By Joey Cuellar

September 1, 2000 |

Capcom has just released a new fighting game called Capcom Vs SNK. This game has mixed the traits from both games, and put them into one game. Graphically superb, this game comes into arcades sure to please many people that play capcom/snk games. It features 28 characters, and some time-release characters to come in the future. With this game running on a Naomi board, you can expect great stages and interacting background that will impress. There is a character for everyone, and this might be the next fighter that everyone will play.

In a unique twist of events, character selection is totally different in CvS. You are allowed 4 points to “spend” on your team. Characters range in a variety of points going 1-4. At the current time, only Ratios 1-3 are selectable. So basically you can have 4 Ratio 1 characters on your team, a Ratio 2, and two Ratio 1 characters, a Ratio 3 and a Ratio 1, or two Ratio 2 characters. Ratio 4 will come into play later, and I’m sure that it will only be 1 character selectable for Ratio 4. Ratio 3 characters had more defense and dish out more towards a lower level Ratio. Ratio 2 will do a little less and have a lesser defense, and Ratio 1 is at the bottom, doing little damage, and having little defense. However, the upside of Ratio 1 is quantity. You get to have 4 characters, if you choose a team with 4 Ratio 1 characters, and win with the basis of quantity over quality.

Not a new feature to the SNK series, each character is equipped with a roll of some sort. A roll is performed by pressing weak punch + weak kick. You may only roll forward and not backwards like the SNK series. You can react to a projectile by rolling behind it when you see the character throw a projectile, so it creates a mix up game. This will prove to be very useful in game play at high-level competition.

This Alpha 3 feature is back, but in a different way. The guard meter is hidden, and only warns you when your power meter is blinking red. It takes approximately 8 hard hits to guard break someone. The window for opportunity after a guard break is lessened now, so you have to be quick!

This game plays a lot like “old school” Street Fighter games. There is no air blocking, no dashing, virtually no air combos, so they are going back to old style Street Fighter. This could prove to be useful in later play, when jumping becomes involved. Most of the SNK characters in the game (all standard characters are listed on shoryuken.com CvS page) have lost their overhead attacks. This might prove to be fatal later on in game play, because of the mix-ups.

When you start the game, you are asked to pick a groove, either Capcom or SNK. The Capcom groove follows the same rules as the alpha series, by doing moves to gain super bars. The SNK groove, allows you to charge up the super meter by holding down the hard buttons (hard kick + hard punch). This mode also does more damage. When you are down to the blinking life bar, you have unlimited supers. But the downfall is that all of your supers are level 1, unless you charge up while blinking, then you get the level 3 super.

Non-Existent, Peach Out...Next.

Back to one button, stand next to your opponent and press forward + punch or kick. No more of the 2 button throws like the newer Street Fighter games. Definitely popular among old school players.

You would think Capcom would stand by their ground breaking 6-button layout, but they have gone to a Tekken-ish format. Go figure.

1 3
2 4

1= light punch, 2= light kick, 3=hard punch, 4=hard kick
This goes against standard the King of Fighters series with the line of button layout.

YES! These are back from the KOF series, and better than ever. Too bad some of them are in Japanese. To describe what a taunt is, it is a special intro between 2 specific characters. For instance, in CvS, when Chun Li, and Mai Shiranui, Mai comes out in Chun Li’s outfit, and starts saying something in Japanese, then she transforms costumes, and points at Chun Li, Chun shakes her head in disbelief, and gets ready to battle. Better than regular poses, right?

A standard point in any fighting game now, supers are back with a vengeance. Most SF characters have same supers from previous SF games, and SNK characters have same supers from KOF series, with those weird motions. In my experience, supers are now toned down, so they can actually be hit regularly now; so you can somewhat poke out of supers now. You have to be real careful when throwing out supers now if they are not in a combo.

In the KOF series, when you win a battle, you get some life back, to prepare for your next fight. Well the way it works in CvS, is that the faster you win, the more life you get back. So the reward for this mode, you are aggressive, you get more life back. Basically, they reward you for not turtling. You can earn up to 15% back, and as little as 1%.

There is a new feature when fighting the computer now, a groove meter, you get points for moves you do, and special moves get more points, as they should. Supers get you an “S” guaranteed , but so do some other special moves, weird feature. The scale ranges are D, C, B, A, and S. The closer to S you get the more points you receive.

There are 2 separate bosses, one for the SNK side and one for the CAPCOM side, if you pick Capcom characters, you boss will be Rugal by himself. Comparable to a Ratio 4 character. If you pick SNK characters, your boss will be Balrog, paired up with M Bison.

The game looks good. You never know, this game might end up part of a major tournament. So your best bet is to go to your local arcade, or buy it for Dreamcast and practice up. If this is anything like Marvel vs. Capcom 2, you might see 20+ more secret characters, which is sure to please everyone. I have included a new movie showing some game play and a guard break, so you can judge for yourself how good the game is. Merging games is always hard, so when you try to create a game with features of 2 games, you are bound to get some surprises, and some letdowns. It all depends on you. So go play the game and judge for yourself. If you have any questions, feel free to email me and I will try to answer to the best of my ability. Have Fun!

Mail me at: mrwizard@shoryuken.com