SNK Vs Capcom - SVC Chaos is based upon the King of Fighters fighting system. This means that instead of the usual 6 button Capcom layout many are used to, SVC Chaos uses four buttons instead for light and hard types of punch and kick. Pressing hard punch and light kick will perform counter attacks whilst blocking. Dashes and super jumps remain intact, but rolling has been ditched. Special moves work in the same way any previous SNK or Capcom 2D fighter has done, although for some characters, certain moves have been removed and/or attacks have been altered. Like most 2D fighters in the past 10 or so years, when players fight in SvC, each successful punch, kick or block adds to the power meter at the bottom of the screen. As the gauge goes from Level One to Level Three, the effectiveness of each special move increases accordingly. After passing Level Three, the gauge goes into a brief “Maximum” mode, during with time each character’s special moves hit with devastating strength. On top of this, each character can use a special 'Exceed' move once per match when their energy is low. The 'Exceed' attack is a highly damaging move that can really turn the tide of a battle if it connects properly and is certainly one of the better new features SNK Vs Capcom - SVC Chaos brings.
The cast of characters, over 30 in total, maintains the King of Fighters vs. Street Fighter feel that the Capcom games had. Classic SNK characters such as Iori, Terry and Kyo from King of Fighters, as well as Samurai Showdown characters such as Genjuro and the gigantic Earthquake represent SNK. The Capcom side however has the most unique roster of characters. Along with the usual Ryu, Ken, etc, Hugo from Street Fighter 3 is here in all his screen filling glory, as is Zero from the Mega Man games. Dimitri from Darkstalkers is also here as is the Red Arremer of the little known Game Boy game Gargoyle's Quest.
Even Earthquake's size can't protect him from the cheapness that is Zero.
The single player game here is a pretty standard affair of you fighting through a series of opponents until the end. Interestingly, SVC Chaos includes an option after each defeat that enables players to influence the next battle be it by decreasing the difficulty level or reducing the computer’s energy bar. For those who like the challenge, there’s also an option to continue the game unaltered, but for players who are struggling to beat a certain enemy they will appreciate the option to tone it down. Multiplayer is of course the strongest part of any fighting game, but it's in multiplayer where SNK Vs Capcom - SVC Chaos fails the most, despite the addition of Xbox Live play.
The main problem is that the game suffers from serious imbalance problems. While Capcom vs. SNK 2 was hardly the most balanced game in the world, SvC Chaos is shockingly bad. The mini boss characters are way too strong. Zero has an easy infinite combo to pull out, which makes playing against him simply unfair in the hands of an experienced player or a harder CPU setting. Fighters like Shin Akuma can just flood the screen with air fireballs due to there being no air block whilst other characters like Akuma and Dimitri are blatantly quicker and more powerful than most of the others. While you could just choose not to be 'cheap' when playing human opposition, that simply defeats the point of what fighting games are all about. Fighting games are there to be learnt and mastered. Other fighting games like Street Fighter 3 or Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution are almost chess-like at times in the ways players learn each and every move and fighting style, but with SvC Chaos's overpowered characters you never have the motivation to learn anyone because you know you're only going to get beaten the second someone chooses Zero.
I am Hugo- NUMBER ONE!
Another thing I really don't like is the fact they've taken out the whole team aspect - the very thing that SNK is known for with their King of Fighters series, not to mention the previous Capcom vs. SNK games. It's all quite puzzling, really. But the final nail in the coffin for this game is the inclusion of some rather unresponsive controls. The special moves, especially the super combos, are very difficult to perform for some reason. The input movements required are similar to what's found in any other SNK or Capcom 2D fighter I've been playing for many years of my life, so I know it's not my fault that the controls don't seem right. Pulling off Terry's Power Geuyser has never really been much of a problem in any SNK game or in either of Capcom's Capcom V SNK games, but it, along with alot of other moves, seem much harder to pull off here.
Presentation-wise the game is poor too. The sprites are rather blocky and aren't that well animated, certainly not as good as the likes of Street Fighter 3 and even some of SNK's past titles. The backgrounds are mostly ugly with bland colours and very little in the way of animated movement. The music is equally unimpressive and instantly forgettable, especially when compared to likes of Street Fighter and Guilty Gear. While all this could be put down to the limitations of the Neo Geo, the later King of Fighters games look and sound far better than this.
On the whole though, the game is completely average. It retains none of the high standard of precision on show in Capcom and SNK titles of old, andit is useless for serious play, so the addition of online play is a rather pointless one. For those less serious about their fighting games the character imbalances aren't that important, but for those serious folks there are much better fighting games out there to enjoy. While the game is getting a cheaper release price, the far superior Street Fighter Anniversary Collection and Guilty Gear X2 Reload should fill the fighting game void for most.
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