[Review] SNK vs. Capcom CARD FIGHTERS CLASH - Nintendo Switch

Developed By: Code Mystics
Published by: SNK
Categories: RPG, Card Game, Retro
Release Date: 01.13.22

SNK vs. Capcom is finally on Nintendo Switch and it’s not the chibi fighter! It’s the card game! Seriously though, I love this series and am super excited to finally get this and more NGPC games on modern consoles. Which is always great, I can’t be bothered to backlight mod of those consoles.

I’ve always been quite the fan of digital card games. It started with Pokemon TCG, and would eventually lead into me playing this series, though these are only similar at a skin deep level. See, SvC is more like a simplified Magic the Gathering than a Pokemon TCG clone. Lets get into detail on that.

Cards have two values. BP and SP. BP is both your card’s health and attack power. For example, say you have a card with 600BP and it attacks a card with 300BP. You’ll win the fight, but your card will then have 300BP. This is something to strategize around. Say a card is going to attack you, do you take the hit on your own HP to save a stronger card’s BP or do you counter to destroy the opponent’s card? After you attack, there’s also a period where your card cannot defend either, so it’s something to consider.

SP works a bit differently. Each card has their own SP value, but by themselves it’s nothing. Each card that gets added to your playing field adds to a total SP value. This can be used for a variety of things. Have an Action Card? Want to combine your battle cards for a Union Attack? Some cards might even require a certain amount of SP to even work.

Sure, you can just go back and forth in fights, but I can guarantee you won’t do very well. This is where Action Cards and your other card’s abilities come in. These can and very will turn the tides in battle, or at least just delay the inevitable. Action cards with the use of SP can be used whenever you want during your turn. Peek into your deck and choose from three cards, boost the BP of a certain card, make that defenseless status go away for a turn. Even something as devious as eliminating an opponent’s card for damage.

Abilities work mostly the same, but can be used in a few other ways. Sometimes it’s automatic, like maybe activating when you have a certain amount of HP or peeking at the opponent’s deck and then moving that card to the bottom. You can have passive ones like a certain character lowering the opponent’s HP every time they’re counter attacked. Sometimes you can even just be a jerk decrease the opponent’s SP for no reason. Cards like Elena let you decide when to use the ability, letting you destroy an Action Card to heal 300HP. It’s not just to give the opponent a hard time.

I know what you’re here for, the crossover event. Believe it or not, this predates Capcom’s own Capcom Vs SNK fighter. 300 cards, lots of Capcom and SNK characters, if you played either publisher’s work in the 90’s, you’ll be in for a treat. You just need to remember, the cards are contemporary characters. Resident Evil 2, LOTS of Street Fighter and KoF. Even some lesser known stuff like Cyberbots, Star Gladiator, or even Power Stone are included! Though if you were looking for characters from ADK (who SNK didn’t own…quite yet) or series like Devil May Cry, you’re just barely out of luck.

Art is all done by SNK’s own Falcoon, who I personally have always liked as an artist. He manages to get the characters looking pretty accurate, even if they’re now chibi. It’s more impressive knowing that he drew everything, then it was put to pixel and looks so clean. One of the NGPC’s strengths was how colorful the games could look. Keep an eye out for the character portraits too to see if you recognize who the characters is referencing.

If you’ve played the other Code Mystics made NGPC ports or read any of our reviews, you’ll know what to expect. Fantastic emulation all around. The rewind feature seems to be more invisible this time, which I’m not a fan of if I wanted to get to a specific frame, but it’s bound to be patched in. There’s those fantastic Neo Geo Pocket Color console overlays again, with all of those varieties. It’s something I still think is adequately cute, but the fact you can press the buttons on the touch screen makes it even better. Last, but certainly not least is the scanned manual to read. That kind of stuff always elevates my opinions on a re-release. Keep doing this!

In something Nintendo and The Pokemon Company can learn from, Code Mystics solves the age long mystery on how to re-release games that were made with double releases. Release both in one collection, not split them up. There were two editions for this game, Capcom and SNK. You get different main characters and starter decks, different and exclusive cards. Luckily, you can trade and even fight between the versions by yourself, if you feel the need. I chose Capcom because I always had a Capcom preference.

If you like card battle games, give this game a try. If you enjoy the whole Capcom and SNK crossover theming, definitely buy this. To people who aren’t too keen on digital card games, it might be harder to recommend, especially with dreaded RNG, but I feel it’s accessible enough to not scare too many away. There’s always the rewind function too. I really want more of these NGPC re-releases and especially the second Card Fighters game.