SNK vs Capcom -Beta Testing Report         -7.16.00

This report was created by the beta test version, 7/14-16. Changes may take place for the final completed version. Note: report written at 3am, no grammar/spell nor error check. Will be refined later.

Preface
First of all let's clarify that silly rumor- SNK is *not* developing Capcom's characters, and Capcom is *not* developing SNK's characters. As the copyright statement clearly states, Capcom vs SNK is soley produced and marketed by Capcom, with granted permission by SNK.

My guess is that the rumor spread since only SNK's artist's (Shinkirou's) work on Capcom character portraits have been released -and vice versa with only Capcom's Kinu Nishimura's artwork on SNK characters.

But actually, Shinkirou and Kinu both have drawn portraits for all the characters in the game... that is, Shinkirou did 20+ drawings, and so did Kinu- they're just not released to the general yet. In the game, when a player chooses SNK-Groove, the character portraits on his side looks like Shinkirou's. And if the player choses Capcom-Groove instead, the characters portraits on his side looks like Kinu's.

Graphics

Ok, next up.. my impression on the graphics.

The character select graphics are extraordinary. this is soley due to the artworks of Kinu Nishimura and Shinkirou, who did a superbe job in drawing the characters. Kinu'sKing looks very feminine and nice, Shinkirou's Guile looks very man-ly. I saw both artist's Yamazaki's. While Shinkurou's Yamazaki is the good old buffed up dood, Kinu's Yamazaki looks.. scaringly psychopathic and cool.

Now on to the games graphic.
At first, I was sweating at the character animation used in the game- seemed rather choppy. Also to note, while the backgrounds/stages in the game are not exactly exciting,they are drawn beautifully with many colors. The character sprites just don't match with the background.

But even with those two major flaws, it does not take too long to get used them... after 10-15 minutes of playing, it will seem natural. The 1 frame jiggly guard animation won't even be noticeable!

If anyone has played Street Fighter Alpha 3 on the Playstation, they should have no problem adopting to the graphics in Capcom vs SNK (CvsS). That's right folks, the character graphics seem extremely similar.. especially since the Capcom side of the characters in CvsS seem like they have been re-used from the SFA3. But that isn't the only reason why the game seems similar to PS version SFA3; CvsS has the same polygonish projectiles and special effects- Harouken looks like transparent polygon effects, and so does flame effects.

CvsS also generally has the same kind of frame animation as SFA3 on the PS- rather choppy. This I suppose, is to cut off on development time to create 28+ characters. One of the worst actions is when a character guards. The guarding motion is only about one frame (compared to the 3-5 frame of putting the arm up in other games), and in place to give the guarding effect, the character jiggles back and fouth for an instant moment, like there's an earthquake happening right below him/her or something.

Interestingly, some animation sequences such as Iori's Aoi Bana's (fireflower) shooting motion is excellently animated. Capcom also didn't go cheap and cut off on pre-fight sequences- in fact, most of the characters have totally new sequences, and there are also character-to-character sequences such as Ryu & Ryo, Kyo & Benimaru.

Capcom also took time and didn't make Max Supers look cheesy. In example, Iori executing a Lv3 super won't finish off the opponent with re-used animations of multiple explosions like in KOF99 or KOF2000- he actually has extra new frames, where he'll fling the opponent to the ground with both hands, and waste them on the ground with blasts- not identical to KOF97's chaotic Max super, but in a somewhat resembling manner.

Game System

Ok, now on to the game system.

The fighting system is pretty simple.. you got the usual power meter and the usual life meter, the usual timer and.. you beat up each other. Weak punch+kick to roll forward, forward x 2 to dash, back x 2 to backstep (no invincible time, I think). Down up to high jump, direction + a fierce attack to throw... all the usual stuff, no fancys.

The Capcom and SNK "Groove" only has meaning to the way that the power meter is handled, and doens't give characters any extra moves like "A + B to dodge" and stuff like in KOF's Advanced and extra modes. Capcom groove is SFA style and also resembles KOF99/2000's power system- you can stock up to 3 meters, and execute supers when you please, in whatever level you please. SNK groove on the other hand, is basically the way KOF's Extra mode was- fierce Punch + Kick to power up the meter, and when the life bar goes low and blinks, you can do infinite supers. Most players were chosing Capcom Groove, as even an SNK fan would usually pick advanced mode over Extra. Some rare number of users actually picked SNK Groove.. true SNK fans to the heart... or just people who didn't read the instructions too carefully and went by name.

The game's engine was definitely Capcom's, and SNK centered users seemed to have some problem adjusting to the timing of combos, especially when using cancels.

There was one more reason why SNK centered users may have had the lower hand against Capcom players, which is that not all combos and tactics from SNK games worked in CvsS.

In example, Mai's jump attack > feirce punch > dragon tail combo, does not exactly work in CvsS, since the dragon tail has a shorter hit detection than in SNK games. Kim can't hit the opponent with his Phoenix combo super if a character airs and uppercut by mistake about over half screen away- his dash doesn't go dashing full screen like in KOF- he slowly dashes about 1/3 the screen (this may sound bad, but wait until you read the section on Ryo). Some of these points may be fixed in the future. But for now, Capcom characters may have the upper hand since players know what to expect when using them.

Also, the game in general moves in the Speed of SFA3.. that is, very very slow.
Players used to KOF speed will be feeling like as though they're playing a shot from the movie "Matrix" or something, when a projectile is coming their way... especially if the opponent decided to pick "normal speed".
Very slow.

Ratio system

The Ratio system may seem confusing to some people, so let me describe it a bit more here.
Basically, all the characters in CvsS are- according to Capcom, ranked in strength. Either Capcom was trying to add spice to the game, give fame to the bosses, or just decided to find their version of a solution to the eternal problem of game balance... whatever the reason, this system is interesting.

Characters known to be the center of attention in games- the Main characters, are all Ratio 2. This is like.. Ryu, Ken, Terry, Iori.. etc etc. They have average attack power and average defence.

Characters known to be "on the side" such as Vice and Blanka, are Ratio 1. They eat up more damage than Ratio 2 characters, and do less damage when attacking as well.

Characters know to be the Bad doods waiting at the end in all of those fighting games we've played in the past, are Ratio 3. These are characters like Sagat and Geese... they do the most damage upon hit, and also eats less damage than the other two Ratios.

The ratios don't tell how useful the character's moves are, or what kind on priority their moves have.. just their raw power and defence in general. Say in Example, a Ratio 3 character gets hit with a fierce Shoryu-ken. That will only take about 1/8 the full life bar at most. On the other hand, if a Ratio 1 character gets hit with the same move, they can lose nearly 1/5 their life bar.

What makes this system very interesting is that... some teamups are completely impossible, such as Terry + Geese.

With the system explained, here are examples of how people picked their characters.

On average, most players either picked two Ratio 2 characters, or one Ratio 2 character and two Ratio 1 characters. It was rare to see someone picking four Ratio 1 characters (and for good reason- see below), but even more rare to see people picking a Ratio 3 character.

Some players thought that 4 is better than 2, and tried to gang up on players picking four Ratio 1 characters. Such players quickly realized... Greed can lead to pain. The round begins, and a few feirce punches can determine the round. A real pity, sicne the most interesting and unique characters are usually Ratio 1.
Note for future players: only try 4 x Ratio 1 characters if you feel up to a challenge.

About only one person per hour during the beta testing picked a Ratio 3/ boss character.
The boss characters are extremely hard to knock out. While Iori's Lv3 Super can easliy do 70% damage on a Ratio 1 character, on a Ratio 3, it barely does 50% damage. Unfortunately, it seemed that boss characters needed skill to be used- especially since they aren't the usual projectile and Uppercut character. Most users playing with bosses lost their character in one round. BTW.. one more point: boss characters tend to be a tad bigger than others.

While it would be a success to Capcom had the beta testing made me talking "picking ratio 3 characters are worth it!", there's something stopping me from doing so; some of the characters in Ratio 2.

In general, the Ratio 2 characters look nice, but they're also boring when it coems to tactics- they have the usual projectile, and Anti-air attack to plummet down the opponent. However, what makes Ratio 2 extremely disgusting is the existance of Ryu and Iori.. especially Iori. If it were not for these two characters, the game would be much, much more fun.

As mentioned Before, CvsS is veeery slow compared to other fighting game titles- and especially to SNK titles. Thus so, it is very easy to use anti-air moves. for Ryu and Iori -both with projectiles having short recovery time, this comes as great news. Ryu and Iori can shoot projectiles and wait for the opponent to jump, and then hit them with their anti-air moves, perfectly with no miss- since the game is slooow. The only way around would be to roll under the fireball, but likewise to KOF, it must be done with excellent timing and lots of risk- in most cases, opponents doing so became bait to throws, or even worse- Maiden Mashers.

In all honesty, I've never seen Ryu or Iori this strong in any other game. With just their projectiles & anti-air pattern, they overpower all other characters in the game. Especially Iori, since his anti-air has more reach to the sides, and also due to his ability to catch opponents in the air with the Maiden masher (Ryu's specials don't nessesarily make full hits to opponents in the air).

Basically, watching the beta testing of Capcom vs SVK was more like watching "Capcom&SNK vs Iori&Ryu". The message in this game was clear. "you want to play well, use Ryu & Iori. Cheese with patterns."

I dearly hope that they solve the cheese pattern problem, and more so... make the game move faster. This is one of the few games where you can see weak attacks in full motion.. this game moves slooow.

Stages

Stages in CvsS are stagnant, but well detailed. They do not change in between rounds, but they do have some different kind of spice, such as the pre-fight stage opening. In one stage, the game screen begins from an 8-bit Outrun type videogame, and then turns into a highway with flaming cars shattered all over the place.

In another stage- the Sakazaki Dojo of Tokyo branch, Takuma from AOF is rooting for the players, and there is a SonSon convenience store (remmeber SFA1?) on the left side. The stage/Dojo is in middle of being built, and when the player falls on the ground, parts of the wooden structure fall down. And in the middle of that stage is.. Edge, from Justice Academy, wearing construction gear and resting from his job in building the Dojo.

There is also a stage which looks like a NeoGeo land, with very well animated rain falling. And in the center of the screen, is Juubei Yagyuu from SS wearing a Businessman suit, occasionally taking pictures with a camcorder.

Music/Sound

The background music used in the game seem to be all new- that is, no arranged music from other games, or character themes seem to be in the game. Also, there are new voices made specially for the game- not all voices are new however: it is a mixture.

Characters

Ryu
While Ryu is supposed to be the good ol' orthodox character, he has become on of the worst cheeses in the game, due the his fireball > anti-air pattern, and the slow speed of the game. On an interesting note, Ryu's Lv1 Shinkuu Hadouken seems to be eraseable with a normal projectile.

Ryu has special pre-fight sequences with Ryo and Ken.

Ken
Ken has a new slip kick, but it wasn't usedtoo often.
Compared to Ryu, not many people picked Ken.

Chunli
Chunli's graphics seem to be re-used from SFA3. However, she does have some new motions, such as her power-up for SNK Groove. In addition, all of her voices seem to be redone from scratch, giving players something to look forward to.
Chun-li has her spinning Bird kick. However, her Kikou-shou Super is rather small, so those players whom got used to her too much in the Versus series- beware.

Zangief
Eternally spinning muscleman is bakc in CvsS, and he's pretty strong as long as the player knows what he's doing. Unlike the SFA series which was hard for Zangief to go near the opponent without doing his vanishing flat or jumping, thanks to the implimentation of Rolling in the game system of CvsS, Zangief can now piledrive the opponent easier.
One palyer had a 15 winning streak with him.

Guile
Guile, from SFA3. Not much to talk about...

Dhalsim
Likewise to the SFA series, Dhalsim can do both short + long attacks.
His new Super- the Yoga Volcanoe, is a downwards version of Yoga Inferno.
Dhalsim's teleport is very interesting.. instead of blinking into a white splash before teleporting like in SFA3, he now teleports gradually, thanks to the use of Transparency.

Blanka
A great Iori killer, Blanka can roll right aboveIori's projectile, hitting him even before he has a chance to recover. is new special, the"Direct Lightening" is a very slow and short-range rolling thuner, whereBlanka covers himself with electricity.

E.Honda
The only character that wasn't used during the Beta testing, E.Honda seems to be hated by Japanese Players.

M. Bison (Balrog)
No escaping from his real name, the announcer actually calls him "Mike Bison".
While not many players used Iron Mike, Bison is a very potential character. Even a player getting a 60 winning streak with Iori was afaird of Bison, due to his power and unexpected Buffaloe Headbutts.

Balrog (Vega)
The Masked Spanish ninja.
For the first time, Balrog can be usedwithout his mask! --That is, in addition to his iron claw, his mask can now come off during the fight (and be picked up) as well. I'm not sure of the effect to what the mask falling off will do- less defence power?
His Red Impactfrom SFA3.. may be unguardable, as one Beta tester was complaining.

Sagat
Tall. Scary. SFA's version.

Vega (M.Bison)
Perhaps the greatest surprise in CvsS (other than Vice + Rugal's Existance), Vega is not his fat-tub-of-lard self from the SFA series, but a re-drawn version based of the Classical, slim Street Fighter 2.
Vega is very manuverable in the air, and make an excellent ryu-clone killer.

Sakura
Same old sakura.. not much to talk about.

Cammy
SFA version... not much to talk about.

Kyo
Kyo in CvsS is not the 94 Based version with a projectile, but the 96 Based version with punches. He has both of his supers from KOF97, and has the same pre-bout in tro with Iori from KOF98. One of the most popularly used characters, together with Ryu, Iori and Ryo.

Iori
Iori is very well animated ans seems more snake-like in his pre-bout intros than in KOF.
Due to the system in CvsS, his Fire Flower flys as fast as a walking Zangief, as does all other projectiles in this game (ok, that's an exassuration, but it's nothing like the speedy flame in the KOF series).
Iori's Scum gale 's recovery timing is a bit different from the KOF series, any many players didn't know what to do with the move. On another hand, his weak punches were as fast as machine gun- players could just chain it on its own, and then combo into a maiden masher after 5-6 hits.

Iori has both his supers from KOF97. His Maiden Masher was often seen, and from observance-

Lv1- The normal finishing pose, with two hands in the front, grabbing the opponent and exploding them
Lv2- Finishing pose is that of Kotozuki-you (dash & hit on ground move), except he keeps the opponent faced to the ground with one hand for a while, making multiple explosions.
Lv3- Finishing pose is a bit similar to his MAX in KOF 97, as he flips the opponent to the ground with both hands and plumments multiple flame explosions into them.

Capcom seemed to have put in a lot of effort to Iori, and it can be seen in minor instances as well- in example, he now does the spitting victory pose facing backwards instead of forward. Iori in General, is well designed in CvsS . .. if it were not for him being the most cheesiest character in the game.

Terry
Terry has a number of new voices, and despite being his young self (not the old middle aged one from Garou), he can do his Buster Wolf Super.

Ryo
Ryo is his old Art of fighting self- that is, his projectile actually flys, and he no longer has that fighitng pose he's been stuck on since KOF96.

Ryo has his Aerial Projectile, and his Zanretsu-ken as well. His Hien-shippu-kyaku looks more natural and life-like than ever before (-actually to note, many of SNK character's moves in CvsS looks more natural than in KOF, such as King's Trap shot).

Likewise to Ryu's Lv1 Shinkuu-hadouken, Ryo's Lv.1 Hou-shoukouken can be erased with a normal projectile.

While Ryo was one of the most popular character during beta testing, he had one move which was a humiliation to all of Art Of Fighting history- His Dragon Dance Super. In KOF and AOF, Ryo's symbol- the dragon Dance, had him stop in motion for a brief second, then dash across the screen in an astonishing speed.

However in CvsS, Ryo now *HOPS* for a distance that can only be explained as "2 characters long". That is.. about 1/4 the screen or so.

Mai
Still Bouncy as usual, Mai has the same good old victory pos, but a new losing pose on the ground. Her new special is basically a powered-up version of her Musasabi attack. Unfortunate to say, most players who picked her were having a hard time in playing, as her main weapon in the KOF & FF series- the Dragon Firetail, have extremely short range and did not connect into combos at often cases.

Kim
Kim has a new intro where he kicks multiple wooden plates in the air, and he also still has his "I won't forgive Evil" pre-fight intro, as well as his shining teeth victory pose. Kim has his Phoenix combo (which moves sloowly to the opponent for a short range), and his aerial super as well.

Raiden
Raiden comes out in pre-fight with a Microphone in his hand.
He can shoot poison out of his mouth and may be a potential character, but rarely anyone picked him.

Vice
Vice is 98 base-and she may have new voices as well.
As a member of the Orochi, vice's Special throws emit a skull, even if not a super.

Benimaru
Looking somewhat more manly than in KOF, Benimaru has a new fighting pose, and a tatoo on his shoulder. Benimaru definitely has new voices, and he has pre-bout intros with Kyo "This is the main event!", and female characters.
Benimaru's Raijinken seems more like a punch with a jolt of electricity, more than shooting out an eclipse of lightening. His new special is a dash with lightening over his boady, but noone got caught by it.

Although Benimaru may be a potential good character, I saw his raikouken(Super) being stopped with a weak kick before it even came out, which I find is a bad sign since even Ryu shoots out his Shinkuu-hadouken if he gets hit in the middle of it.

Yuri
Yuri has New voices, one of which is a New pre-bout intro "Honki de iku cchi!" ("come on for real!"). She also has a new victory pose, which may look a bit like her perfect victroy pose from AOF2 but .. ... no...

Yuri is a definite potential character. Her Raikouken- upon a guard, leaves her moving even before the opponent has time to get out of the guard.
Unlike Ryo, Yuri's Projectile does not fly, and disappears in her hand like in the KOF series.

King
King comes out in pre-bout, wearing her had like in KOF99. But instead of throwing the hat forward and making it fly unnatually, King flips the hat and then kicks it backwards of the screen. In the game, she wears the costume from KOF96, with the same kind of fighting pose as well. King has more natural looking kicks in her specials, such as her Trap shot.
And no, she does not rip.. neither does Yuri.

Geese
The Great Geese howard, in his RB2 pose.
Geese has his Shippuken, Reppu-ken and Double Reppu-ken. I'm not sure about Ja-ei-ken.
His Counter throw command is backwards half circle + punch.
While all other character's special moves have been dumbed down in command motion, Geese's Raging Storm is still the same since that of Fatal Fury Special.

Yamazaki
Yamazaki has his Fatal Fury Style costume, but with normal moves resembling that of KOF97.
Thanks to the slow game motions in CvsS, Yamazaki's Snake arms are nowhere as effective, and can't hit opponents on a blind instant- the need to be used in combos. His anti-air snake arm seems to go in a higher angle than KOF/FF.. I'm not sure if his snake arms are cancelable.

Yamazaki's Projectile counter must be done with the projectile at very point-blank range, but again- thanks to the slowness of the game, a returned projectile is practically useless.

While players who chose Yamazaki had a real hard time trying to hit opponents with even a fierce punch (the range on moves and comboing timing is a bit different from SNK games), Yamazaki still has his Judgement dagger, his Drill super, and... a very recover-time free Guillotine. and the best part, Yamazaki still sticks his buttocks in the air in his lose pose.

Rugal
Rugal is back, and this time he fights with his cloths on, like in round one of KOF94!
Rugal comes out in pre-fight intro with his panther. His fighting style base seems to be from KOF98. Rugal's potentials are not know yet, but I for one hope he's an interesting character to use. .. his Kaiser wave seems to be eraseable with normal projectiles.
He seems to have a newly done voice(s).

Q & A s from the MMCafe BBS:

1)Are the Capcom characters in CPS2 style? they look like they are but kinda hard to tell..
---Yes, they are..

2)The backgrounds, they're 2D (as in sprites), right?
---The background are all 2D, and not polygon as in MvsC2.

3)Any details on what the new supers/DMs look like?
---Whatever I've told thus far, is all I know ofthe new supers.

4)Any pics, or can you describe what the character select screen looks like?
---The character select screen consists of three horizontal rows of characters- one on top is Ratio 1 characters, one in middle (selected defualt) is Ratio 2 characters, and one on bottom is Ratio 3 characters.

A few other pointers in the game-

1- Like in SF3, if the characterloses on tick damageor a weak attack, the slowly fall to the ground.

2- Some stages have nice effects, such as a Ghetto stage, where the back lights drop the shadow of the player characters on the brick walls of the stage.

3- There seems to be no Guard Cancel system in this game. I have no diea what the player is supposed to do when they're cornered.

4- At the current time, there seems to be no deep strategy in the game- just pick Ryu or Iori, corner the opponent, and keep doing projectile-uppercut to get a winning streak.

5- Again, this report was created by the beta test version, 7/14-16. Changes may take place for the final completed version.