SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos, is the final fighting game entry for the SNK vs. Capcom series, which is also part of the Capcom vs. series. It was launched in 2003 for arcades, the Neo Geo AES, and the PlayStation 2 (and a year later for Xbox), after SNK's bankruptcy and rebirth as SNK Playmore.
The gameplay is based on that of The King of Fighters 2002, and is the only game on this series to follow the traditional one-on-one battle system. The gauge system also allowed the players to execute many special attacks, plus Guard Cancels, Super Special Moves and Exceeds (which also requires the player to have half of its lifebar).
This game is notable for breaking the trend of only having fighting game characters as playable characters, as several bosses and secret characters come from genres other than fighting games:
Character roster
SNK side:
- The King of Fighters: Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami and Choi Bounge
- Fatal Fury: Terry Bogard, Mai Shiranui and Kim Kaphwan
- Art of Fighting: Ryo Sakazaki, Mr. Karate and Kasumi Todoh
- Samurai Shodown: Genjuro, Earthquake, and Shiki
- Mid Bosses: Mars People, Geese Howard, Goenitz and Orochi Iori
- Final Boss: Serious Mr. Karate
- Bonus Boss: Athena
Capcom side:
- Street Fighter: Ryu, Ken, and Sagat
- Street Fighter II: Chun-Li, Dhalsim, Guile, Balrog, Vega, M. Bison, and Akuma
- Street Fighter III: Hugo
- Red Earth: Tessa
- Mid Bosses: Demitri Maximoff, Zero, Dan Hibiki and Violent Ken
- Final Boss: Shin Akuma
- Bonus Boss: Red Arremer
Battle In Real Earnest:
- After the End: Most of the environments are dilapidated, crumbling and devoid of any signs of life, hinting at some apocalyptic event having occurred. However, none of the dialogue actually explains or even mentions this. Making things more confusing is that some of the endings (such as Chun-Li's) seem to be taking place in a more normal setting.
- All There in the Manual the manhua states that M. Bison blew up the world with a satellite laser and everybody is dead and in purgatory. Winning the game restores the world and brings everyone back to life, ostensibly.
- Ambidextrous Sprite: Sagat's eyepatch or Vega's claw.
- Anime Hair: Guile's hair is even taller and flairs out wider than any other game.
- Art Shift: One of the game's strong points are the SNK-made sprites for the Capcom characters, especially notable in the Street Fighter characters. Compare Dhalsim, for example, who has beefy muscles in the Alpha series, and his SVC sprite, which is skinny, for emphasizing the Yoga side; and Demitri, who looks even more menacing than his 1994 sprite. However, they can also be inconsistent in quality. Ryu's sprite,
◊ especially, appears to have been directly traced over his anatomically questionable◊ Street Fighter II sprite. Same goes for Ken and Akuma. Furthermore, it looks as though the "Shoto" characters aren't the only ones whose sprites have been traced over another. - Ascended Extra:
- Mars People as a mid boss.
- The Red Arremer is a bonus boss.
- Ass Kicks You: Earthquake.
- Attract Mode: The game shows pre-recorded fights between two characters in between the logos and presentations.
- Battle Aura: Demitri has one, which is seen during his stance.
- Bland-Name Product: Chun-Li's ending shows her using a "daidas" gym bag.
- Boss Warning Siren: The klaxons sound whenever Zero is about to confront any of the bosses, including Shin Akuma and Serious Mr. Karate, but not against any normally playable characters.
- Breaking Old Trends: Prior to this game, previous games in the SNK vs. Capcom series had only fighting game characters as playable characters and bosses. This game breaks the trend with its sub-bosses and main bosses coming from other genres: Zero from Mega Man Zero, the Mars People from Metal Slug, Athena from her namesake game (rather than the usual Athena from Psycho Soldier) and the Red Arremer (Firebrand) from Ghosts 'n Goblins.
- The Cameo:
- Hugo's pre-fight◊ and victory◊ animations, with cameos by Bao and, obviously, Poison. In fact, Hugo is so large he doesn't even fit his win screen, with the view centering on Poison standing before him instead!
- There are several cameos of the playable and secret characters in the endings. As for the non-playable ones, we have Sodom, Damnd and what appears to be Edi.E., (in Chun-Li's ending) Juni and Juli, (in M. Bison's ending) Astaroth, (in Dan, Akuma and Demitri's endings) Robert Garcia and Yuri Sakazaki, (in Ryo and Mr. Karate's endings) Lee Pai Long (in Serious Mr. Karate's ending) Marco, Fio and Tarma (in Mars People's ending) Billy Kane, Leaper and Hopper (in Geese's ending) Lucky Glauber and Heavy D! (in Orochi Iori's ending) Chizuru (in Goenitz's ending) Chang (in Choi and Kim's endings), May Lee (in Kim's ending) and surprisingly, Ryuhaku Todoh (in Kasumi Todoh's ending).
- Hugo's pre-fight
- Canon Immigrant: Violent Ken (who as mentioned below, is already an homage to a scene from the Street Fighter II anime movie) would later appear in Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers, an Updated Re-release of Street Fighter II for the Nintendo Switch.
- The Midnight Bliss versions of both Goenitz and Terry would appear in other spinoff games, the former in a mobile game and the latter in SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy
- Combat Tentacles: The only plausible explanation as to how Mars People made the cut over Marco Rossi.
- Curse Cut Short: Balrog comes this close of calling Chun-Li a bitch:Why you thick-legged... ...Die!
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: The game tried to keep some of the medium attacks as SNK-style command moves (a direction + a button) with hit-and-miss results; many of those could now be canceled into, but the inputs often conflicted with instinctive 2D fighter reflexes (such as holding back to block).
- Desperation Attack: The Exceed ultras, inherited from Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury's similar modes. Its execution at the end of a match allows you to get to a different mid boss battle. If one Exceed finish is obtained and you don't lose any rounds in the first three stages, you will face Geese or Demitri. If three Exceed finishes are obtained and you don't lose any rounds in the first three stages, you will face Zero or Mars People. Otherwise, you fight Dan or Goenitz by default.
- Dialogue Tree: All of the pre-battle conversations among the characters.
- Dub Name Change: A notable subversion is Red Arremer, who is usually called Firebrand in English-speaking markets.
- Dumb Is Good: Ryo and Terry sure don't seem to be the sharpest tools in the shed in this game, going by many of their pre-fight dialogues (the latter goes so far as to mistake Sagat for Joe Higashi).
- Everyone Has Standards: Akuma shows his disdain for child abuse with this winquote:"Defeating you takes less effort than smacking a baby. Not that I'd ever do that!"
- Excuse Plot: According to supplemental material, the story is that all of the regular characters have died and are now locked in a war between Order and Chaos to decide the fate of the universe. However, none of their pre-battle conversations suggest this at all.
- Fartillery: One of Earthquake's moves is him during this.
- First Installment Wins: On the Capcom side, nine out of twelve characters are from the original Street Fighter II.note This is especially noticeable when compared to the SNK side, which has quite a number of ensemble darkhorses (which isn't to say Capcom doesn't have theirs; in particular, Hugo in lieu of the better known Zangief sticks out).
- Flanderization: As much as Dan's joke character status was better known to gamers at large before, this game takes that part of his character and runs with it. He's portrayed as a completely pathetic Small Name, Big Ego here, and Ryu is the only character to even show him a smidge of respect. Given that Dan is Capcom's parody of SNK protagonists, and SNK made this game, it could be seen as SNK having fun with the concept.
- Forced Transformation:
- Losing to either Red Arremer or Athena results in your character being transformed into a demonic creature (vs. Arremer) or an animal (vs. Athena). Much like M. Bison in Street Fighter Alpha 3, losing here causes an immediate game over, with the ending text stating that your player character has gone missing and was never seen again.
- A small version of this is Demitri's Midnight Bliss attack, where he transforms male characters into women (for the girls, he makes them more attractive). The change isn't permanent, thanks to Demitri's courtesy to suck your blood and blow you up before turning you back to normal.
- One of the Cyber Elves that Zero can summon in battle will walk into his opponent and transform them into itself, preventing them from doing anything other than move around the screen. The effect wears off after a few seconds, and the cyber elf can actually be blocked.
- Gender Bender: Demitri's Midnight Bliss briefly turns the male characters into females.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The encounter with Athena or the Red Arremer.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: One of the promotional posters for the game shows Chun-Li and Mai standing across from one another. They're so ludicrously close that their breasts are touching and it looks like they're about to kiss.
- Golden Ending: The game will show you this for the character you've chosen if you defeat the bonus boss.
- Gratuitous English: BATTORU CHIRU DON!note
- Highly-Visible Ninja: Mai, lampshaded by Ryu, of all people.
- Hijacking Cthulhu: Achieving the Red Areemer or Athena endings with Dan results in a cutscene where Dan...puts the various demons of Hell or Athena and Lord through a Saikyo Style training regimen. In all fairness, he just beat either a powerful hell demon or an agent of the Almighty, demonstrating that he has superior combat ability and that he's someone who shouldn't be messed with.
- Leg Focus: Kick Chick Chun-Li, of course, gets a lot of this in the game. Funnily enough, Kasumi's confrontation with Chun-Li started due to a misunderstanding when Chun-Li herself made an innocent comment about Kasumi's legs (even though she wears a hakama, which pretty much gives no clue about the wearer's leg shape):Chun-Li: (Nice legs. She must tell me her secret).
Kasumi: Huh? Menace! Yah!
Chun-Li: Yeek! What's your problem?
Kasumi: Silence! You tried to ambush me! I read your thoughts.
Chun-Li: Hold on! I was just noticing your legs and... uh, oh!
Kasumi: You dare insult me! Defend yourself! - Let's Get Dangerous!: Serious Mr. Karate, who lives up to his name.
- Long Song, Short Scene: In a roundabout way. Most of the soundtrack consists of incredibly well-written pieces wasted on horrendously cheap, horrendously inadequate KOF 2002 soundfonts.
- Mirror Match: If you do one, the game hilariously lampshades this, with both characters commenting on encountering themselves.
- Mission Control: Ciel serves this role for Zero, providing him with enemy intel before most battles. He even calls her up during his taunt and she also appears in his ending.
- Motor Mouth: The announcer.
- Mythology Gag: Dan's origins as a parody character is referenced throughout the game, as several characters confuse him for Robert Garcia. Including Dan himself during a Mirror Match.
- No Plot? No Problem!: Subverted. The game never tells you what is happening before you press the Start button, but seemingly tries to "spice it up" which pre-battle conversations and endings. And even then, nobody will tell you why you have to fight in a post-apocalyptic world. The comic book adaptation gives you a better understanding of the game's story.
- Non-Dubbed Grunts: Applies to a few characters. For example, Akuma and Ryu reuse their voice clips from Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium; in the former's case, it goes back further into the Street Fighter III series.
- Original Generation:
- To an extent, Violent Ken, based on the Brainwashed and Crazy version of Ken from Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, and Serious Mr. Karate, a beefed up version of Mr. Karate, being variants created only for their sole appearances.
- Serious Mr. Karate would get a new lease on life via The King of Fighters XIII, where he's Downloadable Content. However, there he's simply known as "Mr. Karate" as the regular Mr. Karate is just an alternate outfit for Takuma.
- Please Put Some Clothes On:
- Mai seems to get a lot of this, for obvious reasons.
- This exchange between Kim and Athena:
Kim: Put on some clothes! Have you no shame?!
Athena: Do you object to my fashion sense? Doesn't it suit me?
Kim: That's not what I'm talking about! Cover yourself!
Athena: I'm rather fond of this outfit... - Real Is Brown: Most of the backgrounds have been done in one and the same gray tone. Compared to KoF2002 and 2003, however, it's Darker and Edgier and includes a few, in not none, living beings. Good luck finding one.
- Refusal of the Call: Sagat turns down his chance to become the leader of Shadaloo in his ending.
- Scenery Gorn: The scenerios do not suggest a healthy planet.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Thanks to the strange use of British English, in the pre-battle conversations, so much it is funny (especially when people like Balrog and Dan mix it with street-level talk). One of the better known examples is Sagat calling Mr. Karate a "supercilliousnote jester".
- She's a Man in Japan: Thanks to inconsistency in the localization, Tessa is referred as a man in the Spanish version.
- Shout-Out: Check the page.
- Sidelined Protagonist Crossover: The game has Metal Slug's Mars People as the Mid-Boss, but none of the MS player characters.
- SNK Boss: Both pairs of final bosses and bonus bosses.
- Spell My Name With An S:
- There's the misspelling of Juli's name (as Juri). It wouldn't hurt as much, until, seven years later, when another Juri makes her debut in Super Street Fighter IV. And no, they aren't related in any way aside from being Shadaloo members.
- This game was the first to use the spelling Genjyuro instead of Genjuro.
-
Spiritual Successor: NeoGeo Battle Coliseum. And yes, that one uses recycled sprites from its predecessor. - The Starscream:
- Balrog becomes this in his ending by taking control of Shadaloo. He even wears an uniform reminiscent of Bison's one, only sleeveless.
- Averted by Sagat, who is offered this by the remaining Shadaloo members but he refuses and returns home to keep training.
- Stripperific: Mai and Athena wear outfits that show off their bodies.
- Surprisingly Good Foreign Language: The Xbox port of the game uses a native English-speaking announcer in a game where the voices are mostly Japanese.
- Touché: In Terry's intro dialog with Balrog, he says "All you boxers are pretty ugly", and Balrog quips "You mean we look like you?" Terry's response (due to the game's odd translation) is "Toosh."
- Translation Train Wreck:
- In the English version, Zero keeps using the word "Irregulars," when the term used in the English releases is "Maverick." He also refers to Ciel as "Shell" in his victory quotes, but she's named properly in his ending.
- The game has stage names such as "Green of forest," "The village in the maniac world" (and overtly literal translation of Makaimura), and "Nude place."
- Ciel refers to Akuma as a murderous martial artist who has lived since Japan's feudal age. In reality, Ciel was referring to his fighting style, which is a murderous martial art founded during Japan's feudal age.
- True Final Boss: Two of them. For the SNK side, it's Athena. For the Capcom side, it's Red Arremer.
- Visual Pun: Balrog wears Bison's outfit when he takes over Shadaloo in his ending. It becomes hilarious when you remember that Balrog is known as M. Bison in Japan. He also turns into a bison if he loses to Athena.
- Worthy Opponent: Serious Mr. Karate acknowledges Akuma as one and the feeling is mutual.
