans correctly guessed that the Soul Stone would be able to revive characters after their health bars have been depleted, as this is the first MVC game to have the defeated characters visibly unconscious in the background instead of simply having them disappear.
  • For several months, many fans couldn't figure out who Mega Man X's voice actor was. At least two fans were quietly able to guess that it was Ted Sroka before it was confirmed in September 2017.
• It's the Same, So It Sucks: Much of the disdain for the release roster comes from the fact that most of the characters are straight-up recycled from Marvel vs. Capcom 3 with largely the same movesets, causing fans to accuse the developers of laziness. Not only that, but some of the Capcom returnees are using the same designs they had in 3 despite being long-outdated, such as Chris Redfield, who's gone through three more games and a movie but still uses his Resident Evil 5 appearance. The (possible) fact that the game was made with little to No Budget makes it worse.
• Just Here for Godzilla: This actually worked against the game in the run-up to its release. Several staple characters from the Marvel side like Magneto, Wolverine and Deadpool are conspicuously absent from Infinite, which drew criticism from these characters' fans. When the community manager explained that there were other characters with similar movesets, the common response was that the movesets weren't the issue: surprisingly, in a massive multi-franchise crossover fighting game, fans just want to play with all their favourite characters and see them interact with others.
• Low-Tier Letdown:
  • The Mind Stone's Storm (which simply refills your Hyper Combo Gauge) is widely seen as underwhelming and almost useless compared to those of the other Stones. And its Surge (a basic, dizzying, telekinetic slam), while better-regarded and seen as actually useful, nevertheless suffers from mediocrity in comparison to what the other Stones can do.
  • Chris, on top of having limited mobility compared to other characters, has projectiles that are ineffective and easy-to-reflect via push-blocking. However, as of the 1/18/18 patch (which gave him a ton of buffs), Chris has since found himself on the opposite end of the spectrum — now he's an absolute annoyance to fight because of his keep-away gameplay, similar to Cable's run-and-gun strategy in Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
• Magnificent Bastard: Jedah Dohma, the "Dark Messiah," masterminded the entire convergence of the Marvel and Capcom universes by convincing Lady Death herself to unite them for the sake of "equilibrium." Unfettered in his noble intentions of offering salvation, Jedah became worthy of wielding the Soul Stone and uses it to create a symbiote. Also convincing the likes of Dormmamu and Firebrand to his side, such an alliance pays dividends when Morrigan and Ghost Rider lead a charge in taking his Infinity Stone and destroying his symbiote, allowing him to escape unscathed. Although defeated, the worlds remain merged in addition to his biggest obstacle, Ultron-Sigma, being removed from the playing field, leaving the ever-ambitious Demon Lord none the worst for wear.
• Misblamed: While Peter "Combofiend" Rojas' infamous "functions" statement was (and remains) a major source of mockery, distance from the game's disastrous release and information that came from its post-mortem has led to people being more sympathetic. Most recognize that Rojas was between a rock and a hard place, having to explain the absence of the X-Men and Fantastic Four characters but being unable to give the honest answer of "Marvel won't let us use them". Thus, while his "functions" explanation is still seen as absurd, it's generally understood that there wasn't much he could have said in that position.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Jedah's plans in Story Mode go off without a hitch — not only does he succeed with obtaining the Soul Stone as well as getting the souls necessary to feed the Symbiote, but even with Ultron and Sigma throwing the plan slightly off course, the Marvel and Capcom universes stay converged at the end, which is what he and Death wanted in the first place. By the end, he isn't left much worse for wear and seems to have another plan in place.
  • Ultron and Sigma cross this by managing to trick Thanos into giving them both control of the Reality Stone, leading to his defeat at their hands (and giving them his Space Stone) and the convergence of the Marvel and Capcom universes. As Ultron-Sigma, they also cross this by taking over both XGard and Valkanda, despite the latter being protected by the Time Stone.
• Narm:
  • Some feel Rocket Raccoon's "Ain't no thing like me, 'cept me!" line was shoehorned into the game. Even the game's marketing team appears to hold this view, as Rocket's official teaser uploaded to Infinite's official Twitter page (which featured the aforementioned line prominently near the end) was given self-deprecating hashtags like "#ShamelessPlug" and "#MovieTieIn".
  • Thanks to the demo, it was pretty difficult to take Chun-Li seriously in this game. This ranged from her "interesting" battle cry to how Off-Model she looked compared to how she regularly appears.
  • The character dialog in Story Mode. For example, there's a cutscene where Rocket asks Dante to use his guns Ebony and Ivory, because the former claims he's out of ammo. It's meant to be a Rule of Cool moment, but it's very forced and wasn't thought out entirely, because it goes straight to gameplay immediately after and as if there was any doubt, Rocket uses all of his own equipment, Bottomless Magazines and all. Other bits likewise come off as forced in some parts, like Thor and Arthur's interaction, and cheesy in others. ^note The fact that characters act like they've known each other for ages, but still address each other by full name/title almost like a Product-Promotion Parade.
  • The animation of Ryu's Shin Shoryuken changes when his health is below 20% and will gain a damage boost. ^note Instead of executing said move as usual, he'll briefly struggle with the Satsui no Hado. This power nearly takes him over, until he overcomes it by tapping into the Power of Nothingness and fully executes the Shin Shoryuken. Normally, this would be awesome except that it wasn't changed when he wears his costume based on Evil Ryu.
  • As shown here, as opposed to Ghost Rider's MvC3 Level 3 Hyper Combo being a freaky version of the Penance Stare that shows the fires of Hell burning the opponent's sinful soul, his MvCI variant is just a static closeup of his skeletal mug.
  • Black Widow saying "Shut up and go to sleep!" during one of her Hyper Combos sounds more like an irritated mom scolding a child than a badass one-liner.
  • Black Panther shouting "FATHER FORGIIIIIVE MEEEEE" when defeated. SNK fans might find it even more chuckle-worthy, given this very line is the signature K.O. cry of Yuri Sakazaki (and was translated directly as such for the dubiously voice acted English dub of the KOF Maximum Impact games).
  • Special mention goes to the many instances of Milking the Giant Cow from the cast during Story Mode. One memorable moment in particular involving Ryu during the Valkanda chapter. While telling Hulk to control his rage, he waves his arms around and gives a pumped-up gesture towards Hulk, making himself look enraged and defeating the entire purpose of his statement.
• Narm Charm:
  • The very concept of Ultron-Sigma is ridiculous and, rather fittingly, not unlike something you'd read from a classic Silver Age comic book.
  • The whole Story Mode runs on cheesiness.
  • As mentioned above, Ultron-Sigma's reaction to a beatdown by Thanos is to complain "that HURT!" However, considering no one could even scratch Ultron-Sigma before now (even the Chapter 1 fight against them will end before they lose to guarantee The Battle Didn't Count), some viewers claim it makes sense for Ultron-Sigma to lose their composure upon experiencing real pain.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Some fans have complained about the auto-combo and Easy Hyper mechanic and have held it up as further evidence of the supposedly decaying quality of Capcom's fighting games. In actuality, Capcom has been experimenting with ways to try and make its fighting games more accessible for quite some time, going at least back to the late '90s and early 2000s. For instance, Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes had an Easy Mode style of play long before Simple Mode was introduced in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO famously included a new mechanic designed to make it easier for new players to perform special moves, as did Super Street Fighter II Turbo Revival. ^note This game, however, makes the first time such a mechanic appearing not in its own control style (previous games always only had it if you choose said setting beforehand) and especially the "easy combo" mechanic, a very first in a Capcom fighting game.
  • The specific complaint about the popularity of the movies influencing which Marvel characters get picked ignores that many of the X-Men characters in the older games owed their inclusion to the massive popularity of X-Men: The Animated Series. Adaptations and mainstream popularity have always influenced certain character choices in the series. ^note The problem, as many fans noted, is that while the Vs. games in the '90s didn't completely forget the other popular Marvel characters, as seen in Marvel Super Heroes, Infinite completely lacks X-Men characters.
  • Some fans have criticized the game for having certain characters like Hawkeye wear their modern, movie-styled costumes instead of their classic ones from the comics. The exact same thing could've been said for the older entries in the series, where the X-Men all dressed in their outfits from the '90s comics and TV show rather than their classic looks from the '70s, and Iron Man had his Modular Armor from his animated series.
  • In regards to They Changed It, Now It Sucks!, this isn't the first fighting game that had a "Down, Down plus button" motion for their Dragon Punch-type attacks (save for Ryu), as it was first seen with the protagonist Akatsuki from the game Akatsuki Blitzkampf, which carried over to his guest appearance in Under Night In-Birth around late 2010. Going back even farther, the "Down, Down" motion originated in Asuka 120%.
  • During the gameplay showcase demonstrating Jedah, one of the announcers (community favorite IFC Yipes) commented that there were never any male Darkstalkers characters in the Marvel vs. Capcom series before. In truth, there was at least one male Darkstalker in the series before, specifically Anakaris in Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
  • A major complaint about the launch roster is that the returning characters' animations are mostly copied over from UMvC3, with detractors claiming that Capcom has gotten lazier and cheaper. Reusing animations/sprites was the norm in Capcom's 2D fighting game era, and even Marvel vs. Capcom 3 reused moves and animations from Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. ^note Albeit on a much smaller scale since the amount of roster overlap between those two games wasn't nearly as great.
  • Assuming the X-Men characters were removed due to Marvel lacking the film rights to the franchise, this isn't the first time well-known characters have been removed due to perceived legal issues. For example, Iron Man was excluded from Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, as another company held his video game rights at the time, explaining why he was replaced in the latter game by War Machine. However, legality wasn't actually the issue here: Marvel has always held the full video game rights to the Fantastic Four and X-Men characters; Infinite's blacklisting of the characters was entirely due to corporate pettiness over the completely unrelated film rights.
  • When the entire set of DLC characters was announced, there was some controversy over the lopsided ratio that favored Marvel (four Marvel fighters and only two from Capcom). This is not the first instance of the Capcom vs. series having uneven line-ups. The rosters of the very first Marvel vs. Capcom (in addition to X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter) and Capcom vs. SNK games slightly favored the Capcom side, while Tatsunoko vs. Capcom slightly favored the Tatsunoko side.
  • At one point, Dante seems to betray the heroes by bringing Ultron-Sigma the Soul Stone, only for it to backfire. This actually isn't the first time he pulled a tactic like this, as he uses a similar Fakin' MacGuffin ploy against Arius in Devil May Cry 2.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: The things fans talk about most about the game are the questionable roster choices, the paid character DLC, the graphics, and the poor PR statements from some Capcom representatives. Because of this, even all of the cheer and joy many had when certain things were announced looks small by comparison.
• Pandering to the Base: It's pretty hard to deny that Capcom tried to appeal to MCU fans with Marvel's representation in this game — though whether it was a conscious decision or something that was forced onto them by the higher-ups is another matter. Both the graphics and the music were redone to be more cinematic than comic book-esque, characters gain moves more in line with what they do in the movies (like Iron Man losing a lot of his classic moveset in favor of things like arm-mounted cutting beams), and even pre-existing effects are changed to look like they came from the films (Dr. Strange's magic circles are obviously made to resemble the sling ring portals from his movie). This was a rather failed example, as the loss of a whopping 26 characters and the complete absence of X-Men, Fantastic Four, and the previously-signature use of lesser-knowns did not bode well with fans.
• Play the Game, Skip the Story: The general consensus. Many reviewers agree that while Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite has good gameplay, the story mode doesn't live up to expectations.
• Questionable Casting:
  • Some of the returning Marvel characters were subjected to The Other Darrin to bring in their voice actors from Avengers Assemble and Guardians of the Galaxy (2015), with Trevor Devall as Rocket Raccoon being singled out by fans as a step down from Greg Ellis in the previous game. What is more confusing is the mish-mash of Marvel voice actors which involves certain characters (Captain America, Hawkeye, Iron Man) having their roles reprised by their actors from older works like The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Marvel vs. Capcom 3, while others (Thor, Rocket Raccoon, Doctor Strange) have new voices from their more recent animated appearances.
  • As hype-worthy as X finally being introduced in the game is, many consider his new voice actor, Ted Sroka, to be a huge step down from his previous voice actor, Mark Gatha ^note who is no longer active as an actor and currently working as a medical doctor in Eastern Canada. It also probably doesn't help that Sroka's other known role is Dan Hibiki in Street Fighter IV.
  • Chris Tergliafera as Sigma, due to his voice being based on how he sounded in Mega Man X4. While Super Ultra Dead Rising 3 Arcade Remix Hyper Edition Ex Plus Alpha also used it and the dialogue for Chuck's costume of him, it's likely that it was done as a parody to match the rest of the DLC's purposely silly nature.
  • Vanessa Marshall as Gamora, who reprised her role from the 2015 Guardians of the Galaxy series. While her performance is just fine in that show, the delivery of her battle lines in this game makes her sound bored, as if she isn't in a heated battle. There's also Grey DeLisle as Captain Marvel, as her battle grunts and yells sound like she isn't the trained fighter she's supposed to be. As mentioned above, other voice actors have similar delivery issues, with several fans blaming the voice director for said issues.
  • In most adaptations, Venom is usually given a deep, guttural voice. Here, he has a higher-pitched voice that many have compared to Starscream or Carnage. Fans believe that the voice would be better if they just pitched down the audio to have it be deeper.
• Scrappy Mechanic: While there were good intentions behind it, a lot of online players downright hate Auto-Combo mode when used by other players, specifically because it rewards button mashing, which is very problematic when fighting players who use it up close. Several characters, such as Dante, actually have a huge advantage when tagged in with this active, as his LP swing has a lot of priority.
• So Bad, It's Good: Story Mode due to it being cheesy and nonsensical.
• So Okay, It's Average: Many were excited when the game was announced as it had been six years since the release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The news that it would receive a story campaign was likewise welcomed in the wake of games like NetherRealm Studios' Mortal Kombat and Injustice successfully incorporating them. However, as the release date neared, the roster failed to really bring anything new to the table and the first looks were very underwhelming ^note which was especially the case concerning the off-model appearances of some of the characters, lacking any energy to it which lead to skepticism among fans. When the game was finally released, despite getting some above average scores, it failed to really get fighting game fans on board and was seen as a major disappointment. While far from being abysmal, many critics believe that the game fell far off the mark due to its utterly bare bones presentation, paltry character selection, and nonsensical story. The comparisons to Injustice 2 and Dragon Ball FighterZ didn't help matters. The fact that the game wasn't included for EVO 2018 was telling, as even Street Fighter X Tekken, which is likewise considered to be one of the weaker games in the Vs. series, was given a chance back in the day.
• Squick: As anyone would expect, Nemesis. Because of the more realistic graphics of MvCI, he is more grotesque than he's ever been. Features such as his deformed, stitched-up face, rotting skin, and exposed muscle tissue on one of his shoulders are very detailed. Fatal Mutation, his Level 3 Hyper Combo, is as disgusting as ever, even more so than UMvC3, because while it was still gross in the aforementioned game, parts of his transformed body are cloaked in shadow, thanks to the Cel Shading. But in MvCI, details like the red muscle tissue and spinal cord in his abdomen are clear and visible.
• Tainted by the Preview:
  • Back in May 2017, a few people on NeoGAF posted rumors about a character list which seems to suggest that the game would heavily lean not only towards the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but also mostly returning characters from Marvel vs. Capcom 3 with the idea that other characters would appear as DLC over the next few months à la Street Fighter V. Many fans took this as gospel and made their anger and disappointment known. It's not uncommon to see posts on videos essentially calling the game lame, poor and every other insulting name under the sun just because of it.
  • During E3 2017, a demo of the story mode was released. The gameplay consisted entirely of fighting weak mooks plus a Hopeless Boss Fight. It received a mostly negative reception, with many players claiming it reduced their interest in the game further.
  • Excitement over the game having an arcade mode died down quite a bit when several sources revealed that there's no character specific endings after beating it.
  • PR indicated that the gameplay was "simpler" and "more accessible" compared to the gameplay of the previous titles, with the removal of the assist system and the change from 3-character teams to 2-character teams given as examples. Unfortunately, this led to a wide perception that the gameplay was made more casual at the expense of hardcore play, so many reviewers and fans echoed that belief. This gradually faded as more information became available, though even after launch, it's still common for some to disparage the game on the premise that it's "simplified".
  • As mentioned under Misblamed above, an interview with Capcom PR representative Peter "Combofiend" Rojas, where he claimed that people only cared about the functions of a character's moveset instead of the characters themselves, as well as insinuating that nobody remembered the X-Men anymore^note Which was not only proven false by the significant backlash to their removal from the game, but by the massive success of Logan earlier that very year angered many fans of the previous games, as well as Marvel and X-Men fans in general, and turned them away from the game entirely, eventually resulting in the game selling very poorly and Capcom abandoning support for it quickly after release.
• Take That, Scrappy!: Bionic Commando (2009) wasn't exactly one of Capcom's most popular titles, and quite a few fans consider this version of Nathan "Radd" Spencer as a waste of a slot. That said, when several of the heroes fight a symbiote when it went Kaiju, Spencer gets bitch slapped by the symbiote while the rest damage it.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Many fans were unhappy about Capcom "dumbing down" anti-air attacks by changing their inputs from the classic Dragon Punch input (Forward, Down, Down-Forward with a button) to simply Down, Down with a button for most characters (although some characters, such as Ryu and Doctor Strange, still have the classic Shoryuken motion for some specials).
  • The themes for the Marvel characters have come under a bit of scrutiny; unlike the Capcom side, all of the returning Marvel veterans do not retain their old themes from previous games, instead getting newer compositions which harken more to their movie appearances due to them being made by Marvel composers instead of Capcom's. In particular, it stings for the likes of older veterans like Spider-Man and Captain America, whose themes are beloved by the community and have followed them in every appearance they have made in the Versus series until now. The most common complaint about these new themes is that they tend to blend in with one another and doesn't stand out like the Capcom ones.
  • This game's version of Dante's theme is almost unanimously seen as bad. While the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 version of "Devils Never Cry" is properly abridged to be a character theme and also adjusted to fit the style of the rest of the music, the Infinite version has incorrect notes and pieces of the original track mixed around with no rhyme nor reason.
  • In UMvC3, Ghost Rider's Penance Stare showed your soul being sucked into a vortex of hellfire. In this game, Ghost Rider just stands there staring at you while nothing happens. It's generally considered to be quite a downgrade from the previous game. It's made even stranger when you remember that Capcom wanted this game to have a more cinematic flair, so it's odd that they allowed this to get by.
  • In Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes and Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Venom's default sprite was a dark blue color, likely due to being easier to see compared to his usual jet-black coloration — despite this design inaccuracy, this color scheme was popular among fans. In Infinite, Venom's default skin is back to his normal black coloring, and, to the dismay of some fans, he completely lacks a blue-colored alternate skin like he had in his earlier appearances.
  • Marvel's side of the roster in particular had this reaction. To say that it was influenced by the MCU seems almost like an understatement, as it's basically one big advertisement for the franchise (which baffled quite a few, seeing as how it's the most profitable movie franchise of all time; it's not like it needed that push). Considering that this meant losing a whopping 26 characters with only a mere 6 new ones as compensation, this angered fans to say the least. Having no X-Men, Fantastic Four, or even the signature Unexpected Characters had really hurt for a lot of fans, especially many who were already annoyed with the shilling of the MCU even before this game. As it turns out, a roster of only stars and little else is rather boring for many gamers.^note To put it into perspective, out of the 19 Marvel representatives on the roster, only 3 of them have not appeared in the MCU proper although they have strong enough ties: Ghost Rider (while the playable Rider is Johnny Blaze, his successor Robbie Reyes appeared as Ghost Rider in 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., with the implication that other Riders existed in the MCU), Nova (the character of Richard Rider has yet to appear, but the Nova Corps was a part of the MCU since the first Guardians of the Galaxy'' movie) and Venom (neither Eddie Brock nor Venom have appeared in the MCU at all, but as Sony was in good graces with Marvel over their shared ownership of Spider-Man's movie rights, Venom's inclusion might have been a way to highlight his then-upcoming new movie).
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • There are some characters in Story Mode that make no contribution to the narrative and can make fans wonder why they were there in the first place. Hawkeye, Spencer, and Arthur are such characters. Even someone as powerful as Nova barely had any screentime.
  • Many wonder why Groot wasn't just a separate playable character rather than an assist for Rocket. He doesn't even appear in Story Mode.
  • Despite Jedah being a major antagonist, Morrigan's interactions with him don't make any mention of his involvement in the release of Lilith, Morrigan's sibling (and other half). It would have helped Morrigan flesh out as a character and heroine in her own right. Instead, however, she only interacts with Ghost Rider for a comedic scene and becomes a secondary character in the overall story mode, while Dante deals with Jedah.
  • Too much emphasis on non-story-related fan favorites like Dante who pretty much was a one-man Spotlight-Stealing Squad and majorly instrumental to Ultron-Sigma's defeat, and Thanos who pretty much made all legitimate villains Overshadowed by Awesome for most of his appearances. Some argue while X and Captain Marvel had more synergy with the group, Iron Man and Dante themselves were the brains of the heroes of their respective company and fixed most of the problems that other established heroes wouldn't do themselves.
  • Dormammu in Story Mode. He was given a Hand Wave for being weakened after the convergence and isn't seen making any effort to gain control of his new merged home. As a prideful Evil Overlord that you'd hardly picture submitting to anyone and one of the Marvel Universe's biggest threats, the potential to extend Dormmamu's role in the story was wasted, especially since he's on a very similar level of power as Jedah and can also manipulate souls like him. His apparent alliance with Firebrand is not touched upon at all either.
  • Firebrand's role in the story mode is lacking as he is portrayed in the story as just a Mook. He only appears in one fight as just a minor nuisance for the characters to fight and he seems to be there just for players to see him and Arthur fight. Arthur implies right before the battle begins that he and Firebrand are bitter rivals, claiming that they have met and fought before but this is never elaborated upon. Also, anyone who played Demon's Crest would think of a myriad of ways of that Firebrand could be linked with the Infinity Stones due to his original homeworld having a counterpart to the Stones called Crests.
  • You'd think that the Dah'ren Mohran, M.O.D.O.K., Grandmaster Meio, and the Symbiote Monster would be boss characters, but no. Instead, they're never fought directly (M.O.D.O.K. and Meio both also appear as background hazards and they even attack you from there) and dealt with in cutscenes. Although in Dah'ren Mohran's case, it's more than likely they couldn't properly scale the monster's size like they did with Onslaught and Apocalypse. The Symbiote Monster, on the other hand is about the same size as Abyss's final form.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The Marvel and Capcom universes get merged together! ...And then the plot jumps ahead three months, to the point where the two groups of heroes are already a well-integrated and functioning team trying to take down Ultron-Sigma. Absolutely no exploration of the early post-merger period, which could have been ripe with character interactions and Let's You and Him Fight situations (for example, what was Mike Haggar's initial response to the sudden appearance of Spider-Man in his city?) or the characters even discovering the existence of Ultron-Sigma in the first place.
  • There are several notable interactions from characters of different universes, like Hulk and Ryu, Spider-Man and Haggar, along with Gamora and Hiryu, but it's odd how such an obvious and hilarious pairing like Iron Man and Morrigan never happened. They don't interact in the story at all, despite MvC3's opening cinematic pairing the two as the companies' respective rivals.
  • Since the story deals with a merged universe, it would've been a great opportunity to showcase some new heroes in other unexplored areas of the universe. While it somewhat happens, it's dumbed down by many of the returning characters, making many fans feel this was just Capcom playing it safe rather than taking any risks and potentially pandering to those who only know about the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
  • Despite Jedah being included in the story mode, his involvement in the release of Lilith in Darkstalkers is never mentioned. Considering Lilith is the main reason Morrigan and Jedah have a reason to know each other (a plot point that was even alluded to in one of their previous appearances together, this was quite a disappointment for those knowledgeable of the lore.
  • Arcade Mode has no endings at all, which on top of feeling half-assed wasted even more opportunities for cameos and silly interactions.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Grandmaster Meio from Strider. When he first showed up in the Second Story trailer, several fans wanted him to become a playable character only for the SDCC 2017 panel to deconfirm him as an NPC character in the Story Mode.
  • Even though X was a long-demanded character in the Marvel vs. Capcom series, most thought he would be shafted in favor of the original Blue Bomber or Zero — both of whom had been playable in the previous titles. Outside of him being a hidden costume for the latter (based on when he wielded Zero's Z-Saber in Mega Man X6) in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, this is X's first playable appearance in the franchise.
  • Gamora qualifies to an extent. Though her playable appearance didn't come completely out of left field due to the success of the Guardians of the Galaxy films, many expected someone like Star-Lord or Groot (who appears as an Assist Character to Rocket Raccoon) to show up first.
  • Jedah definitely counts. When thinking of potential Darkstalkers representatives, names like Felicia and Jon Talbain probably come to mind first, with the former having been in previous Marvel vs Capcom games and the latter being strongly considered for inclusion in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. When he was first leaked, many were shocked. Even more surprising is that he turned out to be one of the best produced characters in the base roster, albeit without the strange ability to cut off his own head, and with his blood turned purple.
  • Dr. Light (or at least his hologram) making an appearance to aid in stopping Ultron-Sigma.
  • Played with Black Widow — though many are surprised by her being announced as the sixth and final part of the downloadable characters due to her prominent role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, many were expecting a third Capcom character instead in order to even out the representation between the two companies (a set of DLC characters has Black Panther, Venom, and the Winter Soldier representing Marvel, whereas only Sigma and Monster Hunter represent Capcom).
  • A very weird case of this with Nova. Thanks to the Marvel cast being largely dominated by characters who were also appearing in the MCU, fans were initially pleasantly surprised that Nova, who both got infamously excluded from the Guardians of the Galaxy movie and was still canonically dead at the time of the game's release, got to make the base-roster. However, this was in large part due to Nova being one of the blatant asset flips from MVC3.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley:
  • A lot of fans (one such reaction here) find Iron Man's face in the zoom-up on his victory pose to look really creepy and uncanny.
  • Frank West's Say CHEESE! Hyper Combo, where his face suddenly shifts into a unnervingly creepy grin as he takes a selfie with a zombie while blowing up his opponent with a makeshift bomb.
  • Morrigan's face got some pretty heavy backlash. Problems include her being rather inexpressive with dead looking eyes, her lack of visible eyebrows, caused both by them being poorly defined and covered by her Hime Cut, and lack of makeup. She was also given fangs in this game, which normally would result in a Cute Little Fangs effect on her, but this combined with the problems with her face make the fangs look less charming and only serve to make her look more creepy, which is not the desired effect of a succubus.
• Vindicated by History: Upon release, this game's reception was mostly lukewarm, especially leading up to the hype of the aforementioned Dragon Ball FighterZ. However, over the years, players have begun to look at it more favorably, thanks to the stellar rollback netcode^note which made it far more preferable to the majority of Japanese fighters - especially ones by ArcSys, including DBFZ - which are nightmares to play online with delay-based netcode and a very active community. While Capcom and Marvel may have abandoned the game early, the MVCI fandom seized the opportunity to step up and take matters into their own hands. The fact that other tag team fighters like BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle were polarizing in their own right probably helped matters. This was helped even further by the COVID-19 Pandemic greatly discouraging local meetups, which are borderline mandatory for all but the scant few games that have rollback netcode at medium levels of skill or higher. Nowadays, while Infinite still isn't viewed as favorably as its direct predecessors, a lot more have come to love it for its own unique brand of tag team mechanics.
• Vocal Minority: Despite the critical backlash from fans, Infinite launched with positive reviews and had fairly strong community support during its first year. What many considered to be the death knell for the game, however, was the organizers of EVO 2018, the largest fighting game tournament in the world, intentionally snubbing Infinite from being included. Organizers would cite the fan backlash against the game as the reason, despite the fact that Infinite still performed well. They did so in favor of Dragon Ball FighterZ and BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, the latter of which wasn't even released yet at the time of the roster announcement.
• Win Back the Crowd:
  • This game can be considered an effort on Marvel's part to return to having licensed games on major consoles, along with Spider-Man (PS4), Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series, and Marvel's Avengers resulting from Marvel's collaboration deal with Square Enix.
  • On Capcom's side of the equation, the inclusion of Mega Man X (as well as X being the first character showcased in the teaser trailer) helped to win back many old Capcom fans who had lapsed as a result of the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3 and the entire Mega Man franchise being practically abandoned and neglected thereafter.
  • Gameplay reveals in the last week of April 2017 alleviated most fans' concerns regarding system mechanics.
  • When Capcom provided direct feeds to their demos at EVO and Comic-Con, some gameplay footage came flooding in, and in turn, people began to lighten up on their negativity to appreciate the gameplay when done by more competent players than in the earlier showcases.
  • The Full Story trailer and fifth gameplay trailer were also received positively due to basically showcasing almost everything people had a problem being fixed in some way like Chun-Li's face, the Soul Stone being a hearken back to Marvel vs. Capcom 1, the story looking more interesting due to showcasing action and conflict, and the official showcasing of Jedah.
  • Jedah. Even those who are still on the fence about the game admit that he is one of the most interesting characters in the entire roster. ^note If only because he's one of the few new characters on Capcom's side in this installment. This is also the first time he has been playable since Capcom Fighting Evolution.
  • On a lesser note, many Devil May Cry fans were happy to see Dante back to his wisecracking self instead of the alternate universe Dante ^note who turned out to be Dante's Wave 1 costume, citing he's one of the few saving graces of the story mode.
  • Venom. Just hearing that name from Capcom made Marvel and Spidey fans rejoice, with few outright stating that they wanted the DLC only because of him. It also helped that his character model is considered one of the best of the DLC characters and he retains most of his original moveset from previous games, while also giving him new nifty tools to play with, not to mention being the least "technical" out of the group of three he's in (like Sigma before him).
• WTH, Costuming Department?: A small one with Dante's first alternate costume being his counterpart from DmC: Devil May Cry, which led to many fans questioning why Capcom is still trying to push a heavily divisive game with a very vocal hatedom among fans of the original games. However, the reception wasn't entirely negative, as some fans (including a few who disliked DmC and its portrayal of Dante) remarked that the costume itself was well made, and had a better-looking face than his infamously Off-Model default appearance.

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