Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001

"This Game Didn't Live Up to some of its Predecessors"

I'm sorry, but when I went out to get a fighter to compare to Guilty Gear X, I thought Capcom was a more than adequate choice. I guess I was wrong, at least in this case. I look for a few things in fighters, so let me outline those now.

I like to see interesting and personalized moves, a good combo system, cool characters, some graphics, and gameplay. And of course I always look for music in my games.

Gameplay: 4/10
The gameplay really suffered in this game because of the moves. There were the typical jumps, and punches, and kicks, etc. But all of this gameplay was done on the Dreamcast, and before it on the SNES and even the NES. I fail to see much evolution since then. Now I know that a lot of hardcore fans may criticize me because they like the old school fighting style, but I just can't see it. This game has tons of characters, but besides that I don't know what they filled up this DVD rom with. I'd be amazed if this games fighting system took more than half a CD.

Moves: 3/10
You have the typical moves in this game, but they look really bad. The fireballs and uppercuts and throws are all there, but they just look really really cheesy. Ryu's uppercut is not as spectacular as it was in some other Capcom titles, and definitely not as nice as it was in Street Fighter EX 3. Guile's Flash Kick is a little shimmer in the air, nothing more. I was very disappointed that such a huge game didn't have more than around 3 moves per person. It made some characters very repetitive and boring.

Characters: 3/10
Yes, we still have the few original likeable Street Fighter characters like Chun-Li and Blanka, but a lot of the characters, at least for soft core gamers, will be nobodies. I'm not sure if the title Capcom includes every fighter they've made, but I don't recognize a good 2/3 of these characters. Obviously some are from SNK, but besides that they all look the same. We have multiple Ryu/Ken spinoff's, and a lot of ''who the hell are they?'' guys, such as a man in a tuxedo with a panther. (?)

Graphics: 5/10
These graphics are 2d, so for 2d I'll give them a 5 for trying, but it really came out badly. The backgrounds were fairly nice, but the characters themselves were pixilated and rough. I think it may have been done on purpose as well in some cases, such as Morrigan, to make her resemble her old self from Marvel vs Capcom. This may be a tearful reminiscing time for some, but I just found it to be plain ugly.

Combos: 3/10
The combo's are even worse than I'd expected. I know that fighters generally rely on the combos that link normal moves together so the opponent has no chance to block. However, with the graphics and all, sometimes the entity of a hand will hit the person, while it doesn't look like contact actually took place. Overall the combo's were rough and cumbersome, and I found it hard to get more than a 3 hit combo going. (Jump in, punch, kick, special move). I can't imagine linking any serious numbers of moves together.

Music: 2/10
The music was almost comedic, and not what I'd have hoped for from a fighting game where I'll need that edge of adrenaline pumping to win the match.

Overall: 3/10 (not an average)
This game just didn't do it for me. I was hoping for more from Capcom, as I've loved some of their previous games.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 01/30/02, Updated 01/30/02