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| SNK vs Capcom SVC Chaos |
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| Written by Gary Flavell |
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Sunday, 17 April 2005
 Unbelievable. TWO rehashes of classic arcade beat-em-ups, both reviewed in the same night? Gary wishes he still had those rose tinted glasses.
Blimey, how time flies.
I remember pumping 20p’s into the old Street Fighter and King of Fighters coin-ops in the local Chinese take-away. I recall marvelling at the graphics. I tingle when I reminisce about the first time I beat Bison and the bell chimed, or first faced Goenitz in the ruined city. I’m grateful to Capcom and SNK for those stolen afternoons and for taking my pocket money, but at some point I had to let go - YOU had to let go.
I have racked my brains until my head thumped and failed to come up with a genre that spawns as many franchise titles as the beat-em-up. Either people love them, or the developers are insanely militant - either way, they keep coming. Undisputed kings of franchise are SNK and Capcom - King of Fighters in particular has more than 30 titles at the last count and I would imagine the Street Fighter series hitting a similar tally.
What can you expect from a franchised title, then? Well, each game should make an improvement on its predecessor in someway, that’s a given. While a better game might not be possible, each new title should maintain the quality and offer additional features and at least have a go at moving the genre on a tad. The Street Fighter series, for example, reached a stage where Balrog’s ordinary running-punch was eventually accompanied by two Hadouken fireballs. Now that is progress - albeit in a minute way.
So we are agreed then: new games within a franchise are supposed to improve on the last title. Fathom our bemusement, then, when we loaded up SNK V Capcom SVC Chaos - what we were looking at was the most basic menu imaginable. We’re talking black background and white shaded lettering. No worries, once we get into the game all will be well…not exactly. What we have is a brand new 2D (!?) rehash of the various SNK Capcom fighters with a variety of characters from previous titles. Then they’ve tweaked a game engine, probably Street Fighter II’s, to accommodate all characters - unfortunately the same amount of effort didn’t go into balancing the strengths of each set – The SNK fighters are noticeably stronger, easier to use and harder to defeat. I’m sure that this has nothing to do with SNK’s ownership of the game with Capcom, in reality, just lending it’s name. Perhaps I’m being cynical.
In Arcade and Survival we have two ridiculously archaic and run-of-the-mill game modes. You also have the standard two-player versus mode, which is acceptable, although a Net Play option would have been desirable.
Despite its unforgivable flaws SVC Chaos does offer something of an addictive game. It’s ugly, almost unplayable by today’s standards, but I kept going back for more. I’m putting it down to the comforting nostalgia it conjures - I’ll admit that there is nothing like watching Ken’s fist ignite as he unleashes a fiery Shoryu-Ken all over Sagat’s scarred torso sending him twenty feet into the air. Still, this is little comfort to those who have just shelled the £20 SVC Chaos will set you back, especially those who are too young to remember SNK and Capcom games in their full glory.
I understand that bad games are always going to be made, for what would we have to compare the more accomplished titles, and indeed the average ones, without them? The main issue here is not really the standard of SVC Chaos - but the complete lack of effort that SNK invested is what really grates. Preying on the affection, naivety and nostalgia of your key demographic is not only bad business sense but completely unethical.
Regardless of how bad I think SVC Chaos is, it will still sell - and SNK will most definitely make a profit. The legions upon legions of Street Fighter and King of Fighters fans will see that this is the case - they’re as much to blame for this as SNK. Granted, each person is free to choose to spend his or her money where they see fit - but if only that meant we never had to review it. Still, we can rest assured that those who do value our advice might steer clear of this insult to the gaming community.
So SNK this is a message to you – before you decide to produce another paltry piece of pulp that isn’t worthy of the ring from my coffee mug (which would be on this SVC disc if only I hadn’t snapped it in half first): please don’t.
Playing SNK Vs Capcom SVC Chaos, among today’s flash beat-em-ups, is comparable to watching Star Wars directly after the Matrix - cheap and shoddy. For all our sakes SNK: let it go. Everyone else has.
Score: 2 |
| Last Updated ( Sunday, 17 April 2005 ) |
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