Video Games : Capcom Vs SNK: Millennium Fight 2000

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Rating: - Ah, Yeah!
It's been awhile in the making, and it could have been better, but Capcom vs. SNK is still my favorite fighter. 33 fighters in all (Capcom has the extra, of course), and yes, all the dream matches--Ryu and Ken vs. Kyo and Iori, Chun-Li and Guile vs. Mai and Terry Bogard, etc.--are just as fun as you'd think. Being the jaded gamer I am though, I'll whine about the flaws of the game first. My biggest complaint is about the absence of some characters. With the exception of Morrigan, the entire Capcom side is represented by Street Fighter characters. That's not bad, but, did Capcom REALLY think gamers would rather play as Dhalsim, E. Honda, Zangief, and Cammy over Mega Man, Strider, Arthur, and Tron? It's kinda hard to believe so. And as far as SNK goes, well... where's Andy Bogard, Krauser, Haohmaru, and Robert Garcia? These are main characters here people, and Capcom vs. SNK just doesn't have them. To top it off, EVERY SNK character was stripped of moves. What's up with that? Is Capcom jealous or something? Another major complaint is with the Street Fighters themselves. With the exception of Ryu, Ken, and M. Bison, all the Street Fighters look EXACTLY like they did in Street Fighter Alpha 3! .... Granted, graphics don't make a game, but it still annoys as they don't quite fit. They look downright cheap when compared to the SNK characters. And while this is a minor gripe, would it have hurt Capcom to put in some real endings to the game? Now, for the good points to the game. Well, first of all, it's Capcom vs. SNK. Any hard-core gamer already knows that this is a dream come true. To have Iori give his level 3 Maiden Masher to Ryu was something I've been dreaming about for years now. But of course, the game needs more than a license as its crutch, and Capcom, being the unofficial company for gamers that they are, knows this. The graphics are absolutely amazing. All the characters (excluding the pasted-in SFA3 characters) are extremely detailed. The backgrounds are enough to make you drool (they even have stage intros [SNK trademark]). My personal favorite was Akuma's stage. There's also lots of secret stuff to get in the game (more than Marvel vs Capcom 2). It takes forever to get all these secrets, but they are worth it. The music is pretty decent, too. Not being a fan of video game music (why listen to it when I can listen to the real stuff?), I must say really enjoyed a few of the songs (the stage music for M. Bison and Geese Howard was amazing). The control is exactly what you'd expect for a fighting game--nothing special. How good the control is for most fighting games, 2D in particular, depends solely on the controller design. And as most of you know, the Dreamcast controller isn't perfect (give me the Saturn or PSX analog controller any day of the week). The controls for Capcom vs. SNK aren't exactly in Street Fighter or King of Fighters favor--they're somewhere in between. Instead of the normal, six attack buttons that the Street Fighter series has, there's only four. And the SNK characters now play with a slightly more Street Fighter feel to them. Then, there's the much talked about ratio system. Personally, I don't mind it. The player gets four points to their selection of characters. Weak characters are one point, normal characters are two points, bosses are three points, and the hidden characters are four points. All this goes out the window once you get the secrets, but you still use if you play the arcade mode. You also get to pick between which groove you want--Capcom or SNK. Capcom's groove is just like the Street Fighter Alpha one, you have a super combo bar that levels up if you give or take damage so you can unleash you super move. SNK's groove is just like King of Fighters. Your bar levels up when you take damage, or you can can just do it yourself by powering up. There's also a groove point system. You get points by how you hurt your opponent and then get ranked. And as if all that wasn't enough, you get a training mode and a color edit. Another cool little quirk to the game is what characters do before they have a fight. For example, right before Ryu and Sagat fight, Sagat touches the scar on his chest. There's lots of these in the game, and my personal favorite was when Chun-Li fights Yamazaki. In the end, Capcom vs. SNK could have been much better...but as it stands, Capcom vs. SNK is a classic that every gamer should play. PS: SNK is better. Period.

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