Despite having a loyal following, Marvel Vs Capcom 2 felt much more like a half-hearted retrospective, than the pinnacle of the series. With an awesome cast but little of the polish and balance that made former titles so enjoyable.

Enter Marvel Vs Capcom 3, coming from the accomplished game director Ryota Niitsuma (Tatsunoko Vs Capcom, Street Fighter IV) and leveraging the proven graphics engine behind Resident Evil 5 and Lost Planet 2. They must have some pretty ambitious ideas to need that kind of graphical oomph.

10 characters are already confirmed, with some nice additions bringing the title up to date.

Ryu

Morrigan

Felicia

Chris Redfied

Dante

Captain America

Iron Man

Hulk

Wolverine

Deadpool

Dante (Devil May Cry) and Deadpool (everybody's favourite merc with a mouth) are the most recent to be announced, and look great in game both favouring swords and a range of automatic pistols in battle. Deadpool is guaranteed comic relief, already making a "Blap Blap Blap" as he lets off a few rounds.

Additional characters are already rumoured to have been leaked, including Marvel characters Thor, Elektra, Mr Fantastic, Super Skrull, and Capcom characters Mike Haggar (Final Fight), Frank West (Dead Rising), Spencer (Bionic Commando), Arthur (Ghosts and Goblins), Viewtiful Joe… Excited yet?

It's still 3-on-3 matches, with air combos and tag-team attacks. New to the gameplay is air combo switching, allowing character switching mid-air combo and for them to carry on the chain. 

Three buttons are used for standard attacks - low, medium and high. Not defined as punch/kick as with Street Fighter and previous Marvel Vs Capcom games, and similar to Tatsunoko Vs Capcom. A fourth button is now a dedicated juggle button allowing you to juggle your opponent up, down or sideways to kick off a combo, along with an incredible juggle counter system allowing you to reverse a juggle, like a parry. The combos themselves should provide depth to pros, while not having to learn specific juggle moves will let beginners get in on the crazy combo action. Two buttons for switching characters and launching 2/3-way attacks remain.

There is a story behind all this, and it's ripe for spin-offs, comic books, anime - bring it on. There appears to be an as yet unmasked villain bringing together/threatening both our heros worlds, hence the subtitle. No Versus game would be complete without a ridiculously oversized end boss.

It looks as though Capcom will are putting announcements on the slow burn, as proved so effective with building hype for Street Fighter 4. Expect to see news popping up on this one right up until launch.