You’re invited to this year’s newest event… a card-based tournament inviting the best game characters from Team Capcom and Team SNK. Break a deck!
SNK Playmore is competing against Yu-Gi-Oh and the Marvel Trading Card Game this spring with its second sequel to the fairly popular trading card game, SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS. The original title debuted on the Neo Geo Pocket Color system, a system which was picked up quickly by Neo Geo fans, but hardly anyone else.
The original game featured 16 bit graphics and characters from lots of Capcom games. The gameplay was simple. During your turn, choose a card and try to attack an opponent. During your opponent’s turn, you must defend. Attacking and Defending was done through a rock-paper-scissors type style. It’s been nine years since the last game, which was only released in Japan and Asia. To modernize the game, SNK added a “Force” meter which allows you to play a certain amount or type of cards and a ranking system.
The “Force” will be represented by colored marbles. You must have a certain amount and type of marbles to use each card. Some cards will be more powerful than others, according to the ranking system. For example, there will be special cards such as Kyo Kusanagi.
The first time you put cards down, they will be placed face down and your opponent will play. Then, you’ll flip your cards up and attack. Every new card/s you put down will be turned face down, so you will have to assume what a person plays before their cards are revealed. There’s a lot of assumption making and rock-paper-scissor gameplay, so it will take time to develop strategies for defeating opponents’ cards.
There’s at least two modes in the game, Single Player and Multiplayer. Single Player tells players the story of Taiki and his friend Riko who attempt to infiltrate the Card Tower of an evil computer named MAX. They must battle various opponents using up to eight character cards at once. We at Cheatcc.com haven’t had a chance to play the TGS version or the Story mode in later versions, but it sounds more entertaining than the usual duel to save the world type story.
During the card battle itself, battle animations are displayed on the top screen while the actual card battles occur on the touch screen. There are 400 total cards in the game and over 150 different characters representing each brand. Unlike the fighting game series, the card battle series will feature characters from every Capcom and SNK game possible, including those from Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, Mega Man, Final Fight, Devil May Cry, King of Fighters, Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, World Heroes, Aggressors of Dark Combat, Ninja Masters, and Samurai Shodown. There may be more characters in the final version of the game from games such as Saturday Night Slammasters, Viewtiful Joe, Resident Evil, Rival Schools, Last Blade, Metal Slug, and Breakers.
There won’t necessarily be multiple versions of all characters, but many will have alternative cards featuring alternate outfits, such as Ryu, Ken, Akuma, Mega Man, Morrigan, Felicia, Kyo Kusanagi, Iori, Leona, etc. Expect cards like Evil Ryu, Shin Akuma, and Orichi Iori to have extra power. Extra powerful cards take extra time to activate, so make certain you’re prepared early in the game to use them later.
All in all, the graphics look wonderful and the game is like walking around with a 2D Fighters’ Fighterdex. SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS appears to have uniqueness combined with simple gameplay that evolves during battle. If you like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, then I recommend this game for its battle system, but fans of Duel Masters, Magic, and Dragonball Z may not wish to try this game. If we can pull ourselves away from Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl when it launches close to this game’s release date, we’ll have a full review for you.
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