“Anything Capcom can do…” seems to be the battle cry from the SNK Playmore guys as we see their take on the Marvel Vs Capcom formula with a conversion of the arcade/PS2 title from a few years ago. With 36 fighters and a rich vein of tag team fighting it has a good pedigree to at least keep up with the industry stalwart, but can it?
First thing to remember is that the Neo Geo was never exactly bereft of any fighting games in it’s past. Fatal Fury, King of Fighters and Samurai Showdown have all seen their series of titles, as well as gaining adoring fans in the process. A fair few of the key players in those franchises, as well as some from their non pugilistic games, like Metal Slug for example, are also present. Having as many to choose from is always a great feeling as it gives you so much variety, especially in a tag team game.
With most games of this type there is not really a major story to speak of, or if there is it must have been written on the back of a stamp, perhaps the one that was used to mail the Tekken series screenplay just to get a taste of what can be achieved in this department. I’ve always said though, to be honest, that you don’t really need a strong tale to make a solid brawler, but it’s not to say that it wouldn’t be nice once in a while. I mean the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat franchises have always had something to go on about, but here it just feels like a no frills title and that does seem to make it suffer just a little.
It could well be because there isn’t really that much extra to see in terms of the actual game itself, with only an arcade and survival mode to speak of, taking the Xbox LIVE part out of the equation. I don’t need my games to be brimming over with more extras than a directors cut DVD with 3,000,000 new interviews just to make it look good, but at the same time I do like something there to at least draw my eye to. There just isn’t enough extra to make me sit up and take notice and it shows badly here.
Graphically it is everything you would expect from the SNK magicians. There has always been a great attention to detail and love of their craft when it comes to the mastering of the two dimensions and that doesn’t stop here. There are some vector based backgrounds and they all look nice enough, but it’s in the fighters themselves that we see the best detail, with plenty of animations and lots of colour to keep those optic nerves happy for a while.
The audio is suitably Japanese fighting game, in such a way that you begin to think there must be a catalogue with music and sound effects specifically made for this genre. There is the usual guitar based dance stuff mixed with a little bit of suspense to create exactly what you would expect for a game of this type.
As far as the gameplay mechanics go, there is a slight hint of the Capcom fighting style, with some standard quarter turn joystick movements helping to create some strong attacks, but there is always that feeling of retention with its own brand, as they never really stray too far away from their history. For whatever reason, I just don’t feel that this plays as solidly as some of its competitors.
Whether this is because I grew up with Ryu and Ken is beyond me, but there is never that feeling of urgency and it all plods along a little less paced than I’d like. When you look at games like Marvel Vs Capcom 2 or even the more recent Street Fighter IV you get sucked into the moment because the speeds at which things are happening demand that you do. Inside the Battle Coliseum you never feel that and it all slows down to a crawl. The jumps aren’t high enough, the attacks aren’t really too bold and the movement just doesn’t seem to scream out at you that you’re fighting for your life.
Online is ok, but again, is nothing to truly shout out about. Whether or not it’s because we’ve moved things on a little or not, the package as a whole is just that little bit dated and still feels like the PS2 version all over again. When you consider just how much this costs and that you could pick up the second Marvel V Capcom for that amount of money there is simply no contest. What is even more alarming though is that you could more than likely grab a second hand copy of Street Fighter IV for about the same, and to have something like this demand your hard earned when this is possible results in a decision your head can make with relative ease.
It may look nice enough, but the rest of Neo Geo Battle Coliseum just doesn’t scrub up well enough to accompany that one shining quality. The combat system is a little dated and needs upgrading, the amount of options is practically non-existent and the fact that you can pick up other, and more importantly better games of this genre for the same price or a slight increase in cash amount results in something that you cannot recommend highly. For the purists this may well be something to help get that collection ever higher, but for the rest of us it just doesn’t scream out to be bought in its current state. All the more saddening when this statement comes from a huge Metal Slug fan.
Do the right thing and get yourself Spiderman and Ryu’s brand of fighting and rejoice in the third instalment of THAT coming out at the end of the year, as that will bring you much more fun than this does.
VideogameUK verdict: 5/10
