Capcom Fighting Evolution
A hardcore old-school fighting fan's wet dream.
Published: November 22, 2004
Okay, here's the deal. If you aren't retardedly into fighting games, if you don't crave 2D old-school rehashes like it completes you in some sick way, you probably aren't going to dig Capcom Fighting Evolution all that much. There just isn't a whole lot of meat beyond the mishmash of mid-90's era Capcom fighting game characters; no galleries, no massive hidden character list to unlock, nuthin'. About all you'll get is a few amazingly well-done panel-by-panel comic book/manga-style ending for each of the characters you beat after six short rounds of fighting, and those characters' respective level music.
For those that are still with us, congrats, you at least have some inkling of interest, and it's likely that the game will pull you in quite nicely. Even as I type this, the compulsion to play more is strong, and it's mainly because of the combination of nostalgic geek factor and seeing some kind of fanboy dream come true. Yes, these ARE characters as you know and love them from five different Capcom fighting games (those being Street Fighters II, III and Alpha, Darkstalkers and the unreleased-in-the-U.S. Red Earth), all of them chucked into the same game with a surprising amount of depth.
The truly hardcore that play the game will find that there are still some basic balance issues; mixing six different games with six vaguely different fighting systems together will do that, so don't expect the world's most even keel here when it comes to cross-fighter mash-ups. I personally found the original SF II and Alpha brawlers capable of more or less marching through the game unopposed (at one point early into my play time, I beat the final boss with Ryu and scored a Perfect -- and I'm anything but an expert player). Still, if you take the balance with a grain of salt and just geek on the fact that this game can be some serous fun between a couple of experienced players, you're going to be in heaven.
Here's the basic breakdown of the characters from each game and what parts of the combat system (i.e. special moves and boosts) the disparate games impart to the mix should you choose a fighter from one of them:
Street Fighter II is about as simple as it gets. Ryu, Guile, Zangief and M. Bison come part and parcel with their basic moves and supers, but little else in the way of boosts. They're mainly there to be power players and serve this purpose quite well.
Darkstalkers' Demitri, Felicia, Anakaris and Jedah arrive with supers, of course, but they also pack a couple extra bits o' oomph. ES moves are simple double-button (read: KK or PP) combos that delivers more impact. Chain combos, or linking light-medium-hard punches and kicks doles out an extra wallop. Guard Cancel moves let you prime a special move counter as soon as you stop blocking, and Follow-Up Attacks let you pound a poor schlub when they're down by hitting up and kick.
Street Fighter III's Alex, Chun-Li, Yun and Urien bring their Super Arts, and offer Counters and Parries. Once the super meter is at 50%, hitting two buttons powers-up their special moves. Tapping MP+MK destroys a crouching guard (perfect for those turtling players), and tapping down as you land from an attack will let you pop back up, spry and ready to let fists fly.
Red Earth's collection of mega-sprite, whacked-out characters are a welcome change for those of us who've never seen the game, as are their bonuses. Once special meters are filled, they can be used to boost the Mystic Breaks (think super attacks) each employs. This means you sacrifice a filled special meter in order to level-up to pull off more powerful Mystic Breaks, but then that's part of the strategy. Ultimate Guard (hitting HP+HK will block everything but throws -- including special moves) and shifts these characters' focus decided to the defensive. Like the Darkstalkers characters, Red Earth brawlers can hit enemies while they're down with an up and kick button combo.
Finally, Alpha fighters Sakura, Rose, Guy and Karin arrive with their movesets intact, as well as their abilities to launch Original Combos (HP+HK), Alpha Counters (diagonally down and punch or kick), and Ukemi rolls to avoid attacks (just tap that button you mapped PPP to).
Capcom also created a character with her own bonus moves in addition to some very basic quarter-circle driven punch and kick special moves. Ingrid can roll at any time to avoid follow-up attacks, block in midair, dash, somersault (which leaves her invulnerable), super-jump (it's a slightly higher jump than usual after a quick down/up and hold press) and Alpha-style Guard Cancel that lets you move right after a block with a press of MP+MK and a direction.
It was nice to see Capcom toss something in besides just porting the sound effects and sprites from the other games, but I don't know how many players will take to Ingrid right away -- if at all when the advantage obviously lies with the older characters. The added special effects like hardware-driven swirls and lighting effects were a nice addition, but they're mainly there for subtle effect and by no means seem out of place.
My main concern with the game is two-fold: for one, there's literally nothing else to do but beat the crap out of the computer or friends. No fancy menus to check out, no way to watch endings, zippo. Secondly, the roster of characters, while adequate and representative of the upper-tier characters from each game, are still pretty damned slim. The unlockable characters can be counted on one hand with fingers left over, and there's little incentive to ever touch the single-player game again once you've seen all the endings.
You're getting the same sprites you've seen for years, the same sound effects and the same music (though some of it does sound nicely updated). The tracks included during the character select, ending credits and intro are nice, but they're hardly anything of note. There was a nice labor of love put forth in crafting the backgrounds, which include nearly every possible character that didn't make it into the game, and do a great job of capturing the feel of the different games' environments, but again, there aren't too many of them either.
In the end, this is an incredibly fun game that pulls of what it meant to do quite well. It's just that it does little else, and save for the hardcore fighting crowd that has been salivating over this since the original announcement, it's little more than a rental for most. Still, the sheer dork factor of seeing all these characters beating the snot out of each other is just plain cool, and there's really no reason why anyone who's old enough to remember playing as these fighters shouldn't give this a shot.
For those that are still with us, congrats, you at least have some inkling of interest, and it's likely that the game will pull you in quite nicely. Even as I type this, the compulsion to play more is strong, and it's mainly because of the combination of nostalgic geek factor and seeing some kind of fanboy dream come true. Yes, these ARE characters as you know and love them from five different Capcom fighting games (those being Street Fighters II, III and Alpha, Darkstalkers and the unreleased-in-the-U.S. Red Earth), all of them chucked into the same game with a surprising amount of depth.
The truly hardcore that play the game will find that there are still some basic balance issues; mixing six different games with six vaguely different fighting systems together will do that, so don't expect the world's most even keel here when it comes to cross-fighter mash-ups. I personally found the original SF II and Alpha brawlers capable of more or less marching through the game unopposed (at one point early into my play time, I beat the final boss with Ryu and scored a Perfect -- and I'm anything but an expert player). Still, if you take the balance with a grain of salt and just geek on the fact that this game can be some serous fun between a couple of experienced players, you're going to be in heaven.
Here's the basic breakdown of the characters from each game and what parts of the combat system (i.e. special moves and boosts) the disparate games impart to the mix should you choose a fighter from one of them:
Street Fighter II is about as simple as it gets. Ryu, Guile, Zangief and M. Bison come part and parcel with their basic moves and supers, but little else in the way of boosts. They're mainly there to be power players and serve this purpose quite well.
Darkstalkers' Demitri, Felicia, Anakaris and Jedah arrive with supers, of course, but they also pack a couple extra bits o' oomph. ES moves are simple double-button (read: KK or PP) combos that delivers more impact. Chain combos, or linking light-medium-hard punches and kicks doles out an extra wallop. Guard Cancel moves let you prime a special move counter as soon as you stop blocking, and Follow-Up Attacks let you pound a poor schlub when they're down by hitting up and kick.
Street Fighter III's Alex, Chun-Li, Yun and Urien bring their Super Arts, and offer Counters and Parries. Once the super meter is at 50%, hitting two buttons powers-up their special moves. Tapping MP+MK destroys a crouching guard (perfect for those turtling players), and tapping down as you land from an attack will let you pop back up, spry and ready to let fists fly.
Red Earth's collection of mega-sprite, whacked-out characters are a welcome change for those of us who've never seen the game, as are their bonuses. Once special meters are filled, they can be used to boost the Mystic Breaks (think super attacks) each employs. This means you sacrifice a filled special meter in order to level-up to pull off more powerful Mystic Breaks, but then that's part of the strategy. Ultimate Guard (hitting HP+HK will block everything but throws -- including special moves) and shifts these characters' focus decided to the defensive. Like the Darkstalkers characters, Red Earth brawlers can hit enemies while they're down with an up and kick button combo.
Finally, Alpha fighters Sakura, Rose, Guy and Karin arrive with their movesets intact, as well as their abilities to launch Original Combos (HP+HK), Alpha Counters (diagonally down and punch or kick), and Ukemi rolls to avoid attacks (just tap that button you mapped PPP to).
Capcom also created a character with her own bonus moves in addition to some very basic quarter-circle driven punch and kick special moves. Ingrid can roll at any time to avoid follow-up attacks, block in midair, dash, somersault (which leaves her invulnerable), super-jump (it's a slightly higher jump than usual after a quick down/up and hold press) and Alpha-style Guard Cancel that lets you move right after a block with a press of MP+MK and a direction.
It was nice to see Capcom toss something in besides just porting the sound effects and sprites from the other games, but I don't know how many players will take to Ingrid right away -- if at all when the advantage obviously lies with the older characters. The added special effects like hardware-driven swirls and lighting effects were a nice addition, but they're mainly there for subtle effect and by no means seem out of place.
My main concern with the game is two-fold: for one, there's literally nothing else to do but beat the crap out of the computer or friends. No fancy menus to check out, no way to watch endings, zippo. Secondly, the roster of characters, while adequate and representative of the upper-tier characters from each game, are still pretty damned slim. The unlockable characters can be counted on one hand with fingers left over, and there's little incentive to ever touch the single-player game again once you've seen all the endings.
You're getting the same sprites you've seen for years, the same sound effects and the same music (though some of it does sound nicely updated). The tracks included during the character select, ending credits and intro are nice, but they're hardly anything of note. There was a nice labor of love put forth in crafting the backgrounds, which include nearly every possible character that didn't make it into the game, and do a great job of capturing the feel of the different games' environments, but again, there aren't too many of them either.
In the end, this is an incredibly fun game that pulls of what it meant to do quite well. It's just that it does little else, and save for the hardcore fighting crowd that has been salivating over this since the original announcement, it's little more than a rental for most. Still, the sheer dork factor of seeing all these characters beating the snot out of each other is just plain cool, and there's really no reason why anyone who's old enough to remember playing as these fighters shouldn't give this a shot.
