365//365: Day 318 – SNK vs Capcom: Chaos (XB) [Comparison Series]

Everyone loves a good crossover battle, if its done properly. When Superman and Spider-Man had their first encounter, the results were less than stellar. Marvel would at least make up for that in the gaming realm by having Spider-Man and the Marvel universe take on the Capcom gaming universe in several fighting game crossovers. This was not the only instance in which Capcom collaborated with another company, as they worked with SNK, and they both made several fighting game crossover battles. Both companies had a hand in creating a stellar version of the SNK and Capcom battle, while also making a completely underwhelming installment as well. For this Comparison Series, we’ll take a look at the final fighting game released by each company: SNK’s creation, SNK vs Capcom: Chaos on the Microsoft Xbox, and Capcom’s version: Capcom vs SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001 on the Sony PlayStation 2. As always, on the final day, we will see who who in the battle of visuals, audio, gameplay and replay value, as well as the ratings for each title, and the overall winner.

Today’s focus will be on SNK vs Capcom: Chaos on the Xbox.

As evident with SNK vs Capcom: The Match of the Millennium on SNK’s Neo Geo Pocket Color, SNK was more than competent in making a highly successful fighting game utilizing various SNK franchises, as well as Capcom characters mixed in. Although it was on an underpowered handheld unit that featured two attack buttons, the engaging experience was a commendable success that was only derailed by the lack of an installation base of the handheld unit in the United States. While SNK fighters were never as widely accepted as Capcom’s fighters, the games themselves, from the King of Fighters franchise, right on through to the Samurai Showdown series, were not only playable, but rather enjoyable. Placing Capcom fighters into a crossover battle, featuring a visual style and gameplay structure such as King of Fighters, has immense potential.

Which makes you really wonder….how did we end up with such a load like SNK vs Capcom: Chaos?

A lot of the Capcom characters look really anemic. The SNK style of artwork just doesn't match up well with the Capcom cast of characters, save Hugo.

SNK’s visual presentation had never reached levels that would rival Capcom’s brawlers, but what they had did have a good flow to it, clean animations and some pretty unique character models as a whole. With SvC, while the SNK characters retain the similar look that’s been expected, nothing else about the graphics hold any appealing traits. The Capcom brawlers range from passable (Hugo) to completely ridiculous, and borderline appalling (Guile). The animation is still fluid enough, but the Capcom models, as well as the backgrounds, really do detract from the experience.

The audio lacks any kind of powerful punch to it.  Vocals on both sides are pulled off well enough, though the music and sounds in general are nothing special. The sound effects represent everything that they are supposed to, but they really lack that punch to it. The music is there, but doesn’t engage the player in any special way. It’s not poorly composed, but there’s no attachment or importance to it, making it seem like an afterthought if anything.

The four button control scheme doesn’t feel limiting to what each combatant can do. Throughout at least the King of Fighters series, the control scheme has worked well enough, and it’s no different with SvC. It’s inviting to both King of Fighter veterans, as well as legitimate newbies to the whole SNK scheme. The only thing that really stuck out like a sore thumb, literally, was how to perform super moves. While nothing convoluted like Mortal Kombat’s move list in general, doing quarter circle motions into half circle motions in the opposite direction, feels counter intuitive. These have been constants in the King of Fighters control schemes, and one can argue that a super move shouldn’t been as easily performed, but it really does feel a bit unusual going from two quarter circles and a button or two, right on to a half circle forward and then a half circle backwards and a button or two.

The two issues with SvC do have profound impacts on the overall package: the balance and overall satisfaction. Taking in consideration the boss characters as playable, the balance take a massive nose dive, favoring these characters in unfair ways. Damage a priority lies with these characters quite a bit. Taking bosses out of the equation, the “top tier” fighters left, are still too powerful. While it was the arcade version, I witnessed a Terry player gain a 60+ game win streak when the game was released in arcades years ago, abusing the same couple of moves over and over. These weren’t  garbage players either, as NY’s Chinatown Fair has tons of skilled players that play various fighting games that span decades. The top tier characters are godly, and the bottom tier fighters are pretty much useless, more so  than other fighting games.

It's almost like a joke inside of a joke is happening!

Then there’s the fact that SvC just isn’t much fun to play. Multiplayer usually adds an element of immersion and even depth to the experience, it’s just not something that is worth investing even the smallest amounts of time in. SNK fighting game enthusiasts would find a bit more incentive to come back and play a few rounds, but even still, the overall package lacks any sort of importance. It’s shocking to realize that a handheld unit with a limited color palette, an analog control stick and two action buttons can pull off this crossover of epic proportions much better than the arcade and console versions.

It’s hard to understand why SNK vs Capcom: Chaos turned out to be such a chaotic mess. The visuals are uneven, the audio is forgettable, and the lack of balance and replay incentives severely hamper the experience. Although Chaos did feature online play on the Xbox (before Microsoft decided to pull the plug on all original Xbox online capabilities) the game was so sad that no one really bothered to go online with it, mostly cause it really isn’t that good of a game. If you have a decent budget set aside for games and want to experience the polar opposite of what SNK vs Capcom: Chaos provides, hunt down an Neo Geo Pocket Color and pick up SNK vs Capcom: Match of the Millennium — a visually inferior game with a vastly superior overall package.

Check back tomorrow for the final part of this Comparison Series, as we take a look at Capcom vs SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001, the score for each game, as well as which game has the better Visuals, Audio, Controls and Replay!