Capcom Vs SNK Pro

Written by Tom Clare in PSOne Game Reviews, Wednesday 10 March, 2004

When two tribes go to war!

With the arrival of Street Fighter EX 2 Plus in 2000, Capcom jumped ship to PlayStation2 development and took with it the legendary Street Fighter franchise. SF EX 2 was hardly the series finest moment, and looked like bringing an unsatisfactory end to the series PSOne escapades. However, a year and a half of silence and suddenly, against all odds, Capcom announced that it was developing a fighting game featuring the characters of two big companies (that's Capcom and SNK then), to be released on the good old gray box.

Capcom Vs SNK Pro is a 2D beat 'em up, with animated characters and backgrounds, plus some truly psychedelic effects. As with all 20-odd of Capcom's Streetfighter-based games, the aim of the game is to simply knockout your opponent by using the plethora of moves you have at your disposal - no matter how unfair it may seem!

Incredibly, Capcom Vs SNK Pro is so good, it manages to decimate the competition regardless of the console it appears on; it makes all other Street Fighter titles seem sluggish and unresponsive and suddenly Tekken is no longer quite so satisfying after playing this. Making Tekken feel ordinary is no mean feat, I can tell you.

Anyway, on to the game then and no self-respecting beat 'em up would be complete without an arcade mode. CVSP's is especially innovative, as aside from simply working your way up the fighting ladder, you get to make your own 'dream team' of fighters. For your team you have four points which you must spend. Weak characters cost just one point each, average characters take two, boss characters require three and the special demon-esque fighters greedily take up all four. So it is up to you how you balance your team - you could have 4 weak characters (safety in numbers!), 2 balanced battlers or gamble on one special character, and there are various other combinations too. It's superb fun trying out different rosters, and if you can master the trickier characters, you'll be near-on unbeatable.

Though teams can be formed, the actual fights are still one-on-one affairs. When one character is knocked out, he/she is replaced by the next member of the team, until there are no more left. It's perhaps a slight disappointment that you can't do tag matches or double-team special moves, but this may have been rather tricky to implement on the ageing 32-bit console.

On to the action - the first thing you'll notice if you are new to Street Fighter is that the moves are very difficult to execute. Whilst Tekken's moves need only a couple of button presses to deliver the goods, Capcom Vs SNK Pro makes you work harder for the desired results. Most moves actually work on the basis of making semi-circle movements with the D-Pad (e.g Left, Down, Right and all the diagonals in-between) and this can prove pretty tiring to begin with as results are distinctly hit-and-miss. However, keep practising and the rewards prove immeasurable.

Graphically it's stunning. I know many people would prefer to fight in 3D, with real-looking fighters in real-looking environments, but what Capcom Vs SNK Pro loses on the realism front it more than makes up for with speed and style. With the possible exception of it's own sequel, it is the smoothest and quickest-paced beat 'em up around; animation moves fluidly and despite the highly detailed backgrounds and furious action taking place, the game retains a great frame-rate. Super-special moves are rewarded with massive explosions of colour that fill the entire screen, and typically don't disappoint due to the sheer originality and 'wow' factor they bring to the game.

As well as containing it's own selection of passable tunes, there is a great option to switch to the music from the classic Street Fighter 2 - a lovely little touch if you remember the old 16-bit title. Sound on the whole is very good as each character has their own selection of lines and enthusiastic sound effects.

Not all fighters are unlocked from the start. By playing the various modes you earn currency that can be spent on new characters (mainly the best in the game - Akuma, Evil Ryu etc.) or upgrading the existing ones. Oddly, both in a review I have read and the games manual it would appear that you can also buy a variety of pictures for the Gallery. I have checked this several times now and it would appear that everything is already open for viewing. Pity really, as it would have added a little more to the lifespan of the game, but is not a major concern.

The strong point of the game lies in it's variety of characters - thirty of them in all. Mastering each and every one of them will take months, but there is surely a character to suit everyone here. There are slow-but-powerful battlers such as sumo-wrestler E.Honda and the Russian brick-wall that is Zangief; fast but weak ones that include the always-popular Chun-Li and Sakura; naturally there are all-rounders like Ryu, Ken, Morrigan and Blanka and finally we have boss characters who are be both quick and super-powerful (Vega, M.Bison) but usually have ludicrously tough-to-perform moves. The beauty of it all is that any fighter, no matter how unorthodox they may initially seem, can be deadly after some practice.

There aren't any flaws to speak of, merely disappointments of the 'it would have been nice if...' kind. For example, whilst Street Fighter Alpha 3 had more than 30 different endings to witness (one for each character), Capcom Vs SNK Pro has only two - one for Capcom, one for SNK. This coupled with the fact that it only has an Arcade, Two-Player and Pair Match (same as arcade only with two to a team) mode selection, it's lifespan is a tad shorter than would have been ideal.

In terms of content, it is suitable for anyone old enough to pick up a joypad. As usual, Capcom haven't seen the need to go OTT with blood, and i'm sure even young kids would love this thanks to the wide range of difficulty settings that can be adjusted accordingly.

I bought it for £19.99 just over a year ago, but have since seen it out and about for as little as £6 new, which makes this very good value although you may have to buy it over the net if you don't want a long hunt through the bargain bins.

Overall, in terms of gameplay this is about as close to perfect as a beat 'em up is going to get. As to whether you like 2D-animated games, well if you do, then this is a must-have title. If you don't, then buy it anyway because it's really difficult not to enjoy such a wonderful game. Smashing stuff.

Leave a Reply