Capcom vs SNK Pro

Published by Capcom
Designed by Capcom
Platform: Playstation
Price £19.99
Released: Out Now

As the sun begins to set on the career of the Playstation (PSone as it is now know) fewer and fewer games are being released for it and virtually all of the new releases do not have a Playstation version. It was a surprise then that in these twilight years of the Sony console that Capcom have decided to release such a big title. Whatever the reasons for the decision, I'm sure most 2D fighting game fans will be grateful.

Capcom Vs SNK Pro combines the best fighters from the stables of Capcom and SNK (Shin-Nihon Kikoku). The game is identical, in content if not graphically, to the versions that appeared in the arcades and on the Dreamcast. The game offers an arcade mode, Vs mode, pair match mode training mode, price mode and colour edit mode. The training mode offers a configurable dummy opponent that lets you set up your ideal opponent to practice against. Price mode enables you to spend the Vs points that you have earned. You can purchase different versions of the characters, which have different moves, and these can be used in any mode. You can also purchase illustrations and view them in the gallery. Colour mode allows you to change the colour of any character and of course this is going to require memory card space to save your adjustments.

Graphically the game looks a little like a launch title for the Playstation as it lacks the sharpness of some of the latter titles that came out for the console. The characters are a little blocky and the effects look like they came from an old Amiga. The backgrounds are OK though and are definitely the standard you would expect from the PSone.

The game has a couple of problems but the one that stands out above all the rest is the loading times. Whilst waiting to get into a fight and progressing through each of the screens you are subjected to long and annoying 10-15 second pauses. If you fight against multiple opponents you will have to wait for around 8 seconds, after defeating the one opponent, for the next one to load up. This stop and start nature of the game takes the shine of what is an essential purchase for hard-core fight fans. Slowdown does occur during fights, albeit rarely and not half as frequent as some people have made out.

There isn't any problems for deaf gamers with this title. There is some pre-fight banter which isn't subtitled but this is hardly worthwhile.

Despite looking out of date and loading time niggles the game is a solid beat 'em up experience and fans of 2D beat 'em ups will appreciate this conversion to the Playstation. Control feels good and the AI is unchanged from the Dreamcast and Arcade versions and when all is said and done the other faults can be tolerated as long as these details are correct.

Overall Game Rating: 7.0/10 A solid if unremarkable game that will no doubt please hard-core beat 'em up fans

Deaf Gamers comment: Occasional character comments are missing but it doesn't harm the gameplay in any way.