Although Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 follows a game system familiar to all fighting game fans there are a variety of differences that make this experience unique. Here we'll be covering the general movement of the characters.
Character States
There are so many techniques that characters can use in the game and so many rules and restrictions as to when these techniques are possible. That is why it will be very important to understand the concept of Character States in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 in order to understand why some techniques are and aren't possible and when. The following States all only reference the Point Character in the game.
Grounded State
The first state is the most simple: any time you are on the ground, be it just standing there, crouching, or walking, you are considered in the Grounded State. This is the most basic state because, in this state, you are given the largest amount of freedom to perform just about any action that you please. And it's the only state that you can remain in infinitely if so desired. Every other state will eventually end, and when they end they lead to a Grounded State.
Also, anytime you perform a Dash with your character, you are still in Grounded State during your Dash. So whatever you are allowed to do in Grounded State, you can also perform in a Dash. Thus, there is no real "Dashing State" as it is the exact same thing as the Grounded State.
Keep in mind that some Normal Moves and many Special Moves you perform will actually make you airborne, which means you are technically no longer in a Grounded State. Moves like Chun Li's Toward + Hard Attack and Captain America's Starts N' Stripes are examples of this.
Jumping State
In Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, there are three ways you can end up in the Jumping State. The first and very obvious way is by simply jumping from the ground. The second way is actually not as obvious: any time you recover in the air with a Tech Flip, you will be in Jumping State. So, for example, if you ever get struck by an opponent's Launcher but they do not follow up with any attacks, when you recover in the air you are considered in Jumping State. And the third way you can end up in Jumping State is whenever a new character comes into the game as a new Point Character after the current Point Character has been defeated or Snapped Out.
While jumping, you can perform as many actions as your Jump will allow you to squeeze in until you land. For example, if you jump into the air and perform an air Hadoken with Ryu, after you recover, you can still perform an attack on the way down... or even another Hadoken. Still using Ryu, if you Air Block a move at the height of your Jump Arc, right before you land you can still perform an Air Hadoken before you land. Characters with Air Dashes and Double Jumps can even perform those before they land.
Also for characters that have Double Jumps and Air Dashes, if you perform a Double Jump or Air Dash while in a Jumping State, you actually maintain that state throughout the Double Jump or Air Dash. So if you Double Jump or Air Dash with Chun Li, for example, you can still perform things you can perform normally during a Jump, such as calling an Assist. Also, if you are hit while in the air during a Jumping State and recover in the air, you stay in the Jumping State. The one exception to this rule, which is particular to Ultimte Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is that you are now unable to guard (block) during the Air Dash until you return to the Jumping State again.
Super Jumping State
There is only one way to enter the Super Jumping State in Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: just Super Jump while in the Grounded State. Just like in Jumping State, you are allowed as many actions as possible during the entire time you are in the air. And since you are in the air a significantly longer time than during a regular Jump, that means you can actually squeeze out quite a few moves. However, there are a few limitations.
The first limitation is that only three Special Moves are allowed per Super Jump. After performing three, regardless of which Special Moves they are, you can no longer perform a Special Move. For example, Wesker can perform three teleports in the air and Hsien-Ko can perform three Senpu Bu Swings in the air before they can no longer perform them.
The second limitation is that you will be unable to call an Assist during the Super Jumping State.
Once again, with Double Jumps and Air Dashes, if you perform either of these while in Super Jumping State, you remain in the Super Jumping State throughout. However, if you are hit while in Super Jumping State and recover in the air, you will have transitioned over to Jumping State.
Floored State
Floored State occurs whenever you get knocked down to the ground by the opponent. There are technically three different categories of Floored States: Hard Knock-Downs, Soft Knock-Downs, and Forced Quick Rise.
Hard Knock-Downs
In a Hard Knock-Down State, your character will get knocked to the floor and be stuck there for a fixed amount of time, which is different depending on the move that knocked you down. After that time, your character will automatically get up off the ground in place. However, if you hold Towards or Back on the controller before you get up, you'll roll forward or backwards respectively. The problem is that, while you are lying on the ground before you get up, the opponent can tag you with any OTG move that will pop you up off the ground that allows them to continue comboing you. Essentially, lying on the ground is an extended Hit Stun.
Some characters just have moves that will cause these Knock-Downs such as Wesker's Cobra Strike. But where you'll see it the most is from Air Combo Finishers. These cause Hard Knock-Downs that last a very significantly long time because you hit the ground and bounce first. During that entire bounce and through the entire time lying there, you can be hit by any OTG move. So if you can find a combination of Hard Knock-Downs and OTG moves, you can perform some very long combos.
Soft Knock-Downs
For Soft Knock-Downs, your character will bypass the entire portion of lying on the ground and, the instant you touch the floor, your character will perform a mini roll backwards and be standing right away. That means you cannot be comboed by any OTG attacks. Also, if you hold Towards or Back before you hit the ground, you'll go into an immediate Roll.
Many Sweeps, such as Akuma's, cause Soft Knock-Downs. Also, anytime a hit tags an opponent out of the air very close to the ground and their air Hit Stun drops them to ground level, a Soft Knock-Down kicks in. And there are just some moves that cause Soft Knock-Downs, such as Ryu's ground Tatsumaki Senpukyaku.
Forced Quick Rise
In Forced Quick Rise, you'll hit the ground and immediately perform the short Backwards Roll, but you won't be able to do anything else. So it's just like the Soft Knock-Down, but you cannot roll forwards or backwards when you hit the ground. There aren't a lot of moves that cause this, but an example of this is Wesker's Light Attack version of the Mustang Kick. Once you hit the ground, you are forced into a small backwards roll and immediately stand up afterwards.
Attack States
There are various levels of Attacks in this game and they go in increasing priority in this order: Normal Moves, Special Moves, and Hyper Combos. Anytime you perform any of these Attacks, you are in the State of that Attack. So if you perform a Normal Move, you are in a Normal Move State. If you perform a Hyper Combo, you are in a Hyper Combo State.
The reason this is mentioned is because these different Attack States all allow you to cancel into each other in the order of lowest priority to highest priority. For example, at any point that you are in a Normal Move State, during the startup or recovery or a Normal Attack, you can cancel the Normal Attack into a Special Move or a Hyper Combo. At any point during a Special Move, you can cancel your Special Move State into a Hyper Combo. Hyper Combos can also cancel into themselves, but technically that is a Delayed Hyper Combo and those follow their own sets of rules.
It does not matter if the move is connecting on your opponent or whiffing, whether the move has reached its first Active Frame or not or if the move is in recovery: as long as you are considered in that Attack State, you can cancel into a higher priority Attack State.
For example, if you perform a Hard Attack with Morrigan where she does the four hit bicycle kick, you can actually cancel that move at any point, before it hits, during any of the four hits, or even during its recovery into a Special Move or Hyper Combo. This rule applies on hit or whiff. As another example, if you perform Ryu's Shoryuken, as long as that move is going, you can cancel it at any point into a Hyper Combo. This can be on the way up or on the way down and it doesn't matter if the move connected or if it whiffed.
There are quite a few exceptions to the rule, of course. Some moves are just deemed unable to cancel into certain attacks. Wesker's Low Samurai Edge where he shoots at the ground with his gun, for example, cannot be canceled at all into any Special Moves or Hyper Combos. Amaterasu, if she is in Rosary Mode (Whip), her Standing Hard Attack Chain Combo cannot be canceled into Special Moves or Hyper Combos. Also, there are a lot of Normal Moves that just won't let you cancel them early on in their start up. For example, Thor can cancel his Crouching Hard Attack before it hits for extended range on his command grabs. However, you can't cancel it immediately. You can only cancel it after it has traveled a very short distance. There are lots of Normal Moves like this, and, again, you'll have to experiment with your characters to learn which ones have restrictions and which ones don't.
Special Moves are a bit more picky, however, as some moves cannot be canceled the instant they start. For example, Deadpool's Hard Attack Katana-rama can only be canceled into a Hyper Combo after a few frames. It actually isn't able to be canceled the instant you start it. For each of your favorite characters, you will have to learn the specifics of which moves have these exceptions.
Movement
This section will cover all the basic techniques and abilities that are available to the characters in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 in terms of movement and jumping.
Walking, Jumping, and Crouching
To walk forward or backwards, just press the controller in the direction your character is facing (Towards) or in the opposite direction your character is facing (Back) respectively. To crouch, hold any of the three Down positions on the controller. And finally, for Jumping, you can jump in any of three directions: {{#motion: u }} for a straight up jump, {{#motion: ub }} to jump backwards, or {{#motion: uf }} to jump forward.
Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 is all about movement. Your characters are rarely going to be standing still and the key to success in this game will come down to how well you can maneuver your character around the screen. And while, at higher levels, you will be spending most of your time Dashing and Super Jumping and Flying and Air Dashing and what-not, you'll never get anywhere without first growing accustomed to the three most basic forms of movement: Walking, Jumping, and Crouching.
It should be noted, though, that M.O.D.O.K. actually does not possess a Jump! Whenever you hit Up on the controller when using M.O.D.O.K., he goes into low flight mode instead.
Strategy Corner
For those of you players who are coming from a Street Fighter background trying to get into Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, it should probably be worth noting that walking will actually play a hugely diminished role in this game than in Street Fighter games. In fact, you will probably be spending the majority of your time Dashing, Jumping, Super Jumping, Air Dashing, and just about every thing else that's not Walking. So if find yourself spending most of the game just walking around, stop. Learn all the other forms of movement instead.
Double Jumping
A few characters have been given the ability to perform a second Jump, known as a Double Jump, after they become airborne. While in the air, press any of the three Up directions to cancel your current Jump or Super Jump into a Double Jump. This is just another form of extra mobility that your character can possess if you are lucky enough to have a Double Jump and, in UltimateMarvel Vs. Capcom 3, any extra mobility is a great benefit.
One of the best features of this is altering the course of your Normal Jump. As mentioned earlier, you do not have much freedom of mobility during a regular Jump, so having a Double Jump allows you to change your course to adapt to the situation. If you Jump at the opponent and they unleash an Assist to lock you down where you land, you can Double Jump backwards to get away from that situation. If you Jump Straight Up and the opponent opens themselves up to an attack, you can Double Jump forward to start the offense.
Double Jumping also works well in Super Jumps to gain even extra height. Sometimes your opponent can fill the ground with a ton of Projectiles that are difficult to clear, and a regular Jump won't get you passed all of the obstacles. Super Jumping can help, but if you can even add that extra Double Jump in air, it can help you get in on the opponent very nicely from the skies.
But perhaps the main added benefit of Double Jumping is the ability to extend your Air Combos. Most every character that possess a Double Jump also has Jump Cancelable Normal Moves in the air so that you can hit the opponent with a bunch of attacks and then Double Jump cancel an attack to connect even more hits, affording you extra damage.
Strategy Corner
Characters with Double Jumps often have cool combos they can perform that have Double Jumps in the middle of the combo. However, some combos allow you to perform Special Moves in the air, continue the combo, and then do a Double Jump later in the combo.
There is an execution issue that has plagued some players in the past where they don't realize they've actually burned their Double Jump by accident when performing a Special Move. For example, Sentinel can actually launch someone in the corner and go up with a Super Jumping Light Attack canceled into a Light Rocket Punch and recover in time to combo another Super Jumping Light Attack into a Medium Attack and then Jump Cancel the Medium Attack and continue the combo from there.
However, most games take into account potentially sloppy execution of the QCF code and figure out ways to make sure you don't see the effect of you accidentally do the QCF motion too far and hitting {{#motion: uf }} by accident at the end of your QCF motion before hitting your attack button. In the case of the combo above, however, if you do that, what will happen is that the Super Jumping Light Attack will actually get canceled into a Double Jump right before the Rocket Punch comes out and, since you are only allowed one Double Jump in the air, you'll be unable to cancel the Super Jumping Medium Attack into a Double Jump and it won't be immediately obvious why.
Triple Jumping
Chun Li and Viewtiful Joe actually have the ability to perform a Triple Jump, which allows them to really alter the course of their Jumps for added trickery. What this really means, however, is that Chun Li and Viewtiful Joe are allowed two extra movements in the air. As confusing as this may sound, it's actually better to treat Chun Li and Viewtiful Joe and being able to Double Jump twice in the air.
The reason it's better to think of it this way is because, really, Air Dashes and Double Jumps use up the same resource pool so to speak. If you have both an Air Dash and a Double Jump, you can only choose to do one of these actions while in the air but not both. Characters are typically limited to one movement action in the air, so when you perform an Air Dash or a Double Jump, that one movement action is used up.
However, with Chun Li and Viewtiful Joe, they are allotted two movement actions while in the air! So they can actually perform any combination of their Air Dashes and Double Jumps while in the air limited to only two actions. They can Double Jump twice (thus the Triple Jump), Air Dash twice, Air Dash and then Double Jump, or Double Jump and then Air Dash. So, again, while you may think of Chun Li and Viewtiful Joe being able to Triple Jump, it's more accurate to think of it as being able to Double Jump twice in one jump.
Wall Jumping
While performing a regular jump, if your character is against the back wall, hitting Forward Flip will allow the character to jump off the wall.
All Wall Jumping really affords the character is a little extra boost in height and the ability to alter the direction of their regular Jump if they are jumping straight up or backwards near the wall. The good thing about Wall Jumps is that it is considered a completely separate action from Air Dashes and Double / Triple Jumps, so it does not eat into the allowed amount of those actions. So in the case of a character like Chun Li, she can actually Jump from the ground, Double Jump backwards, then Wall Jump, and then Air Dash. The Double Jump and Air Dash take from her pool of two extra movement actions in the air, but the Wall Jump does not.
Super Jumping
To perform a Super Jump, simply tap one of the three Down positions on the controller for a fraction of a second before hitting any of the three Up directions. Remember: the Down position must be tapped before jumping. If you are holding Down on the controller and immediately shift to Up, you'll just perform a regular Jump. Down must only be pressed for a fraction of a second.
The Power of Super Jumping
The Super Jump is what has set the Marvel Series apart from every other Fighting Game series in existence. In most Fighting Games, you are only allowed to jump as high as one screen's worth of height. In other games where you are allowed to jump higher, it usually ends up being an alternate form of movement or just another means by which to try and approach your enemy. In other words, it's just an option.
In Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, Super Jumping is a way of life. In fact, you may spend a good portion of your game time Super Jumping around. Depending on your characters, it wouldn't shock me at all to have a character that spends more than 50% of their time Super Jumping into the air.
And why is that? It's because Super Jumps contain a lot of natural advantages. While on the ground, you have two different directions you must Block to properly defend all attacks. Blocking the wrong way will cause you to start getting hit. And while you can do that in a regular Jump as well, you are committed to the direction you are jumping. For example, a Forward Jump will have you moving forward with that Jump the entire time you are in the air.
Super Jumping, first of all, removes any issues of directional blocking: 100% of every attack can be blocked in the same direction during a Super Jump, which makes for a much tighter defense that is tougher to crack.
Super Jumping also allows you to guide your character in the air ever so slightly after they've started. The initial trajectory they go into is different depending on which of the three up directions you press on the controller, but once in the air, you can alter the trajectory ever so subtly. If you Super Jump forward, you'll never be able to start drifting backwards. You can just slow your forward momentum until down it stops. If you Super Jump straight up, you can glide left or right a maximum distance that's a bit father than a regular Jump's distance, but you start gliding very slowly and pick up speed more as you are coming down. If you Super Jump backwards, you can eventually get to a point where you are moving forward by the time you land.
Lastly, and most obviously, Super Jumping makes you jump at over twice the height of a regular Jump which means, if your opponent is still grounded, you have a distinct positional advantage of being at higher ground. Characters like Doctor Doom can make a living off of Super Jumping and raining Photon Shots down on their opponent. Not only that, but the viewpoint of the screen follows you up, and your grounded opponent will scroll off the bottom of the screen, represented only by a bubble that reads "P1" or "P2" with an arrow pointing to where they are.
Super Jumping Weaknesses
The main weakness of a Super Jump is that you cannot call Assists while in a Super Jump. This means once you take to the air for a Super Jump, you are on your own until you land. What most players tend to do, if they want to cover themselves, is to call an Assist before they Super Jump.
However, there are a couple of extra weaknesses that Super Jump possesses that make them not nearly as effective as a means of movement as they were in MvC2. The first thing is that Super Jumping isn't nearly as controllable as it was in MvC2. While you can alter your trajectory, the degree in which you can alter it isn't as dramatic as in MvC2. It's not a huge difference, but a noticeable one for MvC2 veterans.
The other change, however, is perhaps much more significant to the decrease in effectiveness of Super Jumping: your character doesn't turn around in the air, anymore, when the opponent goes under you. In MvC2, whenever the opponent passed under you, your character would automatically turn around if they were in mid jump. This allowed you to not only have a better idea of where the opponent was, but it gave your attacks while in the air a much better chance of beating the opponent on the ground. If, for example, if you were Cable and Super Jumped and the opponent ran under you, hitting Hard Kick would allow you to still perform your jumping attack facing the correct direction, so it could easily out-prioritize your opponent's move from the ground. In Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, however, your character will not turn around so, oftentimes, if the opponent runs under you, you need to find a good move that can cross-up as well to hit the opponent behind you, such as Haggar's Jumping Down + Hard Attack (the PIPE!) or Amaterasu's Glaive Mode Jumping Hard Attack.
Strategy Corner
The ability to break the defense of a character on the ground is a lot easier because of the need to block high or low. But if your opponent just Super Jumps all day, how are you going to defeat a character that does not need to worry about blocking high or low?
The answer is to make them have to guess blocking left or right. Because of the fact that the camera follows the Super Jumper into the sky and the grounded character scrolls off the screen, sometimes it becomes hard for players to realize which side you are on in relation to their character in the air. And, even if it's obvious that you are on one side and not the other, it's pretty trivial to dash under the opponent and get to the other side quickly and catch them by surprise from the other side. And given the fact that the opponent no longer turns around when you run under them, that gives you another advantage once you get behind them, as it is now harder for them to hit you. So a lot of the times when an opponent Super Jumps into the air, it's wiser to stay on the ground and try to cross under them to trip up their defense than it is to go into the air after them and try to defeat them up there somehow.
Also, remember that as soon as a character Air Blocks a move, they drop back down to the ground. So another tactic is to try and preemptively block the opponent from getting into the air with an attack that hits upwards or to hit them out of the air with such a move. The mobility of a character in Super Jump is still not great, so they are a pretty predictable target. Even if they can block it safely without worrying about having to block high or low, the Air Block forces them to start dropping down. Once they get back down to the ground, quickly start your offense and do not let them back up into the air. Now you can pounce on them and get them worrying about blocking high or low again.
Flying
For most characters who have the ability to fly, the command for Flying is QCB + Special. This can be formed from the ground or in the air. In the case of M.O.D.O.K., you can enter flight normally (via QCB + Special) or enter low flight mode by just hitting Up from the ground, as M.O.D.O.K. does not possess a normal Jump.
Flying is the ultimate form of air mobility you can have in the game. Flying allows you to move your character anywhere in the air you want, moving your character almost like the ship from a side-scrolling shoot-em-up game like Gradius, though movement during flight has a lot of momentum when you move, so it's hard to stop on a dime or immediately change directions.
Along with gaining mobility in the air, you can actually use Flying in Air Combos to extend Combos much like Double Jumps and Air Dashing. Sentinel, for example, can Launch the opponent into the air, hit with a few moves and cancel the last one into Flying, and continue the combo before the opponent recovers.
However, Flying comes with the ultimate price: you are no longer allowed to Block. So once in the air in flight, you have to dodge everything. So along with the greatest mobility comes the greatest vulnerability. M.O.D.O.K.'s, however, is the only exception to this rule. Whether initiated by jumping from the ground or initiated via the QCB + Special code, M.O.D.O.K. can actually block any time he is flying.
Also, note that if you enter flight from a super jump, you will remain in super jump state and be unable to call assists. If you enter flight from the ground, a normal jump, or a double jump, you will be in normal jump state and be able to call assists.
Ending Your Flight
Flying in Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 in general does not last particularly long. They last just around 2 to 3 seconds whereas in MvC2, they would last a decent amount of time. So you have to be quick to take advantage of Flying. Once Flying ends, you'll drop straight down as if coming down from a Straight Up Jump. You can also cancel Flying early by repeating the Flight Code of QCB + Special. Once Flying ends, you cannot reactivate Flying again until you land.
Also worth noting is that, for almost every character who can fly, pressing the Special Button in the air will cancel Flying. You'll perform the attack you normally would from the air, but flight will end the instant you press the button.
Strategy Corner
Because you can cancel Flying automatically by pressing the Special Button in the air, this actually allows you to perform something very similar to Triangle Jumping with characters who can fly. Basically, if you cancel a move on the ground into flight and quickly perform a Special Attack the first possible instant, your character will go into the air and perform their Special Attack in the air very close to the ground, creating a very quick overhead attack that must be blocked high. You can catch a lot of players crouch blocking in this instance and, when coupled with Assists that hit low, you can even create some unblockable situations. This technique is definitely not as quick as Triangle Jumping, but is still quick enough can to be very effective in breaking your opponent's defense when they aren't expecting it.
You can also activate Flying and attack with an Air Chain Combo from the sky and, since you don't drop while flying, opponents may get fooled into trying to low block between some of the hits of your Air Chain Combo. Thus, if they crouch, they start getting hit and if you