Welcome to the mark of the millennium tournament. This tournament will finally prove which franchise is the most dominate when they pit their best fighters against one another. The outcome of the battle all falls in your hands as everything depends on you. Will you fight for SNK or Capcom? So you've played CvS 1 and thought it was good right? Then what's so great about CvS 2?

CvS 2 is a pure fighting game that resembles the classic street fighter and the king of fighter series. This means that you wont see seventy hit combos you get from the Marvel vs Capcom series. CvS 2 requires strategy than full on button tapping because prediction is the key to winning the match. So lets get right into gameplay.

Before you are taken to the character select screen, you must first choose a groove that fits your taste. The groove system in CvS 2 is greatly improved from the first because you have more grooves to chose from. The six grooves are C, A, P, S, N, and K. Each groove has their own special abilities and moves. Example, K groove has the just guard system and the rage bar, while C groove has air block, roll, dash, and etc. Every groove is different and your character's strength will vary from groove to groove. (You must choose wisely.) After you choose your groove you are then taken to the character select screen. There are forty four fighters in all that range from all sorts of Capcom and Snk games. To name a few, Haohmaru from Samurai Spirits makes his appearance along SNK's best, Hibiki from Last Blade, Kyosuke from Rival Schools, and Maki from Capcom's Final Fight also joins CvS 2. So now that you got your groove down, then it's time you set the ratio value for your characters.

If you've never played the CvS series then the ratio system is going to be alien to you. The ratio system is like distributing power among your characters. You are allowed to choose three characters among the cast of fourty four. After you choose your characters you have to distribute the power levels. The total number you get is four so a team of three will have to have one character as a level two and the rest level ones. The higher the level the more power the character has. A perfect example would be having little Sakura as a level four and Mr Shin Akuma as a level one. Since Sakura's level is much higher than Akuma, Sakura will not even break a sweat as she breaks Akuma apart. (Of course if your skilled, a level one can be very scary.)

The fighting in this game is like all other fighters. You have your character's face icon on the left or right of his or her life bar, and your main goal is to completely deplete your opponent's life bar to win. You do this by using various attacks and supers every character posses. There are many different characters in this game so you should be able to find a few fighters than meet your personal style perfectly.

The graphics. This game is more flashier and has twice as many effects than CvS 1. The characters still remain in their low rez form so don't be expecting Guilty Gear quality. The background is now all in 3D and it really makes staring at the background interesting. There's this one level with rally cars flying over your fighters and that right there is really cool to watch. (Of course, don't look to long. Your fighting!) The super death animations are more flashier than ever. If you beat someone with a standard super then the screen lights up. If you get a Dramatic KO, then the screen burst with a bright white light and flames rise up to reveal the cool Dramatic KO sign. Effects like these really make playing this game a blast.

The voice and sound. Of course this is fighting game so voice and sound are important. CvS 2 has great voice acting and the sounds are great. Listen to Ryu scream as he falls to the floor after a devastating blow, or listen to Iori laugh like a maniac after he wins, the actors really did a good job by bringing their characters to life.

The controls. Many people may prefer the joy pad because it is a fighting game, but the PS2 controller is very comfortable and responsive. The moves in this game are very easy to do and since the controller is very responsive, you will have no problem at all pulling off moves.

Overall. This game is a good but not a perfect fighting game. The best thing about this game is you feel you bought two games in one. With Capcom and Snk together, you get the best of both worlds. CvS 2 is no doubt the best 2D fighting game to date on the PS2 and the arcade. With tons of characters and different grooves, you'll spend weeks playing this game.

Recommended: Yes