Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO

"As addicting as crack! One of the main reasons that online console gaming was invented!"

I'm going to skip through all of the stuff about this game that every other review covers, namely the style of play, graphics, sound, etc and just focus on the really important part; online play!

Once I got home and popped in my game, I played the single player portion for a little while just to get used to the Xbox Controller (S). And let me tell you, it takes quite some time to get used to the bulkiness of the controller (even if it is supposed to be the smaller one). Then, I popped online and got ready for some real competition.

Getting Online
Once you get online, you are greeted with a very short and sweet menu that lets you do a Quick Match (instantly join the first available opponent, OptiMatch (set some filters and view a list of matches available to join), Create a Match, Friends, Ranking, and Online Status. The multiple levels of the match creation and friend inviting can be a bit confusing at first, but once you get used to it it works well. Also, a good thing to note is that when viewing your friends list, you can see what game they are playing, and if they are playing CvS if they are Playing, Available to Play (meaning, they are online, but not in a match), or Joinable (they are hosting a match). Once I found my first competitor, I promptly accepted the invitation and joined the match.

The first thing you see when joining up with someone to play against, is a summary page that displays your Ranking, Matches played and Won, Grade Letter (still unsure what this is, everyone seemed to be either R or Q), and some other stuff. After that you go into the character select screen. The first thing you choose is the location to play at, then your ISM (EO or AC) then your Groove (C,A,P,S,N,K). Then you select your 1,2, or 3 characters and assign the Ratios. After that, let the fighting begin! Once the match has ended, you will be taken back to the summary page, but now it will display the total number of wins and losses against this opponent (not total since forever, just since you started playing them this instance). From here, you can still talk to your opponent and decide if you want to rematch or quit. Once you quit this match, you will be prompted as to whether you want to save the replay or not (unfortunately, this is the only time and place that you can save replays).

Now for the Problems...
One of the biggest hurdles that an online fighting game would face is lag, and how to deal with it. When it comes down to it, fighting games require split-second timing and even the slightest delay because of lag can determine the outcome of a match. While I played online, I would have to say that perhaps only 30-40% of all of my matches had any kind of lag, and only then was is only a few times where the lag was so bad that it was almost unplayable. The lag is there, sometimes, but its almost so minimal that you can just deal with it and it doesn't become that much of a problem.

Also, during your match you can talk and that's all great and works well, but after each round your speech gets cut off while it loads up the next character information, and resumes once you are back and ready to start the next round. This is annoying as most people don't talk too much during the actual match, but once a round ends you tend to get ''Great Round!'' or ''Man, I was trying to pull off a -'' and then you get cut off.

Another thing, which is more of a bug with the game itself than the online aspect (as this happened during single player mode as well) is while you are in-between rounds, if you press any direction on the analog sticks or d-pad, when you start the next round your character will keep jumping for the rest of the round. Very very annoying!!

Conclusion
I am extremely excited about this game. After only 1 night of playing (a lot I might add) I am totally addicted!! This, in my opinion, is what online console gaming is all about and what it was always intended for! I can't wait for more online fighting games and I hope that Capcom releases Marvel vs Capcom 2 for Live as quick as possible!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/13/03, Updated 02/13/03