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Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO

If you liked playing the Street Fighter, Samurai Showdown, Fatal Fury, and Last Blade franchises in the arcades and at home, then you will absolutely love Capcom Vs SNK 2 EO. It boasts 42 playable characters, 3 modes of play, 3 on 3 team battles, ratio battles, and, of course, a multiplayer battle mode. Yes, if you like fighters - even just a little bit - this is the game for you.

You can play as all of your favorite characters from previous incarnations of each series. There’s Ken, Ryu, Akuma, Chun Li, Cammy, and almost everyone from the Street Fighter series. There are also lots of famous SNK characters from the old arcade games, like Haohmaru (Samurai Showdown), Mai (Fatal Fury), Hibiki (Last Blade), and some others that I have never seen before. It all combines to give you a total of 42 characters, an impressive amount by any standards.

Even with this many characters, the graphics are very well done. The levels are all done in 3D, but none of them are from either game, since the story is a little different. Basically, the game is about the fighters form Capcom’s series facing off against SNK’s many creations. There is a tournament to decide who the ultimate martial arts champion is (surprise!!) which comes to a head in Osaka, Japan, in front of the entire world, broadcast on TV.

Since the tournament is televised, the locales are a bit different. Instead of fighting in private residences or on top of roofs, you fight in more open areas, like New York City, in front of a giant beer-swilling robot, or in the middle of an extreme rally race in the desert. Wherever it is, the cameras are there, and they’re recording the whole thing.

The backgrounds are well done and well animated, but the characters aren’t anything to sneeze at, either. Even with all of those characters, they all seem to have retained a very good amount of sprite detail and almost all of their original animations. The characters from Street Fighter look exactly as they did in Alpha 3 for the arcades, aside from Chun Li, who is back to her traditional Chinese dress, rather than her striped sweat suit from Alpha 3. The other characters are just the same as they were in the last versions of their last franchise titles.

Since I haven’t played some of the latest ones, I can only assume that slight graphical upgrades were made to the special moves. They are now much flashier, almost like fireworks going off all the time, and the super combos are almost stunning at first.

. .

The super combos were a very good addition to the gameplay, and were done in a very clever way. When you first start the game and are about to choose your character, you have to choose first what kind of control scheme you’d like to use. The game offers two; one is the AC-ISM, which is basically what you would normally expect from a game of this type. The GC-ISM, however, has been specially modified to fit the Gamecube’s controller and make it very simple for a beginner to get into the game and start pulling off special moves and combos.

The GC-ISM control scheme is quite brilliant. You use the analog stick to move you character around. The more you press for jumping, the higher you’ll go. You can use the L and R analogs to perform all of your punches and kicks, by using the analog sensitivity of each. Press R down lightly for a light punch, or hard for a hard punch. The same goes for the L button, but with kicks. The real beauty of this is that the player can use the C-stick to perform special moves. The special moves are mapped out on the C-stick so that the special move you do is dependent on the angle you push the C-stick in. For Ryu, pushing straight ahead will make him shoot a Hadouken, but pushing elsewhere will make him shoot a fireball. This makes it very simple for someone who’s unfamiliar with the moves to get used to it and become good at it before making the switch to AC-ISM, which ultimately allows more precise controls.

The heart of the fighting system is the control scheme, but another major choice you have to make right off the bat is which groove you’d like to use. At first I just scratched my head and wondered what on earth a groove was, but I soon realized how it works. A groove is a system of fighting that allows you to perform certain special tactics, like mid-air blocking, and reversals. There are six grooves, and they are unique in their own right, with their own bars and ways of filling them up.

Choosing the right groove is vital to winning, and if you know how to best fill up your groove meter, you’ll be able to perform more super combos. Whenever the meter you chose is full, by whatever means (anger, special moves, combos, etc.) you’ll have the ability to perform one of your characters ultra combos, which could very well end the match. These combos cause serious damage, and look incredibly cool, sometimes yielding as much as a 27 hit combo just for one move. It can be just as devastating as it is rewarding, though, since your enemies are able to use these powers as well.

After fighting your way through a few tournaments, you’ll have the ability to make your own grooves. This makes a whole world of difference to everything, especially the multiplayer mode. After you find out how you like to fill your groove meter best, you can choose which one you want. If you’ve watched carefully during your matches which abilities are the most useful, you can compile the best groove possible to battle to your fullest ability. This really helps the replay value, especially in the multiplayer mode. Pitting your groove and abilities against one of your friends can turn into one the best fights you’ve ever been in fast, and if your groove is the best, you’ll have a definite edge.

You don’t just have to fight in the tournament, though, there’s also a survival mode, where the game will pit you against every character in the game with a set amount of health. This mode will get pretty intense, especially when you get near the end, and your finite health is almost completely used up and you don’t get any more health to carry on to the next fight.

So many modes, so little time. Even if you don’t like the way a certain character looks, there’s a very intuitive color-switching mode, where you can change the color palette of every character in the game to suit your tastes. It’s always more fun to play as Zangief when you turn him into the incredible Hulk… Believe me [Playing as Zangief is always the most fun anyway - Bane].

The music isn’t lacking, either, but it has taken a bit of a different path. In the regular modes of the game, the music is mostly a mix of rock, techno, or rap, with lyrics. I was somewhat surprised by this, since the actual game modes don’t feature any of the original songs form any of the games previous lives. You will notice your old favorites in the training mode, though, so don’t despair. I wish there was a sound gallery mode, like in some other games from a long time ago, but I’m pretty happy with what I got to say the least.

The sound effects, too, are top notch. All of the sound effects are carried on through the very latest game the character appeared in. They’re all perfect, too. Every character sounds excellent, and the noises that are made when you connect with a good hit are there, and they’re fine, too. Nothing excessively special, but good nonetheless.

The only thing I didn’t like about the sound was the commentator. I couldn’t believe that guy. He says some of the most inane things during the fights and while the game is loading your next fight. While loading, there’s a screen showing your next opponents and your team or player. Meanwhile, this announcer is yakking about the expressions on their faces and the intensity in their eyes, or saying, “some may say that this team won by luck, but that doesn’t matter to me.” Blah, blah, blah. He goes on and on ad nauseum, and it annoyed me greatly when I was selecting my characters are waiting for my next fight. I know it’s a small thing, but there’s so much good stuff in here, that I have to nit pick to really find some faults.

Final thoughts

Wow. I really love this game, and have to say that I’m thrilled that I got it. The faithful recreations of all the characters from the days when 2D fighters were their finest is nothing short of a miracle. The extra additions of the grooves and super combos was also a stroke of genius, and now that I look at this tiny little disc, I have to ask myself, “How did they fit it all in there?” If you are, or ever were a fighting fan, you’ll love this game.


Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Genre: Fighting
Platform: GameCube

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Available?: Yes

ESRB: Teen

Overall Rating: 47/50


Added:  November 20th 2002
Reviewer:  Natron
Hits: 431

  

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