The 2D fighting genre, which just a year or so ago I would’ve considered practically dead, has suddenly revived for no apparent reason. As a fan of the genre, I couldn’t be happier. A solid 2D brawler with Xbox Live compatibility should be a must-own, and now the market is flooded with them. The latest to hit the Xbox is SNK Vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos. It’s about as bare-bones as fighters get, and the fighting itself feels horribly dated. But hey, at least it’s online.

Like other Capcom Vs. SNK games before it, this pits the star fighters from each company against each other. Fanboys can finally determine who really would win in a fight between Ryu and Kyo or Chun-Li and Mai. (My two cents: Ryu and Mai.) The novelty of that, however, has long worn off, leaving us with just a standard 2D fighter. The cast is large and varied, though, and you’ll see some faces you might not expect, as well as all the standards.

SVC Chaos presents the player with a limited smattering of the same modes you’ve seen in every other fighting game: Arcade, Survival, Practice, etc. Arcade, as you might guess, is a simple series of fights leading up to horribly difficult bosses. On the plus side, when you’re inevitably defeated, you can not only switch characters if you’d like, but also give yourself a handicap, making the fight a little easier. Survival is the same as in any other fighter, pitting your character against an endless army of would-be champions. There’s also a Color Edit mode, which lets you customize your fighter.

The fighting itself is pretty ho-hum. Really, there’s no reason I couldn’t have played this exact same game ten years ago. It’s not that it’s bad; it’s just so dated. SVC Chaos does nothing to move the genre forward. It uses the standard King of Fighters fighting engine, which is enjoyable enough, but there seem to be some weird collision detection issues here and there. As you fight, your special meter grows, which you can then use to unleash super attacks. It’s standard in every way, and even huge KoF fans will likely be disappointed with this one.

KoF fans know what to expect in the visuals department. All of the SNK sprites are moldy with age, but it appears that Capcom’s cast has been redrawn. Seeing Ryu and Guile with a new look is pretty cool, but all of these sprites are still in a dreadful low resolution. Character animation could use some work, too. Likewise, the backgrounds aren’t anything special. They’re nice from an artistic perspective, but they’re generally so poorly animated that they become an eyesore.

The only real draw here is the online mode, which, like the rest of the game, is utterly bare-bones. After each match, both players are dumped back into the main Xbox Live menu, making rematches more of a hassle than they should be. You can create a player lobby, and invite/reinvite your opponent, but it should be more convenient to fight the same person multiple times. On the plus side, finding a match is quick, and the action itself has very few lag problems. Only a handful of games on our connections were laggy; the rest were silky smooth. It’s undeniably fun to play this game online.



Article By: Joe Mackie