I had the fortunate opportunity to have a college campus with Capcom vs SNK 2 and Street Fighter 3 arcade cabinets so I just wanna put that up front as I state that this game very much at its core feels like a good presentation and realization of the gameplay concept of a crossover.

There’s a celebration of arcade games in general with weird/interesting cutscenes, the art style changes based on your style, and a roster with very stripped down move sets that allow for a simple way to keep coming back and mastering the mechanics.

While I think the sequel fleshed out said mechanics, there’s an evident initial burst of love for Capcom and SNK as companies that made arcade games and the hype/presentation here with that crossover honestly is about as good as (and sometimes better than) what you even get with most Smash Bros games