Capcom vs. SNK (DC)

I remember first reading about this game in a magazine. I've been a fighting game fanatic since I was 12, but I'd pretty much been out of the loop for a while. When I was at the magazine rack, I searched for the current issue of Gamefan to see what was going on in the video-game world (really, the FIGHTING game world). I saw the words on the cover, CAPCOM vs. SNK- THE DREAM FINALLY COMES TRUE!-

and I nearly fucking passed out. I threw the magazine open and saw the review with an amazing (and pretty accurate) 97% score by it. I saw the platform was Sega Dreamcast, and right then and there I knew I would buy the system ( the last system I had purchased was a Playstation and it had more or less died, so I hadn't really played in months).

For MY review, read on!!!

The second thing I noticed was- cool- old school graphics (without the exaggerations of the Alpha series). Kinda' felt like I was playing Champion Edition with SNK characters. It was nice to see new sprites for my old school heroes Ken and Ryu, and it was cool to see the SNK characters get the Capcom treatment. Of course, some SNK characters looked great (Rugal, Iori, Terry) and some didn't seem quite at home on Naomi (Kyo, Ryo, Yamazaki).

Overall, I really like the graphics, although I can understand some having problems with the somewhat (somewhat) pixilated character sprites.

Kind of a mixed bag, but I'm giving it a high score mainly for one reason- old school music. Man, what a great feature! I'm not too crazy about techno in general, and I was thrilled to see (hear) that you could unlock old-school music tracks for the stages. The voice samples are also well done- Geese and Terry sound great. Thumbs up.

Now THIS is where this baby really shines. As soon as I started playing, everything - and I mean everything- felt right.

I've heard endless bitching about the "shitty ration system", the "slow gameplay", the "unfair treatment of SNK characters" ( BULLSHIT, SNK characters can dominate at high level play and if it's just the WAY they play- HELLO- this is a fucking CAPCOM game!!!) but I love this engine with it's two grooves and wacky ratio system and all. It's all in the control and responsiveness, and this game runs like a charm.

Good line-up. Obviously, more characters could have been inckuded ( where the fuck is Andy Bogard?) but this game plays great with it's 33 characters. The pre-fight intro's are also nice (Iori and Kyo and Ken and Terry are tied fro my favs) and the game gels everything together in an ALMOST perfect way. More background would be nice.

It's been less than a year since I've bought this game and a lot has happened. For starters, Gamefan died an issue after I saw this review. The DC has continued to give me new, incredible titles from SNK (King Of Fighters Evolution, The Last Blade 2, Garou- Mark Of The Wolves- reviews coming soon) and now I'm just days away from playing the monstrous sequel to this amazing, little game.

It was very important for me to write this review BEFORE I played the end-all-be-all super sequel. I wouldn't want that experience to take anything away from this gem- the game that got me back into this whole scene.

[Editor's Extra: For 2001, Capcom produced a DC-only update to CvS called "Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 Pro" which included a host of minor tweaks and two new playable characters: SNK's Joe Higashi and Capcom's Dan (both as Ratio 1 fighters). Unfortunately, this is only available as an import.

If you want to know more about the minor gameplay tweaks in CvS Pro, consult D. Greene's excellent FAQ. -Bobak!]