It’s no secret that the recently released story mode demo of Capcom’s upcoming fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite was anything less than stellar.

Even the most die-hard Marvel vs. Capcom fans couldn’t help but express concern over the lackluster visuals, and in the case of Street Fighter mainstay, Chun-Li, downright ugly faces.

Luckily, that demo is not entirely representative of what the final game will actually be like. Since the release of the Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite story-mode demo during E3 2017, we’ve learned that the demo was based off of a previous build of the game, and that the two-player versus build which was actually on the show floor, was much more fluid and robust.

Now we can confirm those reports are true.

I had a chance to get some hands-on time with the latest versus build of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite during EVO 2017, and I can report that it’s MUCH better than what we got during E3 2017.

Simply put, this is classic Marvel vs. Capcom gameplay at its best. The action feels just as good as it did in the past iteration: Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

The two major things fans will notice is that team size has been cut to two members per team, and the gem system.

I personally don’t mind the reduction in team size. While the frenetic action that’s a staple of the MvC series is still represented in all of its glory in this latest iteration, the smaller team size makes things feel like more of a manageable battle, instead of a cluster of fireballs blazing around the screen.

The gem system will add a great deal of strategy and variety of gameplay styles. There are three separate gems that you can choose from: Time, Speed, or Power.

Speed and Power gems are pretty self-explanatory. Time is the most intriguing of the three options. When triggered, this ability will trap your opponent in an infinity box, which opens them up to all sorts of devastating combos.

The gem system sort of reminds me of an extension of the “ism” choices that veterans of Street Fighter Alpha 3 will remember.

As far as the graphics prowess of the game, the Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite versus demo shown at EVO 2017 was much more pleasing than June’s peek at the story. While the game isn’t as stunning as recent games like Street Fighter V or Tekken 7, it’s still very attractive with bright visuals that have a nice pop.

While my time with Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite was pretty short, I still came away much more impressed with the game than I was when the story mode demo dropped in June.

Marvel vs Capcom fans should feel confident that they have another quality entry in the series to look forward to when it launches on September 19th, 2017.