SNK vs. Capcom (series)

The "SNK vs. Capcom" (or alternately "Capcom vs. SNK") series is a collection of video games by either Capcom or SNK featuring characters that appear in games created by both of these two companies. The "vs. series" terminology originates from the fact that many of these games (but not all) are fighting games.

As a rule, games in this series either contain "SNK vs. Capcom" or "Capcom vs. SNK", the first company denoting the company behind the game's development. Games in this series appear for various platforms, including the NAOMI (arcade), Neo-Geo (arcade), PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo DS, Xbox, Neo Geo Pocket, Neo-Geo Pocket Color, and Sega Dreamcast.

History

The supposed origin behind this series was an issue of "Arcadia" magazine in which there were articles covering both "The King of Fighters '98" and "Street Fighter Alpha 3", both of which were released at around the same time. Readers had misread the cover, which said "KOF vs. SF", to mean that there was a fighting game that would pit characters from "Street Fighter" and "The King of Fighters". Because of this uproar, Capcom and SNK supposedly signed a deal that would allow them to produce only two fighting games concerning both franchises in 1999 (the "Card Fighters" series [see below] were not fighting games and therefore were exempt from the rule). It is highly suggested that "" was only made in order to fulfill the contract obligations that SNK made prior to the company filing bankruptcy and their eventual closing in 2000. Also, if one company was the main creator of one game, the distributing company would gain the profits and not the company that licensed the characters for use (although SNK gave the rights to use the SNK characters to Capcom for the first "Capcom vs. SNK" game, SNK didn't profit from the game, which didn't help their financial problems). There were interviews with SNK that it would be possible to renew their contract with Capcom to make new "SNK vs. Capcom" gamescite web|url=http://www.cyberfanatix.com/index.php?m=single&id=606|title=Cyberfanatix - KOF Game Videos: Interview with SNK Playmore] , but in an another interview, both companies stated that they would not do any further collaboration with each other. "SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS" will probably be the last crossover game between both companies.cite web|url=http://www.cyberfanatix.com/index.php?m=single&id=635|title=Cyberfanatix - KOF Game Videos: SNK related news.]

Capcom-produced games

* "" - Released for Sega's NAOMI arcade hardware in vgy|2000 and ported to the Dreamcast during the same year, the original "Capcom vs. SNK" features 28 characters characters (evenly divided between Capcom and SNK properties), two selectable fighting styles or "grooves" (based on the gameplay systems featured in the "The King of Fighters" and "Street Fighter Alpha" series) and a ratio-based character selection system that determines the number of characters in a player's team based on their strength.
** An updated version titled "Capcom vs. SNK Pro", released for the arcades and Dreamcast in Japan and ported to the PlayStation in 2001, features the supposed "champions" of the Millennium Fight tournament, Dan Hibiki and Joe Higashi. The game also discards the shop option to earn extra characters and colors, having all of them available by default.
* "" - Titled "Capcom vs. SNK 2: Millionaire Fighting 2001" in Japan. Released for the NAOMI 2 hardware in vgy|2001 and ported to the Dreamcast (in Japan only) and PlayStation 2 during the same year. The game expands on the "Groove" system from the previous game by featuring six different fighting styles or "Grooves" and adds twelve new characters in addition to the ones featured in "Capcom vs. SNK Pro".
**The GameCube and Xbox versions were released under the title of "Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO", with "EO" being an acronym for "Easy Operation", a reference to a new feature that allows the player to assign special techniques with the right analog stick (C Stick for the GameCube version).

SNK-produced games

* ""
** Also known as "SNK vs. Capcom: Choujou Kessen Saikyou Fighters" in Japan.
* "": Released for the Neo Geo Pocket Color. Two versions were produced; the "SNK Card Fighter's Version" and the "Capcom Card Fighter's Version", in which one version features more cards from one company than the other.
* "": Released for the Neo Geo Pocket Color in Japan and Asia only. Features an extended lineup of cards, including characters from the contemporary "Capcom vs. SNK 2".
* ""
* "" : Released for the Nintendo DS. Features character artwork by Falcoon.

References

ee also