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The warm-up of the millennium
So, if I understand well, two
worlds finally collide, right? There was an agreement between
Capcom and SNK, the two best 2d fighters companies by far, to
create the ultimate game that would feed the generations to come
and make all gamers live happily together ever after? Nice idea.
But keep in mind that SNK's direct contribution was not more
than a few character select screen faces and some artwork. The
game, contrary to the Neogeo Pocket version -which was named
SNK versus Capcom- was entirely made by Capcom. Come on,
we're talking about Capcom here! They are the guys who
made more than 15 sequels to Street Fighter, they are the guys
behind the Megaman and Resident Evil franchise! They are the
ultimate masters of cow-milking, and the worst thing is that
people (including me) are still buying their products! Were you
expecting a real millennium battle between the best of SNK's
fighters and the best of Capcom's fighters to decide who is the
strongest -I am only paraphrasing the wonderful intro of
this game here-? If you really were, then you might end up being
disappointed. Not that the game is necessarily bad, actually it
is far from it, but it could have been so much more in my
opinion...
I am a sincere SNK and Capcom fan. Yes, we are a dying
breed, but there are still some of us around this planet. I love
King Of fighters, Street Fighter, Samurai Showdown, Darkstalkers,
Last Blade, Rival Schools, Fatal Fury, Star Gladiator, Art Of
Fighting and the versus series even though I am totally aware
that some of them were not perfect. Was this game supposed to
end the ridiculous battle that has been going on for years
between the two companies and their fans? From what I hear, it
only made things worse: no party was truly happy with the game.
How did this game lead to so much controversy? Well, there are a
few things that many people did not like, and considering how
hyped up this title had been, there has been a clash. No, not
the "clash of heroes", another one that I will describe more
accurately in the rest of my review. This game came out a while
ago, and there are already a bunch of reviews for it on this
site, which is why I will take the freedom to change my
reviewing format for once.
What is there to like in this game?
That is a toughie... Just kidding. Even though I am sure that
you can already feel where this review is getting at, I will try
to stay as fair as possible. Despite what I have been mentioning
earlier, this game has a circle of followers, and it does not
mean that all of them do not know anything about fighting games.
There obviously are good things about this game, and this
is why it was popular in my opinion.
graphics
This game looks pretty good, actually. I have to admit that the
SNK characters have never looked that good and that Capcom did a
great job at "re-designing" them. Terry looks more baddass than
ever, for instance, and I think that this is the way he should
always have looked in the Fatal Fury series -even though I like
his older Garou:MOTW look- and in KOF. Vice, Nakoruru, Rugal,
Geese, Benimaru, they all look great, and they have kick-ass
animation. Even though Kyo looks a bit young, and my French girl
King looks like she is anorexic, I have to admit that the
developers did an extremely good job. They also redrew Ryu, Ken
and Bison and gave them original animation: they look a lot more
like their Street Fighter 2 version now.
I also have to say that the backgrounds are simply fabulous.
They look very good -I think that they are in high-resolution-
and are very creative (the Sakazaki dojo is my personal
favorite, I liked how you can destroy it, it almost made me
forget that Takuma was not in the game...). Other great
backgrounds include: an arcade on a rainy day, a busy street of
a Japanese shopping area, the Pao-pao café, Sagat's original SF2
stage and a dark street corner with a very impressive use of
shadows! These backgrounds are probably the best I have EVER
seen in a 2d fighter.
gameplay
The idea behind the game was pure genius. I remember thinking
about it many years ago, and when my goofy and gullible friend
would come over and talk about "What if..." I would just tell
him "Man, you watch too much tv. There's no way the two
companies would work together: they actually hate each other!"
Yeah, I was wrong, I know. If you are reading this buddy, I am
sincerely sorry.
Yeah right.
But I have to give both Capcom and SNK props for making this
game possible. Most companies would just have ignored each
other, and not listened to the fans. But these are not
your usual companies.
Capcom versus SNK feels old-school. Very old-school, that is.
Actually, the versions of the characters and the engine in
general made me feel like I was playing "KOF 94 vs Super SF2".
That is not a bad thing in itself when you think about it: it
means this game is about skill and clean hits. You will need
strategy to win most of your fights and I cannot stress more on
the fact that this is actually a good aspect of this game, and
probably what made it popular as opposed to Marvel vs Capcom 2
(which is unfairly perceived by most people as a button-masher's
dream).
The ratio system is probably not as bad as some people make it
sound like. When you choose your team you are allowed 4 points
and you need to decide whether you want a team of 4 ratio 1
characters -who in theory are weaker-, a team of two ratio 2
characters -who are usually well-rounded in terms of damage and
stamina-, a team of a ratio 3 character -who are stronger- and a
ratio 1 character, or a team of a ratio 2 character and two
ratio 1 characters. Are you lost yet? It is very innovative in
the sense that it gives a new dimension to teams and makes boss
characters and all ratio 3 characters appear as powerful.
music
The music in this game is not bad, if you like techno. It is
actually better than the music of most fighters. It gets you
hyped up for the battle, and all the tracks are very fast and
catchy. You can even unlock the original tunes of some fighters
in the secret shop mode.
story
Once thing I would like to mention is the introduction of
special pre-fight intros. This idea has been taken from the KOF
series, and I really like it. Some of them are story-related
(Vice/Rugal, Yuri/Ryo, Terry/Yamazaki...) and some of them come
straight from the developer's imagination (Chun-Li/Mai, Ryo/Ryu...).
Either way, they are all entertaining.
replay value
There are tons of extras to unlock, such as three hidden
characters, a few stages, and a handful of options. I
particularly like the ratio edit and the run option. There are
enough characters to master to keep you busy for a long
time, especially if you are not familiar with the SNK characters
yet. The arcade mode is not very hard, even on the hardest
difficulty settings. If you can find people who enjoy the game,
the replay value of CvS is almost infinite.
What is there not to like about the game?
I'm sure you saw that coming... As I said before, CvS is a
majorly flawed game, and this is one reason why it is so
controversial. The people who can play it past these flaws are
probably enjoying it a lot. But I personally cannot. I think it
cannot stand the comparison with the best 2d fighter on
Dreamcast. Why? Here you go...
graphics
Even though the backgrounds are great, and some of the
characters look pretty good, there are still major graphical
flaws in this game, I think. The most obvious one, and at the
same time the most annoying one is probably the use of recycled
Alpha sprites. That is where Capcom's laziness comes into play,
once again. They could have redrawn all the characters, and
given them new animation, but no... They had to make us fans
wait for so long for basically nothing. I mean, if I want to
play Alpha vs KOF, I can just download Mugen* and create my own
fighting game, right? The Alpha 3 characters all look extremely
outdated, especially Chun-Li and Sagat, who looks like he was
taken straight from a Simpson's episode. This is even worse in
the case of Morrigan's sprite: it was directly ripped from
another game, and it has a disgraceful outline and looks
pixilated. This is a horrible, horrible work from Capcom.
gameplay
There are so many things I do not like in CvS' gameplay that I
do not know where to begin. First off, I have to tell you that
Capcom decided to split the character's moves (mainly the SNK
character, probably for the sake of character balance) in two
and to create EX characters who sometimes are almost the same as
the normal characters, but sometimes they play very differently.
Message for Capcom: No one cares about these damn EX characters.
Give us playable characters with their whole set of moves. Doing
that is not only weak, but it is also showing that you were too
lazy -once again- to balance the character's moves. No more EX
characters, okay?
My next gripe is about the character selection, especially the
SNK side. SNK has too many great characters so Capcom could not
fit them all into this game. I would buy that. But then, get rid
of the weirdos at least! What the hell is Raiden doing in this
game? Same for Nakoruru? Even though she is cool, she totally
breaks the game's balance. Where are the Ikari Warriors,
especially Leona? Not to mention that this game feels more like
SF vs KOF than Capcom vs SNK... Talk about a misleading title.
The other things I do not like about this game are related to
the engine. While I realize that this game is not supposed to be
KOF or SF, but a new kind of game, I cannot understand some of
Capcom's decisions, such as:
_Only roll forward: this is just stupid. It opens a whole new
world or game-breaking "roll n' throw" strategies and it kills
the roll's original main purpose: to run away. If you are going
to use a KOF feature to make the SNK fans happy, at least get it
right.
_No proper "counter" system: this, in my opinion, is a step
backwards by today's standards. What I mean is that there is no
new feature to master, such as parries or Alpha counters. I
personally think that this game really needed one. I was glad to
see that its sequel will have several.
_The Ratio system: get rid of it. The idea sounds nice but it
does not work in reality. Some ratio 1 characters are just too
strong (King, Blanka), and the same goes for a few ratio 2
characters (Guile, Ryu, Nakoruru). My advice to Capcom would be
to balance the game and make it a 3-character-team battle game.
But then again, why would they listen to me?
_Least but not last, the 4-button layout: this is one of the
aspects of this game that definitely turned me off. All the
characters only have 4 buttons now. While this makes sense for
the SNK characters, who always had only 4 attack buttons, it
totally butchers the Capcom characters, and makes it impossible
to see who from the Capcom players or the SNK players are the
best. And wasn't this supposed to be the reason for this game?
This layout was inaugurated with MvC2, and I thought it worked
wonders on a combo game like that. But simplifying an engine and
making it "old-school" are two things that usually do not go
well together.
music
I have to say that I was extremely disappointed with the
original tunes. I loved the idea -come on, you remember Ryu and
Kyo's themes, right?- but the remixes are just downright trash
and it was a painful experience for my ears. After 40 minutes, I
put the default music back on.
Some of the digit voices are of poor quality, too. Guile sounds
like he has a heavy French accent -I know what I'm talking
about- and sometimes it is hard to understand what he says.
Other funny digits include Terry's hilarious "Rising Taco!"
(=Rising Tackle). Why don't they hire people who know how to
speak English for once?
story
Well, it is very simple, this game had no story. Is this
a tournament or something? I guess it is, judging by the ending,
but there is no story mode contrary to most SNK games. And
what's worse, there are only two generic endings. Capcom already
did the same thing with Marvel vs Capcom 2. Am I the only one
who hates this new trend?
replay value
The game has enough characters to keep you playing for months,
if you like it. However, I stopped playing it after one month,
if I remember right. Playing through the arcade mode an insane
number of times -especially in the Japanese version in which you
only earn a handful of extra points for beating the last boss-
to unlock a few secrets that pale in comparison to MvC2 is
not my definition of fun. But what really turned me off is
how broken the game is, in my opinion. It is extremely
unbalanced (CvS tourneys are boring) and full of various
glitches.
Now you are the judge. Do you think that the qualities of this
game make up for its flaws? Do you think that it is a disgrace
to the names of both companies? I personally think that the
Neogeo Pocket version, which was made by SNK, was a lot better.
But does that really mean anything since that game is one of my
favorite games of all time? Yes, to an extent. Capcom should be
ashamed of seeing what SNK did with a 16-bit handheld cartridge.
Besides, I think that there are much better 2d fighters on
Dreamcast right now: if you want Street Fighter, get Third
Strike or (ugh) Alpha 3. If you want King Of Fighters, get
KOF99DreamMatch or KOF99Evolution. If you really want a CvS
title, then wait for CvS2. Do not get CvSPro unless you
played CvS and really liked it because it is nothing but the
aforementioned game with Dan Hibiki, Joe Higashi and a few
gameplay tweaks.
There is a reason why I consider this game as "the warm-up of
the century". It is because the real fight is coming. Capcom vs
SNK 2 looks a lot more like the dream match we were all waiting
for, with a more complete gameplay and a better character
selection. But mind you: this is Capcom. We might get
disappointed again: actually, there will probably be a CvS3 in
the years to come. This game is going to be the first of a long
series, and as always Capcom messed up with the first try. Let
us hope they will redeem themselves with the next one.
*Mugen: a freeware program available on the internet that
lets you use character from existing games or original
characters and create your own game on your computer. It is
needless to say that this is an illegal operation since the
sprites are ripped from actual games without the permission of
the companies. That is the reason why I do not really
recommend the use of this program. |
