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Review: X-Men vs. Street Fighter |
God bless Capcom. Few companies have the reputation for good translations that ol’ Capcom’s got (Namco comes to mind, but that’s irrelevant). Knowing this, I was wary upon purchasing XSF on Saturn. The first two games on the Marvel engine (X-men:CotA and MSH) were kinda wishy-washy. Ladies and gentlemen, I was not disappointed.
X-men v. SF, for those of you who haven’t visited an arcade in the last year, incorporates the spazzy, button mashing joy of the Marvel engine with the faces and bodies of the SF world. Each player chooses two characters with whom they can switch out at any time in a tag-team style play. There are 8 X-men related characters and 9 chums from Street Fighter land, all with powered up supers, chains galore, and loads of frames flying everywhere. You’d think it would be tough for the poor ol’ “outdated” Saturn to handle, right? Wrong. It comes packaged with the 4-meg RAM cart, and the extra power boost makes a HUGE difference.
The graphics in this game will make you do a double-take. After the pitiful frame-loss in X-men:CotA and the so-so translation of MSH, I expected the worst. (hope you’re sitting down) There isn’t a frame missing from XSF. Every last frame and every last effect is in here. You OK? :) Not only this, but get this: No slowdown… unbelievably short load time (2-4 secs. between matches). If I had a mental image of what my perfect translation for this game would have been, this would be it. Every once in a while, I can’t help but think there’s a little choppiness in there somewhere, but it may be just my imagination.
Saturn is infamous for those poor, muffled, underwater voices. Apparently a RAM Cart and some decent programming makes a significant difference. Crystal clear voices, and remixed versions of the classic theme songs we all know and love. What more could you ask for?
Well, I’m not gonna discuss gameplay, mainly due to the fact that I’m very opinionated when it comes to the Marvel engine (I don’t need 75 e-mails about why XSF rules and why I’m a blah blah blah). However, everything that was in the arcade is here… big supers, double supers, infinites, long chains, infinites, push blocking, priority whores, variable counters, infinites. I think you get the idea.
Capcom has been a little stingy lately (Collections, MSH, and now this) with their neat extras. No exception. There are a few interesting ones: Ability to choose the same character twice w/o all the effort of random select, some funky new costumes (”The big Z looks more like a big SMURF!” – My reaction to seeing a flourescent blue Zangief), the ability to have your super meter at Level 3 for the entire match, handicapping, difficulty settings, turbo settings, and auto save (ooohhh… ahhhhh!). Mostly standard fare, which annoys me. A game like this has mucho potential for some SERIOUS options. Oh well.
Overall, this game is a magnificent translation. Someone over at Capcom must really love us. However, seeing this, it brings hope to this SF fan’s heart that an arcade perfect Vampire Savior and an arcade perfect MSH v. SF can’t be too far away.
Bottom Line: XSF ain’t my cup o’ tea, but you can’t ignore the sheer “touch of God” put into this translation. If you have a converted Saturn, FIND THIS GAME!
