(LAST UPDATE: 6/25/2009)
.
Developer(s): Capcom Production Studio 2
Publisher(s): Capcom
Platform(s): Arcade,
PS2, 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)
Characters:
Ryu,
Chun
Li, Demitri, Guile,
Leo,
Hydron,
Ingrid,
Felicia,
Hauzer,
Yun,
Guy,
Sakura,
Bison,
Alex, Urien,
Kenji,
Jedah,
Rose,
Anakaris,
Zangief,
Karin,
Shin
Akuma, Pyron
Related Games:
Capcom
Fighting All Stars
Review: Originally called Capcom Fighting Jam, this 2D fighter includes an assortment of Capcom characters from likes of Street Fighter 2, Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter III: Third Strike, Darkstalkers, Warzards, and even Ingrid from the canceled Capcom Fighting All Stars. The battles are 2 VS 2 (team style, not tag). 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.
While the game seems like a dream come true for 2D fighting game enthusiasts, the gameplay feels like something we've played before and seems to be most similar to that of Capcom VS SNK 2... Which is ironically the last 2D fighting game Capcom released. Overall, this game gives off the same aura that Capcom VS SNK 1 did when it came out... (Not having enough characters, missing combos, and leaves MUCH to be desired). For one, the character roster could be A LOT bigger. Especially for the quality of characters we're getting... I mean, where's Captain Commando, or Strider Hiryu, or even Jin Saotome? True Capcom legends!?!? Unfortunately, we're stuck looking at some very outdated 2D sprites and characters.
For one, 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 (SFA) sprite and changed some of his facial expressions. And he looks quite terrible (yet funny)... For a quick comparison, his taunt oddly brings out his old face, so you can compare the two whenever you need to... It's something to laugh at, at least. Other characters don't look too bad, but the animation in general is sped up; so Third Strike characters don't animate quite as well as they do from their original game.
Yes, graphically the game looks BELOW average. Some of the backgrounds are pretty cool looking (and even have decent background music), but many backgrounds include Capcom characters from other games, and for some reason, they closely resemble 2D cardboard cutouts... Friggin Capcom designers, what were you on?! All in all, and simply put, this game is "MESSY." All the sprites from different games blended together just gives me a headache. At least all the characters have endings this time around, yes... REAL endings. The art for the endings come up in a comic-panel-like sequence, and they look pretty damn good. (Drawn by UDON!) But damn, besides the magnificent endings, this is definitely one of Capcom's worst 2D fighting game ever. Capcom used to set their standards high for 2D fighting, what the hell were they thinking?
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, and the parry system is solid and can sometimes be fun. Most characters
retain "almost" all of their special & super moves (but a few are missing).
And also, the characters definitely don't play "exactly" like I remember.
(Which is funny, because the back of the US version box says different).
I happen to be a quite 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 as
well... But on the other hand, the SFA, SF2, and Darkstalkers characters
actually play 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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5.5 / 10 |
Closing Comment: My favorite things about this game are parrying with the few characters that do parry, 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 have a theory... Perhaps, they made the game look "cheap" to mock the people currently ripping off their 2D fighting games using emulators. Why would they do that? Who knows, but this terribly made game seems to make a statement along those lines. ~F.Yagami, Webmaster of TFG
.
.
.
.
.
.