• Platform: Xbox
• ELSPA Minimum Age: 11
• Media: Video Game

The game offers a remarkable assortment of fighters, fighting styles, and variety of play. Forty characters--each with their own special powers, attacks, timing issues, personalities and sound bites--get magnified three-fold by three separate "-isms" that alter their powers and three "grooves" that mix them up yet again. There's a lot to learn and it ensures that playing a foe of equal skill is never dull because you can never be sure what character he's going to pick and how that character will fight.

The graphics are generally decent, though some of these fighters look like they haven't been spiffed up for today's console systems. The older Street Fighter guys look just plain bad next to newly added characters from the SNK stable. But the animation is smooth, the backgrounds have been significantly redone and feature new, often startling animations and the special effects are just plain awesome. The audio is pretty much the same old themes that Capcom has been using for the better part of a decade now. It's all good, because those sound effects are part of the reason fans keep buying the same game over and over again.

The Xbox version is playable over Xbox Live (sold separately), which is a big advantage--everyone knows that these games, born of arcade coin-ops, are meant to be played competitively. The ability to start up a relatively lag free game at a moment's notice and trade trash talk with other gamers around the world is just priceless and a welcome addition to the series.

If you are, or have ever been, a Street Fighter 2-D fight fan, then Capcom vs SNK 2 EO over Xbox Live is a joy not to be missed. --Andrew S. Bub

Product Description
In Capcom vs SNK 2:EO, two monster corporations are at war. To settle the score, a massive martial arts event is arranged to eliminate all conflicts between the two parties. Many of the world's most famous warriors have joined and the public is crazy with anticipation. Join four brawlers from Capcom's legendary Street Fighter and SNK's world renowned King of Fighters series as they fight for universal domination. This is the ultimate collision of strength and power.