Capcom vs. SNK

"You can't escape the danger!"

Ugh - World Tour flashback there!

Now then - here's a title a lot of people have been waiting a long time for. And it seems for some, too long: Capcom Vs SNK has made it's debut to stellar sales in Japan, a big import rush, and some high praise and great excitment from a lot of people... but also some very, very nasty critisism.

I heard so MANY bad things prior to playing CvS that I was afraid to pick up the controller; here was a game I wanted to be good very badly. Thankfully, the fact that I am not an ''elite'' reflexes-within-1:60th-of-a-second, always-play-the-same-character-by-a-rigid-pattern gamer seems to have done me good: the moment I started Capcom Vs SNK up, I was having a blast.

Break it down!

Graphics: 9

CvS loses on big old point, keeping it from a perfect 10: not all the Capcom side of the cast is 100% redrawn for the game. CvS has superb, hand drawn characters and backgrounds, with some of the best quality art and animation ever seen. It doesn't really look like a typical Capcom game; the overall visual asthetic is something a bit new, a little fresh, to give the game it's own identity. It's not unlike when SNK created a unique look for The King of Fighters, even though KoF featured characters from various games.

The problem is that evidently, the job of totally redrawing 33 characters in the new, high frame-count style was a bit too much for the development time allowed: only Ryu, Ken, and Vega (Bison, USA) have new looks. The rest of the Capcom side sports SF Alpha sprites. In Capcom's defense, the Alpha sprites *are* upgraded quite a bit with new FX for special moves and many new animations for new situations, such as dashing and running. There are also a lot of new intro animations and victory poses. But as good as the Alpha animation is, the new style possesed by everybody else is so good, that there is a _slight_ visual disparity.

But the new animation: in a word, hot dang. While not having quite the frame count of Street Fighter 3 sprites, the CvS exclusive animation is super clean, full of personality, and _very_ flowing. the SF3-like effect of individual fingers and flowing clothes and hair is replicated perfectly. On a technical level, I think the animation is better than SF3 in that 1: it's cleaner and 2: it does a lot more with a lot less frames.

The special F/X are what set the game apart from CPS2, 3, and MVS hardware. Loads of light sourcing, transparencies, and subtle but impressive energy effects give Capcom Vs SNK a look of it's own. The overall presentation is also the best I have ever seen in a fighter. There is a ''TV presentation'' theme not unlike The King of Fighters 97, but CvS takes it to a new, psychodelic level by placing things _inside_ the television, in a dizzying, spinning world of CRT displays, flying, floating titles, text, and banners, and ever-present ''playbacks'' of classic Capcom and SNK games visible everywhere in monitor land.

There is also NO VISIBLE LOADING at any time. But it's more impressive than usual for a Capcom game, because things like the background music never stop streaming, even between rounds loading the next fighter, and between matches when changing screens and locations. The programming and arrangment of CvS is so tight and so fluid, that it's downright scary. Anybody who claims CvS is another ''quick and dirty rehash'' or a sloppy piece of work (and you're out there) is _trying_ to tear down Capcom on purpose, IMHO.

Sound 8:

Everybody can open there eyes: the ''scary'' Jazz tunes from Marvel Vs Capcom 2 are all gone. In their place, we get some high energy techno beats, _quality_ hip hop (yes Virgina, there is such a thing), trance, SNK-like rock beats, and good, old-fashioned pure Fighting Game PCM Rock (thanks to unlockable ''classic'' music for characters such as Ryu). Plus, Evil Ryu's stage has a super groovy and slightly sinister trance remix of the classic SF2 Ryu theme.

The music overall is not the absolute best I've heard arrangment wise in a fighter, but it _is_ a lot more unobtrusive and mood setting than a lot of the music in fighters has been in recent years. And for this, kudos.

Sound F/X are pretty standard Capcom fare, though I think personally they have intentionally tried to make them sound a bit more SNKish here. The voices are mostly new for all characters and are very clean and well-acted. No real complaints. The hits and attacks do at least, sound meaty and solid, and the crystaline tone that signals the engagement of a super move actually creates a tense feeling (which is good).

Gameplay 10:

Yes, 10. Gameplay can be *entirely* subjective. In Asia, CvS has been ripped apart by foaming at the mouth SNK fans who can't stand their favorate characters not playing exactly like they do in KoF2000. Capcom players have ripped it apart for apparent ''cheap'' traps they've found by _trying_ to abuse the system and play cheaply. I have a different view.

People seem to have forgotten a long ago time when SNK first created The King of Fighters. For KoF94, SNK didn't directly merge the gameplay engines of Art of Fighting or Fatal Fury, games that contributed characters to KoF. Instead, they crafted a totally new engine in the vein of their other series, to meld the various characters together in one coherent setting.

Capcom Vs SNK does just that. The gameplay feels new. The four button system works for the exact strategies the engine encourages and the move set the characters have. It's actually, IMO, very, very, balanced and the ratio system works as well as reasonably can be expected.

Example: one complaint was about the fact that how can Dhalsim be so strong against Sagat when Sagat is level 3 and Dhalsim is level 1? Simple: they each still give and take the damage levels you'd expect from their ratio tiers, but Dhalsim has always had an advantage against Sagat because of how their move sets interact. A _realistic_ advantage. People seem so very blind to the obvious, sometimes.

The ratio system for those unclear breaks up the cast into four levels. You can make a team with anyone as long as you use up four ratio points. level 1 is side characters, like King and Cammy, level 2 is main characters, like Ryu and Terry, 3 is bosses, and 4 is ''demon'' fighters like Evil Ryu, Akuma, and Orochi Iori.

So for example, Sagat from 3 will be able to finish a level 1 character with a few good combos or supers. But of course, Sagat may very well be facing a gang of four level 1's, which could overcome him by force of numbers and attrition.

This system IMO makes for logical balance. Bosses play like bosses. ''small'' fighters like Sakura and King take the damage you'd expect, for once. The advantages of the ratio system, in addition to the basic trait it has of making the game feel fresh, far outweigh lingering balance issues, in my opinion.

Why do I give CvS a 10 for gameplay? Simple. It takes on the challege of creating a whole new world to combine many disparate characters together, and it succeeds to a reasnonable degree. it exists on it's own level, in a way a game hasn't been since the era of the original King of Fighters, and I think it deserves to be recognized as such instead of chopped down for not catering to the pet peeves of ''expert'' gamers.

Overall: 9

If the character roster had been a tad larger and the full cast re-drawn, a 10 would have been in order. As it is, this is one fine beast. The gameplay is simplified but not in a bad way - it promotes depth through strategic play. The roster as it is, is still fairly large and varied. And there are some nice perks, like the color edit mode that lets you color your figher any way you like and save it. Want a white Kyo from KoF99? Here you go.

I think Capcom Vs SNK is one great effort, and is a refreshing change from overblown F/X fests and 3D fighters. Lots of characters, awesome artwork, subtle effects, and a new twist on old skool gameplay.

No, Capcom hasn't lost it.

-- Kai

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/10/00, Updated 09/10/00