Customer Reviews

SNK Vs Capcom Card Fighters Clash

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I didn't want to lower the game's overall score, but it appears that the entire first run of this game has a fatal error which does not allow you to complete the game. Essentially, talking to the character John a second time on floor 9 causes the game to crash. Unfortunately, you must do so to finish the story mode.

According to the SNK boards, the company is aware of the problem as of today and is looking into it.

My advice: Don't pour time into a game you can't finish.

I'll provide an update when available.

UPDATE:

After a careful analysis by the game's programmers and after reviewing the reported bug encountered when meeting John on level 9 we, SNKP USA, have decided that the best action is to offer a replacement cartridge. We will order new repaired DS cartridges from Nintendo that will take approximately six weeks to receive. As soon as we receive the replacement cartridges we will give instructions as to where to mail your DS cartridge to receive a replacement. We apologize for this programming error and will correct it as soon as possible. Please do not return your game to the store of purchase. We will do an exchange program as soon as the new game paks arrive from Nintendo. Please continue to visit our website for updated information. We will update this announcement as soon as we are able to plan a date for the exchange to begin.

Thank you,

Ben Herman
President
SNK PLAYMORE USA CORPORATION

When I heard this game was getting a remake on the NDS, like many I was filled with anticipation, and even filled out a pre-order so I could get it as soon as possible.

I also returned it to amazon a day after I received it, after spending about 5 hours on a friends copy.


Level 9 has a game-destroying glitch that will freeze the game when you talk to one of the characters a second time. Doesn't seem bad until you realize that in order to unlock all the cards in the game, you need to play through a second time. And talk to that character a second time, which causes the freeze, and thus makes it impossible to proceed.


The translation also leaves much to be desired. Some of the special effects on cards are so obscure you have to use them to see how they work, and in a few cases the effect written on the card doesn't do anything close to what it says. Case in point: Dante. "KO's all Character Cards with 500 or less BP." Left 3 cards with 300, 400, and 300 bp, and KO'ed one with 200, and one with 600. Doesn't do anything like what it said.


The game itself is fun, but knowing that it can't be completed pretty much destroys any possibility of me rating it higher than a 3 in fun. Whats worse is the game was delayed numerous times before release. There is no reason this bug should have made it past play testing; people were finding the bug practically overnight.

I give this game a 1/10 for effort, and a 1 star out of 5 for being un-completable.

Capcom and SNK have been taking each other on for years in the arcades, culminating in a few fighting games featuring characters from both companies in all their fighting glory. SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters Clash updates the card fighting series from SNK's old Neo Geo Pocket series, and what could have been a solid card fighting game gets lost in translation thanks to some unforgiveable glitches and overall sloppy programming. There are 21 levels to make your way through as you discover the hundreds of battle cards featuring plenty of familiar Capcom and SNK characters like Ryu, Terry Bogard, and even Dante from Devil May Cry. What really could have made the game something special is the fact that the combat system is simple and easy to learn, which is a big plus for those unfamiliar with card games, real or digital. However, this is where the game's good points come to an end. The battles, while simple to learn and get into, feature opponents that are way too easy to beat. You really will get through the single player mode in hardly any time at all. This may be a bit forgiveable if it wasn't for some unforgiveable game glitches. The game has a habit of freezing up in play and in between combat as well, and you may find that the game does this quite a bit. This alone is what really kills what could have otherwise been a solid game. There are some pretty shallow multiplayer features and barely any use of the DS' touch screen, which only round out a disappointing package. All in all, hardcore card gaming enthusiasts may want to give SNK vs Capcom Card Fighters Clash a look, but don't expect anything special or even remotely good from it.

Yes, i had the original Cardfighters Clash (both versions) back in the day. Yes, I was a fanatic about the NeoGeo Pocket (& NeoGeo Pocket Color.) Yes, I shed a tear when SNK pulled the plug. It has remained one of my favorite games ever since, and when i heard about this DS revival version, I was understandably geeked. Of course, this game was SUPPOSED to have been released last Fall. It has taken its sweet old time (with many assuming it had simply been canned) but now it's here. It ain't perfect, but it's still cardfighting fun.

The 3 biggest changes are the increase in battlefield cards from 3 to 8, the adoption of a Magic-type mana system (you'll need certain colors to play certain cards), and the Pokemon/Yugioh style newschool RPG storyline, i.e. you're now some little dude wandering around "The Card Tower" encountering other folks and challenging them to card-battles. These changes work mostly in the new game's favor, but there are already oldschoolers complaining that this isn't "their" Cardfighters. Thankfully when it comes down to gameplay, the fun is still intact.

Character distribution-wise, you'll see 150 Capcom characters and 150 SNK characters (along with 100 "action" type cards, think Instants/Enchantments in Magic, that also feature characters from both universes.) The blocky chibi-art of the past has been kinda replaced with a softer art that to my eyes is pleasantly improved. the music is passable (and typical for fighting genres) and the game thankfully doesn't get bogged down in a lot of fluffy graphical theatrics. The playing-field is where you'll spend most of your time, and is well laid-out for that purpose.

Now on to the bad. Incredibly, even after the 6 month+ delay, STILL has the feel of a rushed game. The manual doesn't explain things well, the tutorial is strangely choppy, and what has turned out to be one of the loudest complaints: the translations are sloppy, and sometimes downright incorrect. You'll need to play through a few times to find out those cards where the wording is just plain wrong & what should happen just doesn't. It's disappointing that SNK would be involved in such a sloppy final product.

Another few fair complaints: the AI on the early/mid levels is ridiculously easy to the point of seemingly trying to fail. They line up 4 cards uncontested, and instead of attacking for direct damage, they just pass. I guess they want to make sure everyone starts off well (and maybe they realized how horrible the manual was.) And the biggie: the player going first has a fairly large advantage. It's like this: i go first, i set out my cards, they are frozen, can't attack/defend. You set out your cards, they are frozen, can't attack/defend. I go next, my cards unfreeze, i look across and see... you're still frozen, so i unleash with a big barrage, and you are already down maybe as much as 50%. This goes back & forth until someone wins, usually me because i was able to attack first. It isn't impossible to overcome, but it is a significant handicap.

Okay, here's some bonus points: you aren't going to see just King Of Fighters dudes or Street Fighter dudes. I've seen the hostage from Metal Slug, the attorneys from Phoenix Wright, even Tron Bonne from Mega Man. It definitely makes the game fun. Also, each fighter has a 2-page bio that gives you some nice background if you aren't immediately familiar. The old decisions still have to be made, like "Do i bring out the big gun, or a few smaller guns." You have to weigh special abilities, as some of these poor guys seem like cannon fodder until you see that they serve a different purpose other than toe-to-toe battles. The pace of the battles is nice, not a lot of bogging down in layers of menus, everything you need to see is easily in reach (L & R buttons) and clearly marked. You get to buy virtual packs with your winnings, and that's nearly as fun as opening them in real life.

Long story short: if you're a newschool card-game player, you should have fun. If you're an oldschool Cardfighters Clash fan, you should have a lot of fun, despite the disappointing lack of polish. Personally i could have done without the lame RPG story overlay, but if it's what sells these days then why not. I mean, really, who would have thought the original would have been the success that it was, let alone entertaining any thoughts of a modern-day sequel? Personally, i'm happy with any bone that SNK throws me these days.

No joke, SNK Playmore had acknowledged this bug a week ago and on that date they posted on the company forums, "We're looking into it." No response since. No update. My guess is this will wind up like Sudoku on the PSP (which had a bug where if you dropped below 80% power the game would pause every 30 seconds). They just swept that under the rug and said, "Well, they can't all be winners." I am expecting we will never hear any response on this issue from SNK and it will fall on the retailer's shoulders to supply refunds.

Bad, bad idea to get this game.

Like most other people, I knew about the game having a glitch that made it so you couldn't continue on with the game at a certain point, and made it unable to get a 100% clear file. That was on the cart that had a more colorful sticker on the actual game chip/cart/whatever. The 'fixed' version had a grey background instead, and took care of that one problem. But after enjoying the game and getting close to 100%, something still managed to ruin everything- my file was erased one day without warning. I had just played the game 20 minutes before, turning it off to go make a phone call. Heck, my DS was still on me, and when I started it back up, my file was gone. Everything I spent dozens of hours earning, gone. Because of that, I'm telling you to not even bother with this game. When a 'fixed' version has a problem this big, what's the point?

But if you still want to risk it, SNK vs Capcom Card Fighters Clash -is- a pretty fun game, though that's only if you have another person to play against. The story mode is very stereotypically Japanese, and has your main character taking on opponents in card battles, curing them of the sudden darkness that overcame them in a great tower you're all in. You work your way up, floor by floor, battling everyone and earning/buying more cards. The story's boring, and you're really only going to be playing this to see all the cool cards, trust me.

Playing the game may look complicated at first glance, especially to someone who's never played a CCG (customizable card game) before, like me. But in truth, it's very easy to play. Each player starts out with 5 cards. You select which ones you want to put on the battlefield. You wait a turn, letting them activate and gathering power based on their respective colors (each one has different colors they belong to), and as the color power adds up, you can use cards that require more power (example- one card requires 5 yellow power in order to be used, so you have to build up that much power via other cards). When they're ready, you can attack your opponent and their cards. Both them and their cards have their own HP, and once the opponent's is gone, you win. Trust me, matches can go by pretty quick if you've got a good deck, especially when some cards do over 1000 HP of damage, and your opponent only has 2000 HP most of the time. If things seem complicated in the game, you can always keep trying your hand at the lower level opponents and pay attention to how things work, but chance are you'll get it after 3 or 4 matches. There's always a nice tutorial mode too.

There are A LOT of different Capcom and SNK characters here, many that will bring back memories from your childhood if you played their games in the early 90s. King of Monsters is represented here for crying out loud! Sure, I didn't know every single character here, but I was impressed at the diversity both companies had, and was glad to see it wasn't just King of Fighters and Street Fighter characters like you might think based on the cover art. The graphics on the cards are good, but battle animations are limited to usually one of these categories: punches, fire, lightning, water, ice, sword slash, gun shot and wind. There's one animation for each of them, and that's it. The graphics outside of card battles are simple and very Pokemon-ish. As for the soundtrack, you'll be hearing the same 3 tracks over and over. While they're not bad to listen to, you'll probably end up turning the sound off and listening to a music player or something.

If you have a friend that has the game, playing against them is the way to go because of how stupid the AI is here. There were many times when the CPU wouldn't do anything on their turn, or would only attack one of my cards that had a ton of HP while the others only had a little bit left and could've been taken out by their attack. If you've got a friend to knows how to play, you guys could probably go on for 10 minutes. But that's if you really use everything here, like support cards. But you know what? I NEVER used any of those when playing unless there were matches that required me to have them. Otherwise, if you just have character cards, you can still win without any problems. I think that's how most people played it too.

I shouldn't have wasted so much time on this review since there's really no reason for anyone to buy a game that doesn't work right. It's a shame they didn't fix it 100%, because this could've been a nice one to keep. It's not as good as the card fighters for the NeoGeo Pocket Color, but was still fun while it lasted. Hopefully SNK can get things right with the next installment, if there is one.

Card games are not my thing. This one, however, is an exception since it has characters from two of my favorite video game companies. The game itself is a semi-generic card game and, not being a fan of this type of games, I cannot judge it fairly in that aspect. I can only say that it is satisfactory and not impossible to understand for people who have never played card games. It is frustrating at the beginning because the rules are not quite clear. It doesn't help that there is no tutorial. There are games that do not require tutorials, but this one would have benefited from that. If it were the pure card game, I wouldn't recommend it. But the real enjoyable characteristic of the game are the characters from Capcom and SNK that appear in the game. Granted, they only appear as cards. But in exchange for this short appearances, the variety is more extensive that in the fighting games. And these appearances are what makes this game worthwhile. If you do not like card games, are not a fan of Capcom or SNK or do not have appreciation for obscure characters, then this game will probably not be for you. But if you have one of those characteristics, you will enjoy it. Personally, I am not disappointed and I think the price is fair, but I am patient enough to get the hang of the game despite not liking card games. I know that not all people have the patience or the time and they will be better with a more action-packed fighting game. But if you do and are a big fan of Capcom and SNK, you will get an enjoyable game.

Warning to anyone thinking about buying a new copy of this game: there ALL REJECTS!!!!!
I bought a new copy a while back... the entire game just froze on the 9th floor (during the 2nd half of the game), so after 20 something hours, everything was all for naught!
But if you want a working copy, either e-mail or read seller's condition notes. games with blue labels/stickers are the crappy flawed versions, greyish-white color labels are the fixed version (I played one & it works past the 9th floor).

We ordered this game as a Christmas gift for my son. . Needless to say, it was very disappointing to find that defective copies of the game are still on the market in Nov. and Dec. when the problem was discovered before May! The recall has been going on for so long ther was no direct link on the company's home page. You must web search to find the proper site and get recall instructions. We were instructed to ship just the game (defective game cartridge only) to the company. It took at least 4 weeks to receive a working game cartridge (which ironically arrived in just a waterproof envelope!) I would have given the game a higher star rating as my son says it is enjoyable, but a flaw that affected so many games should have been corrected (and the defective cartridges recalled from the distributors) long before the holidays.

The original Neo-Geo Pocket SNK / Capcom Card Fighters enjoys a fine reputation among hardcore portable gamers of old. 2007's port sees the geeked-out fun dead and gone, and franchise talk has ended months ago. I won't be the first to note that SNK Playmore spared *every* expense in rushing this sleeper CCG to the green pastures of today's handheld par excellence, but it bears repeating. Console markets with sales numbers like the DS will continue to sustain and encourage hack-jobs like this one, but that doesn't mean those efforts should be forgiven.

Among the onerous difficulties apparent in the first five hours of gameplay is a localization job that actually impedes the player's understanding of individual card abilities and game concepts. For example, SNK Playmore's editors saw fit to use "ignominious" correctly in the manual, while misstating the specifics on cards and in the tutorial. Hey, at least the kids will be prepping for their PSATs! Coupled with the treachery of the in-game score and the mad-libbed inanity of the RPG "story," there's little motivation to appreciate the handsome card graphics.

A less absolute blunder involves the introduction of an underdeveloped and unbalanced "color/cost" system of playing cards akin to the CCG ideal of M:TG. This should tend to produce excellent results with smart development, but Card Fighters battles are ultimately races to establish numbers first. Even numbers matter little, however, when the AI scripts are incompetent. On paper, the color/cost system promises hours of deck tweaking that forms the bedrock of the CCG genre--but what incentive is there to delve into the potential intricacies of cost and color management when the AI handicaps itself at every turn? Independent of other attack/defense numbers-based CCGs, the Card Fighters battle system could have simply forced involved deck editing and increased the importance and combo potential of the non-creature "instants" by limiting AI inattention. You're left managing the same boring attacks in a cramped, economical battle screen, wishing for the killer combo that ain't coming in your deck. The problems render the multiplayer option a moot point.

All of this misery falls far short of the game's fatal crash that prevents you from completing 25% percent of the game. This is an unimaginable oversight that no serious developer would EVER let slip, even on a C-list game.

To rephrase the consensus outrage about the slipshod effort put into this port: you should feel no obligation to invest yourself in a console game that was commercially released with a game-crashing fatal flaw--even if the company in question replaces the cartridge after post-release debugging. Card Fighter promises a little fun to any CCG-minded gamer, but the genre demands too much involvement and time to spend your energies on a losing cause. As for me, maybe it's time to boot up Microprose's Magic: The Gathering in Windows 95 compatibility mode...