This is essentially an ‘open love letter’ to my favorite game, Capcom vs SNK 2! I was a little girl loving this game during the early 2000s. I believe I started playing this game around 2005? I remember thinking about what special move I could spam in the training mode with one of my favorite characters such as: Athena Asamiya, Rock Howard, Terry Bogard, Maki, and more. This game introduced me to more avenues of fighting games, which is my preferred gaming genre apparently. I also have fond memories of my brother who introduced me to the franchises that SNK and Capcom publish/created. This game is truly a beloved one in my eyes and I’ll talk about why!
The OST
The music in this game was amazing! Some are even iconic such as the London Stage’s song, ‘this is true love we’re making.’ I still listen to that religiously to this day!
I had no idea what they were saying though, so I used to just jam to the catchy lyrics and beat. I realized what they were saying as I got older. One of my other favorites was at the Ruined Osaka Stage where, depending on how well you perform in the arcade mode, you fight Ultimate Rugal or Shin Akuma. If you make it to Ultimate Rugal’s ‘boss’ stage, his theme song, “The Lord God” plays.
One of the best themes in the whole game in my opinion. It really hypes you up and makes you want to defeat Rugal even more. Though Rugal is a SNK boss and lord knows how cheap they were back in the day.
Another great song is the one that plays at the Kinderdijk Stage, Fight With The Wind, is very beautiful and inspiring. I still listen to this song quite often as well.
CvS2 had some amazing music to go along with the nostalgia that the game brings with it. Thank God that my old PS2 slim still works and I can play this game to my heart’s content, at least for now.
The Various Modes
CvS2 had many modes that kept the players entertained for hours. In fighting games, the training mode alone will keep you busy as you work diligently at trying to perfect that combo or memorize the commands for that long super, looking at you, neo deadly rave. Survival, Arcade, Color Editing, Training, Groove Edit, Replay, and Versus are the main modes. The arcade mode is where you pick up to 3 fighters to fight and duke things out with the CPU until the end and as mentioned earlier, if you perform well (and complete certain conditions) you either fight U. Rugal or S.Akuma. You get little mini-endings for each character for example, if you beat it with Mai, she gushes about Andy Bogard and expresses happiness at winning the tournament. They’re an interview style like ending. The color edit mode is where I used to have my favorite characters decked out in my favorite colors (upon looking at my old saves, I had mostly everyone in a black/red combo or white/purple). The groove edit mode is where you create your own style of how you like to play. You spend points in certain areas like dodging, counter-attacking, run, dash, etc to create your own groove. You can have two and they’re the EX grooves. Replay is cool and you can store up to 3 replays from the versus mode.
The Huge Roster!
There are over 44+ characters in the game! Plenty of characters to choose from and all have interesting movesets and playstyles! My main characters were:
- Rock Howard
- Maki
- Terry Bogard
- Ryu (a classic)
- Athena Asamiya
- Mai Shiranui
- Iori Yagami
- Hibiki
- Nakoruru
I played with everyone in the roster just to see how they played. I have more favorites and other ones that I’ve recently gotten to enjoy more are: Chun-Li, Cammy, Benimaru, and Kyo Kusanagi! I’ve always loved the characters I mentioned and I enjoy their playstyles. I believe most of them are more so the rush-down types. I tend to prefer rush down and shotos in fighting games. So of course, my bane are grapplers!
Is it just Nostalgia?
Since I got to revisit the game in this year of 2024, the year of the dragon, I realize that my love for this game wasn’t just seen in those pesky rose-colored lenses. It still stands up to this day and from what I’ve seen on the internet, people still really love this game! I also like watching gameplay of it on YouTube whenever it strikes my fancy.
The sprites and their animation quality is top-notch. SNK/Capcom’s sprites were always well made in my opinion. I especially love Rock Howard’s ‘reppuken’ animation! Honestly, I just love Rock Howard in general, but that’s for another post. I also happen to love his clothing animations! In closing, I love this game because it was an amazing fighting game experience and despite it being over 23 years old, it still stands up and the ‘replay-ability’ is off the charts. I suppose I’m reaching when I say this, but it really set the standard for me on how a fighting game should feel. The announcer sounded like he was having the time of his life and his voice made me feel upbeat and I sometimes even chuckle at how ‘early 00s’ he sounds (all in the best way, of course). This game is a solid 9/10 for me!
Peace and Ninjas
Athena/Rae!
Twists and Turns of Lyfe 
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