Capcom Fighting Evolution is a mixed bag. You either love it or hate it because of what it is: another recycling job disguised as a brand new game. All things considered, I had hesitated to pick this one when I saw it going for full price as opposed to being a budget title, but since the local EBGames had dropped the price on this title, I picked it up anyway despite all the negative press behind it and tried it out for myself. Is it really as bad as they say?
STORY: If you’re playing fighting games for the story, look elsewhere. Capcom’s fighting games that involve crossing over several franchises are usually devoid of story and this one’s no exception. Not even the endings clarify the fighters’ purpose for being here. Nothing worth noting. 1/10
GRAPHICS: People have complained about the recycling of these outdated sprites that have been featured in nearly every single Capcom fighter since the days of Darkstalkers and Street Fighter Alpha. My feeling is that as long as they don’t clash with each other or with other game elements, it doesn’t really bother me. But the backgrounds are detailed, the effects are rather nice, and all of a sudden, these old sprites are looking very ancient. The SF3 sprites are still as good as they are, but somehow they don’t seem to hold up well. The Red Earth characters, as well as the new girl Ingrid, look fairly good, but that’s only because we’ve never seen them before. The cameos by other Capcom characters certainly doesn’t help matters, since they could be doing the actual fighting. 6/10
SOUND: The sound is nice, crisp, and clear: which has to be considering the platform it’s on. The soundtrack isn’t one of my favorites, but there are a couple of catchy tunes that I find myself playing in my head (but not for that long). Nothing to complain about. 7/10
GAMEPLAY: Gameplay is somewhat of a mixed bag. Control is fairly solid and I haven’t had any problem pulling off most of the moves. Here’s a personal plus: I’ve actually managed to pull off Zangief’s Spinning Piledriver without much effort after years of futile attempts in other games. Speaking of characters, each of them are restricted to a style of gameplay based on the original game they represent. For example, SF2 characters have a single super meter and are the most basic to use, while SFA characters have three-level supers, can block in the air and more. While this is a good way to mix things up a bit, it feels a little restricted having to stick with one style, whereas you could have done like Capcom vs. SNK and be given the option to choose which style you want. This is more or less the only flaw in the system that brings the score down. Once again, this is a team-based game, but unlike prior games, you don’t have to change team members if you don’t want to. Whether that translates to a good thing or not depends on your own personal preference, but for anyone who wants to restrict play with a single fighter, that option is available. 6/10
CHALLENGE: Like in all Capcom games, you can adjust the difficulty of the game to your liking. Want it to be easy? Set it to the lowest level. Want to get the worst beating? Set it to maximum. I never had a problem with the AI. Some might play a bit cheap, but that sort of thing happens with all fighting games. At least it’s fair. 8/10
REPLAY VALUE: Given what they could have, there isn’t much in terms of replay. You have an arcade mode, versus mode, training mode, and online play. That’s about it. Unless you can find someone online to play with or even closer to home and in person, there’s absolutely no incentive for you to play this again unless you want to unlock all the classic music tracks. Even when that’s done, you’ve pretty much exhausted all the value. 5/10
OVERALL: I was fortunate enough to have purchased this title for thirty dollars… Canadian. So my opinion may be a little less critical than most. Capcom Fighting Evolution, despite being a relatively new fighting game, would have been a great budget title. Unfortunately, this had cost about the same as a fresh new release until the recent price drop. It’s certainly not as bad as everyone claim it to be, but considering that Capcom charged you full price for it at one point, it’s a rather underwhelming package with little incentive to replay when you’re done with it and unlocked everything there is to unlock. If you can find this game for really cheap, then I’d say go ahead and buy it because you’ve really got nothing to lose. Otherwise, you might want to rent it and check it out before forking away the cash. 6/10
dtm666 