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Review: Capcom vs. SNK |
You didn’t really think this was going to be the greatest fighting game ever did you?
OK, first of all, an apology. This review is a week late. And as guilty as I feel, the truth is, it isn’t my fault. No, blame lies with the supremely incompetent game store I (used to) use — who managed to get confused because the pre-order for this game went by the old name of “SNK vs. Capcom” — and when it was switched around they were lost, and decided to just ignore my order entirely, despite me paying a deposit. I would name them, but even bad publicity is still publicity – so they shall remain nameless. Idiots.
But I shouldn’t be insulting them, not when there’s so much venom to be directed at this game.
That’s right, the company that revolutionised the genre and the company who refined it to near-perfection and gave it soul have come together and used their combined knowledge and experience to make a bad fighting game.
It’s not just “eh” bad: I’m actually going to get rid of it when I’m finished here, that’s how poor I find it. And considering its pedigree and the fact the only games I really play are SNK/Capcom fighters — these boys have *really* screwed up.
It’s been a strange experience for me, I don’t mind admitting. After sorting out my order, and waiting a week while being bombarded with websites and newsgroups all talking about it, and showing off about it — I was really excited, as some of my posts on our Message Board will attest. When it finally arrived, I eagerly threw it into the DC and began.
Ugh.
No, that’s not really fair — I liked it at first, and there are a lot of things to enjoy when you first start out — the intro (which features stills from older fighters like KOF94 and SSF2T) is funky, and the whole high-tech theme is nice. The music (thumping electronic techno) fits the mood, and it’s slick and well presented. Even playing the game for a while yielded some fun.
Then the rot sets in.
The first problem I had with it was the SFA sprite rips. There are 11 characters in the game whose sprites are direct ports from the Streetfighter Alpha series. No reworking, no touching up, just dumping them in there. And they look absolutely terrible. There are a few new moves and animations (Blanka has two new supers, one of which looks like something you’d get in Streetfighter: The Movie) but the resolution is wrong, the style of drawing is different … they just suck. It’s such a big deal for me — that I don’t want to play as any of these characters, and feel embarrassed when I’m fighting against them. So I’ve effectively lost one third of the characters. If I wanted to play SFA: I’d play SFA, there’s just no excuse for such negligence.
With this horror in full view, I started to notice other faults … the music, which I liked when I started playing soon becomes incredibly tiresome, with little variation or relevance to the character. The voice acting (that which isn’t recycled from other games) is poor, doesn’t match the character and is way too quiet. The announcer is a robotic voice, which sounds like either Ned from “South Park” or Professor Stephen Hawking (depending on your education) It’s not too bad…but I won’t be talking along with him.
Then there’s the ratio system, in which characters are rated as either Ratios 1, 2 or 3. You have four slots on the select screen, and so can fill them up with any combination of characters (i.e R3 + R1, or 2 R2s) This has been criticised as a lazy attempt to artificially balance the game by making some characters weaker than others simply by reducing or increasing the damage they give and take. I agree with this. Picking a bunch of Ratio 1 characters is often incredibly frustrating, as you plug away for ages, only to realise you’ve only done a tiny amount of damage. Why bother with R1’s? The fact you can have four of them is a plus, but it just gets so boring, and makes the game feel even more bitty and fragmented.
The actual game engine itself isn’t too hot. It’s like a retarded KOF game — four attack buttons, rolling (abusable) — but without the finesse and mobility of that series. The combo engine has neither the flexibility of a SF game, nor the complexity of a KOF one. The hit detection feels wrong, things are very “floaty” and the hit impacts are weak and unsatisfying. And cross-up attacks suck. Hard.
The “Groove” system allows you to pick an SNK super gauge or a Capcom one. The Capcom one is basically A3s, and the SNK one is KOF96. And that includes the infinite DMs when your life is low. It’s nice to have the choice I guess.
The roster is fairly respectable (though why is there no Dan?!) – even if it is mainly KOF and SF. The question is, why do so many SNK character have missing moves? I understand it’s not a KOF game, but what the hell happened to Vice? I used to love her, now she seems so lame.
And that’s one of my biggest problems. It’s sort of hard to describe. The whole project lacks feeling. It doesn’t have any spirit — or consistency. Sure, SNK characters are having a big fight with Capcom characters….but so what? The SNK people don’t *feel* like SNK people – even though they look like them. They’ve been ripped out of their own world and dumped unceremoniously in a stiff, awkward, artificial place with no life or soul. They’ve lost that “coolness” they have in their native land.
Ever since this crossover was announced, I was concerned that one company wouldn’t be able to do the other’s characters justice, and while SNK did very well with the NGPC version, Capcom just haven’t managed it. The design and style just isn’t consistent. The little 3D shockwave pulses that flash up when you land a hit don’t look like they belong at all, and I dislike the projectiles for the same reason. Mixing transparencies and polygons into a 2D fighter can work, but it just fails miserably here. The combination of SFA characters and new sprites is a laughable decision.
Then there are just things that fall in the “random crappiness” category. The fact there are only two endings (one for each “groove”), the lack of blood in the SNK “tearing/slashing” moves, the way your character shakes when you block a hit, the (*UGH*) way you have to do DF+D to get a sweep from the Shotos, as Dwn+D does the medium kick….things like that.
It’s not a complete loss — I did say there were things I enjoyed — seeing the redrawn SNK characters was nice (it’s good to see them with walk animations of more than two frames) — some of them being particularly well realised. Iori and particularly Rugal stand out in my mind – beautifully drawn and well animated. It’s just they feel so wrong.
Some of the high resolution backgrounds are gorgeous. The little stage intros hark back to KOF94-96 and are quite funky. There are also plenty of cameos and references to other games, as well as plenty of character/character intros.
And there’s a “unlockable extras” shop that rivals, or perhaps surpasses the one in MvC2. You can buy secret characters (ph33r = Ratio 4), “EX” versions of existing characters (incarnations with different moves and supers), extra colours and new backgrounds. IF ONLY THE GAME WASN’T SUCH ASS!
I don’t feel like I’ve been sucked in by the hype of the past few months … I ignored most of it until a few days ago, and then I just checked out movies and images … The only expectations I had were born of the consistent quality of the two companies previous releases – but this? I can honestly say I never expected it to suck so badly. If I’d been told a week ago that my CvS review would almost universally pan it … I’d laugh. Oh my.
I wonder if people who are just casual fans of one or both companies’ work will find more fun in it than I have – I’ve tried not just complain because “it’s not SF” or “not KOF” — as it’s clear to me it was never intended to be those things — it’s a brand new game. (Albeit one with recycled ingredients that would make the makers of “Soylent Green” recoil.
As I said earlier — it’s not all bad – and there is a fundamentally sound fighter in there somewhere — but these pin-pricks of light in no way make up for the horrendous mistakes that have been made here. And although such inter-corporation collaboration should be praised, if this is the result perhaps they should stay apart from now on.
Play the Neo-Geo Pocket Color version.
