Review:
Originally entitled Capcom Fighting Jam, this 2D fighter
brings together an assortment
of Capcom characters from likes of Street Fighter 2, Street Fighter Alpha,
Street
Fighter III: Third Strike, Darkstalkers, and Warzard. Capcom
also threw in a new character: Ingrid from the canceled Capcom
Fighting All Stars. The battles are 2 VS 2 (team style, not tag) and each
character uses their super meter from the original game that they're
from. After each round, the player can switch out their current character
for their partner, or keep the same character. A novel idea on paper,
but a few key things went wrong with this "effort," if you dare
call it that.
Well where else can you
see Chun-Li VS a big-ass dinosaur?
While the "idea" of the game seems like a dream come true for Capcom fighting game enthusiasts,
the gameplay feels very much like something we've played before (which is a good thing in some
ways) and seems to be most
similar to that of Capcom VS SNK 2... which is
ironically the last 2D fighting game Capcom released. Hmmm.
At first glance, Evolution gives off the same aura that the original Capcom VS SNK did
when it came out... not having enough characters, missing combos, and
leaves much to be desired from a Capcom fighting game. The character roster
should've been a lot bigger, especially considering the quality of characters we're getting... I mean,
where's Captain Commando, Strider Hiryu, or even Jin Saotome? Unfortunately, we're stuck with some very outdated 2D
sprites and characters.
For example, Demitri's sprite is
seriously too old to be in a 2004 fighting game
(10 years old to be exact)... and to top it off, his sprite looks particularly
shitty in this game (yes, he actually looks better in the Darkstalkers
series). They also edited the Zangief sprite (from SFA), shrinking the original
sprite and changing his facial expression; and overall he looks quite terrible in this game as well.
As a matter of fact, for
a quick comparison you can always do Zangief's taunt, which still uses his old face,
so you can compare the two when needed.
Ridiculous.
Are those supposed to be
cardboard stand-ups of E. Honda & Maki? :(
Just to state the obvious,
graphically the game is well below average. Some of the backgrounds are pretty
decent looking (and even have quality background music), but several backgrounds
include cameos of other Capcom characters; and for some reason they closely
resemble 2D cardboard cutouts... seriously Capcom designers, what were you
on?!?
The animation in
general is sped up, which means the Third Strike characters that appear
in Evolution don't animate as smoothly they do from their original game.
You can sum up the graphics of this game in one world... and that's
"messy."
All of the sprites blended together from different games just gives me a headache.
One of the only good parts of the game visually, are the endings. All characters have endings this time around, yes...
real endings for once.
The art for the endings come up in a comic-panel-like sequence (Drawn by UDON), and they
look pretty damn good. Besides spectacular endings, this is definitely one of Capcom's worst 2D fighting game
to date.
Overlooking the obvious
flaws, hardcore Capcom fighting game fans will be able to enjoy Evolution
for it's historical
value and classic 2D gameplay. At least you can parry with certain characters in
the game, which can be fun times. Most characters
retain almost all of their special & super moves (but a few are
missing). Also, characters definitely don't play "exactly" like they do from
previous games (which is funny, because the back of the US version box says different).
I happen to be a decent Third Strike Urien player myself, and most
of his (good) Aegis Reflector combos are NOWHERE to be found... disappointing
indeed. What's the use of having Urien from Third Strike if he's nothing
like the real thing?! This case repeats itself with other characters... but on
the bright side, the SFA, SF2, and Darkstalkers characters
actually play more like they should. I'm sure most fighting gamers can find
a handful of characters in CFE that they enjoy using, but in most cases
those characters are more fun to use in the original games that they are from.
Last Updated:
4/30/2010
Developer(s):
Capcom Production Studio 2
Publisher(s):
Capcom
Platform(s):
Arcade,
Playstation 2, Xbox
Release Date(s):
October 2004 (Arcade), November 16th 2004 ( PS2), December
2nd 2004 ( PS2),
February 12th 2005 (
PS2), June 14th 2005 ( Xbox), June
16th 2005 ( Xbox), June
24th 2005 ( Xbox)
Evolution was actually somewhat fun for a while...
the character selection wasn't bad and there were some fun match-ups. The
gameplay was also solid in 2D fighting game terms, but that doesn't mean this
game isn't a lazily-made piece of $#!@%. lol.
My favorite things about Evolution would be parrying (with the few characters that
can parry), the endings, the character artwork by Shinkiro, and a few of the music
tracks... but yeah, everything else pretty
much sucks. So what crawled
up into Capcom's ass and died? I actually have a theory...
Perhaps, someone at Capcom
thought it'd be a brilliant idea to purposely make the
game look cheap to "mock" the people currently ripping off their 2D fighting
games using emulators. Why would they do that? To show they can make
money with little effort? (not sure if that even worked). Who knows the reason, but this
cheap-looking game seems to make such a statement.
~F.Yagami,
Webmaster of TFG
.
At first glance, Evolution gives off the same aura that the original Capcom VS SNK did
when it came out... not having enough characters, missing combos, and
leaves much to be desired from a Capcom fighting game. The character roster
should've been a lot bigger, especially considering the quality of characters we're getting... I mean,
where's Captain Commando, Strider Hiryu, or even Jin Saotome? Unfortunately, we're stuck with some very outdated 2D
sprites and characters.
Ridiculous.
The animation in
general is sped up, which means the Third Strike characters that appear
in Evolution don't animate as smoothly they do from their original game.
All of the sprites blended together from different games just gives me a headache.
One of the only good parts of the game visually, are the endings. All characters have endings this time around, yes...
real endings for once.
The art for the endings come up in a comic-panel-like sequence (Drawn by UDON), and they
look pretty damn good. Besides spectacular endings, this is definitely one of Capcom's worst 2D fighting game
to date.
disappointing
indeed. What's the use of having Urien from Third Strike if he's nothing
like the real thing?! This case repeats itself with other characters... but on
the bright side, the SFA, SF2, and Darkstalkers characters
actually play more like they should. I'm sure most fighting gamers can find
a handful of characters in CFE that they enjoy using, but in most cases
those characters are more fun to use in the original games that they are from.
PS2), December
2nd 2004 (
PS2),
February 12th 2005 (
PS2), June 14th 2005 (
