Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001

"This is the fight of the century!"

Capcom vs SNK 2 is the sequel to the first game where the two 2-D fighting game rivals fought it out, it produced decent results but this time around the game is the way it should be, intense, brutal, and calculating. With a wide variety of characters to choose from on either side, this game will provide many dream matches, and settle many bets on “Who would win in a fight between Ryu and Kyo?”

Presentation

The game has a nice look to it, I'm not too found of all the yellow but it's fine. This game has a little cursor that you move to pick your characters and the artwork changes depending on what groove you pick for your character; if it's a Capcom Groove the character will have Capcom art. If it's SNK it'll have SNK art. During the fights you have your life bars, timers, super bars and whatnot. The games options are also pretty good with your average stuff every fighting game should have, it even has a color edit mode and a history section.

Score : 8.2 – Great

Gameplay

The gameplay is really improved in the sequel for the whole dream match series here. There are more characters, 48 to be exact, and two of them are hidden. There are now 6 Grooves in this game, C is like A-ism in Alpha 3, A is like V-ism in Alpha 3, and P is like Street Fighter 3. Then on the SNK side of things we have S which is Advance Mode in some KoF game and N being the normal gauge for Kof, K is from Samurai Shodown and Mark of the Wolves. With these 6 groves there are pretty much 6 different ways to play each of the 48 characters in the game…that's a lot of gameplay value. Not only that no two characters are really the same, except for Ryu and Ken that is, but you get the idea. It'll take a lot of time and practice to figure out which groove is best for your characters and the time it'll take to master them.

And of course there is all of the different modes available. You have Arcade Mode and Boss Battle when you unlock it, Survival mode with two different types, Training mode, Groove Edit mode when you unlock it, you can make your own grooves! Color edit mode, replay, and of course Vs. Now in Vs and Arcade you have three different types of fights you can have. You can have Raito matches where you decide the power of you character to where you could make a team of four level ones, two level twos, one level three and a level one, or just make someone a level four. You have three on three which is my personal favorite in the game and you have good old one on one. It seems like there is a lot to do in this game.

My only gripe is little bits in the roster selection. I would've really liked to have seen K', Blue Mary and Vanessa along with a few other SF people.

Score : 9.8 – Amazing

Graphics

The backgrounds are great, and lively, a little 2-D mixed with 3-D. Some of my personal favorites include the roof on Osaka, and London Street. The projectile attacks and special move effects are also done very nicely, it's kind of like 2-D complemented with 3-D. Now when it comes to the character sprites, it gets iffy. Most of the sprites look like they don't belong there, such as Sagat, Balrog, and Vega (going by American names because I'm not a nitpicker). Some sprites were made up specifically for this series such as Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Akuma, and Bison. All of the SNK characters have completely new sprites however, it's really refreshing to see these over the normal sprites in the KOF games among others.

One thing that has always bugged me is how the sprites tend to stick out like sore thumbs on the 3-D backgrounds, it makes the sprites look really jaggy which I don't like. Of course I must point out how Morrigan from Darkstalkers is STILL using the same from 94 or 95…

Score : 7.9 – Good

Sound

All the sound effects are really nice, and the music is very good to boot. The nice tune from London Street and the ominous music that plays on the Osaka roof are the ones that stick out in my mind. The rest of the music isn't very memorable though. The announcer must get points for his over the top wannabe nature. A lot of characters have very annoying voices too…such as Athena and Cammy…ugh I hate playing against them simply because of that.

Score : 8.1 – Great

Replay

Fighting games always have great replay value. You can continue to practice and master your characters, expand to learn new ones, and of course prep up a little for your next fight with you and your buddies. Each fighting game has a quality like this, unless of course the fighting game happens to be unplayable crap, which is not the case of this one. Not only does it have the above qualities of a good fighting game, it has all these other modes and with the depth and strategy of the groove system, it makes mastering characters even more important and takes more time.

Score : 9.8 – Amazing

Overview

Capcom vs SNK 2 is a fighting game you shouldn't pass up if you're a fan of both companies or simply a fan of one, this also counts for your friends too. Finally the clash of the rivals is done right.

Overall Score : 8.8 – Great

Score modified to 9/10 for Gamefaqs.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/14/06