Sentinel

Sentinel
Character information
Japanese	センチネル (Senchineru?)
Real name	Sentinel model "COTA-94"
Gender	None (identifies as male)
Behind the scenes information
Voice actors	Dan Hennessey (X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes) Jim Ward (Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3)
Game Debut	X-Men: Children of the Atom
Origin	X-Men series

Resistance is futile. Accept your extermination.

Sentinel

The Sentinel is a character from the X-Men series by Marvel. It is a robot designed to hunt mutants. It that can fire laser blasts from its palms specifically designed to damage mutants.

The Sentinel debuted in X-Men: Children of the Atom and is a playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. It is also a secret assist character in Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes.

Background

The Sentinels were invented by Dr. Bolivar Trask after he found that his own son had developed mutant powers. After being unable to suppress his son's growing mutant powers, Trask studied the nature of powerful mutations and came to the conclusion that mutants would eventually supplant normal humans as Earth's dominant race if no action was taken to control them. Soon after, Trask and a team of scientists developed the first Sentinel prototypes in a secret laboratory, intending to use them to capture and destroy America's mutants in an ambush. However, Trask realised that not all mutants were hostile to humans, and helped the X-Men to destroy his Sentinel manufacturing facility.

Since then, the majority of Sentinel designs and manufacturing is now under United States Government control, being used to aid the US military on some occasions in operations against mutants, and are constantly refined and improved in order to maintain their high degree of lethality. However, numerous cases exist where Sentinel designs and manufacturing secrets have fallen under the control of various villain organisations.

Though Sentinels are commonly seen as autonomous robots, some manned models have been developed, with the Sentinel's chest area housing a cockpit for the pilot. In addition, the anti-mutant protocols developed for autonomous Sentinels require them to protect humans from mutants, though their combat programming gives Sentinels a high degree of leeway as to how they do this. Thus, massive collateral damage is often the norm when Sentinels are deployed to capture or kill mutants.

Powers and Abilities

Though Sentinels are constantly being updated with new weapons and abilities, all models maintain the following abilities:

• Darts: Sentinels carry ten steel javelin-like darts on the trunk that can be thrown to pierce an opponent.
• Electric Insulation: Sentinels are especially protected against electric attacks.
• Encephalo-Scanner: Sentinels are equipped with a scanner to read the brainwaves of a target and determine if it was telling the truth. This device is not infallible.
• Energy Blast: Sentinels have various types of energy projectiles, including but not limited to plasma, electrons, stunners and heat, that could be shot from their chest or hands. They are also armed with a disintegrator that only affects inorganic matter.
• Flight: Rocket jets built into their feet and hands allow for high-speed flight.
• Learning Program: A special learning program allows Sentinels a certain advantage when fighting an enemy, but only after at least some seconds of analysis. This data can be stored for future uses against the same enemy, so that any Sentinel from any model can access the information. Any needed modification takes at least one week. In the 21st century, data on all known mutants, living or dead, is stored for quick reference.
• Mutant Detection: Sentinels constantly scan all living beings in their immediate area and are able to determine if they are humans or mutants. The "immediate area" can cover up to ten miles.
• Robot: Due to their nature, Sentinels are protected by the sheer strength of their hull. They cannot be affected by emotional or mental attacks, nor by illusions. However, they are susceptible to attacks affecting machinery.
• Super Strength: Sentinels are known to lift at least seventy tons.
• Self-Repair: Sentinels are able to repair themselves with a built-in repair kit, provided there are sufficient materials nearby to effect repairs.

In addition, some Sentinels are manufactured for a leader-type role, being much more intelligent than other Sentinels and able to learn, adapt to, and counteract the tactics and powers used by mutants to a highly developed, near instantaneous degree.

In X-Men: Children of the Atom

Sentinel is one of the playable characters in this game. Sentinel is presented as one fo the game's vilains, although he is not directly working with Magneto. In his ending, he attempts to capture Magneto, but he sets his station Avalon into self-destruct, prefering to die than to let a "twisted human tool" to get him. Sentinel escapes the exploding station and, with Magneto presumed dead, continues with his protocol to exterminate all mutants.

Sentinel leads an army of Sentinels and personally takes down Storm, then returns to base for repairs. Once all mutants are eliminated, the Sentinel initiates a new program to control humans as a way to prevent a resurgence of mutants.

Gameplay

Loading battle protocols.

Sentinel

True to its mutant-hunting design, the Sentinel is a lumbering engine of destruction. Although a patch later greatly reduced the Sentinel's health, it retains the highest damage-per-hit rating of any MvC3 character.

With its array of highly damaging projectiles and Level 1 Hyper Combos that can be used repeatedly and in quick succession, the Sentinel excels when using a keep-away strategy. However, the Sentinel also performs well at maintaining pressure against rushdown characters with constant air combos, even if they manage to close the distance. Its launcher attack is very damaging and has a long horizontal reach; once the Sentinel is in the air, its high damage-per-hit rating is put to good use, with a mere three or four normal hits taking large amounts of an opponent's health, all in addition to an aerial Rocket Punch coupled with a well-timed Hard Drive Hyper Combo that can be used for a final blow.

Once an opponent is knocked down, the downward hitting Rocket Punch can be used to "bounce" the grounded opponent. This leaves them vulnerable to yet more air combos, starting the Sentinel's cycle of destruction all over again.

Special Attacks

• Sentinel Force: Sentinel points forward and sends three miniature Sentinels flying across the screen. Light attack has them fly toward the ground, medium has them fly towards the center of the screen from the floor, and heavy attack has them fly across the top of the screen and drop bombs.
• Rocket Punch: Sentinel launches and retracts his fist. Light attack has him punch the ground and hits OTG, medium attack punches in front of him, and heavy attack punches the air.
• Human Catapult: A command grab in which Sentinel grabs the opponent, lifts them up, and send them flying with a burst of electricity.

Assist Attack (MvC)

• Sentinel Assist: At the cry of "Destroy!", Sentinel comes rushing from behind the character who summoned it, and dash across the screen ramming anyone in its path. The assist works similar to Juggernaut's "Headcrush", covering the entire screen vertically and hitting several times as it goes. Unlike Juggernaut, however, it can be stopped by projectiles. It can be used a total of four times.

This assist is also part of Onslaught's movelist, where he can summon it an infinite number of times.

Assists (MvC2)

	Type	Assist	Counter	Cross-Over
α	Projectile	Rocket Punch	Rocket Punch	Hyper Sentinel Force
β	Launcher	Standing Hard Kick	Standing Hard Kick	Hyper Sentinel Force
γ	Ground	Sentinel Force	Sentinel Force	Hyper Sentinel Force

Assists (MvC3)

	Name	Type	Angle	Cross-Over
α	Sentinel Force (Charge)	Shot	Tilt Up	Hyper Sentinel Force
β	Sentinel Force (Bombs)	Shot	Tilt Down	Hyper Sentinel Force
γ	Rocket Punch	Direct	Tilt Down	Plasma Storm

Hyper Combos

• Plasma Storm (Level 1) - Generates a powerful sphere of electricity, shocking anything that comes near it. In Marvel vs. Capcom 3, the Plasma Storm now envelops a much larger area than earlier versions.
• Hard Drive (Level 1) - Creates a pyramid-shaped forcefield around its body and rams through the opponent, assisted by several mini-Sentinels. Can only be used in the air.
• Hyper Sentinel Force (Level 1) - Aims for the opponent and sends three waves of three mini-Sentinels to attack the opponent. In Marvel vs. Capcom 3, the three mini-Sentinels are now grouped more tightly together.

X-Factor

X-Factor Boosts	Damage	Speed
Level 1	130%	110%
Level 2	150%	120%
Level 3	170%	130%

Changes in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

• Health changed to 900,000. Even lower than the Event Mode patch in the original version.
• Changed S. Launcher properties from Hyper Armor to Super Armor.
• Opponent's untechable time after a Rocket Punch has been decreased.
• Push back from blocking Assist α from behind has been reversed.
• Number of hits in Plasma Storm can be increased through rapid button presses.

Theme Songs

X-Men COTA OST Genosha (Theme of Sentinel)

Marvel VS Capcom 3 - Sentinel's Theme

Sentinel's theme is a remix of the Genosha stage theme from X-Men: Children of the Atom; Sentinel's own stage in the game.

Trailer

Sentinel Intro - MARVEL VS. CAPCOM 3

Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds - Sentinel character reveal trailer

Quotes

Main article: /Quotes

Ending

Spoiler Alert

Transcript >ALL SENTINELS NOTICE: SYSTEM UPDATE ANALYSIS OF GALACTUS ELEMENT: 42% ANALYSIS OF BATTLE DATA: 80% >SENTINEL SYSTEM MANEUVERABILITY: 190% OUTPUT: 250% >MASTER MOLD PROGRAM ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL >MASTER MOLD NOTICE: LIST OF TARGETS NEUTRALIZED CATEGORY / STREET FIGHTER : 82 CATEGORY / DARKSTALKER : 14 CATEGORY / MAVERICK : 04 CATEGORY / MUTANT : 97 CATEGORY / DIVINE BEING : 8 CATEGORY / OTHER : 25 CONDITION: FAVORABLE EXTERMINATION OF HUMAN POPULATION 7 DAYS

Gallery

Main article: /Gallery

Trivia

• Sentinel's alternate color schemes in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 are the infamous "Mango Sentinel" scheme from a Marvel vs. Capcom 2 fan video; plus schemes based off the Second Coming sentinels and the sentinels from the game X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse. Ultimate gives him new schemes based off of Nimrod and a classic turquoise Sentinel. His Ultimate pre-order DLC costume is his old-school red/purple appearance.
  • Sentinel and Magneto are the only two characters to have received an alternate color created by the fandom: in Sentinel's case, the one dubbed "Da Mango Sentinel" by Yipes from the "Mahvel Baybee" Video.
• Gameinformer voted Sentinel one of the top ten fighting game characters due to how overpowered he is.
• The Sentinel in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 resembles the Mark V model in the X-Men comics. However, Sentinel's character model is much smaller in-game than in the comics due to the fact that if he was in original size he would be too big to play as. In Marvel continuity, Sentinel's height is approximately 20 ft (6 meters), while in MvC3 the Sentinel appears to be at least 11 ft tall (almost 3.5 meters).
• In his reveal trailer for 3, Sentinel was paired up with Storm and Magneto, which could be referencing one of the most popular team-ups of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 due to how overpowered the trio was.
• Due to not having their own conscience, Sentinels can be classified as Neutral characters, since they loyally serve those who built them, regardless of their masters' alignment. But to their purpose of hunting down mutants, including the X-Men, they are also classified as Evil characters.
• Sentinel is one of four unlockable characters in Marvel vs. Capcom 3, along with Hsien-Ko, Akuma and Taskmaster. To unlock Sentinel, players must accumulate 4,000 Player Points.
• Sentinel, along with Captain America, Spider-Man, Shuma-Gorath, and Doctor Doom, are the only Marvel characters in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 to retain their respective themes in all the games they have been playable in.
• Sentinel used to have the highest stamina/health of all the characters in MvC3 with 1,300,000. On March 22, he was nerfed, dropping his total health to 905,000.
• In Sentinel's ending, one of the Sentinels is seen dragging a grievously injured Dan to an unknown location inside a Sentinel base.
• Sentinel seems to have mistaken Tron Bonne's Servbots as Sentinels who have been re-programmed and re-designed for her needs; it then seizes all Servbots and arrests Tron as Sentinel's post-match victory quote says "Target apprehended. Fraudulent Sentinel production halted."
  • Funnily enough, in Tron's ending in Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Sentinel is programmed as Servbot #42.
• Its official biography in the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 site states that this model might be found in-game only. This model is then given the code "COTA-94", a reference to X-Men: Children of the Atom, the first Marvel-licensed Capcom fighting game and Sentinel's game debut. The "94" stands for the year the game was released in Arcades, 1994.
• Along with Shadow, Sentinel's name is never mentioned in Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes.

Also See

Sentinel's moves in Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes

Sentinel's moves in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds

Sentinel's moves in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

External links

• Marvel.com: Sentinels
• Marvel Database: Sentinels
• Wikipedia: Sentinel