TOKYO — Even before I got my hands on a joystick, the thing that struck me about the upcoming Marvel vs. Capcom 3 being shown here is how big the characters are.

Previous entries in the series, which pits superheroes from the Marvel Comics universe against Capcom’s own characters, kept the fighters small and made the arena larger than life.

Now it’s the other way around. This radical change kept the game moving, since the lack of real estate meant tighter quarters and more