The year is 2003, two years after Capcom’s release of one of the most popular fighting games of all time, Capcom vs. SNK 2. SNK had a tall order to follow it up, and through a lot of trials and tribulations, they released SNK vs Capcom: SVC Chaos. Twenty years later, we are getting a re-release of what became one of the more controversial SNK titles of the time. Let’s see if it’s worthy of scorn, or simply a misunderstood soul.
Clash of the Titans
SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos is a title that was made as a way to try and bring developer SNK’s name back into the forefront of the industry after suffering several setbacks in 2001. Due to an agreement with Capcom, they managed to produce this crossover title, but sadly it lacked the budget that predecessor Capcom vs SNK 2 had. As such, SVC Chaos is often considered the black sheep of the series, even when compared to the much simpler handheld Neo Geo Pocket SNK vs Capcom titles.
SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos is a bizarre game even by fighting game standards. While the characters have interactions before matches and even different endings, the game doesn’t have a story. There’s not even a tournament organized by shady individuals this time around. Even its contemporaries like Capcom vs. SNK 2 presented the game as a tournament setting; SVC Chaos on the other hand glosses over why the roster wants to punch each other brains out.
I will give the game props for the amount of different ways the arcade run can end. It features a total of 4 different bosses and good and bad endings. There clearly was an idea here, it’s just a shame that it wasn’t delved into further.
Same Flavor, Different Maker
SNK vs Capcom: Chaos is a traditional 1v1 2D Fighting game, originally developed by SNK Playmore using their own game engine. SNK gave the game the feel and playstyle closer to their own titles like Garou: Mark of the Wolves or King of Fighters. This is in contrast to Capcom vs. SNK 1 and 2, which felt much more like Street Fighter or the other Capcom crossover fighters, which has been a major sticking point for members of the fighting game community. SVC Chaos was also a fully-fledged arcade/console title and released on hardware that was considered insanely out of date even by 2003 (for perspective, they had been using it since 1990).
For this re-release on modern platforms, port developer Code Mystics seems to have chosen a slightly modified version of the arcade release rather than the original Xbox or PlayStation 2 versions. You get access to all of the hidden characters via a programmable button, but if you want to play through the story mode, you will have to deal with the infamously brutal SNK fighter AI at its finest. Confusingly, there seems to be a 3 continue limit, which when married with the game’s application of “SNK Boss Syndrome” (i.e. brutally difficult bosses) can give you a rough arcade-mode run.
What’s Old Is New
This re-release of the game gives gamers on PlayStation, PC, or Nintendo Switch the ability to play it online against other players with rollback netcode, albeit without crossplay functionality between platforms. It also comes with a fantastic gallery mode, featuring absolutely gorgeous artwork from the development and promotion of the game. You also can have the ability to see the characters’ hitboxes which is ideal for practicing your moves and knowing exactly where the hurt is going to be. The lack of crossplay is disappointing because a bigger player pool is always a good thing, but that aside the game has enough extras and convenience to make it worthwhile for people who either own the original version or otherwise played it to death like moi.
How We Do It In Southtown
As standard for an SNK fighter, you have their traditional 4 button layout; you have light and heavy punches and kicks, a rather pedestrian “super meter” that goes from Lv 1 to Lv Maximum (at Lv 3) and dictates what flashy super move you can chuck at your quarry. At Maximum you can also cancel any move into another move at will as long as the meter is still running, allowing for some chaotic combos. Finally, you have the ability to cancel enemy attacks while guarding at the cost of 1 level of meter.
The game can feel awkward even if you’re coming from the similar King of Fighters series. You might have spent hundreds of hours with Ryu from Street Fighter, but he’s going to feel a little different in this crossover title and that can be quite damning. Moves that feel they should combo together just don’t due to the different engine. The Capcom characters, especially those from Street Fighter, do tend to suffer a little identity crisis when it comes to the SNK pace of play, something that happened to a lesser degree with Capcom’s Capcom vs. SNK arcade offerings. SNK mainstays like Terry Bogard and Kyo are right at home here at least, albeit they feel less polished than in King of Fighters.
The Art of Kusoge
The strongest part of SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos is the roster, which gets chaotic. You have the standard Street Fighter representatives such as Ryu, Ken & Chun-Li, but then you also have the likes of Demetri from Darkstalkers (Yes, Morrigan missed this one!), Zero from Mega Man Zero, Tessa from Red Earth, and the playable debut of Violent Ken from Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. SNK gets just as wild with their choices, with inclusions of Mars People from Metal Slug, Earthquake from Samurai Shodown, and Choi from King of Fighters instead of slightly better-known characters from their franchises. I couldn’t be happier with such an eclectic roster.
Sadly, due to the state of SNK at the time and budget restrictions, the game is quite “janky” as mentioned. Some moves miss completely when they shouldn’t, or your character will just face the wrong way. The game also had some real balancing issues, which haven’t been addressed with this re-release, meaning that when your opponents get their hands on the insanely overpowered Zero, your chances of winning will drastically go down.
A Face That Mother Would Only Be Friends With
On the presentation side of things, this game is behind Capcom’s crossover offerings. Whereas their games were presented like a TV program and featured vibrant colors and some interesting background stages, SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos has a weird post-apocalyptic vibe. It features rather muted colors and lacks anything that makes it stand out from a presentation point, aside from how weird it all looks and sounds.
The Capcom characters done in an SNK sprite style have always gone down well with me, and I think that aspect is criminally overlooked. Sure, it doesn’t always hit right (such as with a rather anaemic-looking M. Bison), but other characters like Hugo or Dhalsim look and animate so fluidly with that distinct SNK charm that I can’t help but gush over them. This is more of a personal preference as I adore SNK sprite work, but when watching the characters in motion, I think many others can agree that a lot of care was put into these. They clearly didn’t just awkwardly copy and paste the character models from other titles into this game.
The background stages are the weakest area of the game’s visuals. Compared to the gorgeous sprite-based backgrounds in SNK titles like King of Fighters, The Last Blade 2, or Garou, the stages on offer here are boring and lifeless, with very little going on in terms of animation. They feel drab, giving the game such a strange atmosphere.
The music fares a little better, and it is much better than I remember it being. I cannot say the same for the sound effects which make for a painfully mixed bag. The voice lines are fine and all sound as you would expect, but effects like M. Bison (Dictator) punching someone with his Psycho power sound like slapping someone with a damp cloth, and that just takes something away from the whole experience.
Verdict
I have always had a love for SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos, but it’s hard to turn around and say it is truly a “good” game due to its lack of polish. The difficult SNK style of gameplay along with the balancing and budget issues don’t give newcomers the smoothest of rides either, especially compared to the many alternatives on the market nowadays. Still, while it’s not comparable to the best modern fighters or even the beloved Capcom vs. SNK 2, you can still have a lot of fun with it. It’s a quirky look at a dark time for not only SNK but also fighting games in general, and it is interesting to see what SNK could do with such an eclectic pick of Capcom characters.
Less-than-stellar presentation aside, this game is still a curiosity that has the potential for fun if you’re a little more invested in the fighting game genre than the casual gamer. The online netcode is smooth and the diverse roster carries the game. As long as you’re willing to wade through the more mediocre aspects of the game, you are treated with a great re-release of a quirky, curious, and budget fighting game time capsule.
SNK VS. CAPCOM: SVC CHAOS IS RECOMMENDED
If you enjoy Fighting games, then perhaps you’d like our review of Tekken 8 or Guilty Gear -Strive-
Many thanks go to SNK Corporation for a PC review code for SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos.
Pride of utopia & greatest thing ever, I found the One Piece, Collected the Dragon Balls & won the Mortal Kombat Tournament in one night, it was quiet for me that night! Follow me on Twitter @powahdunk