Marvel vs. Capcom vs. Beard: The Fate of Not Much, Really

So this was a surprise in every way possible. I hardly ever buy new games, and I buy fighting games even less often than that (renting DOA4 was the closest I've ever come on the 360, and we all know how that turned out). Combine that with the fact that I was actually aware of how difficult a 1K could be here, and you get one big WTFBeardmobile.

What can I say, I guess my passing impression with all those killer character trailers belied a deeper interest in pressing down-forward-B more than a hundred times a day.

But you probably didn't come to AchievementBeard.com to hear me wax smarmy about graphics or gameplay, in fact, I'm pretty sure you're here because you misspelled "AchievementBears" into your browser bar. Well, the joke's on you! Because while you're busy wondering and/or seeing if that site actually exists, I'm going to talk about my first 400G for Marvel vs. Capcom!

Like I said, I don't get many fighting games. Street Fighter II on my SNES was amazing, of course, but that was back when "combos" were just something the AI did to make you angry, back before "button mashing" even had a name. It's a narrowly defined genre to begin with that has only gotten more complicated over time, so it's entirely understandable that the achievements for such games have largely catered to enthusiasts, i.e are hard.

Which is why I was excited when the first three achievements I popped for Marvel vs. Capcom were some that I originally thought might give me the most trouble: "Land a Viewtiful/Incredible/Uncanny (31/65/91 hit) Combo." In fact, by the end of that first 1.5 hour session I was at 155G, and I've since unlocked "Herculean Task" (beat arcade mode on very hard) and "Saving My Quarters" (beat arcade mode without continues) - 2 others that sounded harder than they actually were (again, fighting game n00b here). Even the ach for reaching the rank of 1st Class online is semi-viral - all you have to do is play (not even beat) someone that has gained the rank and you'll unlock it. The rest (online and off) might seem grindy at times, but overall I'd say there are numerous important concessions that make the achievements (not to mention the game) very accessible to everyone, not just the genre geniuses.

The one exception is "A New Avenger" (40G), of course, for which you have to clear 320 out of 360 "missions", the exclusion of which would also keep you from unlocking "Master of Fate" (50G) - because somebody out there still thinks achievements for unlocking achievements is a good idea (they're already meta people!). However, if Capcom decides to get off their duff and release more characters instead of costumes this time around (are you really all that concerned with dressing up all your Street Fighter sprites?), every entry would give us 10 more missions each, making 1K very, very possible.

So what do you say Capcom? We know you've already done most of the work on Frank West, and at least thought about Doc Oc at some point - let's see what you got!