#1040 Capcom vs SNK (ARC) Bosses (1/4): Akuma playthrough.
0A playthrough of the hidden boss Akuma in the arcade version of Capcom’s Capcom vs. SNK 1.
I covered Capcom vs SNK years ago, although that was technically the Pro version of the game where everything was unlocked from the start. My computer at the time simply wasn’t powerful enough to run the arcade version of this game, so I used those as a kind of placeholder. I won’t be covering all the EX characters from that game; instead just redoing the boss vids for brevity's sake, because I really don’t feel like redoing 13 more vids.
So, this is Akuma. He's the hidden boss of the game, fought when you have a certain number of style points by the end of the game (around 80, I think?). He's a Rank 4 character, making him one of the most powerful in the game, but it also means he can't be paired with anyone else. He's very standard here; not even having his Shin Akuma powers or anything of the sort, but luckily Shin Akuma would be included in the sequel. Akuma is my favourite Capcom character so I'm always happy to play as him, but this is definitely one of his more underwhelming appearances, in my opinion anyway.
I played Capcom vs. SNK for the first time in mid-2002 back when I was living in Dubai. At one of the arcades I went to they replaced my beloved Virtua Fighter 2 machine with it, which annoyed me until I tried it out and absolutely loved it. In hindsight, it feels like it's aged a bit compared to its sequel, which plays better and has a hell of a lot more content, but design-wise Capcom vs. SNK may be one of the most aesthetically pleasing games in existence. It says a lot when you can't quite remember the name of the game, but still remember its special looking character selection screen after years of not playing it.
This game was, also, my introduction to Geese Howard as a character. And, of course, he whopped my ass. I went back to this game years later when I bought my Dreamcast to see if experience would help and, yeah, no, Geese is still an asshole in this game. Strange that the man with the hilariously dumb name would end up becoming my favourite fighting game character. Well, next to Rugal anyway, if that wasn't plainly obvious.
Apart from nostalgia reasons (and some great pixel art), there isn't a ton of reason to go back to Capcom vs. SNK 1 nowadays, but I won't deny that I still have a bit of fondness for it, despite its shortcomings compared to the second game. Its hidden character selection is relatively plain but still interesting; not quite as good as SNK vs. Capcom or Match of the Millennium, but still pretty good.
Next up, another look at Evil Ryu.