If only the gameplay was more satisfying
Although SNK is looking back in prime form now with Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves on the horizon, that most certainly wasn’t the case 20 years ago.
The great GuileWinQuote recently released a fun and informative new video taking a closer look at the doomed crossover forever overshadowed by Capcom vs. SNK — SVC Chaos.
Coming after their bankruptcy and absorption by Playmore, SNK was in a really weird spot in 2003 when it finally released its first full arcade crossover fighter with its rival (not counting the NeoGeo Pocket titles), and as such, the game was built on a lot of weird decisions.
Some of them worked out into something uniquely neat, but plenty of others did not.
GuileWinQuote highlights some fun / interesting roster inclusions like Mars People, Mega Man Zero, Darkstalkers’ Demitri Maximoff, Shiki and the first playable version of Violent Ken though the more muted art style and re-worked sprites looked pretty wonky on some of the cast.
Take Guile’s hair becoming even more ridiculous or the Shotos having weird proportions next to the SNK characters for example.
The whole atmosphere of SVC Chaos is dark and moody in stark contrast to the colors and bombast of CVS. They never really explain why everything feels like the apocalypse, however — outside of a Chinese comic apparently that features Akuma and Mr. Karate standing on top of dinosaurs.
They also end up in heaven in the game’s arcade route and talk to God… for some reason.
Even with all of its oddities, SNK vs. Capcom could have still ended up a cult classic with a dedicated base if the gameplay was there, but GuileWinQuote describes the game feeling like a bootleg.
He says that attacks feel hollow and don’t really have much impact on hit or block due to a number of factors he delves further into.
There are still other redeeming and fascinating qualities in SVC Chaos that are often overlooked because of its (mostly deserved) reputation, but we highly recommend checking out GuileWinQuote’s video below to get a better sense of what did/didn’t work and why.