Capcom Fighting Evolution – PS2 – Review

Capcom
Fighting Evolution takes familiar faces from previous Capcom fighting games and
brings them together, creating a tournament where street fighters, dinosaurs,
ninjas and vampires duke it out for reasons unknown. Capcom Fighting Evo is by
no means a bad game – it just does absolutely nothing new or different for the
genre. In some areas it even feels like it took a step back.

Five games
pitched in their characters to create Capcom Fighting Evo: Street Fighter 2,
Street Fighter 3, Street Fighter Alpha, Darkstalkers, and Red Earth. Four
characters from each game were selected for this game, and each character has a
different ending drawn out by the talented artists at Udon, the company
responsible for the awesome Street Fighter comic. Capcom seemed to pick four
different yet defining characters to represent each game, which I think was an
excellent idea. This way you get to sample the flavor of each game, rather than
have two slots used by Ryu and Ken for each Street Fighter game.

Your options
are pretty limited from the beginning. You have the choice of Arcade Mode, Vs.
Mode, or Training Mode. Usually this wouldn’t be much of a problem for a
fighting game, but Capcom has given us more options in past fighting games. The
main menu ends up feeling somewhat bare.

Once you’ve
started up a game, you’re allowed to pick two characters from the 21 available.
You can mix and match characters from each game if you like, allowing you to
create some interesting teams. Capcom Fighting Evo is not a tag game; you
instead fight one-on-one, one character at a time. Before each round the player
chooses which character participates. By pressing two punches together you can
choose your first character, or pressing two kicks for your second character.
The character you choose doesn’t flash or anything, so your opponent is
oblivious to your chosen character. This way you can force your opponent’s
strategy to change by choosing the character he wasn’t expecting.

Besides the
blind character switch, Capcom Fighting Evo doesn’t offer anything new to the
table. Depending on what game your character came from, his fighting style and
special move will be the same as his native game. Street Fighter 3 characters
can parry and each character can execute his or her (or its) special move from
their respective game.

The graphics
aren’t very impressive, unfortunately. The fighters’ sprites are pixelated and
the backgrounds are static and overall not very interesting. Certain characters’
animations are better than others, but even the Street Fighter 3 characters look
like they took a step down from their original game.

Capcom
Fighting Evolution plays a lot like the older Street Fighters, offering basic
gameplay and almost no learning curve. There are still things to unlock, but
with nothing new to offer it will most likely only appeal to the Street Fighter
fans out there.

Review Scoring Details for Capcom Fighting Evolution

Gameplay: 6.0
Capcom Fighting
Evo feels far too simple. For fans of the old Street Fighters this is great, but
for the rest of us it’s a bit of a let-down. It is still fun as a casual 2D
fighter, but you might want to rent it first.

Graphics: 6.5
The backgrounds
are pretty, but not too interesting compared to other Capcom fighters. The
character sprites also look very low-res, even when they look good in the game
they’re from. The involvement of Street Fighter’s comic book artists is
definitely a plus.

Sound: 7.8
The soundtrack is
exactly what you can expect in a Street Fighter. Upbeat tunes that fit well with
their level of origin serve as an excellent backdrop to the fight. The menu
sound effects can get really annoying, though.

Difficulty: Easy to Hard
There’s almost no
learning curve to this game. Of course turning the difficulty up will yield
tougher battles, so you can either walk through the arcade mode or break a
number of controllers battling to the finish.

Concept: 7.5
The concept
wasn’t a terrible idea, though they did a better job with it in previous games
(the Capcom vs. SNK series and Street Fighter Anniversary Collection). I think a
serious facelift, as well as more features and modes, could really improve this
game.

Multiplayer: 6.5
Depending on your
opponent, this simple game can become complex. But most of the time you and a
friend will grow bored and return to your other fighting games.

Overall: 6.6
It seems that
with a few more added features and an aesthetic upgrade this one could have
lived up to Capcom’s other 2D titles. Capcom Fighting Evolution is a good
fighter for those that really enjoyed the early Street Fighters, but it doesn’t
live up to the standards Capcom has set for itself with more recent titles.