Many people keep saying the 2D fighting game is dead. Games like Soul Caliber have taken their place. Well, news of 2D fighting’s death may have been greatly exaggerated, but if SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos is what is passing for the best of 2D fighters, many will be looking forward to the final obituary.

As the name implies, SVC Chaos has characters from classic SNK fighters like Samurai Showdown, King of Fighters and Fatal Fury battling characters from Capcom’s stable of games. Fans of these games are going to have a field day. So many gamers have dreamed of pitting fighters from different games and companies together, and this is their chance.

Sadly, the play experience does not live up to the premise. Most notable is the hit detection, which often seems to be way off. Nothing is more likely to elicit a thrown controller than finally nailing a great attack and seeing it do no damage whatsoever. This is going to frustrate many, many players.

Control is not so hot either. The fighting system is pure SNK: buttons in combination with directional-control movements. Having to use the less-than-stellar Xbox directional pad, in place of the arcade joystick this control scheme was designed for, is going to cause many players great consternation. If you have the original Xbox Duke controller – give it up. The white and black buttons are used rather extensively and I have not yet met the person who is really comfortable with heavy use of the white and black buttons in their original positions. If you really want to play this game, buy the S-controller. Or better yet, a joystick controller. It still might not be great, but it makes it much more playable.

SVC Chaos play modes run the usual gamut for a fighter. Arcade mode pits the player one-on-one against a series of computer-controlled adversaries that increase in difficulty as the gamer works his way to a final showdown. There is no limit on the number of continues a player may have when he dies, so it is possible to just power your way to the end. Versus mode pits two human players against each other for a quick brawl. Survival mode challenges the player take on as many computer-controlled rivals as he can before his energy bar is completely depleted. Practice mode allows the player to practice the moves that will win the battles in all other modes.

Added to the usual modes is Xbox Live functionality. Via Live, gamers can take on opponents all over the world. The usual Live options of Quick Match, Optimatch and Create Match are all supported as well as a ranking system to see how the player compares to opponents. Sadly the Live implementation is not the best and lag does occur periodically. That really throws the control combinations off.

Graphically SVC Chaos is definitely nothing special. The visuals look like they were created using the NeoGeo hardware … and that is about 1990 vintage technology. But since the games that featured these characters are from that era, they actually look right. Fans of the classic games that these characters are drawn from will feel right at home.

Audio is rather weak. Music is simplistic and the grunts, groans, shouts, yells, etc. as the characters battle are only adequate. It’s kind of a throwback to the NeoGeo era too.



Overall SVC Chaos feels almost crude by today’s standards. If the online mode weren’t in it, which in itself is no great shakes, I would swear this was a NeoGeo game from the mid-‘90s. And since this is a full-priced game at $49.99, gamers have a right to expect a little more. It shows potential, but it’s only half-baked for now.



© 2004 GameShark.com