SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom (Xbox) review "What SVC Chaos does is offer a few hours of fun for the hardcore fan. If you’ve never played any of Capcom’s better efforts then stop reading this review, go out to your nearest game store and pick up a copy of Capcom vs. SNK 2. If you’ve already played that awesome game and want to delve further into the series, then picking SVC Chaos may satisfy your cravings. However, if you wanted more grooves, a cool character ensemble and awesome bosses, then you will be sorely disappointed by Pl..."

What SVC Chaos does is offer a few hours of fun for the hardcore fan. If you’ve never played any of Capcom’s better efforts then stop reading this review, go out to your nearest game store and pick up a copy of Capcom vs. SNK 2. If you’ve already played that awesome game and want to delve further into the series, then picking SVC Chaos may satisfy your cravings. However, if you wanted more grooves, a cool character ensemble and awesome bosses, then you will be sorely disappointed by Playmore’s bland effort.

Truth be told, SVC does not really do anything dreadfully wrong but its inability to progress as a 2-D fighter just leaves it in the dust when compared to games like GGX and its previous incarnations. The complete desecration of the Groove system and the character roster being a little on the “meh” side were the biggest downers and along with the painful Survival mode and the rather pointless Colour Edit and Gallery modes tie up the biggest disappointment since those socks I got for Christmas from Grandma.

SNK/Playmore lost the plot when it came to the character selection. So, we have all of the regulars like Ken, Ryu and Iori but a few characters have been removed and replaced by a host of unknown and poor fighters. Take Geonitz, what a bastard. His primary attack includes creating a small tornado that divides the screen in half. If you even go near the guy, he summons up an impenetrable air block that knocks you back and keeps on summoning it until you somehow manage to wriggle through the barrage of wind, he’ll dash past you and do the same thing over again. That might sound tedious but, Sweet Jesus, you have no friggin’ idea just how annoying that one guy can be. Other characters in this crap collection include a horrid fat Heart rip off who farts and uses his lard to bounce up and down and a pathetically genre-translated version of the alien from Metal Slug 3.

Playmore tried to be sneaky here. When you first glance at the character selection, you’ll notice 24 characters available.

“Awesome, the box says 36 characters. Plenty of unlocking to do then!”

As I studied the cast of characters, I moved the selector onto Kyo and accidentally leaned on the L trigger.

“Huh, Geese? Where did you come from?”

Geese: Baha!

When I scrolled down with L pressed, I noticed that whole front row of SNK and Capcom characters changed when I held the trigger:

“Gay! This means I only have to unlock two characters now.”

In addition, to unlock these two characters: Athena and Red Errema, you have to fight constantly in survival mode. If you clear thirty-six opponents in this mode (a clear indication that the game was intended for the “hardcore” audience,) you will be able to play as the Heavenly Warrior Athena or the devilish creature known as Red Errema. Both have bizarre powers that go over the heads of other fighters such as the ability to summon massive golden mecha-lions or turning the opponent into a goofy kid. It’s a damn shame that unlocking and facing these characters is nearly impossible. The thirty-six-opponent limit speaks for itself but the random fight allocation of the arcade mode is a little unfair. Getting to the end without using one lifeline and getting the “disappearing act” ending is so bone-numbingly depressing that it can reduce a grown man to tears.

*wipes tears away* “Damn, I lost once in eight fights and didn’t even resort to the “opponent at 1/3 health lifeline” but I still get this crap ending?”

Screen: “ Ken disappeared. No one heard from him again!”

“Ehh, Fuck you!”

Real endings only occur if you do really well and topple either the unlockable fighters or the two bosses, Shin Akuma and Mr “Super Big Nose” Karate . If you have to fight the regular versions of Akuma and Karate then you get the afore-mentioned gay ending. Unfortunately, knowing what ending your going to get is almost impossible to work out. You just have to be a decent judge of your own skills; otherwise, you’ll be playing this game for ages and getting nowhere fast.

You only get one gauge, which generically rises with every special move you pull off. When it reaches it’s Maximum or maximuM, you’ll be able to pull off your Super combo’s or the newly included, exceed moves. These can only be used once in a fight, so if you fuck up, that’s it. Super Combo’s can be used as often as you like when the bar is like this. However, it deteriorates quicker if you use them. This Exceed move reaches out to the perfectionists and the fans so if you suck then it is best not to use your Exceed move until your foe is stunned. Not even a beginner could fuck that up! You can’t really edit this. You don’t get a Capcom version or an SNK version like you did in CVS2. You’re simply stuck with this rather generic method of achieving victory.

SNK/Playmore decided to bin the sexy anime style visuals that graced Capcom’s efforts. Instead of the brilliant and smooth animation, we know have blocky and rendered characters that look rather disgusting. The old and seedy graphics look dire on the Xbox and age has mercilessly stripped any eye candy value that these visuals once had. The 3-D clay-modelling look reminds me of Clay Fighter on the SNES, bulky and bland. I can imagine this looking rather hot on the Neo*Geo but considering what we’ve seen in other titles, they look old and rusted. Even the artwork on the characters looks cheesy and ugly; something that Capcom has had no problem with in other titles that include this feature. However, SNK/Playmore give us these horribly drawn portraits that almost resembles the character.

This game reaches out to a small audience of hardcore fighting fans but fails to provide anything new for the common gamer. It has a few minor gameplay issues, such as the dumb hidden character scheme and the crippling method of unlocking the secret warriors. It also promotes the fact that it’s solely for those who played KOF on their Neo*Geo’s years ago. The elitist arcade mode will always hand you the “Where has your character gone?” crap. I tell you where he went; he's ran away for being in this shitty game, duh!

Community review by goldenvortex (September 04, 2005) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.