Overview
When SNK and Capcom first teamed up, the first offering we got from SNK was the excellent CFC, a card fighting game that was and still is a mile above the rest of the genre. But that wasn't what fans wanted. They wanted an SNK fighting game. And that's what they got, for the NGPC. That didn't stop it from being the best handheld fighter ever and IMO, better then Capcom's try at it.
Graphics 10/10
For the NGPC, these are great. I love them to this day. The characters are all like every single fighter on the NGPC, small versions of what they would appear in the arcade versions. You can tell who is who. All the characters have some nice details. The character art is exceptional.
Now let’s look at it when you're fighting. It’s amazing. This game pushes the NGPC to a new limit. Every character is filled with so much animation. I've seen games on the PSX with less animation then this, and that is saying a lot. The characters have only 3 colors but who will really care when it all come out so nicely. Then there are the stages. They are great. They are filled with so much detail. Some stages even have some background effects. The Japanese stages has the water against the mountain and the lights in the signs keep scrolling. Then there's the US stage on the train. The background is Mt. Rushmore and it keeps on going by. Beautiful stuff. The effects are standard. Your hadoukens, power geysers and everything else comes out nicely
Gameplay/Controls 10/10
The most important part of a fighting game and the part where I have trouble reviewing. The control is perfect. Spot on. The NGPC D-pad once again proves it’s the best when it comes to this game. The fact there is only 2 buttons only has 2 buttons doesn't hinder anything. A tap will get you the light versions and a hold gets you the heavy version. Doesn't take long to get it down, will became single nature eventually. It does it a lot better then SFII Revival too
Now let’s get to the meat of the game, the fighting. OK, let’s start with the basics. You have 6 modes to choose from at the beginning. Tourney (your single player mode), Olympic (more on that later), Sparring (Training), Vs Mode, Entry (a mode that lets you set up what you want. more on it later), and then record (your game data). The Tourney mode is where you will spend most of your time. The premise is simple. Go through a series of opponents, fight your rival, beat the guards (Akuma, Zangief and Akuma) beat the tandem of Geese and Bison, then go on to fight Evil Ryo or Orochi Iori (who you face depends on what company you are from, SNK go against Iori and vice versa). Now how you decide to play is interesting. You can go through the mode 3 ways. Single, Tag, and Team Modes (3).Single is basically your normal SF or FF match. Tag is your vs series(you can switch people on the fly). Team is KOF pretty much. Then you can choose your groove. There are 3. Average (basically SF), counter (basically KOF), and rush (cThink SS and DS). Chose the style that you want. the character selection in this game is great. You start off with 9 characters from each side and 4 unlock able from both. Unlocking characters is a pain. To unlock them, you must beat the Tourney mode. Once beaten, there is a 3x3 square with the silhouette of the character. Depending on the difficulty level, part of the silhouettes is randomly highlighted. You don't unlock the character until the entire portrait is complete. But with gameplay like this, how cares
Speaking of gameplay, let’s get to it. It’s perfect. Everyone has most of their moves from their arcade counterparts(Dan has the coolest taunt ever too), and they all are easy to perform. There is no overly broken character(except the last bosses, but what would you expect from Evil Ryu and O. Iori?)The matches are about 60 matches. The number of matches depends on how many people you picked. The game is a little slow paced compared to other games on the NGPC, but you will get used to it eventually. The fights will unroll like any other fighting game from there
This game would be great but what makes this game freaking awesome is the Olympic mode. Now Olympic mode is split up into Capcom games and SNK games. When in SNK, your "coach" will be Rimiruru and in Capcom it is Karin. The whole point of this mode is to earn vs. points, which are used to unlock another special move. The better you perform in an event, the more vs. points you get. The moves cost quite a bit and take a while, but the Olympic mode is quite fun you'll keep doing it after you got it all. There is quite a few minigames, so guess I’ll talk about each one
SNK games
Survival-Just survive till you die. Can you make it 100 fights. You recover a little health after each opponent defeated. All your opponents are Capcom guys
Time Attack-Try and kick 5 opponents ass as fast as you can. Self-explanatory
First Blast-Try and get the first hit on 10 opponents
Target 9-Looks like the Mars people have invaded again. You must shoot them on a 3x3 grid.
Blade Arts-YOU have to hit straw dolls with Jubei using up, a and b. The more you hit in a row, the better your score
Capcom games
Survival-Same as SNK. but this time your opponents are SNK dudes
Time Attack-Same. kick 5 SNK dudes asses as fast as you can
First Blast-same, but SNK dudes
Ghost Trick-YOU play as Arthur. You must move between 4 platforms and grab treasure from the ends. Between each platform are holes where Red Arremer(s) will jump and try to hit you. My fav game
Cat Walk-DDR baby. Gotta keep the chain going as Felicia. Basically press a, b, up, down when it reaches the line and try to keep the chain going. You can chose from 6 themes. Felicia, Athena, Dan, Nakoruru, Akari and Chun Li
This mode is what makes this game so great. When you don't feel like fighting, just play some of these games. Plus you can talk to the coaches, who give you some advice and tell you some little secrets. The special moves are really worth it and gaining points here is a lot easier then playing tourney over and over. Plus getting all platinum’s feels so good
Entry mode is basically where you can fix what you want. You can pick what fighter you want to use, what BGM you would like for that(you can use Terry with Dan's theme!), name your team when you go tag or team(Crazy Bastards for me!) and set up a win quote(I’d rather not right min here). Kind of neat feature. I can't find a single flaw in this game. So great
Sound/Music 8/10
Sound is pretty good for a NGPC game. There are a lot of old tunes here remixed for the NGPC. Some great ones are in here. I can't say much since it's just the same versions of it. I rarely listen to the music when playing so I can't say much. The sound affects are average though. Nothing special. There is no talking here. I would of killed for some voice saying some of the lines in here. That would be killer
Replay Value 10/10
Through the roof. Trying to get all the characters and special moves takes a while, and it doesn't really feel like a chore since its so damm fun. Playing as all the different characters is fun. Plus Dan has a mega super duper taunt that is so cool. It takes balls to do that in the tourney, and Dan does it with Style. No fighter on Earth can be played this many times over and still be enjoyed
Overall 10/10
There is a reason why this game alone warrants the purchase of a NGPC. There is a reason why this game stands as one of the best handheld fighting games, and IMO, much better then CvS. IF you find this game and can get a NGPC, pick up this game. If you are disappointed with this game, you are not a fighting game fan. It's amazing that 4 years later, no game even comes close to matching this game greatness
- by el_tri
