Capcom vs. SNK for Dreamcast : Thumb Mashing at its finest

I am a HUUUUUUUUGE fan of the Street Fighter series. From its early humble beginnings - Street Fighter 2 - I didn't care for it that much. However, soon, Street Fighter 2 Turbo came out, and I bought it new from the store. It was worth every penny. So many characters to choose from. Such crisp graphics! It was the second of many classic-to-come SF games on the Super Nintendo system. I played the SF games on the Genesis and there simply was and is to this day no comparison.

Enter Capcom vs. SNK. I don't play this game as much as CVS 2, but after having played it tonight,I've learned to appreciate it. You have several modes to choose from : arcade mode, game replay mode,versus, training mode, color edit more and secret mode. The secret mode lets you unlock different costumes,etc. as you keep your points up. With color edit mode, you can change the colors,hues,etc of your favorite characters,save them and apply them to the game. Versus is your standard player vs. player game, whereas arcade pits 2 of your players versus 2,3 or 4 of the cpu's fighters. There are about 16 characters to choose from. Predictably, half come from Street Fighter(Ken,Guile,Ryu,Chun-Li,Zangief,etc) and half from the SNK series(Kyo,Iori,Terry,Mai). I'm not familiar with the SNK series, but I'm guessing from the name and the character Kyo that they are related to SF.

First off, the art direction in this game is superb. All of the levels look fantastic. Each features an introduction. For example, one has a quick shot of a car about to crash in a video game. The background then shows the car crumpled into a truck in the foreground, with a fire burning nearby and a parked ambulance. Another level features leaves blowing in the wind and rain falling. All done very tastefully and colorfully. Nothing objectionable as you might find in Mortal Kombat, with dead carcasses strewn all about the background. The backgrounds are all partly animated - not enough to distract your eyes from the fighting action, but just enough to catch your attention at the start and the end of each fight.

Before you start your game, you have to go through a set of options. First, it asks you to select a groove. I believe this affects the look/appearance of the characters in the graphics in-between rounds. It also affects the look of the character select screen. I prefer the SNK style for the graphics between rounds and Capcom for the select screen. Next, choose your game speed. Turbo makes your character react instantly, whereas normal has a more relaxed approach. Turbo is fast, but not too fast. Select your characters, and then the order you'd like them to fit in. As one character is eliminated, the other character pops up to take his place. First team that eliminates the other wins the round and the match. I found that the default difficulty settings were too easy for me, being that I am an experienced Street Fighter. I am most fluent with the moves of Ryu & Ken, so that's who I always stick with. Plus, Ken gets all the ladies, so that's something I aspire to. :)

The characters react quickly to any button presses. The movement feels fluid and you can always change which button controls what. Characters are clean and well dressed. Something I found curious was the small bar at the bottom of the screen. I'm not sure where it came from, but apparently it grades you on how well you fight each time. After each fight you can see the grade breakdown as well. Combos and super special finishes are all recognized and encouraged. They look great! Not as good as the fiasco that SF3 Third Strike and Double Impact make when you perform the special moves, but enough to let you know that it's special! The music in the game is a mix of techno and dance. Not a love it or hate it deal, but it gets repetitive quickly. From my experience with the game tonight, I would hazard a guess that there are only 3 or 4 short tracks on the game. I didn't notice if there was any VMU compatability, beyond the fact that the VMU shows the opening logo. I'll have to report back on that one.

Most of the menus are in english, with some in a foreign language(Chinese possibly?). The characters all talk in this foreign language, and the taunts and messages in between rounds are also in the foreign language. Very weird. Operating some of the menus can be tricky unless you can read both languages fluently. If you know the basics of the game, you can get into a game with a few quick presses of the A button. Loading times are virtually nonexistant.

Overall, this is a great game. I'm grading it 3.9 out of 5, rounded up to 4.