Having these two companies fight each other just couldn’t get any better, right? Wrong! It did!!
Overview
With succession of their first battle, Capcom and SNK went back to the drawing broad to take the negative feedback from the first game and try to make it better suited for the fans’ delight. In one of the ultimate confrontation of all video games, Capcom vs SNK 2 is showcase to the public with high praises. With me doing this review, will I agree with the majority?
Graphics 9/10
All the fighters got some filtering done around their sprites and came out sharper. Of course, SNK got the Capcom treatment, looking more bad-ass then their usual selves, while Capcom once again got a little lazy and just basically rip most of their fighters with some bad transformation into the game. The sprites of Guile, Balrog, Sagat, and Morrigan still look ridiculously out of place. Ryu, Ken, Dan, Bison, and the new fighters were the only one who receives new sprites through Capcom. Chun Li, however, switched her graphs of Alpha to be her SF3:3S version.
The art work from both companies doing their rival’s people has the SNK people doing the best. Capcom’s drawings looked a little too sketchy and messy. I’m not saying its bad or something.
At least the fighting graphics got shinier in the colors. The fireball animations are a lot brighter and flashy and the after shadow effects look good as well. Within the battlefield, the stages do capture the tournament dream match feel. Done in 3D, they aren’t as bad as I thought they would be and the Capcom/SNK cast of cameos were kind of nice to see when you see the fighters in front of them. Although, I do feel bad for the one crowd of spectators in the Shanghai stage, who sat in the balcony box, only to have one of the very tall Chinese gates blocking their view! The ‘Dramatic KO’ fire blazed segment is amazing and will increase your ego if you’re the one who got the last hit and have a crowd around you.
Gameplay/Controls 9/10
The first thing you’ll see is that the groove system have expanded with four new grooves, ranging from the custom combo feature from Capcom’s Street Fighter Alpha series to the Advance bar taken from the KOF series, to join the original two meters. Every one of these grooves contain certain tactics inputted on your fighters, if you chose it. Some will let you run, some will let you dash, some will let you air-block, some will let you sidestep, and so forth. It’s not too complicating, so you’ll eventually find grooves that is right for you. The ratio system has return, but has now been fixed for a better game play experience. Your team is still made up of four ratio blocks, but with the option of going solo, in two, or as a three to a team now. The difference is that all the fighters have no ratio level restrictions, so anybody can be altered to be the stronger force of the group. For instance, you can get Geese, Sagat, and Akuma in the same team (without the 3 ratio stocks label that were put on them in CVS1) taking on an opponent who only consist of Vice, who took the entire ratio boxes to be a major obstacle to even out the strengths on both competitors. One change that people won’t seem to take attention to is the score system has been fixed to be more easier to read and understandable, that calculates points for and signals little signs onscreen about countering, special knock outs, and whatnot. The bigger score you have in the end could determine if you won the right to fight a humongous threat after the final team…maybe something even more sinister.
Fighting in this sequel feels a lot more polish and more satisfying. Sadly, it can’t hide the fact that some of the fighters on Capcom side has a ton of advantages over most of the SNK crew, some of who were given some horrible moves setups in their arsenal. Ryo’s jumping tiger chop special totally does not feel right performing it. As much as I like the idea of Todo finally being in a new fighting game, Capcom gave him some pretty useless specials. He was just better off with his supers and his “one special move”. This shows even though the groove and ratio systems have gotten even of both companies, the fighters, still as hell, didn’t. In the first game, Capcom fans (and even some SNK fans) felt the four button setup was quirky and unnatural, so when it came for the second version, they went to Capcom’s signature six button controls, which had a neater, nicer feel to it. All buttons fit right into the style of what CVS2 is. Even SNK fans will be okay with the layout. The special moves, super moves, charging up you meter, and parrying can all be done without guilt. It really is your fault if you got hit out of something and not being careful. Your button problems are only going to get hard when you try to perform those dial up fast super combos for guys like Rock and Hibiki.
Sound/Music 8/10
Capcom once again provide the fans with a great musical soundtrack, but it tips back and forth on the how good they sound. Half of the tracks are mainly ‘just there’ and have no lasting effect in your heads, while some songs, like the highly catchy stage in London’s “This is True Love Making….” and the jazzy raps of New York City’s stage. The music playing, when choosing styles and fighters, really achieve that dream match feel, like it’s an important real life event. The sound effects are fair as the special moves’ effects are really hard hitting and the voice acting is clear with no muffles or shoddy volume to dampen the mood. I have to give a hand to Capcom getting a believable announcer that’s sounds like he actually doing play by play saying English dialogues that makes sense.
Replay Value 10/10
Everybody from the first release has returned along with some other familiar faces from both sides new to the CVS universe. The new cast is undoubtedly a different diverse batch of fighters. Maki (Final Fight 2), Kyosuke (Rival Schools) and Eagle, from the original Street Fighter, got morphed into 2D fighting without any scratches as did SNK, who brings in some fan favorites like Haohmaru, Todo, and Hibiki. We all know that a game going with a team selection theme is going to have an endless fun amount of combinations to put your favored fighters in one team. However, what make CVS2 even more special is with the added groove systems, altering the number of people to a team, and the unlimited ratio assigned to certain fighters gains a lot more points in the replay status. A great title people can watch around the cabinet and place their coins on top, to wait their turn to get the chance of playing it next, making it a game that will never get tiresome when two people versus each other.
Overall 9/10
This is definitely a 2D fighting game you need to buy and keep in your library. Coming out in 2001 and a time where people get too easily brainwash into looking about graphics over game play (especially 3D fanatics), this is possibly of one of the last true 2D titles in the fighting game genre to stick. This battle of the two fighting game titans has “classic” written all over it as it should be. Any true person who enjoys all types of fighting games would not pass this one by.
- by Mr. Boombada
