Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO

"A very good fighter, offline and online"

We all know and love Street Fighter but 'What's SNK?' some of you may ask when looking at this game. Known well by hardcore fighting gamers, Fatal Fury was arguably the company's most prized franchise, but that's beside the point. If you're a fan of fighting games period, especially if you have XBox Live, you need this game.

Presentation-8

Unless you know Fighters' well, it's hard to understand this. With all the control options, different fighters, ratio matches, etc, I can see where the confusion starts. The manual explains it well though, and the menus are easy to navigate, with load times being minimal. It takes some time to grasp what is going on, but once you do it's a breeze.

Graphics-8

Graphics rarely sway my opinion on a game on way or another, and they certainly don't interfere in this one. Whether you're performing Guile's Sonic Boom or Zanghief's Spike Piledriver, the game looks pretty and the motion doesn't miss a beat. All fighters' attire look very pretty in 2-D fashion, as well as battle scars, cuts, and the like. The 3-D environments are a nice touch too. With that said, the game really doesn't take full advantage of the XBox's capabilities, but that doesn't take anything away from the game. Solid graphics, and they work well for me.

Gameplay-9

With the introduction of EO, an 'easier' way of pulling off devastating moves quicker and with ease, some seasoned gamers groaned at this. 'Where's the challenge?' the ask. There's plenty of challenge left, and it only makes the game more quick paced. Just about anyone can pick up the game now and have at it, but just like the old virtue, it's easy to start but hard to master. The action is lightning quick and there are lots of moves for each person, so the gameplay never gets stale. If you'd rather stay with the old fashioned controls (without EO) just select the other control setting. That easy. You get to choose from Ratio matches, 3 vs. 3, or singles on match types. And the lag on XBox Live? Hardly any. I'd say lag shows up about once out of every thirty matches you fight, and that's about a split second. Kudos to Microsoft.

Sound-9

Great music, and of the repetitive kind either. The typical fast paced arcade music you would expect from a title like this is here, and it sounds excellent. You'll notice there are some remixed tracks from older Street Fighter titles as well as some other Capcom games you might recognize. It would have been interesting to have custom soundtracks for this game, but I'm not complaining.

Replay Value-10

Here's where it really kicks in. 3 vs. 3 matches with friends never get old, same with singles. But with XBox Live, wow. Of all the XBL titles I own, this one gets the most time. You thought trash talk in Unreal or NFL Fever was rough? This is the ultimate trash talker. And there's no better feeling than backing it up after whipping some punk in the 2nd round. Anyway, this game never gets old. Ever.

FINAL WORDS

If you like fighters, get this. If you used to like fighters and are looking to get back into them, get this. If you have XBox Live, get this. It's that good.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/31/03, Updated 05/31/03