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Capcom has always had a bit of an uneven relationship with its partners when it comes to crossover fighting games. We got Street Fighter X Tekken, but Tekken never returned the favour; plus, Marvel and Tatsunoko aren’t game developers, so there was obviously no return trip there. Naturally, we’re leading up to say that SNK and Capcom were in the same situation, but that’s actually not the case – even though we totally understand why you’d think that.

The SNK vs. Capcom series is a strange curiosity in the overall Capcom vs. pantheon. It actually kicked off on SNK’s side with SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash, which is a card game that launched exclusively on the NEO GEO Pocket Color (with a Nintendo Switch re-release a couple of years back). But of course, when you hear ‘SNK vs Capcom’ the obvious thought is a fighting game, and SNK would deliver a month later with SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium which is a bona-fide fighting game... for the NEO GEO Pocket Color. Again, it’s good for what it is, but it’s not really what you want from a game called SNK vs Capcom, is it?

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Thankfully, 2000 and 2001 came with a one-two punch from Capcom in the form of Capcom vs SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 and Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001. These two Capcom-developed titles pitted fighters from both companies against each other in an arcade fighting game. What made them so special was how they adapted both sides into one cohesive unit thanks to the Groove and Ratio systems. There's a reason Capcom vs SNK 2 is considered one of the best fighting games ever made, alongside the likes of Street Fighter 3: Third Strike and Garou: Mark of the Wolves to this very day.

But there was always the question of how an SNK-developed Capcom vs. game would turn out, and a few years later we got our answer in the form of SNK vs Capcom: SVC Chaos, which teaches us that not all crossovers are created equal. Don’t get us wrong, SVC Chaos is not a bad game by any means, but it’s a huge letdown in comparison to the Capcom offerings.

One of the things that made the Capcom vs SNK games so appealing was how they blended the personality and gameplay of both sides into a cohesive fighting game that really felt like a celebration of the two companies fighting classics, whereas SVC Chaos feels like a toned-down version of King of Fighters 2002 with Capcom characters.

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Speaking of the Capcom characters, we reach one of SVC Chaos’ biggest downfalls: the roster. While the Capcom vs SNK rosters weren’t barn burners, SVC Chaos has perhaps the lamest main roster choices you could pick. With the exception of Street Fighter 3’s Hugo and Red Earth’s Tessa, the default roster of Capcom fighters all hail from Street Fighter 2. Obviously these characters are iconic for a reason, but given this was three years after Marvel vs Capcom 2's unique roster that featured names from Resident Evil, Captain Commando, and many more, it’s a bit of a disappointment. Plus, if you’re prone to playing grappler characters, Hugo is your only option – but this game is not made for grabs.

SVC Chaos does at least shine is in its secret characters. While the base roster is boring, SNK decided to get weird with it for the hidden fighters (which are easily selectable in this new port by holding L1 on the character select). Not only do we get the likes of Zero from Mega Man Zero, Demitri from Darkstalkers, and the introduction of the dumbest Street Fighter character, Violent Ken. But frankly bizarre choices like Ghosts 'n Goblins’ Red Arremer (or Firebrand, as it's known in Marvel vs Capcom 3) and Metal Slug’s Mars People, which is an alien jellyfish that communicates by saying "beep boop".

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However, these secret characters quickly reveal SVC Chaos’ biggest issue: the balance. Almost every one of these fighters is ridiculously unbalanced, with Zero, Violent Ken, and especially Athena (who has regular moves that you’d mistake for supers) able to decimate you in seconds. Fighting against Goenitz in the arcade mode as Hugo is one of the most miserable experiences you can have due to his near-instant projectile spam and ridiculous amounts of chip damage. It's not quite Arc System Works' Fist of the North Star levels of unbalanced, but it's probably comparable to Capcom's JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

Thankfully, there's another area where SVC Chaos excels over its predecessors, in its absolutely gorgeous sprite work. While Capcom vs. games tend to reuse sprites (we all know about the Morrigan sprite, right?), SNK has created new art for the fighters, and it looks phenomenal. Special shoutouts have to go to the larger characters like Samurai Shodown’s Earthquake, Hugo, and Demitri — who looks better than he ever has in a Capcom game.

As for the PS4 port itself, there’s not really all that much to talk about. It’s a port of the arcade game with no real bells and whistles attached other than the gallery mode (featuring character, promo, and stage art, but lacking anything super interesting like design documents). The training mode is fairly barebones, there’s no rewind of save state options like you would find in Capcom Fighting Collection or similar releases, and there’s no way to just set up 1v1 fights against the CPU; arcade is your only choice, meaning you can’t practise specific matchups.

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Of course, the main selling point of this PS4 port is the online play, complete with rollback netcode. And for the most part, it feels about right. It’s not quite as brilliant as the netcode found in Guilty Gear Strive or Street Fighter 6, so dealing with high ping is still a bother, but it’s solid when it works. However, there are very limited options when searching for or creating matches. When you go into the available lobbies, there’s no connection indicator – nor can you search for a minimum connection, or whether to match up with wired or wireless connections. To make matters worse, it’s already rare to find more than 30 people online with no crossplay available.

Conclusion

SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos is a weird curiosity in the history of fighting games. While it did have the monumental task of following up on one of the best fighters ever made, it’s hard to deny that it's a bit of a letdown. It does have bright spots like some unique character choices and a range of fantastic sprites, but it doesn’t stand up with Capcom or SNK’s best. Meanwhile, the PS4 port itself is as okay as okay can be. It won’t blow you away with extra content or features — it’s simply a solid way to play SVC Chaos.