Capcom vs. SNK: The King of Arcades: 2012-2014

Curious things happened in the aftermath of The King of Fighters 13 and Super Street Fighter 4.  SNK wasn’t coming out with a lot of new games except mobile phone ones and ports of previous games.  There were some good mobile games and good ports, mind you.  I still love The Rhythm of Fighters and had some fun with Metal Slug Defense, which led into Metal Slug Attack and apparently Metal Slug Attack had so much of an audience that just recently they came out with a complete console version of it called Metal Slug Attack: Reloaded.  For ports, the Code Mystics ports for KOF 98 and 2002UM were made available on PC with online play, which for me was a huge deal.

On Capcom’s side… Well a lot of people consider it Capcom’s darkest time period and would lead into them becoming the evil fan-hating company they are today.  There were already a lot of contentious decisions and games like the Bionic Commando remake, Dark Void, DMC: Devil May Cry (it’s not THAT bad, guys) and of course Street Fighter X Tekken.  Street Fighter X Tekken was a disaster for Capcom because of on-disc DLC due to a deal with Sony and a gameplay customization system essentially kind of being pay to win.  I play Street Fighter X Tekken on the Vita, where all the characters are included, so I didn’t get as much withheld content and I think it’s a pretty fun crossover, but I am in the minority.

Capcom had one possible saving grace with Sengoku Basara 4, a game that was shaping up to be the end all be all for action gaming once it came out in English.  As long as Sengoku Basara 4 came out, Capcom would become immortalized as the greatest game company in the that could do no wrong.  Everything hinged on that one game as far as console games went.

Both companies were either too busy or didn’t care enough to make new arcade games after their last ones, but both of them did throw arcades a bone and released updated versions of their best, most recent fighting games.  Now we’ll decide which of the company’s best of their best is THE best.

The King of Fighters 13: Climax: KOF 13: Climax is an arcade release containing the 5 characters added to the console version and balance changes.  The 3 characters that were DLC in the console version are EX versions of existing characters that use movesets from previous games, most notably Iori with his flame powers.  The other 2 are potential mid-bosses with more unique sprites and play styles.  Human Saiki does look a lot like Ash (for a reason), but his play style is completely different.  These characters are of course balanced and fair.

These new characters don’t get their own endings, but they do get special ending artwork for finishing off the final boss with them and SNK went through the effort of giving each of them unique dialogue for every character combination, just like all the others.  They also get awesome new renditions of previous theme songs except Saiki, who gets a brand new one.

The 5 new characters are a fun bundle of new content and combined with the balance changes they make what was already the greatest fighting game ever made even better.  This one didn’t get an English arcade release though.  Everything it has is only in English via the home ports, unlike the original arcade version that actually has a different English translation from the console version.  It’s a wonder SNK somehow improved upon a game that was already perfect.

Ultra Street Fighter 4(CAP): Since Street Fighter X Tekken runs on the same engine as Street Fighter 4, it wasn’t terribly hard to transplant the Street Fighter characters and the non-Tekken stages back into their franchise of origin with Ultra Street Fighter 4.  All the characters that were in that game and not in previous versions of 4 have been added, like Elena, Hugo, Poison and Rolento.  To add just one more character for the new SF4 edition, they added Decapre, who previously appeared in supplementary material, but is playable in this game for the first time.

Unlike the new additions to KOF 13: Climax, none of these characters are moveset variants and like the newcomers from Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition, they have no rival battle cutscenes even though they still have a rival fight complete with new versions of their character themes.  I don’t get why Capcom stopped making the rival cutscenes if they were willing to put in the effort for the intro and ending cutscenes.

The coolest stuff added to this update was in the home version with the return of the version select from Hyper Street Fighter 2, but the core gameplay got a few added mechanics that carried over to the arcade release.  Now there’s an additional, better focus attack that can take more hits without flinching, but costs super meter and instead of choosing just one ultra attack to take into battle, there’s an option to have both available at the cost of reduced damage.

I personally don’t think the damage reduction is worth it, but allowing for a wider moveset like that can significantly alter the mind games around using and reacting to ultra attacks.  If a player knows what ultra attack the other is going to use, they know how to avoid getting hit by it, but if the other player can use either one, that’s 2 attacks they have to try and be avoiding at the same time.

With more characters, more combat options and the usual balance tweaks, Ultra Street Fighter 4 is the best version of one my favorite fighting games ever and a must-have for any arcade.

The Winner

Without KOF 12 unloading a full 6 rounds into SNK's foot, Capcom didn’t stand a chance in this round.  I love Ultra Street Fighter 4 and in terms of additions from a previous arcade iteration it adds more than The King of Fighters 13: Climax does, but KOF 13 is still the greatest fighting game ever made.

Ultra Street Fighter 4 has wonderful animated character intros and endings, but KOF 13: Climax has animated cutscenes with more plot in addition to special dialogue for each and every single character combination.

Ultra Street Fighter 4 has a beautiful ink drawing style to it and arguably the best character designs, but admittedly it shows its age.  Some of the character models are chunky and there are animations that look kind of stiff whereas KOF 13: Climax is the very best-looking fighting game there is even in 2024, if you don't mind the more noticeable character design changes.

Ultra Street Fighter 4’s music is great with its electronica-type synthesized soundtrack, but that’s only consistent with the stage music. The character themes are a mixed bag.  Chun-Li, Ryu and Cammy’s came out great, but I’m not a fan of what they did with Balrog and Dee Jay’s, for just a few examples.  KOF 13: Climax’s soundtrack has maybe one or two that aren’t masterpieces.  They’re grand, varied, heavy-hitting and they’re all leitmotifs distinctly fitting for their respective teams or character.  It’s the best fighting game soundtrack ever composed.

The gameplay is a matter of preference, but even if The King of Fighters 13: Climax didn’t play like a dream where everything moves at a lightning fast pace and combat flows like a dance with crazy combo potential, moment-to-moment snap decisions and 2 levels of various super attacks plus one ultimate move that practically makes the screen explode with loud and gratifying sound effects, it would still be the better game from all the other things it does better than Ultra Street Fighter 4.  SNK wins this round with flying colors.

I’m sorry Jamieson Price.

With this, SNK is only one point behind.  There's one round left.  SNK can make this a tie if their output can best Capcom’s latest released arcade game: Street Fighter 5!  The climax of this showdown will finally come to a close!