Playing Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite reminded me of a scene from Star Trek I saw as a child. It involved Kirk and Spock playing an intense game of chess, but on seven boards of varying sizes, all floating over each other. It was still a game of kings, queens, knights, and pawns strategically moving between colored squares, but the multi-tiered playing field unraveled my understanding of its fundamentals. What was the purpose of the smaller boards hovering off to the sides? Do the rules of movement change? How do you even get a checkmate?The latest iteration of Capcom`s star-studded crossover fighting game is much like Star Trek`s three-dimensional chess. It takes familiar gameplay systems and characters but presents them in an entirely new way, demanding players re-examine their understanding of it as a whole. Infinite represents the most significant change to the Marvel Vs. Capcom formula since its creation, and the result is a game that`s not only fun and rewarding to play, but also remedies some of the biggest issues with its predecessor. However, like Star Trek`s three-dimensional chess boards, it`s all held together by a functional but crude frame.Click image to view in full screenThe biggest shakeup in Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite comes with the addition of the Infinity Stones, which, in Marvel lore, correspond to a different facet of the universe: Space, Time, Mind, Reality, Soul, and Power. One stone can be taken into battle alongside two fighters, and each of them has a unique ability called `Infinity Surge` that can be used just like any other special move. These abilities open the door to a world of creative combos, setups, and strategies that the series has never had before.Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 quickly became a game about finding the best teams and optimising their damage output, but this meant everyone largely played the same way. Infinite`s Infinity Stones, however, encourage players to make characters their own, and they offer the tools to forge dist ...
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