2D fighting games, eh? There are many Tekken and Virtua Fighter gurus that still ask why such games are still in production, and more importantly, still selling. As Capcom and SNK have proved time and time again, the brilliant design and refined control method of these games makes them, in many players' eyes, the best of the beat-em-up genre.
Capcom vs SNK 2 EO is the first of its kind for GameCube and is a welcome addition to GameCube by both beat-em-up veterans and diehard Nintendo fans alike. With a character line up of 44 fighters from two of the fighting series, CVS2 EO includes Capcom legends Ryu, Ken and Guile, and popular SNK fighters such as Joe Higashi, Kyosuke and Athena.
CVS2 EO features six fighting grooves or styles and two customisable grooves. The grooves affect how your supers are built up, whether you can mid-air block, what recovery moves you can perform, and other various attributes your character has. You can choose an Alpha 3 style, a Garou: Mark of the Wolves groove, or a Street Fighter 3 style, it's your choice. Six buttons are back, and the SNK characters have more moves than ever.
The backgrounds are now rendered in 3D, admittedly nothing more than eye-candy, but still lovely to look at. 3D fighting games still cannot match the balance of the gameplay found in 2D fighters. Capcom has found the right balance between the characters and the timing of the moves.
The GameCube controller, although brilliant in design, is not ideal for 2D fight fests. Allowing your agile fingers to become accustomed to the strangely shaped buttons and even more bizarrely configured layout take some time, but it's worth the effort.