Gameplay
First of all, the first thing about CvS2 is that it feels MUCH more complete that CvS... everyone seems to have the majority of all their moves, if not all. I enjoyed the return of the additional two buttons also, makes for additional chaos possible.
There are no more EX versions of characters, just one complete version of everyone. Every character so far that I've played feels much better that before. (Sagat in particular feels like more of a contender now... hmm strange)
Now come the Isms, or should I say Grooves. These are really cool, and you can have a lot of possible combinations, so you can customize they way you play to fit your style. You get 6 grooves (C-A-P & S-N-K) which all have different positives and negatives (air blocking, rolling, dodging, running, dashing, etc...) You get two bonus grooves (Ex1 & Ex2) which are basically a “make your own groove” type thing. These grooves are completely customized by you, so you can make one with everyone you need if none of the included ones please you.
Graphics
Graphics are pretty much the same as CvS1, the stages are impressive, but when you first look at it, the low-res character graphics stick out in the same way as they did in CvS. After you play it through a while though, you really stop noticing it that much. Some of the older characters are using the same tired graphics from SFA2 still look terrible though (Sakura & Morrigan are the queens of this, they look the worst of the bunch)
Sound
The sfx are good, no complaints. Everything is clear and sounds as it should. The music is very blah. It’s the kind of music that even though it’s playing, you won’t really notice, nothing memorable about it. The announcer is of the babbling kind, like SFA3/RBS announcer. He goes well with the whole mega-tournament idea of the game. All in all, it’s well put together in this dept, but the music could be better.
New characters
Rock Howard - Plain and simple, this MOTW Rock. If you played him before, you should adapt very easily. Nothing new added, but he's fun to play as. Plus, we get to see the ultimate dream match Rock vs Geese. <IMG SRC="smilies/eek.gif" border="0">
Eagle - He reminds me a lot of Mr. Big in KOF96, it would have been awesome to have the two of them in there. You can be an annoying bastard with him he looks to be to poke at people with. Good job bringing him back from the dead.
Maki - At first, you will think of a female version of Guy. Going a bit deeper though, you will see she’s actually really cool. She’s kind of a mix of Guy with an air grappler. Her attacks can be sneaky and very fast, but it should be noted that her attacks tend to do very little damage.
Yun - Never liked playing him in SF3... he's still the same as he was in SF3, except that one of his supers uses his brother as part of it. I would have rather had Alex in his place. Nothing much to add here, as I find him boring to play as.
Chang w/ Choi - Imagine playing with Galford or say Cham Cham. That is pretty much how the Chang/Choi combo works. You send off your little buddy to do attacks for you, and you can use him to take the brunt of say a fireball or something. A nice addition to the roster, but I don’t see myself playing as them.
Haohmaru - Great to see this guy after his long absence from fighting games. He's fun to play as and will probably be a popular character. He seems to be missing his move from SS2 where he hits you with the Sake bottle, I loved that move. Other than that, he’s a strong character in the CvS universe.
Kyosuke - He makes a good transition to the 2d world. He has a good move set from RS which comes in pretty useful and he’s easy to use. Not much more to add about him though.
Athena - Haven’t bothered, as I never play as her. Still has annoying voice. <IMG SRC="smilies/rolleyes.gif" border="0">
Hibiki – Pulled her straight out of LB. Her attacks seem to be pretty efficient and deadly, a threat to some of better characters in CvS2.
Todo - I actually like playing as him, now that he has more than the sword attack and elbow he had in AOF1 <IMG SRC="smilies/rolleyes.gif" border="0"> He's kinda like the sleeper hit of the whole cast. Give him a try and you might be pleasantly surprised.
Joe - Not exactly new, as he debuted in CvS Pro. He is now complete, as in CvS Pro, they stole some of his moves from him. He has a new super that works kind of like a Raging Storm but with hurricanes, definitely a tough cookie.
Dan – Debuted in CvS Pro also, never really liked playing, and I still don’t. Capcom’s joke character finally gets to meet Ryo… too bad Robert isn’t around to show him a thing or two.
Boss Battles
They actually made it so you have to do well and use their point system to be able to battle the final bosses. If you manage to get enough points (GP, indicated in the middle bar over the time counter) you will fight either Shin Akuma or God Rugal. If you don’t do as that well, you will just fight a normal Akuma or Rugal. If you just end up with a low GP count, you won’t fight any real boss, just a final team of regular characters.
Both are pretty tough, but G-Rugal wins in both toughness and coolness factor (just wait till you see G-Rugal's intro, plus his voice sounds really cool <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0"> )
The subbosses are M. Bison & Geese who play just like in CvS, if you aren’t doing well with GP, you won’t fight them either.
The characters all seem to have endings, but I have no idea what they are saying since they all seem to be text based.
What’s Missing?
-Revamping ALL sprites… stop bringing out the same tired sprites from older games!
-More popular characters… I mean, where is Andy Bogard anyway?
-Music that you will remember after you turn the game off.
-I know it’s a fantasy game, but more storyline would be great! (Although I think it’s headed in right direction atleast)
Summary
All in all, it’s DEFINETLY worth the $50 you'll have to spend on it. It’s a much more complete game than before, and even though it’s still missing some of our favorites, it’s still a tight fighter. For CvS fans, I know you already pre-ordered this one, but for those who felt a bit burned by CvS, give this a second shot. <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0">
[edited to clean it up a bit, made it into more of a review for Bobak]
[ September 15, 2001: Message edited by: outsider ]
First of all, the first thing about CvS2 is that it feels MUCH more complete that CvS... everyone seems to have the majority of all their moves, if not all. I enjoyed the return of the additional two buttons also, makes for additional chaos possible.
There are no more EX versions of characters, just one complete version of everyone. Every character so far that I've played feels much better that before. (Sagat in particular feels like more of a contender now... hmm strange)
Now come the Isms, or should I say Grooves. These are really cool, and you can have a lot of possible combinations, so you can customize they way you play to fit your style. You get 6 grooves (C-A-P & S-N-K) which all have different positives and negatives (air blocking, rolling, dodging, running, dashing, etc...) You get two bonus grooves (Ex1 & Ex2) which are basically a “make your own groove” type thing. These grooves are completely customized by you, so you can make one with everyone you need if none of the included ones please you.
Graphics
Graphics are pretty much the same as CvS1, the stages are impressive, but when you first look at it, the low-res character graphics stick out in the same way as they did in CvS. After you play it through a while though, you really stop noticing it that much. Some of the older characters are using the same tired graphics from SFA2 still look terrible though (Sakura & Morrigan are the queens of this, they look the worst of the bunch)
Sound
The sfx are good, no complaints. Everything is clear and sounds as it should. The music is very blah. It’s the kind of music that even though it’s playing, you won’t really notice, nothing memorable about it. The announcer is of the babbling kind, like SFA3/RBS announcer. He goes well with the whole mega-tournament idea of the game. All in all, it’s well put together in this dept, but the music could be better.
New characters
Rock Howard - Plain and simple, this MOTW Rock. If you played him before, you should adapt very easily. Nothing new added, but he's fun to play as. Plus, we get to see the ultimate dream match Rock vs Geese. <IMG SRC="smilies/eek.gif" border="0">
Eagle - He reminds me a lot of Mr. Big in KOF96, it would have been awesome to have the two of them in there. You can be an annoying bastard with him he looks to be to poke at people with. Good job bringing him back from the dead.
Maki - At first, you will think of a female version of Guy. Going a bit deeper though, you will see she’s actually really cool. She’s kind of a mix of Guy with an air grappler. Her attacks can be sneaky and very fast, but it should be noted that her attacks tend to do very little damage.
Yun - Never liked playing him in SF3... he's still the same as he was in SF3, except that one of his supers uses his brother as part of it. I would have rather had Alex in his place. Nothing much to add here, as I find him boring to play as.
Chang w/ Choi - Imagine playing with Galford or say Cham Cham. That is pretty much how the Chang/Choi combo works. You send off your little buddy to do attacks for you, and you can use him to take the brunt of say a fireball or something. A nice addition to the roster, but I don’t see myself playing as them.
Haohmaru - Great to see this guy after his long absence from fighting games. He's fun to play as and will probably be a popular character. He seems to be missing his move from SS2 where he hits you with the Sake bottle, I loved that move. Other than that, he’s a strong character in the CvS universe.
Kyosuke - He makes a good transition to the 2d world. He has a good move set from RS which comes in pretty useful and he’s easy to use. Not much more to add about him though.
Athena - Haven’t bothered, as I never play as her. Still has annoying voice. <IMG SRC="smilies/rolleyes.gif" border="0">
Hibiki – Pulled her straight out of LB. Her attacks seem to be pretty efficient and deadly, a threat to some of better characters in CvS2.
Todo - I actually like playing as him, now that he has more than the sword attack and elbow he had in AOF1 <IMG SRC="smilies/rolleyes.gif" border="0"> He's kinda like the sleeper hit of the whole cast. Give him a try and you might be pleasantly surprised.
Joe - Not exactly new, as he debuted in CvS Pro. He is now complete, as in CvS Pro, they stole some of his moves from him. He has a new super that works kind of like a Raging Storm but with hurricanes, definitely a tough cookie.
Dan – Debuted in CvS Pro also, never really liked playing, and I still don’t. Capcom’s joke character finally gets to meet Ryo… too bad Robert isn’t around to show him a thing or two.
Boss Battles
They actually made it so you have to do well and use their point system to be able to battle the final bosses. If you manage to get enough points (GP, indicated in the middle bar over the time counter) you will fight either Shin Akuma or God Rugal. If you don’t do as that well, you will just fight a normal Akuma or Rugal. If you just end up with a low GP count, you won’t fight any real boss, just a final team of regular characters.
Both are pretty tough, but G-Rugal wins in both toughness and coolness factor (just wait till you see G-Rugal's intro, plus his voice sounds really cool <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0"> )
The subbosses are M. Bison & Geese who play just like in CvS, if you aren’t doing well with GP, you won’t fight them either.
The characters all seem to have endings, but I have no idea what they are saying since they all seem to be text based.
What’s Missing?
-Revamping ALL sprites… stop bringing out the same tired sprites from older games!
-More popular characters… I mean, where is Andy Bogard anyway?
-Music that you will remember after you turn the game off.
-I know it’s a fantasy game, but more storyline would be great! (Although I think it’s headed in right direction atleast)
Summary
All in all, it’s DEFINETLY worth the $50 you'll have to spend on it. It’s a much more complete game than before, and even though it’s still missing some of our favorites, it’s still a tight fighter. For CvS fans, I know you already pre-ordered this one, but for those who felt a bit burned by CvS, give this a second shot. <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0">
[edited to clean it up a bit, made it into more of a review for Bobak]
[ September 15, 2001: Message edited by: outsider ]
