"An underrated game, especially for those with patience."

The [company] VS. [company] series has been a hit for fans of the fighting genre, such as Marvel VS. Capcom, or Capcom VS. Street Fighter, or SNK VS. Garfield, and a bunch of other games. Among these fighting games came SNK VS. Capcom, which there were alot more of for whatever reason. I'm not exactly what SNK did to Capcom that pissed them off so much, but eventually their rivalry made a spin-off card game. Naturally, this came as a huge shock to people who wanted a fighting game (especially for the DS, since it's short on them). Will fans enjoy this game? Will non-fans? Read on and make your spectations...

Story: 3/10

Hello kids, and welcome to 1st grade literature. I, Mr. SNK will be your teacher. Seriously, the plot of the game about some over confident red spiked hair kid named Taiki (or whatever you decide to name him), wanting to become the best Card Fighter in the world. Since we all know being good at a Card Game is the highest social status a man can obtain in the world, he's focused everything on the game, and ruined his grades, social status, and probably more. Our two supporting characters are Kaito, the tough cool guy in every Japanese videogame, and Rico, the token female in, well, every game. Our cast is invited to "Card Tower", a tournament sponsored by the cool cucumber Kaito's (they actually say this) father, and of course everyone's invited to boogie down, even the hero.

So, our trio of unstoppable card battlers arrive at the tower, and everything's going smoothly, until...GASP! The computer that controls the tournament goes all whack and "kidnaps" Kaito's dad despite the fact it doesn't have any arms. Seeing as how Kaito's dad programmed the thing I can't help but wonder how it turned evil. Anyway, Max brainwashes the residents of Card Tower, and plans to take over the world using card games. I'm not joking, somehow this computer is going to rule the world with trading cards. Normal trading cards. Our hero, Taiki, can't stand the thought of someone using Card Fighters to conquer the world (they say this, too), and sets out for the top floor of Card Tower to beat the ever loving snot out of Max and his cronies.

Along the way, there is little plot development. The characters do interact, but they're so two dimensional you might as well be having a chat with an instant message robot. All the plot twists are completely predictable, in fact, I beat I can spoil one right now and get away with it it's so mind numbingly obvious, but I won't take the risk. The game is badly translated as well, and I mean badly translated. Sometimes I really can't understand what the cards are supposed to do, and scratch my head in confusion. Sometimes it says to KO a character card. Unfortunately sometimes it's YOUR character card, which makes a world of difference. Grammar errors are on the rise, with "you're" and the like being used incorrectly like a storm of failed English grades. In the end, it's manageable, but there's so little effort put into the story that it comes off as way below average. However something is wrong with you if you buy a card game expecting a good plot.

Gameplay: 7/10

All righto, here's where things really matter. If you've ever played Yu-Gi-Oh!, you'll feel pretty at home with this game. Let's start from the beginning to make things easier for you...

You and your opponent each draw 5 cards. The cards can consist of Battle, Action, and Counter cards. To play any of these, you need "force" which are little color coded gems obtained through certain methods. Each card needs a different amount, and color, of force to play. Colors include Neutral (white), Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue, and a card may require 2 white force (meaning any color force), and a Red force. Or two red force and one white. When you satisfy these needs, you lose the force and play the card. To obtain force, you can either use a card's special ability, discard a card to get the same color force as that character's trait (what color card they are), or get some at the beginning of your turn.

Each character card has HP and BP. HP is their hit points, or how many attacks they can take before they are KO'd. BP is how much damage they do when attacking. Each character card has different force requirements, and is a different color card (this decides what kind of force you get when you discard them from your hand for force). Some cards have special abilities, that have game altering effects that can be used when they're on the field for a certain amount of force. Action and Counter cards are basically the special abilities some cards may have without being real character cards. Action can be played on your turn, and Counter are played when your opponent is attacking you.

Your turn consists of this: Draw card, unfreeze character cards (when cards are summoned or performed an action, they can't be used until your next turn), attack, and end. The object is to clear your opponent of their character cards by attacking back and forth, over and over and over, so you can attack their HP (or Life Points) and reduce it to 0 causing you to win. Here's the strange part though: It's actually FUN. It's sort of entertaining to see your favorite characters on their own cards, and laughing in your opponent's face when dominating them. However, the game puts the player who moves second at a huge drawback, and the attacking side is at a disadvantage too, because they lose their character cards from dying, or freeze them because they attacked, meaning when it's your turn they're wide open because the countering cards do not get frozen when they attack. There are some annoying gameplay details, such as the cursor becoming "stuck" on the discard pile when it's highlighted for some reason, or how when you choose an attack, and then press the "ATTACK!" button and see which cards you're attacking, but you can't exit out of it and are forced to attack anyway, making it pointless. Overall, I think it's simplicity makes it fun and addicting.

Outside of battles, you don't actually move, and just choose your targets on the touch screen and watch your character crawl to them. There are 21 floors in card tower, and even more if you include the fact you split up and either take the SNK tower or the Capcom tower. You can buy new card packs with the money you earn from winning battles. You beat all opponents on a floor, and then fight a boss. There are some other gimmicks that vary from floor to floor, but they're just that-gimmicks.

Graphics: 5/10

No 3-D detracts it from what might have been a 7/10. The card pictures look GREAT, colorful and smooth, but there's no consistancy in the art. Edgeworth and Mia Fey's cards look normal, but Phoenix Wright looks like a human being. Which is...odd... The screens are used appropriately, too. You can see the entire field on the bottom scree, and the highlighted card appears on the top screen where you can scroll through it's HP/BP, special abilities, and all that. The animations are repetitive, but quick and detailed.

Music: 5/10

I like the music, it's pretty techno and upbeat. The problem? There's not enough. I've only heard 3 battle themes so far. One for normal fighters, one for the boss, and one for a plot related character, and I'm assuming one for the final boss as well. It'd be nice if they threw in 5 randomly played tunes for the normal fighters or something.

Replay Value: 6/10

This can vary. If you have friends with the game, you can play with them through wireless only (no Wi-Fi, pretty dissapointing), but I doubt many a friend will rather play this over the other possible DS games. You can collect all cards, but there's a pack which gives you all of them. There is a New Game+, which is required to beat in order to see the true ending and final boss. So, yes, you must beat the game twice. The game is pretty long for a card battler, and it's a good thing in this case, since you're in no rush. Also, you can only save one deck and one file at a time.

Final Score: 7/10

This game appeals to people with a lot of patience. If you really like RPGs, or other card games, you'll probably like this. If you're a fan of the fighting series, then you're better off sticking with the fighting games.

In extremely important note: Some copies of this game are glitched and will not let you finish the game on a New Game+. Glitched copies are being recalled, and fixed ones are already in stores. Fixed copies have a grey cartridge instead of a colored one.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/06/08

Game Release: SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters DS (US, 04/24/07)