East Meets East

If you're at all into fighting games, odds are you've heard of Capcom vs. SNK 2. Originally released in August 2001, CvS2 pitted 48 characters from the two most respected fighting game developers against each other in a vicious fight to the finish. Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 ports followed, and a mildly tweaked version even hit GameCube a few months ago. Things have finally come full-circle (or as close as they can come without another DC version appearing) as the game has landed on Xbox... and not without a few changes. They're mostly for the better, but does the overall package hold up to intense scrutiny? I'm going to open up my inbox to peril and say no.

Get Your Groove On

It must be said that CvS2 is a very intimidating game for newbies. If you're new to this sort of thing, your head just might explode from all of the options and permutations the game has to offer. Even selecting a character can be tricky. First you'll have to choose a "groove", one of six fighting styles that will govern how your character plays. C, A, P, S, N and K grooves are available, and each emulates the playing style of a major game or series from Capcom or SNK. For example, P gives you the parrying ability and single-level super meter of Street Fighter III, while S offers the manually-charged super meter of King of Fighters 98's "Extra" mode. If that just sounded like gibberish to you, then you'd probably do well to consult a FAQ or select a less convoluted fighting game.

After selecting your groove you'll choose between ACism and EOism. ACism puts your character into the standard arcade mode, and anyone with a functional brain stem should choose this. EOism is the "Easy Operation" mode that originated in the GameCube version. When in EO mode, a character's special moves and supers can be performed simply by pressing the right analog stick in a given direction. Unfortunately, EOism also condenses the standard six-button layout to two pressure-sensitive buttons, which makes the game unplayable at anything beyond the most basic level. EO mode is good for children and non-hardcore grandmothers, but not much more. Ah, you're finally ready to select a character. Brace yourself -- you've got a lot to choose from. No less than 46 pugilists are available upon initial boot-up, and odds are there will be more than a few you've never tried (or heard of) before. A good chunk of the major Capcom (Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Zangief) and SNK (Kyo, Iori, Terry, Geese) characters are present and accounted for, but there are a few too many duds in this cast. Kyosuke, Todo, Maki, Dan (duh), Chang and others are underpowered and usually not much fun to play. Where are Blue Mary, Leona or Goro from KoF? How about Urien or Makoto from SF3? If the cast can have no less than six boring Shotokan variations, why not some of these potentially more interesting characters?