The solid Capcom vs. SNK gameplay is intact in the PSone incarnation. The title uses a four-button configuration similar to SNK titles – light punch/kick, hard punch/kick – to make the PS controller a perfect fit. Players can choose two grooves – SNK or Capcom – to pick how they want to execute specials. The SNK groove lets a player manual charge a special meter while the Capcom groove will auto-build a special meter as the player fights.

There are 35 total characters that make up the most popular SNK and Capcom characters. Characters from each camp can even have beef with each other or befriend right before the match - Iori and M. Bison seem to hate each other. Each team can have a total of four levels. Each character has a level ratio. If a character has a level 2 ratio it leaves two ratio levels to be filled – either by two characters with a 1 ratio level, or another level 2 ratio character. There are six modes to play in – arcade, vs., pair match, training, price, and color edit. In Pair match mode all characters you face have a level 2 ratio; in price mode you can use versus points to buy extras and browse images; in color edit you can customize character colors and save two to a memory card.

Some sacrifices were made to port the DC beauty over to the PSone and it shows. The overall image quality is not sharp. The special effect sparks are severely pixelated and look more like scrambled eggs than fire. Sound effects also take a hit, with low quality sound samples that are a bit muffled.

If you can’t get your hands on Capcom vs. SNK for the DC, this is your game. The gameplay is wholly intact. It’s just not as pretty as its original counterpart.