In my never ending journey of not reviewing KOF 2001 despite the fact I really want to, I recently played through and beat the true final boss of SvC Chaos and decided it was time to give this game a fair write up. Despite how interesting this game is there aren’t really many reviews that go in more detail on this game (or interesting reviews on a lot of neat fighting games in general), and it’s honestly kind of a shame! So now I’m gonna rant about it for a while because I feel that I have a lot to share.
Might as well kick this out of the way first, lol. The presentation is bad. I’m still not sure what happened here but the stages in this game, with a few exceptions, are UGLY. Completely colorless and devoid of any personality or style. I can’t even be corny and say something like “oh they’re ass but they still got a vibe, y’know” cuz like. They don’t. There IS no vibe. Same deal with the music, which easily has to be one of the worst OSTs I’ve heard in a fighting game. Aside from like, 2 or 3 tracks, everything manages to sound either annoying or incredibly bland. The sound design is ripped from KOF 2003 and just like that game the lack of oomph or satisfying audio feedback because of it is really frustrating. On the flipside I actually do have some praises to sing about the character sprites, not that they’re a complete win, but I gotta give credit where credit is due. Some of the new/redrawn sprites in this game are unironically fantastic (Terry, Shiki, Demitri, Chun Li, Balrog to name a few). It’s really damn cool seeing these Capcom characters in the SNK art style, and I think that most of them landed here. Still not entirely fond of Ryu/Ken/Akuma very clearly being traced SFII sprites but I can live with it.
I can understand the praises for the roster here, but I would still say it’s kinda overrated? Like, sure, there are a lot of crazy and creative picks here, but there’s still an uncanny amount of shotos here alongside just “meh” inclusions (why Choi???). That being said I appreciate picks like Tessa and Shiki, they’re fun inclusions that really spice things up. If you play the “Super Plus” bootleg, which essentially makes every hidden character and boss of the game be on the main roster like God intended, this game actually does have a fairly meaty roster to choose from.
Might as well be my segue here to talk about the gameplay and, eugh. It’s not terrible per se but hitboxes feel wack as hell, the sound issues that I described earlier make playing the game not feel satisfying to play sometimes, but most importantly the rejection of most SNK exclusive mechanics is really damning. No running? no rolling? no traditional max mode? Yeah, so SNK basically made an SNK game… that doesn’t play like an SNK game. It plays more like a Capcom game. And hey, I like how Capcom games play, but… I wanna see Capcom mechanics in a Capcom game, not an SNK game. Part of why I generally prefer SNK (or I guess more specifically, KOF in these instances) games is because of the running and rolling mechanics allowing more flexibility. It’s especially frustrating because I think this game would be a lot more fun if it played like KOF 2002 but with Capcom guest characters. Ah well, this game is stupid fun casually though. Super Plus edition on Fightcade is some of the most fun I’ve had with a kusoge (up there with Sailormoon S).
Lastly, what I wanted to talk about the most. Tonal problems. In contrast to Capcom’s more colorful, energetic, and upbeat games in the CvS series, SNK Playmore went the complete opposite and made one of the most bleak and depressing fighting games out there. And hey, I’m all for a more serious take on a crossover sometimes, but the tone this game settles for isn’t befitting of both Capcom or SNK. I don’t know how canon the supplementary material is but it is really weird to have your crossover take place in purgatory of all things. I really wish that Playmore just went down having fun with the crossover aspect. It sorta does, like the pre-battle conversations being rather humorous, but it feels like really odd tonal dissonance. I don’t see it discussed online much but I absolutely despise the heaven/makai spell transformations in this game because of the way it's framed. When you do something like midnight bliss from Vampire Savior (which is also in this game because of Demitri, which is neat), it’s cute and funny because the game treats it as a joke while also having fanservice. The animal and demon transformations in this game by comparison are purposely made to be upsetting, characters like Balrog and Hugo literally cry for example, which just really sucks because these are concepts that the game should just have fun with! Treat it as a joke! Screw the whole purgatory stuff, make the transformations funny rather than making really creepy demon designs for the characters. Puppy Kasumi is funny tho so 10/10
The arcade mode is especially brutal. This is actually the only fighting game I've ever played online more than arcade mode and it's because not only is the enemy AI super frustrating, but the bosses suck too. Good luck beating Athena or Red Arremer! Especially when you only have one chance to beat them, and if you don't, transformation and bad ending for you (once again, tying into the tonal problems I have!) Dunno, mainly just rambling but this aspect of SvC always upsetted me.
I used to hate this game a lot back in 2022, and while I sort of enjoy it nowadays as the silly kusoge Vs series game, I can’t help but ultimately feel disappointed. An SNK vs Capcom game made by SNK, on paper, is something that has the potential to unironically be my favorite fighting game of all time. Especially if it used the mechanics I loved from KOF and had similar production values to games like KOF 2000, that would’ve been my dream game, but things happen I suppose. SvC Chaos isn’t a bad game, but it’s not particularly great either, outside of casual play. It’s just a sad game in my eyes.