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SNK vs. Capcom - TV Tropes

  • ️Sun Mar 25 2012

SNK vs. Capcom (Video Game)

During the height of the fighting game popularity, one of Capcom's biggest competitors was SNK, creators of the Neo Geo console and arcade system, who challenged Street Fighter's dominance with a wide array of linked and standalone games and series, culminating with their own Massive Multiplayer Crossover, The King of Fighters. Naturally, in 1999 and 2000, the inevitable happened, and the two companies came together to both make separate fighting games based on the concept.

The fighting games of this series, so far, are these:note 

SNK also developed three Card Battle Games based on the concept (the Card Fighters Clash series), the most recent for the Nintendo DS ending the SNK series as a whole and notoriously containing a Game-Breaking Bug.

While no direct sequels were made to any of the games here since the late 2000's, Capcom and SNK characters went on to have Guest Fighter appearances in other games:

  • Tekken 7: While not part of the game at launch, Akuma and Geese joined the roster through updates, both bringing modified versions of their 2D move lists with system mechanics based on Street Fighter IV and The King of Fighters XIV.
  • Granblue Fantasy: As part of two collaboration events, characters from Street Fighter and Samurai Shodown can join the player's collection of heroes; Ryu, Chun-Li, Haohmaru and Nakoruru can be recruited via this method.
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Ken (as part of the launch roster) and Terry (via DLC) join the Smash Bros. series in this installment of Nintendo's premier Massive Multiplayer Crossover, joining Ryu & Mega Man - veteran fighters with one appearance each to their names.
  • The King of Fighters All Star: Possibly the closest yet to a full-on follow-up, this mobile game has done two Street Fighter events that added characters from that series as units. The first added Ryu, Chun-Li (in both her classic and Street Fighter Alpha versions), M. Bison, Luke and Akuma, and a second one in 2023 added Street Fighter 6 characters Guile, Cammy, Juri, Jamie, and Ken (with Guile and Cammy's classic versions also available).
  • Street Fighter 6: Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui are announced to be the first third-party Guest Fighters in Street Fighter history to be released as part of the game's second season of DLC.
  • Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves: Ken Masters and Chun-Li appear as part of the game's first season of DLC. As a parallel to Terry and Mai's appearance in Street Fighter 6, this marks the first time that third-party Guest Fighters appear within the Fatal Fury series' roster lineup.

As of 2022, there are discussions between Capcom and SNK to revive the series. Though there has been no news on a new game yet, SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium has been ported to Nintendo Switch and PC as has the first Card Fighters Clash game for the Switch. Then, SVC Chaos was re-released in 2024 - shadowdropping after it's surprise announcement at EVO 2024. On August 27th 2024, Capcom Fighting Collection 2 was announced and confirmed to contain Capcom vs. SNK Millennium Fight 2000 Pro and Capcom vs SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001 in its collection, with the option to change 2 to its EO version.

Examples of the series in general:

  • Battle Intro: The games are full of this. From the CvS duology alone do you get cool scenes like Geese throwing a Reppuken at Bison to blow his cape away.
  • Demoted to Extra: Characters such as Robert Garcia, Mature, Daimon, Yang and Andy get only passing mentions, assist roles, or cameos, in the entire Capcom vs. SNK series. This is very noticeable in the SNK side, because most of the KOF teams (sans the Women Fighters Team) are incomplete in the games. For example, the Art of Fighting Team lacks Robert, the Fatal Fury Team lacks Andy, the Japan Team lacks Goro Daimon, the Villain Team lacks Billy Kane, and so on. Chang also shares his moveset with Choi in Capcom vs. SNK 2, but Choi got into SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos with Chang only getting cameos.
  • Irony: The SNK-side art for both Capcom vs. SNK games is done by famed SNK artist Shinkiro. However by that point SNK had gone under and Shinkiro was working as an artist for Capcom (with the original game being one his first major projects for the company, no less).
  • Shout-Out: Check the page.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: The Street Fighter cast, who always make up more than half the Capcom side characters (both Capcom-published games include all 12 original World Warriors in their roster - SVC Chaos saw Zangief, Blanka and Honda miss the cut). Some of the cases would be more appropriate to call Street Fighter vs. SNK. To be fair, the majority of the SNK side is comprised of characters who've already appeared in a King of Fighters game, so Street Fighter vs. The King of Fighters would be a better titlenote .