25/12/2000: Capcom Vs. SNK - Millenium Fight 2000

Title: Capcom Vs. SNK - Millenium Fight 2000 Genre: 2D Fighting Console: Arcade / Sega Dreamcast Producer: Capcom Japan Release: 6th September 2000 (DC) Recommended Price: 5800 Yen (DC) Rating: (Not very impressive)

The Characters: Capcom-side: Ratio 1: Sakura, Cammy, Dhalsim, Blanka Ratio 2: Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, Guile, Zangief, E Honda, Balrog Ratio 3: Vega, Sagat, M Bison Secret: Morrigan, Akuma, Evil Ryu

The Characters: SNK-side: Ratio 1: Yuri, Vice, King, Benimaru Ratio 2: Kyo, Iori, Mai, Terry, Raiden, Kim, Ryo Ratio 3: Yamazaki, Rugal, Geese Howard Secret: Orochi Iori, Nakoruru

The same old characters from the same old games. So nothing impressive here. Even the animation sprites for the characters were not improved by Capcom. I'd say this is the greatest weakness of this game- the lack of effort in making the characters more diverse and giving them a makeover in terms of animation. While in some ways the 'old school' fighter style is very much more welcome than the mess and chaos of the Versus series (i.e. Marvel Vs Capcom, X-Men Vs Street Fighter etc.) it is quite ironic to call this 'Capcom Vs. SNK' when in actual fact the characters are all from just two games- the Street Fighter and King of Fighters series. There have already been countless sequels and versions of both fighters and one gets tired of seeing the same old cast in this supposedly ground-breaking crossover game. There are also hints that the Capcom side is given some degree of advantage in the game, especially the main characters. There is some difficulty in porting the SNK fighters into a Capcom game and vice versa so there is bound to be some discrepancies. But I can't help but wonder if some of it is deliberate? Just look at the cover for the game. Ryu gets one on his cheek. So what? Maybe Chun Li can't kiss him for a week there, and that's the worse case. Kyo Kusanagi however has his left eye smashed in! Oh no! He could go partially blind there! ^_^

We see these two in a million and a half games all the time. Do we really still need them?

Iori Yagami's Maiden Masher looks wickedly cool in KOF96' but in CvS... What's up? Is he getting old?

So what's new in this game? To bring the best of both worlds together, Capcom introduced the Groove and Ratio system in the gameplay. Before the character select, the player gets to choose to go on a Capcom Groove which gives the 'level-type' power meter, or the SNK Groove where the meters are charged up and desperation specials are possible. Both has its advantages and disadvantages. Once at the character select screen, the player is given 4 ratio points. The team will have to be assembled within this limit. That means it is not possible to have a team of 3 bosses of 3 Ratio points each. Instead the player can go for a 4-fighter team from the Ratio 1 characters. With V$ points earned for playing the game and completing them within a set of rules, the EX characters can be 'bought' from the Secrets shop, where they will have a different set of special moves and attacks. There are also variable colors and stages available to be bought from the shop. Most importantly however, is that you can buy new secret characters but they are very expensive and difficult to get, requiring long hours of playtime if you're playing an honest game!

Capcom's Chun Li charges up in her SNK Groove while Ryu prepares to get whipped.

SNK girl Mai Shiranui gets into serious action with a Capcom Groove special attack.

There are many websites and FAQs available on the 'net that deals with gameplay, character profiles, moves and combos etc. for this particular game as it is very popular with the gaming crowd. So I won't elaborate about them here. I wrote my personal opinions about the game some time ago at the mshp messages page, so since this is appropriate here, I'll just make it my personal 'opinion' of this game.

From the MSHP archives:

26th Sept. 2000 - Everyone Rumored, No One Believed. You See... Its True! Yeah, its true but sad. I couldn't have said it better. The prospects were super-great and concept super-cool, but the real thing really came out short. Are any of you reading this a fight game fan? (sorry for those not familiar, guess you'll just have to put up with my ramblings for awhile today! ^_^) Then by now you should have heard about and played Capcom vs SNK, recently hitting the arcades and the good 'ol Sega Dreamcast. I grew up with Capcom y'see, Street Fighter being the first game to ever make any impression on me as a young kid and was aware of SNK since the days of Fatal Fury. However the distinction came when the Vampire series started on Capcom. On the SNK side my love was Samurai Spirits, but at the end of the day Vampire won the battle for my affections hands down. I wasn't too impressed with the Marvel Vs. series and even less by the never-ending King of Fighters, so I was losing the drive to keep up with the two game companies and slowly going 3D with the Soul Edge series (Namco) and most recently the stunning Dead or Alive 2 (Tecmo). Then it finally happened after a weird card game on the NeoGeo Pocket. An actual playable VS. game pitting Capcom against SNK fighters. Capcom was the company in charge of making it happen. So I got excited for a while... then reality sinked in. Vampire and Samurai characters - where on earth are they?!? Wheeee! Lookat all them COOL characters...! Errr.. wait... there's a mistake here. What?!? None of them made it to Capcom vs SNK?! Dammit! >_< Well, Morrigan and Nakoruru made it but its HELL to unlock them as playable characters. You have to undergo weeks of torture playing the same old characters over and over just to rack up V$ points to buy them! You can always cheat but my DC doesn't have a modem on its backside. Pity me! >_< So yeah, I kicked quite a lot of butts with Ryu, Ken, Iori and Terry but its all meaningless... I'm doing it for the love of Morrigan and she's still out of reach. Good things don't come easy. Anyhow, while Capcom vs SNK was dissapointing, the gameplay itself wasn't too bad, and the soundtracks and stages were decent. I think to renew my interest in the 2D fight genre, the immediate hope lies with Sammy's Guilty Gear X. Everything looks extraordinary and the first impressions were excellent. Looking forward to see what this Sol Badguy can do. Hey Capcom! Street Fighter and KOF fans got their share of the fun already, won't you make an exclusive Vampire vs. Samurai series for the sequel? Yeah, lets have Capcom vs SNK 2: Vampire Spirits or something. Take us to the dark side where blood and blades rule the land! Haohmaru up against Demitri as they get into an arguement between red wine and Sake, extremely cool bosses Jedah takes on Amakusa, Morrigan and Lilith slug it out with the 'Ruru sisters, cold blue Shiki stalks happy blue Lei Lei, B.B. Hood gets insane with Basara, firey-tempered Kazuki taunts the calm Donovan, Felicia and Cham Cham go wild in a furfight... what more combinations of scenarios and characters to make the greatest VS. game? Is that too much to ask? ^_^ And yeah, go ahead and let people buy Zombie Ryu for 20,000 V$ points. I don't mind... ~ Lucas. Give my Morrigan back to me! >_<~

It might be worthwhile highlighting some of the good points in this game. For one, the so-called 'old school' fight system from the pure Street Fighter and KOF series definitely makes this a more challenging and exciting game where combos require skill and button meshing won't help much. There are also some pretty nice stages with very nice music to get you into the mood of the game. On a fair and square level, it plays pretty well but really it is essential that Capcom gets the right mixture of fighters to keep it interesting. Like I mentioned earlier, it would be ideal to bring in the Vampire and Samurai fighters for the next CvS series (which by the way has already been announced by Capcom) but I pretty much doubt it would be the case. Well, nevermind. The point is please improve the choice and cast!

Morrigan Aensland- She is such a cool addition yet so difficult to get. Absolute torture!

The Final Fight Stage features excellent soundtrack and atmosphere for fighting.

If you're a Street Fighter or KOF fan ever since you can remember playing games, this is definitely a game worth getting. However if you are the type that prefers the Marvel Vs Capcom style, you might not enjoy this much. The Vampire Savior and Samurai Spirits fans are left out in the cold this time around though. Now that Guilty Gear X is out, definitely put that one on a higher priority on your list than CvS.

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