Gaming Target - Xbox: SNK Vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos

Written by Ryan Genno on November 08, 2004

Full Review: Companies should forget about all these lawsuits, just fight it out!

Wouldn't it be cool to see characters from one game fight guys from another game?а A few years ago the dream came true for game fans when popular game companies Capcom and SNK decided to have a joint series. Their fighters would be able to battle it out to see who the best is.а It's a great idea and SNK vs. Capcom SVC Chaos is the third in this interesting company rivalry series.а This time however, this fighter plays more like a traditional SNK fighting game, which is probably why the SNK name is finally listed first now (before it was always Capcom first). Chaos had all the tools to be an awesome title, but see why this game doesn't take a punch very well.

Chaos is what it is and there isn't much of a story line here.а All the 36 fighters still have lots of charisma, and there is even some brief dialogue between one another before a one on one fight, but you better be a very quick reader though, because it disappears in a moments notice.а Remember I said Сbrief' for a reason.а Other than a few bits of this PG-13 trash talking, it always feels like your selectable fighters have no real reasons to be here.а There could have been so many possibilities for a cool all out war story line, but much like the last games in the series, Chaos just doesn't delivery.

Chaos does have a nice selection of characters though.а On SNK's team you can play fighters from games like Fatal Fury, King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown, and more.а On the Capcom side of things there are fighters from Street Fighter (OK, mostly Street Fighter II), Dark Stalkers, and a few others.а For me personally, it's great to see the return of Earthquake!а This guy is a 10ft tall, obese giant with a deadly chain and sickle that hasn't been since Samurai Shodown II (1994).а Definitely a very original character that I remember when I was younger - but his return came at a price.

Although SNK vs. Capcom Chaos came after the cult favourite Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO (also for the Xbox) you wouldn't know it after playing both games.а Chaos starts out with a cast of 24 fighters available, but with all the hidden characters there are a total of 36 altogether: 18 from the SNK side and 18 on the Capcom side.а Sure, that doesn't sound so bad, but let's compare the two games.а Capcom vs. SNK 2 had a larger list of 44 characters, there was the option to create your teams for battle, and as if all that wasn't enough, you could select from multiple game play types from other fighting games (Chaos has just one).а There is this saying that Сless is more' but not here.

The reason Chaos appears to be so outdated is because the original arcade game was done on SNK's Neo Geo hardware: a 24-bit system created way back in 1991 (you can still buy the Neo Geo cartridge for a couple hundred bucks by the way).а Unfortunately, that also means this fighting game plays a lot like the fighters from the 1990's.а One of my biggest problems with Chaos's game play is that no matter which difficulty you're set at, it always feels like the computer is cheating later in the game.а One really annoying move commonly done by the computer is the Exceed tactic, this can only be done once in a fight but it takes away about 50 to 75 percent of life.а Sure, you can do that move too, but it takes some timing to master the motions and it just feels so cheap.а It really didn't help when one of the secret end bosses can only be unlocked by defeating them in one special final bout.а Sure, it's a challenge and I'm sure I can somehow do it with enough training, but the desire just isn't there.

Since this is a direct port of the Neo Geo arcade game, there aren't too many bonus features for us Xbox owners.а There are your standard Arcade, Survival, and Versus modes (there are also a few fluff options to see artwork and edit colours, no one cares) here, but what fighting game doesn't?а Having only a few options is so 1990's and it really hurts the game's overall replay value.а It isn't all bad though.а Fighting the computer or your friends is fine, but the game's Xbox Live support is definitely a welcome plus.а If you have the service you can go to online Lobby to see if anyone from around the world wants to fight.а This adds something special to the game play, especially since there are not too many fighting games at the moment supporting it.а It isn't perfect since it takes a while to set up one fight, and you can't rematch right away, but at least there is Voice and Scoreboard support. Because the graphics are simple enough, there is also very little lag to bother the game play.

That moves me to how the Chaos looks.а The game's backgrounds are fairly well done and have a lot detail in them, but at the same time they just appear to be randomly generated locations and most usually don't match the character you're fighting.а It's the game's characters themselves steal the show.а Giant guys like Earthquake and Hugo are so gigantic that they each take up half the screen.а These characters even animate well too.а I love the way Hugo swifts back and forth and the female characters like Mai Shiranui and Chun Li are great pin up girls with plenty of sexy moves.а Unfortunately, all of this beautiful animation and art has been lifted from many their previous games.

Even though I said the game's stages were pretty generic, the background music is even worse.а Not only are these tracks boring and plain, but the tracks repeat way too often, so I'm thinking the developers ran out of memory at this point.а The sound effects work better because there is a great list of smacks and strikes, plus the fighters also have a great range of voice samples, although most of the fighters yell out their moves and taunts in Japanese and they're not translated.