Yes, you read right. The title of this epinion is alot like my last 'Capcom vs Snk 2' review: shoddy. My last review was full of inconsiststancies, something that was made readily apparent to me after putting more time in the game. And, not being one able to sleep with the thought of leading people astray, I deleted it.

Well, I guess I like this game so much that I'll try and offer up a worthwhile review this time around. Capcom vs Snk 2 deserves more than its fair share of reviews anyway, so one more won't hurt.


THE TIME FOR VIOLENT FIGHTING HAS COME AGAIN!!!!!


Yes folks, it's that time again. Time to forget about all the 'just frame' Tekken 4 nonsense. It's time to stop salavating over shoddy Mugen hacks. Time put those shmups and rpg's away. It's time to put Devil May Cry on that dusty shelf.

It's time for Street Fighter...


Pretty over the top huh? Not really. Just remember..when was the last time you really got down and dirty with the trash talk, the quarter circle motions, the super cancels? When was the last time you joined a group of strangers, watched many of them beat the living tar out each other with characters you never even knew existed? When was the last time you saw someone using Ken in a manner that completely blew you away? These things only happen in japan :0

Spare me...

A good Street Fighter being released is like reliving those golden moments when Super Turbo had just burst onto the scene and everyone ohhhed and awwwed about the fantastic super moves. Things just haven't been the same since Alpha 3, and that game is old as dirt. The 'Three' series is too much of an aquired taste, and the VS series became a joke when MVC2 burst onto the scene.

Lets not forget the oh so pathetic Capcom Vs Snk 1, which had the dubious honor of being inferior to the Snk devoloped Neo-Geo pocket original.

That's why I consider Capcom Vs Snk 2 to be a very important game for Capcom. This is probably the most solid Street Fighter that I've EVER played. Better than the almighty SF 3 2nd Impact, which had been my favorite up until I played this beaut.


'LIGHT MY FIRE BABY'

Another year, another amalgamate. Thankfully, CVS2 totally succeeds. Do yourself a favor and forget that the original seemed more like a Mugen home creation than a proffesionally done endevor. Just forget the original even exists. CVS2 is obviously the game Capcom should have released in the first place.


The CVS series is yet another game in Capcom's vs line up. The series matches up many great Capcom characters with great Snk characters to create a dream match of a fighting game. Ever wanted to pit Kyo against Ryu? Ever dreamed of seeing Balrog hit Mai in her 'lava lamps'? How about using zangief to 720* Rugal into the concrete. It's all possible here.

The biggest problems with the original were that the characters just didn't get a fair shake. Almost every character in the game had issues. Whether there were tons of moves missing, attack frame inconsistancies, shoddy animations, whatever, something was just wrong. The biggest downside was the crappy EX characters. Almost every character in the game was split into two persona's, each with a different set of moves. It totally failed when you realized that the it would make more since to just give one character all the moves.

In CVS2, that is no longer a problem. No more EX crap. Two has fused in one, so all the characters have both their EX and traditional moves in one set. Not only does that make the characters meatier, it also aids the gamer in mastering his or her favorite character in a smoother manner. No more jumping back and fourth between EX types just because one move happens to be different.

Another addition to the characters is that many of the moves actually act the way they were intended to by the original creators. One example is with Kyo's Flaming punch super move. In King of the Fighters, his special always had auto guard in the beginning, meaning that any attack performed during the initiation of the super would be pushed aside and the super would hit. In CVS 1, Kyo's auto guard vanished into the twilight zone. He also lost many of his key QCF fireball punch combo's. In CVS 2, he's back in all of his glory, auto guard and all. It doesn't sound like much, but when you've been playing a character since the beginning of time, only to find that he's been bastardized, well I'm sure that doesn't sit well with anyone. It's not much of an issue in the sequel.

That's not to say that all of the Snk Characters and even many of the Capcom characters are perfect representations of what they once were in other games. They aren't. Hardened Snk Fans still need to heed warning: this is Street Fighter. CVS 2 is essentially a wilder version of Street Fighter Alpha 3, minus the stiffness.

Even some of the mighty SF's, like Ken and Gouki, have been toned down.

What's important, is that there is a now balance. CVS 2 uses the free ratio system. The free Ratio System allows the player to select anywhere from one to three characters. The more characters you use, the weaker they are. Unlike the first, there are no set ratio's, so if you think your Benimaru is god like, just give him a ratio 4 (one character) and be happy. No more of that being forced to pick a squad of three or four scrubs just to get two characters you like. I really love having the ability to put Gouki (akuma), Bison, and Rugal on the same squad. If i'm feeling especially cocky (98% of the time), I just use ratio 4 ken. This kinda freedom is especially appreciated this time around, and can lead to devestating rewards.


"THAT'S ONE GROOVY CHICKEN"

The grooves are back, and their ohhh so sweet this time around. There are six, count them, six grooves to....errr..groove by. In my last review, I said that I thought C groove would become the cheapest, most abused groove in the game and the arcades. That was pretty stupid of me. C Groove is just typical Street Fighter. The two level super cancelling that I ranted about isn't even all that serious, and actually pales in comparison to some of the diabolical techniques that can be pulled off with the other five grooves.

There is a groove for every style of player here. Whether it be parrying madness with K and P groove, running offense with S and N groove, or alpha style with A and C groove, you'd be hard pressed to find any problems in adapting to your style of play. There truly are no limits with the groove system this time around, and it sends the replay value through the roof. Imagine, mastering six seperate fighting styles for one characters. Can you say Demi-god?

Still, you can't groove without the characters...

"MY, THAT'S A LOT OF PEOPLE"

It sure is, here's your cookie :) This game has a lot of characters. In addition to characters from the original, there are a ton of new guys and gals to play with, enhancing the replay value of the game ten fold. I'll admit, some of these cats are obscure as hell. I still question the decision to actually take time in re-creating Eagle, a street fighter 1 character. It took me about ten years to realize that Maki was a Final Fight 2 character, and haohmaru just doesn't belong in this game. He's got a long sword for christ's sake!

However, I really like Kyosuke, though I loathed Rival Schools, which surprised even me. Choi and Chang are great as usual, and Todo simply blew me away with his strange style of fighting.

My favorite of the New characters in undoubtedly Rock Howard, son of Geese Howard, who plays like a mix of Terry Bogard and Geese. Rock is an incredible character who is much better here than he was in Snk's Mark of the Wolves, which shows that Capcom can make Snk character's decent when they really want to. Athena makes her capcom appearance as well, and she's as annoying and cute as ever. Other notables are God Rugal, Rolento, and Hibiki (Last Blade I think).


"SMOOTH AS A BABIES BUTT"

This has got to be one, if not the smoothest Capcom fighter I've ever played. Everything that I think up comes off at the flick of the wrist. Double Fireball motion supers are back in full effect, which scares the living daylights out of MVC2 fanboys. I love pulling off LP,FP,Shoryureppa with ken and having a MVC2 junkie try it and fall back screaming of broken wrists. What I really love about this game is that every combo SF freaks have been perfecting since Day Two (SF 2) is here working and in full effect. Even basics, like Rapid Fire Low kicks, actually work rapidly this time around, unlike in CVS 1, where you actually had to time the damn things (making them pattern based, and not rapid fire).

Capcom even made many allowances for fans of other fighting games, like giving Kyosuke and Morrigan a MVC2 like combo system. While the thought of getting hit by Kyosuke's air combo's makes me shudder, I at least like the fact that Capcom didn't totally alienate the VS system freaks that live for eighty hit air combo's.

All in all, the control is as close to perfect as Capcom has ever done in their fighters. This is actually the first SF where I don't have a list of complaints for hoaky engine problems, like prolonged button presses in Alpha 3 or kara cancelling in SF3rd Strike. Good job Capcom!


"MAKE-UP WON'T TURN THAT UGLY GIRL INTO A MODEL"

Sadly, I still think this game looks like crap. Now, I'll admit it looks much better than the original. Not only are the backgrounds hi-res, they're polygonal, and really cool. The 3d effects like the lens flairs and super explosions were awesome indeed.

Where the game still fails is in the sprite department. After playing Snk fighting games, as well as the SF3 series, and more importantly, Guilty Gear X, I have come to expect a certain quality when it comes to playing 2d fighters. I don't like blocky, jagged, poorly animated characters that have looked better in other games.

Let me tell you, I absolutely abhor SF alpha Sprites, or any ripped models for that matter. As far as I'm concerned, you can throw that trash out the window. When I see the a Zangief or sakura model that has been in rotation for at least 6 years now, I scream. When I see Chun-Li and Yun ripped right from SF3, sans animation, I cringe. The ultimate punishment is seeing Morrigan, a character who Capcom has been using since Darkstalkers, fighting with the same animations that she's been using for the last century. Why the hell won't capcom do the girl justice? Typical Capcom laziness I tell Ya!!!!!

And it's not just the old characters. Many of the new one's look sub par as well. Sorry, but eagle looks like a somebody's idea of Rolento's grandfather, and that aint cool. Kyo still seems to have about as many frames of animation as a tiger handheld game, and ryu and ken just look pathetically docile with their immitation SF2 stances.

Still, some of the characters look great, like big booty Maki (yes, I took the time to look, sue me), bouncy Mai, Iori, and Hibiki. In fact, with the exception of anorexic King, most of the females look fab, as do many of the Snk guys. Still, with the capcom charactes, it's a sorted affair.

Now I totally blasted Capcom's inept portrait art in the original, and I'm proud to say that Capcom has finally learned to draw. I still don't think the Cap portraits compare to to awesome Snk deals, but Cap puts up more of a fight this time. No more of that dirty water color look. The portrayls are very well drawn and offer a different way of looking at your favorite characters, unlike in the first game, where you could often find yourself loosing hours at a time in laughing at the dibacle that was Capcom Groove Kyo (He still looks too young here, but not nearly as bad as his last outing). Still, I don't think I'll ever understand why Cacpom insists on drawing the beautiful Mai with a forehead bigger than a garbage can lid, but at least this time around she doesn't look like a chip munk suffering from hot flashes...


"THOSE ARE SOME TIGHT BEATS"

Well, yes and no. The music is more along the line of MVC2 this time around, which is sad, because I miss the awesome techno of the first. There is one, count it, one song in this entire game that is memorable imho, and that's the shangai theme. I totally love that song. It's intense, upbeat, and very dark, like your typical SNK song. It totally blows away ever other song on this game. The other musis is the typical dance music affair stuff that Capcom's been ushering since Megaman 2...no surprises there. There probably won't ever be a fighting game soundtrack as good as KOF 98's or SF3 2nd Impacts, but for what's here, I can live with it.

"WRAP IT UP"

I'll just say it for those who may have missed it; I absolutely love this game. It's not perfect in every area, but games seldomly are. It has it where it counts, and that in the gameplay. With gameplay this good, it's easy to look past some cosmetic flaws. There are more than enough characters, and the control is about as good as SF can get. Based on that, I urge any fighting game fanatic to get this game. If you're a SF junkie, you'd have to be crazy NOT to buy this gem. A great SF is becoming a rarity these days, so you probably can't afford to pass this one up.


Besides, there three ways to play.

Arcade: Great!!!!!!
Dreamcast: Best!!!!!!!!!!!!
PS2: Somewhere in between!!!!!!

Seriously, the PS2 version has more load time than I was expecting, and the character's are pretty jagged, even compard to the jagged arcade sprites. Still, that's not an error on Capcom's part, but more because of Sony's decision not to put more VRAM into the PS2. When you realize that 2d-wise, the PS2 is only slightly better than the PS1, this is actually a grand achievment. Still, you always get way more modes to play with on the home version, so that's always a plus.


The best thing about CVS2 is that right now, it has NO COMP!! None! Tekken 4 is garbage, Virtua Fighter 4 is great but it's too complicated, and until Dead or Alive 3 rears its ugly head, this is THE fighting game to have, practice on, salavate over, etc....

GET IT!!!!!!


bye


Recommended: Yes