SNK Vs Capcom: SVC Chaos - PS2

SNK and Capcom. It’s a rivalry as old as the history of fighting games themselves. King of Fighters 98 or Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike? Four buttons or six? Kyo or Ryu? Terry or Ken? Mai or Chun-li? Despite the competition between the two companies over the years, their fighting games have actually been rather similar: 2D graphics, counters, special moves, combos and flashy super moves. The quarter circle joystick roll and dragonpunch wiggle special move techniques are enshrined in both series, and beat ‘em up fans, whilst generally preferring one or the other, tend not to stick exclusively to titles from one house.

One imagines a kind of comradely respect between SNK and Capcom, in a world where so many companies would never again consider releasing a 2D fighting title. Indeed, as proprietary arcade, console and software developers SNK struggled to stay afloat in the changing games industry climate around the turn of the millennium, Capcom made the hybrid fighters Capcom Vs. SNK 1 and 2. The second game, released on PS2 after debuting on Dreamcast (though not in Europe), was well received by both gamers who had not played a Street Fighter title for years, and by the hardcore fraternity who relished a chance to school them. Favourite characters were brought together from the Streetfighter, Samurai Shodown, King of Fighters and Darkstalkers series amongst others, and could battle it out. It was possible to choose six different ‘grooves’ to play in, each a nostalgic allusion to the Super move systems of different games.

Since then, SNK has been revived as SNK Playmore, and now it is their turn to present an interpretation of how a fusion of the different schools might be achieved: The result is SVC Chaos. Just as Capcom left their stamp on the SNK characters in CVS2, this looks decidedly more SNK-ish. There are now four buttons again, instead of six. A total of 36 characters appear in game, 24 of whom are playable from the start (a democratic 12 from each developer house). All your favourite characters are included, along with some blasts from the past like Genjyuro, Shiki and Tessa. Gameplay-wise, the various three-man team configurations embraced by both Capcom and SNK have been ditched – now you must put your faith in just one character as you fight for supremacy. Dashing forward and back has been refined – a double tap forward or back sends your character into a short run that can be turned into an attack at any point. You can also use a Guard cancel attack to surprise vigorous opponents, using your energy bar in the process. The usual break falls, body tosses and taunts all feature, as does the new ‘Exceed’ attack, which can be used in desperation to turn a fight around when your gauge drops below half. The continuing success of games like this shows that people still look to 2D fighters for the combination of fast, split frame twitch fighting, glorious artwork and challenging gameplay, which few 3D beat ‘em ups can offer. more