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I think it's maybe an understatement to say that I'm a fan of Capcom fighting games. Pretty much my entire adoration for the genre comes from my first time playing Street Fighter II back in the day. As such, I've always identified most with that style of gameplay, character design, move-sets and so on. Which is not to say that I don't like other fighting game franchises or developers. It's not even to say I was ignorant of them 'back in the day.' Interestingly enough, I remember playing Art of Fighting (or was it World Heroes?) on a Neo Geo cab in a convenience store not far from my house around the same time. And I also had the SNES port of Fatal Fury in my collection right alongside Super Street Fighter II Turbo.

So then it's probably appropriate that in recent years I've also explored -- and gotten a lot more into SNK fighting games as well. As I mentioned I had certainly been exposed to SNK in the past, but to really tackle these games is daunting considering the sheer number of characters featured in the various games, spin-off's, sequels and crossovers. And while I've found a good handful of SNK games that I can continually come back to (and at least one solid masterpiece in Garou: Mark of the Wolves), I would still say that the six-button Capcom setup is preferred for me over the four-button SNK style.




But what if you're the opposite of me? What if you grew up playing King of Fighters annually with only a passing respect for the various Street Fighter games? What if you're parents really spoiled you and got you an AES instead of a SNES? Well for any of us that fall into either camp, we have this wonderful game to help us meet in the middle.

Capcom Vs. SNK is a perfect balance of  both developers' franchises. If you were to look at screens of Street Fighter III: Third Strike and Garou: Mark of the Wolves side-by-side, you could be excused for thinking they were from the same game. Here, that's sort of the philosophy. Surely competition can be good -- and over the years both companies have benefited from competition by pushing each other to constantly attempt to get the one-up on the other. It's only fitting that the combining of both sides would be so great.



Now it's important to note that at its heart, this is still a Capcom game (with SNK's answer being their SNK Vs. Capcom, sadly never ported to the Dreamcast). However for those of you Neo Geo fans thinking this means you'll have to get used to the six-button layout that most Capcom games utilize, fear not! You are actually given the option to choose which play-style (or 'groove') suits you best. Likewise the game can also be played in both regular and Turbo speed settings.

Graphically the game is top-notch, genuinely finding itself rubbing elbows with many of the system's finest examples of 2D fighting visions (the aforementioned Third Strike and Garou come to mind once again). The animations are fast and smooth, the backgrounds are ridiculously detailed, and each match begins with an impressive animation that leads right into the stage setting.




Now I hate to sound like a broken record but running this game through VGA is just astounding. Prior to the Dreamcast port I had played Capcom Vs SNK on the PlayStation and can honestly say they look like completely different games when they're running. This version looks and feels like you're playing an arcade game where the PlayStation port looks quite obviously like a PlayStation port. Though I suppose it's not really fair to compare the handling of such a game on such different hardware.

The music is just as compliment-worthy here, although that should probably be expected considering Capcom's fighter output at that time. Certainly folks would be likely to mention Third Strike and Marvel Vs. Capcom as favorite soundtracks from the genre.

And speaking of Marvel Vs. Capcom, I'm going to go ahead and make a statement here that could ruffle a few feathers: I personally think that the Capcom Vs. SNK games are better than the Marvel Vs. Capcom games. Seriously. Though in fairness I suppose it's true that I'm really not as big a comic book fan as some of you may be. In that regard there's probably way more SNK characters that I'm interested in playing with than their are Marvel characters.

And speaking of Roster, that is of course how many fighting games are measured. Including all the hidden characters, Capcom Vs. SNK sports a total of 35 characters to choose from across three different ratios. The ratios are an interesting tier system included to promote balance. Basically this means that it's possible to see matches where one player might have four characters from Ratio 1 against a single character from Ratio 3. This system certainly makes for interesting match-ups and breath-taking victories.

As if the game itself weren't enough, you've got two different end-bosses to make it through in Arcade Mode, as well as an insane amount of unlockables that will keep you busy for quite some time. I know I've been having a lot of fun experimenting with different characters  while unlocking various pallet-swaps. Though sadly, I've yet to figure out how to unlock Morrigan. If it isn't quite obvious from my long-winded post, this is a fighting game well worth your time. Highly, highly recommended!

 

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