What happens when one of the greatest 2D fighters ever meets up with one of the greatest controllers ever? A mess.
Long live 2D fighters! Capcom brings the first (and hopefully not the last) 2D fighter to the GameCube, one which is the sequel to probably the most groundbreaking Capcom cross-over fighter ever, Capcom vs. SNK. For all intents and purposes, it’s a direct port from the arcade version, with a few graphical tweaks, and the most obvious addition of all, the new EO control mode, designed specifically for the GameCube’s fighting-unfriendly controller.
The game has an all-star cast of 48 fighters, from all of Capcom’s and SNK’s major fighting series, so matchups like Terry Bogard and Ryu aren’t uncommon. You can choose to do classic one-on-one matches, three-on-three games, or the ratio match, where you assign four ratio points among your fighters. You can give two points to two fighters, or two to one and one two the other two, or all four to just one bad-ass fighter. The more points someone has, the stronger they are. It’s up to you to choose.
Before you choose your fighters, though, you need to pick a groove. The six grooves in the game determine what kind of special meter you have, the types of special abilites you have (rolling, parrying, small jumping), and what level specials you can pull off. Each groove has its advantages and disadvantages, so you’ll need to pick one that suits your fighting style. Once you decide on one, you need to pick your control style.
That’s the big question about this game: the control. The biggest problems the GameCube controller has for games of this type are the small D-Pad and its unorthodox face button layout. However, if you pick the EO control mode (the game calls it GC-ism), this isn’t an issue, as neither of these are used. The Control Stick handles all movement. The C-Stick does all your special and super moves, where which move and its strength depend on which direction you press it in. The L and R buttons handle all of your standard kicks and punches, with a light tap being a light touch of the trigger, with a fierce or roundhouse attack requires you press it down all the way. It turns out this this mode is more of a gimmick than anything else, since anyone can just flick the C-Stick around all over the place and unleash every super and special they have at their disposal non-stop. This mode appears to be more of just a diversion for people that have no idea what they’re doing, since anyone competent enough to use the other control mode will use it instead.
The regular control mode, or AC-ism, is just like what you’d have on a PlayStation controller, except for the fact that it looks nothing like one. You can map any one of the six main attack buttons to any of the 7 main control buttons on the GameCube’s controller, with one left over for a taunt or a roll, or whatever else you’d like to assign to it. This is a nice help, because you can adjust the buttons however you like, but that’s where the convience ends.
If you’re familiar with the GameCube’s bean buttons, pulling off quick combos isn’t really a problem, but the special moves are. Needing to do things like quarter rolls and half rolls quickly with the pint-sized pad is an issue, even it is possible to do. Even though you can still use the Control Stick to do it all, it’s nowhere near as precise as a pad is, and considering that there are far better controllers suited for this type of thing, you’re better off using one. Another gripe with the controls is that with the L and R buttons, you need to press them down all the way down to the click to use them, which is a huge hassle when you really need to get off a move quickly. It starts to get annoying after a while.
The control is really the only major negative in an otherwise amazing game. The gameplay is fast (and can be even faster if you decided to crank up the speed in the options menu). All the different fighters, fighting styles and groove combinations force you to mix up your attacks and stay on your toes. The scoring system is the most complex one anyone has ever come up with, where you gain points for attacking, but lose points for being blocked or attacked yourself. (It’s accurate to one thousandth of a point. No one to this day knows what you do to gain .001 points.) Naturally, any fighting game is twice as fun if you have a human opponent, so don’t be surprised if you and a few friends play this game against each another long into the night.
The game looks very good for the most part. 2D sprites on a 3D backdrop looks very-well done, although it’s obvious some of the fighters had more work done on them than others (Haoumaru looks incredible while Morrigan looks like she’s still stuck in Darkstalkers), overall the crop is well animated. Everything runs smoothly and works to help a player see what’s coming, which is critical. Specials and supers are quite flashy, and are always fun to pull off for the looks of them.
The sound works, and in a fighting game, that’s all you can ask it to do. The music is the same for each of the different locations in the game, and since you’re usually so concentrated on the fighting action, it usually goes unnoticed. There is some extra remixed classic music in the training stage (like the original Street Fighter theme), also available in the game’s sound test mode. Sound effects tell you exactly what’s happening, with different sounds for punches, kicks, blocks, and others. Sometimes hearing something will tip you off to what’s coming, and the good sound effects help you do that.
In addition to all of that, there are a few other modes in the game too. The Color Edit mode allows you to tweak the colors of what your combatants wear (and, if you want, the fighters themselves). After you unlock it, the Groove Edit mode can create a custom groove, so you can take the parts of different grooves that you want and put them all into one. There’s also a Survival Mode, where you can take your best character and try to defeat all 48 fighters in one go, which is sure to keep you coming back.
So, is this game a buy? Because of the control, no, it’s not. Unless you’re extremely comfortable with the GameCube’s D-Pad, or you’ve never touched a Dual Shock controller, go ahead and get it, because what you’ll get is one of the better fighting games ever created. If you can somehow eliminate the control problems here, like by using a PS2-GC controller adapter or an arcade stick setup, this game no longer has any control issues, and you’ll be quite happy with it. If you can’t make the adjustments, though, you’re better off getting the PS2 version since it controls like it’s supposed to.