Capcom vs. SNK

"The long-time rivalry heats up to the boiling point!"

For ages and ages, fighting game fans have wondered what exactly would happen if characters from the SNK universe could tangle with the Capcom camp. Well, this game is the third to try to give us an answer to that question (the first two being SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighter’s Clash and SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium on Neo-Geo Pocket Color). Since I do not own a NGPC, I missed out on the aforementioned games…but now, on my Dreamcast, I get to delve into the battle headfirst with Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000.

I thought that the early pics of this game were nothing more than a hoax. Ryu’s Street Fighter Alpha 3 sprite vs. Iori’s KoF sprite pasted onto a Power Stone background; anybody with even the most miniscule knowledge of Adobe Photoshop could’ve made that in 10 minutes, tops. As it turns out, they weren’t the real deal. But soon, official news appeared, and here we are, playing the game…Capcom vs. SNK:MF2K brings us Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, E.Honda, Blanka, Zangief, Guile, Dhalsim, M.Bison(JP/Balrog(US), Balrog(JP/Vega(US), Sagat, Vega(JP)/M.Bison(US), Cammy, and Sakura on the Capcom side to face off against Kyo, Iori, Benimaru, Vice, Terry Bogard, Mai Shiranui, King, Yuri Sakazaki, Ryo Sakazaki, Raiden, Kim Kaphwan, Rugal Bernstein, Ryuji Yamazaki, and Geese Howard on the SNK side. Now, 28 characters would be a pretty nice selection, but on top of them, we’ve also got Evil Ryu, Orochi Iori, Morrigan from the Vampire(JP)/Darkstalkers(US) series, Nakoruru from the Samurai Spirits(JP)/Samurai Shodown(US) series, and everybody’s favorite demonic psychopath, Gouki(JP)/Akuma(US). Annnnnnnnnnnnnd on top of those characters to earn, you’ve also got “EX” versions of every character (with the exceptions of Gouki/Akuma, Morrigan, and Nakoruru. Also, Evil Ryu and Orochi Iori count as Ryu and Iori’s EX versions).

What’s an EX character, you say? Well, let’s say you’re used to playing Terry Bogard. But when you play CvsSNK, you find out his Power Dunk move is missing in his regular version! Argh! But wait-he’s got it in his EX version! EX versions are variant versions of the existing roster; EX Kyo plays like KoF’95 Kyo, EX Zangief plays like SF2Turbo Zangief, and so on. They are not all EXACT duplicates of other versions, but they are all pretty much replicating a past version from someplace or other. Now, you’re not going to start out with EX versions, or Gouki/Akuma, Morrigan, Nakoruru, Evil Ryu, Orochi Iori, or the other many extras; Capcom created a “point store” for you to earn them through. The Secret Shop opens up 77 secrets, such as backgrounds, old-school music, running, and character color sets. Problem is, you earn points very slowly without the help of a Neo-Geo Pocket Color (you can download points via the NGPC-to-DC cable). In Arcade Mode, you can earn 500 points if you play very well, but more often than not, the game seems to give between 300-400 even if you never lose a round, gets tons of perfect wins, and beat everyone with a super…I still don’t understand why I’ll get 400 one time and 500 another. With the NGPC, you can reportedly upload 9999 points to the DC version, which would cut down the earning time by a lot.

All right, on to the fighting itself! This game is NOT A CAPCOM VS. GAME!! NO air combos! NO tag teaming! NO ridiculous damage beam supers! It is team fighting, lie King of Fighters, where you and your opponent start one-on-one, then the winner fights the next of the opponent’s team until one player’s whole team is defeated. It is not KoF 3-on-3; the Ratio System, love it or hate it, determines the size of your team. You have four “Ratio points” to fill out your team with. Ratio 1 characters (Capcom: Blanka, Dhalsim, Cammy, Sakura, SNK: King, Yuri, Vice, Benimaru) can be made into a 4-character team. Ratio 2 characters (Capcom: Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, E.Honda, Guile, Zangief, M.Bison/Balrog, Morrigan, SNK: Kyo, Iori, Kim, Terry, Mai, Raiden, Ryo, Nakoruru) can have a team of two Ratio 2 characters, or a team of one Ratio 2 haracter and two Ratio 1 characters (i.e. Ryu and Kim, or Terry, King, and Yuri). Ratio 3 characters (Capcom: Balrog/Vega, Sagat, Vega/M.Bison, SNK: Yamazaki, Rugal, Geese Howard) can only be paired with a Ratio one character (i.e. Sagat and Vice). And if you’re no feeling in the “team mood”, you can select a Ratio 4 character to fight alone once you’ve bought them (Capcom: Evil Ryu, Gouki/Akuma, SNK: Orochi Iori). I can hear the complaints already; “Why can’t I pick ANY TEAM I want?!” Well, just be patient, and earn those Secret Shop points, and your wish will be granted. ^_^

Next up is the actual fighting system. This is not Street Fighter 2/Alpha/3. This is not King of Fighters’94-’00. This is an entirely new system based on each company’s styles. First, there’s the Groove System. Before you choose your fighter, you select Capcom Groove (you have an Alpha style 3-level super meter that builds as you perform moves, take damage, etc.), or SNK Groove (you’ve got a KoF Extra Mode style super bar that you can charge at any time by holding down Hard Punch and Hard Kick, and you can pull of SDM’s/Level 3 supers when you’ve got a full super bar and your lifebar is flashing red). Both Grooves can high jump by tapping down-up quickly, but it’s NOT a Marvel superjump, and not exactly the same as a KoF high jump (there are no KoF hops, by the way). You can roll through attacks to take no damage. You cannot air block in this game, so beware. This is a slower-paced “old school” fighting game, folks. You’ll adjust to the slower speeds in time; don’t have a fit just because it’s not blazing along at hyperactive speeds. It’s not molasses slow, so just learn to deal with it. There are also now four attack buttons, which might take Capcom gamers a little time to adjust to; we’ve got weak punch, weak kick, hard punch, and hard kick. A few important Medium punches and kicks from the Capcom side’s movelists can be performed by holding the controller in a certain direction; Ryu will sweep with down+hard kick, but he’ll perform his low medium kick if you hold downback and hit hard kick. They’re just command moves now, like KoF has had for ages.

What else…? Ah, the roster. No, it’s NOT going to have everybody you anted, so please, just deal with it and move on. It’s not worth getting upset over just because some characters were unjustly overlooked. I’d kill to have Blue Mary, Goro Daimon, Shingo, Athena, Joe Higashi, Andy Bogard, Cham Cham, Genjuro, Felicia, Lilith, Q-Bee, Dan, Strider, and a ton of others in here, but I’ll have to wait and see if they show un in CvsSNK2 instead. This is basically “Street Fighter 2 plus Cammy, Sakura, Morrigan, and Gouki/Akuma vs. KoF plus Raiden and Nakoruru”. It’s not a perfect game, but this is Capcom after all; there’ll be updates, and there’ll most likely be lots of them. I enjoy this game for what it is; me being able to play great Capcom characters and great SNK characters as teams or against each other in an old-school fighting game style. Think about it. If you’re a die-hard fighting game fan, this has probably been on your wish list forever, right? Well, instead of harping on the negatives, just enjoy the positives and have fun playing the game! I beat Geese Howard with a Final Atomic Buster. That miniscule event during gameplay right there made me incredibly happy. “Ha! After years of your counter-abuse, Reppuukens, and Raging Storms, I finally got the last laugh, Geese! How’d you like the full power of ‘Gief’s whirling tornado of doom?! Gyaaa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!” ^_^

Graphics: All right, let’s see…The backgrounds are good and bad; they look beautiful but the fact that they mostly have nothing to do with either company hurts me. Sure, Takuma Sakazaki, Jubei, Edge, the Son-Son store, and an SNK arcade make cameos, but I’d much rather have cameo-filled backgrounds like the ones found in Pocket Fighter. Take the Final Fight background; it’s a simple, commonplace back alley. No Guy, Cody, Haggar, Poison, or any other Final Fight characters, and there’s not even any references to the game in the graffiti! What makes it the “Final Fight” background, exactly? Ah well, at least they all look great. The little stage intros are nice, too, ala Last Blade and a few of the KoF games. Next, the characters. The SNK cast obviously had to be totally redone, since the KoF sprites are smaller in scale to most Capcom games. They all look superb, with the exception of the sub-par Raiden. He’s awful looking…but not awful playing, so he’s not a total loss. Next, on the Capcom side, only Ryu, Ken, and Gouki/Akuma were totally redrawn, and the others are all lifted from SFAlpha 3 or Darkstalkers. The redrawn Shoto boys make me wish Capcom had redrawn everybody…the Alpha sprites look kind of old compared to them and the SNK cast. The animation is fluid, but not as fluid as Street Fighter 3 or the Marvel games. I don’t have any complaints about the vast majority of it. Then we’ve got the special effects; you won’t see old sprites when you toss out a Hadouken or Reppuuken. The flames, explosions, and other effects are now transparencies, and they look great in my opinion. It just looks nice when you can se the characters/backgrounds behind the flames. Overall, the game looks great, but not spectacular.

Sound: All of the SNK voices are performed by their proper actors, and sound as nice as they ever did. Some of the Capcom crew got new voices, and some are good, but others aren’t exactly stellar. Still, they’re not awful, so I won’t dwell on it. Just have to adjust, that’s all. The hit effects are all solid, and really sound like they’re getting beat down hard. They went so far as to include both the trademark Capcom and SNK dizzy sound effects! The music is a missed bag to me. I can’t stand the rap tune on the Final Fight stage, Terry’s train stage is pretty boring, and the street stage in front of a marketplace is pretty bland, too. But the other tracks I have no problems with. One of the nicest secret shop items is the old-school music; they got a pile of great classic SNK and Capcom tunes that will bring memories of the old days flooding back. And Gees’s Fatal Fury theme still kicks butt after all these years. ^_^

Control: Spot on, to me, and I’m a Capcom and SNK veteran from day one. The game plays well with four buttons, Capcom fans, so don’t be afraid to find Strong and Forward gone from the setup. I have a minor problem with a few command moves, though; when using Evil Ryu or Gouki/Akuma, sometimes I’ll mess up a Shun Goku Satsu motion because the towards+medium punch collarbone splitter overhead punch has been assigned to weak punch now, so jab-jab-towards-short-fierce sometimes winds up as jab-collarbone splitter by accident. But that’s probably just me. Geese Howard’s Raging Storm motion (DB, HCB, DF+P) is still evil, and I still can’t get it to come out when I want it to. ^_^

Fun Factor: Come on now, don’t avoid or bash this just because they left one of your favorites out. Give it a decent chance, and I’m sure you’ll like it in the end. If not, there’s always next year, so just go back to KoF or a Capcom fighter you enjoy and wait for it to come. This is NOT Street Fighter, NOT KoF, so DON’T have a hissy fit because it isn’t what you think it should be! Play it as a totally separate entity from both company’s universes, okay? It’s not going to play exactly like any fighter you’ve played before, so just stop criticizing and learn to deal with it or wind up missing out on a fun game instead.

Replayability? Yes. You can settle many old scores with this dream match, against your friends and/or rivals. It’s a great “annoying fanboy ego smasher”, too-“Ryu could beat Iori any day of the weak!” “No way, dude! Ryu’s weakstuff!” Instead of yammering about it endlessly, sit down and settle the age-old arguments! Single player mode will keep you for a very long time (perhaps even TOO long) by offering 77 secrets to buy. Most are worth it, but some stink (EX Blanka, EX Guile spring to mind). You earn points very slowly, which makes earning them tedious at times, so you might want to track down a NGPC and NGPC-to-DC cable, plus a copy of SNK vs. Capcom: MotM to make it go faster. Training mode, Pair Match, Vs. mode, Color Edit mode (I love this! You get to create your own character color schemes!) and other modes will also keep you busy (too bad players outside of Japan can’t take advantage of the Network Mode -_-). All in all, this is a mighty fine package. I am totally looking forward to the next installment, which Capcom announced at a recent game show (Lilith and Athena were announced as two of the new fighters, so hopefully my dream list will come true the next time!). Ah, and this game is totally importer friendly; there is very little Japanese to deal with, so you shouldn’t have any troubles at all. Fire up your Game Shark and get down to business! “Shinkuu Hadouken!” “Powaaaaaaaa Geyser!!” Who will prevail?! You will decide! GlucoseJoe

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/21/00, Updated 10/21/00