Capcom Fighting Evolution

August 4,2005 -

Capcom has been involved in the fighting genre since 1987, and they have pretty much been at the top of the fighting food chain since 1991. Even though every smash hit fighting game they have ever developed has traced its roots back to the same individual franchise, that's a pretty negligible consideration when the franchise in question is Street Fighter. Now, Capcom strikes again, with yet another Street Fighter-derived megamix game...with a twist. Capcom Fighting Evolution combines Street Fighter conventions and concepts with a pair of Capcom's less successful fighting endeavors; cult-hit Darkstalkers and the definitively-obscure Red Earth. The game is functionally-reminiscent of past Capcom titles, but there are key differences that simplify the gameplay immensely. Of course, that's the point.

The 21-character roster is divided up into five sections, plus one bonus character. Each section represents one of Capcom's franchises, and the four characters in each section are pre-assigned gameplay systems from that respective franchise; Street Fighter II (Ryu, Guile, M.Bison, and Zangief), Street Fighter III (Chunli, Yun, Urien, and Alex), Street Fighter Alpha (Sakura, Guy, Rose, and Karin), Darkstalkers (Demitri, Felicia, Anakaris, and Jedah), and Red Earth (Leo, Hauzer, Kenji, and Hydron). A 21st character, the clearly SNK-inspired Ingrid, is in her own section that is most comparable to Capcom vs SNK 2's C-Groove, making her the only default character who can roll. Beyond the up-front roster, frequent Capcom bonus character Shin-Akuma and Darkstalkers' Pyron can be unlocked in their own Street Fighter II- and Darkstalkers-derived gameplay systems. The gameplay systems of each character are fixed and cannot be reassigned like Capcom vs SNK's grooves, which, believe it or not, plays more in the game's favor than against. Street Fighter II characters, for example, have only one gameplay system; tactical recovery, but they hit like tanks. Meanwhile, Street Fighter III characters get their parries, EX specials, super cancels, and many other quirks from 3rd Strike, at the cost of some damage. Of course, this would have been a disaster had Capcom failed in any significant way to make it work.

When you start up, you select two characters off of the game's 21- to 23-character roster. However, this is not an elimination system like most team-based fighting games. The default settings give you the same best-of-three format the genre has offered up almost from the beginning, but you can also select from single-round and the best-of-five format – the latter of which has been embraced in the past few years by the 3D fighting community – from the options menu. The point is, elimination play is absent in favor of the tried-and-true series match system typically found in one-on-one fighters. Without tag or elimination, the team function is one that has only truly been explored in games such as Rival Schools: United By Fate and its sequel, Rival Schools 2: Burn! Justice High School (better known stateside as Project Justice). The core gameplay is pure one-on-one, until the end of a round. At which point, you will select one of your two characters for the next round, leading so some strategic play, as picking the wrong character between rounds could lead to a next-round mismatch. Thus far, the typical team structure in competition is to select your top character and your opponent's top character's kryptonite. For example, if your opponent has a good Zangief, Hydron would be your best bet as backup character behind whoever you're best with.

The control format should be familiar to anyone who has played Capcom fighting games in the past; it's the same six-button layout that defined the groundwork of the genre back in 1991. This will make the game rather uncomfortable to anyone who plays on the DualShock2, however, there are a number of affordable alternatives out there for the serious player, the best being Nuby's Street Fighter commemorative controllers ($24.99) and Pelican's Real Arcade Universal stick ($39.99), both of which will give you far superior control for Capcom Fighting Evolution and many other fighting games.

That's not to say that all the gameplay problems are hardware-induced. While the less-is-more approach is a worthy one that could someday make Capcom Fighting Evolution a strong series, this particular game is taken so far that less is just less. Other than some old-school music and two (overpowered) bonus characters, everything you're going to get from Capcom Fighting Evolution is available the first time you boot it up, and that isn't nearly enough. To make matters worse, the overall gameplay just isn't distinct enough or deep enough to justify playing this game over that copy of Capcom vs SNK 2 you've had for the past three-plus years. There's nothing wrong with simplicity. Simplicity has given us some truly great fighting games over the years. However, Capcom Fighting Evolution somehow manages to beat the odds and make itself more anemic than SNK vs Capcom: SvC Chaos, which says absolutely everything that needs to be said about its limited gameplay and long-term value. The only saving grace is that the core gameplay present is of the same high quality Capcom has been delivering from the start. Even their mediocre titles play better than most other fighters out there, and Evolution is no exception.

Sadly, the bad news doesn't stop with the shallow nature of the game itself. The same graphical problems that occasionally made Capcom vs SNK 2 somewhat unpleasant to look at are out in full force here, prevalent in the entire DarkStalkers and Street Fighter Alpha camps – about 35% of the game's roster. Redrawing the sprites might be overkill, but it'd be nice if the original artwork could be rescanned at a higher resolution for future games. Another working solution would have been dropping the overall display resolution of the game itself, letting the scanlines come in and give the game a true vintage look. It's been said time and time again, and this game is a testament to the truth of the matter; high resolution display plus low resolution sprites equal truly horrendous visuals.

The aesthetics do have a high point, however. With Capcom Fighting Evolution, Capcom's Noriyuki Asakura has delivered a soundtrack in the same style as Yoko Shimomura's work with Street Fighter II back in the day. From breaking out the ghetto CPS2 synthesizer for the Japan theme, to a Hong Kong theme worthy of any fighting game boss, to Ingrid's “Heat Haze� (reminiscent of the vocal arrangements of Psycho Soldier from some 1990s console installments of the King of Fighters series, further perpetuating Ingrid's SNK-ness), Capcom Fighting Evolution contains Capcom's most memorable soundtrack since perhaps Street Fighter Alpha 2.

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