SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighter's Clash review by Jolly Green

Anyone who's played Magic: The Gathering regularly knows two things. They know just how addictive collectible card games can be, and they know the basic premise behind SNK vs Capcom: Cardfighters Clash.

For those who haven't ever played a collectible card game, the premise is this. Players attempt to defeat one another by doing a certain number of points of damage to each other through the use of cards. Some cards do damage directly to the other player, but most of the damage is going to be done through creatures, or in this case, characters.

In Cardfighter's Clash, you assume the role of a new player to this game. You have, basically, a freshly opened starter deck and a quest to get to the Cardfighter Tournament. But to get into the tournament, you need to earn five coins from players throughout the city in locations from Neo*Geo World, to a mock-up of the Resident Evil mansion. By defeating other card players, you gain a handful of new cards to add to your collection. (You can win cards regardless of which version of the game you bought... if you own the SNK version, you can still win Capcom cards.)

By gathering more cards, you can design better decks with which to compete. (Note: you aren't penalized cards for LOSING a match, at least not so far as I've found in the game.) The game allows you to create and maintain up to five different decks from your collection of cards. A deck contains fifty cards, and can only have up to three of any one card.

The rules of the game are fairly simple. You can play one character per turn, and can have up to three on the field at a time. Characters have two numbers associated with them. The first number is their BP, or Battle Points. This is both their offensive AND defensive capability. The second is their SP, or Spirit Points. This is how much the players SP increases when the character is played. Spirit points are needed for action cards, and unite attacks which I'll get to shortly.

Combat between card fighters is simple, and I'll illustrate it with Terry Bogard (1000 BP) and Joe Higashi (700 BP). If I attack my opponent with Terry Bogard, then my opponent has two options. They can either eat 1000 points of damage (on average, half of their life total) or they can block with Joe Higashi. If they block, Terry KO's Joe, but Joe also nails Terry for 700 points, leaving him with 300. (BP do not restore at the end of a turn.) Characters cannot attack the turn they are played, unless the card expressly says that they can... but they CAN block on your opponents turn.

I mentioned Unite Attacks above. By using SP, two, or even all three of your characters can join in a single attack called a Unite Attack. Firstly, during unite attacks, a character's special attack properties (if there are any) are negated. Then all of their BP are totalled, and your opponent gets a chance to block. The single largest advantage of unite attacks is that only one opposing character can block a united attack. You're attacking with three characters, but it's still a single attack. The second advantage is that unlike a normal attack, if the enemy blocks, any damage above the defender's BP goes to your opponent.

To illustrate, we'll go back to the previous example. Terry (now BP 300) unites with Kim Kaphwan (BP 700) during the next turn. Their united BP is 1000. The opponent blocks with Mai Shiranui (BP 600). Terry, who was selected first, squares off with Mai. He does 300 BP to her, and she does 600 to him. Mai (now BP 300) KO's Terry and faces Kim. She does 300 BP to him, and he does 700 to her. Kim is left with 400 BP, and hits the opponent for that amount. These attacks are a good way to overwhelm your opponents defense, especially if he is low on life.

As I said, cards do not nautrally regain their BP, but there are plenty of ways to help them to recover. One of the most often used is the idea of character back-ups. Most characters have a list of characters that can be used to 'back them up'. You back them up by playing a character card on them. This will raise their BP by 300, and can go above the initial value the cardfighter had. Some characters may also have a '?' on their back-up list. This indicates that they can be backed up by someone from the other 'team'. (An SNK character can be backed up by a Capcom character, and vice versa).

But what would a card game be without neat character abilities, and other special cards? Leona's V-Slasher does 200 points to an enemy cardfighter on the term that you play her. Heidern's Soul-Bringer steals 3 SP away from your opponent, and gives them to you (assuming he hits your opponent, and not a blocker.) Upon playing Eiji Kisaragi, you get to look at the top three cards of your deck, and replace them in any order. Abilities like these give sometimes weaker characters more appeal, like Alfred (from Real Bout 2) who can attack on the turn he comes into play. He's only 200 BP, but if you have a way to build him up, you can deal a hurting to your enemy before he has a chance to defend.

The game is comprised of over 300 cards, so you'll spend hours trying to collect them. (I've logged over ten game hours, and have less than 50% of the cards available.)

The game interface is simple, but is informative. You can view any card on the table, and the game displays any card the enemy plays as he/she plays it so that you can become familiar with the card, and it's use. With just a little bit of practice you'll find yourself battling opponents in Neo*Geo World, Capcom Plaza and other locations.

The character artwork on the cards is quite colorful, and well drawn. There is little in the way of actual animation, though there are little animations displaying what kinds of damage the cards do. However, animation isn't what this game is about, and the art on the cards makes up for a lack of animation. The RPG-like environments, however, are nicely animated and have nice touches throughout.

The sound in this game really shines, even if for only one thing. This is the FIRST Neo*Geo Pocket title I've heard to actually have speech! I thought I was hearing things the first time I started the game, and my pocket proudly declared "Card Fighters!!!". There is at least one other snippet of speech in the game as well. The music played during card battles is also pretty good, but perhaps not as memorable as the various character themes in MOTM.

This game excels in the area of gameplay. You can always go back and re-play the players you defeated earlier. You can build, and test new decks. You can try to get all the cards in the game. The link cable is supported, so VS play is a breeze, though the pauses when it's not your turn can feel a bit longish. However, you CAN view the cards on the table during these pauses. And the game is REALLY fun! It took me a little over a year to shake my Magic: The Gathering addiction a few years back. If they started producing an actual card-based version of this game, I think I'd go broke.

There are two versions of the cartridge, an SNK version and a Capcom version. The only real difference, as I understand it, is in your starting cards. Both play the same, and are totally compatible.

If you're a fan of card games, grab it. It may cost about $35, but you won't have to go out to buy any booster packs. And if you're looking for something new, this may be the game for you. The quality of Cardfighter's Clash rivals that of Match of the Milennium, and that's high praise. It's easy to learn, it continues to be fun, as well as challenging. I can't recommend this game enough.