Capcom vs SNK 2/System

Game Mechanics

Life Meter

When you lose all your life, you die. Simple Enough, Right? Not quite. Every character has a different amount of hit points. These hit points (and damage bonus) are adjusted on a percentage basis by your ratio selection. Also, as the life bar is depleted, you gain bonus damage scaling, making the lifebar longer than it appears. Lastly, you gain health after defeating an opponent in a round.

Life Chart

Characters

Ratio 1

Ratio 2

Ratio 3

Ratio 4

Health

80%

100%

117%

140%

Damage

82%%

100%

117%

130%

12480

15600

18252

21840

12160

15200

17784

21280

11840

14800

17316

20720

11520

14400

16848

20160

11200

14000

16380

19600

10880

13600

15912

19040

10560

13200

15444

18480

10240

12800

14976

17920

8480

10600

12402

14840

7360

9200

10764

12880

5200

6500

7605

9100

The number reading corresponding to each character simply refers to the exact amount of life units that the character has. Zangief, Raiden and Chang have 15600 life, or about 10 Sagat standing fierces worth (a Sagat standing fierce does 1600 without counter hit).

Ratio Health Bonuses

Ratio 1: Health: -20% Damage: -18% Ratio 2: Health: +0% Damage: +0% Ratio 3: Health: +17% Damage: +17% Ratio 4: Health: +40% Damage: +30%

Low Health Scaling

When a character has a life total that is between 16~30%, each hit they take from then on is scaled by -10%.

When a character has a life total that is 15% or lower, each hit they take from then on is scaled by -25%.

Tons of fighting games do this, They figure it makes rounds "more exciting"

Note: if a single hit does enough damage to lower a character's health from 31% to 0%, it will not be scaled at all.

Life Regeneration Formula

The amount of life you gain back between rounds is directly related to how fast you finished off the opponent.

life gained = ( (time left on the clock + 1) * 300 / (total time in a round + 1)) * 10

The resulting number is always rounded down to the nearest 100.

Gameplay Elements

In every Fighting Game, there are the basic, common factors that exist. Life Meters exist in just about every Fighting Game, as do Timers, for example. This section discusses these things, the factors that can affect the outcome of the battle that are not controllable by the player.

If you want to view the Grooves/Subsystem mechanics, go to the Groove Subsystem page to view the mechanics, or the Groove Overview page for simple groove overviews, or just view the individual groove pages for some specifics. Anywho, onto the main gameplay elements.

Life Meter

We ALL know what the Life Meter is. It's that nice bar on the top of the screen that tells you how close you are to being defeated. Not too hard to figure out for even the most casual of Fighting Game fans. "Duh! We all know what the Life Meter is! So why bother talking about it?" you may want to ask me.

Well, there are a few things worthy to note about Capcom Vs. SNK 2's Life Meters. There is a lot of good information that you can ascertain about the Life Meter thanks to the Training Mode in the home versions.

The first thing to note about the Life Meter is that there are 4 stages in a character's Life Meter. As your life drains in battle, the Life Meter's color changes from yellow to bright orange to dark orange to red. Your Life Meter turns Bright orange when you lose 25% of your energy, dark orange when you lose 50% of your energy, and red after you lose 75% of your energy. Right before you reach the dark orange stage (about after you lose 70% of your energy), your character will begin to take 10% less damage. And part way into the red zone, after you lose about 85% of your energy, you take 25% less damage. So the closer to being defeated you are, the more resilient you become.

The other interesting thing to discover is that characters in CvS2 do NOT take "more damage" than others. It is a common way to express the endurance of characters. When people used to talk about CvS1, you'd often hear things like "Blanka takes very little damage for a Ratio 1 character!" or "Nakoruru takes the most damage out of all the Ratio 2 characters!" However, it is interesting to know that, in fact, every character takes the same amount of damage.

The difference that makes it SEEM like they take more or less damage is actually the number of "HIT POINTS" the character has, to use a term for you RPG fans out there. Every character in CvS2 has a set number of Hit Points and some, obviously, have more than others.

The amount of Hit Points you have is also dependent on which Ratio you are. But an average character, like Ryu (as a Ratio 2 character), has about 14,300 Hit Points. However, someone like Raiden, who has always been known to have far more stamina than other characters, has about 15,500 Hit Points. And a character like Nakoruru, who is a weaker character overall, has about 13,500 Hit Points. Then there are characters like Shin Gouki, who is designed to be FAR weaker than any other character. Shin Gouki, as a Ratio 2 character, has only about 6,400 Hit Points!!! A Level 3 Super by itself is enough to drain all of Shin Gouki's life.

Guard Meter

If you end up Blocking too much in this game, eventually, your "Guard will break." What that means is that your character, after Blocking one too many attacks, will go into a short stun period in which they are vulnerable. The Guard Meter can be seen on the screen. It's the short, green meter under the bottom of your Life Meter.

Blocking attacks will cause the Meter to drain. This is known as taking "Guard Bar Damage." The amount of Guard Bar Damage done is directly related to the strength of the move that is Blocked. Moves that do less damage do less Guard Bar Damage. Moves that do more damage do more Guard Bar Damage.

In some instances, characters can gain strength bonuses, such as in K-Groove when your Super Meter is full, giving you an extra 35% damage. And, yes, those strength increases do affect Guard Bar Damage as well.

As you Block attacks, the Guard Meter continues to drain. Once it is down to about 33% left, the Guard Meter and the border of your Life Meter will begin to flash wildly. Also, if you listen carefully, the Blocking sound changes from a solid sound to a weaker, more "paper-y" sound. If you continue to take Guard Damage and your Guard Meter becomes fully drained, this is what is known as having your Guard "broken." The game refers to this as "Guard Crush." Your character will suddenly go into a dizzy-like animation where your character reels backwards, arms raised in the air. You will then be vulnerable for that small period of time, and the enemy can easily take advantage of this and land a Level 3 Super, a Custom Combo, or just about anything else they want to for free. After your Guard is broken, your Guard Meter will refill to it's max and will be back to the same state that it was at the start of the round.

Also, in C-Groove, Air Blocking moves also drains Guard Meter. It actually drains twice as much of your Guard Meter than normal. If your Guard is broken while in the air, your character will go into the Guard Crush animation in the air but fall VERY QUICKLY onto the floor, where your vulnerability continues. You cannot shake out of the Guard Crush stun. It lasts for a fairly brief period, but you cannot make it last shorter by mashing on the joystick and buttons like you can when you fall Dizzy.

If you don't Block any attacks or take any hits for about 3 seconds of actual time, the Guard Meter begins to slowly refill. However, the instant you get hit or Block an attack, the Meter will stop refilling (and if you Blocked something, it will drain even further obviously). So in order to get your Guard Meter back, you have to keep yourself from Blocking or getting hit by anything. So if your Guard Meter is about to be drained, try to go on the offense to prevent your Guard from being broken. If you can string together a nice offensive sequence, you'll have your full Guard Meter back in no time.

All characters have the same Guard Bar length, regardless of their health value or ratio. An R4 Chang is gonna have the same guard bar length as an R1 Yun. However, each groove has a different guard bar length. K-Groove and P-Groove have shorter Guard Meters than the other 4 Grooves. The other four Grooves have the same Guard Meter length. To get a good idea of how the lengths of the Guard Meters compare to each other, I can assign the average Guard Meter of C-Groove, A-Groove, S-Groove, and N-Groove a value of 100 points in length. K-Groove, then, has about 90 points of Guard Meter and P-Groove has about 80 points of Guard Meter. The Meters, on the screen, will look exactly the same in length, but the amount of Guard Damage each Meter can take is actually different.

Stun Meter

The concept of Stun, or "falling dizzy" as it is commonly referred to as, has existed since Street Fighter II. Basically, if you're character is struck too many times in a row, your character will fall dizzy. As soon as this occurs, even in the middle of a Combo or if the move that knocks you dizzy is just a Normal Move, your character be knocked over and fall down onto the ground. Stars will begin rotating around your head the INSTANT they are knocked dizzy, so you will see the stars while they are falling over. When you get up, your character will be in Stun, and you cannot perform ANY actions. Your character is thus susceptible to anything the opponent chooses. To put it more bluntly, the instant you become Stunned, the enemy gets a free Combo.

Once your character falls dizzy, he/she won't stay dizzy forever. After a certain amount of time your character will recover and return back to a normal condition, but it takes a while. While you are dizzy, however, you can try to come out of dizzy faster by shaking your controller and mashing on the buttons as fast as you can. Doing this will make your character recover quicker than normal, but be careful not to go overboard with the shaking... If your character DOES shake out, and you are still wiggling the joystick, you may eat the Combo your opponent is going for anyhow. So shake as much as possible, but right before your enemy strikes you, just hold Block. If you shook out, you'll Block their attack and be safe. If you didn't shake out, wiggling the controller right before the enemy hits you won't make a difference anyhow.

The Stun Meter cannot be seen anywhere on the screen, but is kept track of "internally". In other words, you can't see it anywhere on the screen (outside of Training Mode in the home versions). Basically, the Stun Meter is just a counter with a max value, and every time you get struck, the counter increases. I will refer to this concept as taking "Stun Damage". And once the counter reaches the max, your character will fall dizzy.

The amount of Stun Damage you take depends on the strength of the move that hit you. The normal damage done and the amount of Stun Damage you take is almost a direct 100 to 1 relationship. A move that does 1400 damage does about 14 points of Stun Damage. A Combo that does 2600 damage will do about 25 points of Stun Damage. So it's not a DIRECT relationship, but a good indication of how it'll work.

Some moves will not have this relationship, though. For example, performing a full Poison Gnawfest (the Fireball + Fierce (HP) into Reverse Half-circle + Fierce (HP) into Towards + Fierce (HP) sequence) chain will do about 2500 but only do 8 amount of Stun Damage. And it is good to note: Super Combos and Custom Combos do absolutely NO STUN DAMAGE. So you will never have to worry about your opponent falling dizzy in the middle of a Custom Combo or a Super Combo. There is the exception, though, of Ryo's Heaven Glaze Punch (Level 3 Stun Super) and Evil Ryu's Metsu Hadouken (unblockable Level 3 only Super Fireball). Those moves are DESIGNED to knock people dizzy, so they WILL add to the Stun Meter, even though they are Super Combos.

The Stun Meter does reset after a fixed amount of time. Basically, if your character is not hit for that length of time, your character's Stun Meter will reset to zero regardless of how much Stun Damage you've incurred up to that point. But if you DO get hit during that period of time, you'll have to wait the full length of time after being struck again to have it drain all the way. So if you aren't hit for 90% of that length of time and then are hit by even a Jab or a Short, you'll have to wait that full length of time again before the Stun Meter drains to zero. Do note that Blocking does NOT count as being hit. So if you Block a bunch of attacks, you can still have your Stun Meter reset.

As soon as you are knocked dizzy, your Stun Meter drains to zero. Then, any further hit in the Combo (falling dizzy does not reset the Combometer) will NOT ADD ANY STUN DAMAGE. So after the enemy finishes Comboing you from a Stun, you will start up with zero Stun Damage. Also, when you are knocked dizzy, your Stun Meter increases it's max by 3 points. So after getting dizzy once, it becomes harder to get dizzy again. However, the next Round, things reset to their defaults, so the fact that your Stun Meter increases rarely makes any impact on the game at all.

Almost every character falls into one of two groups when it comes to the Stun Meter. There is the standard group, which has the Stun Meter length of 70. Then, there is the weaker group of which the Stun Meter length is only 60. There is a third group of privileged characters who have a Stun Meter length of 80, but only four characters fall into this category. Below are the groups listed, and which character falls into which group:

Stun Meter of 60: Akuma, Athena, Benimaru, Blood Iori, Cammy, Dhalsim, Evil Ryu, God Rugal, Hibiki, Kyosuke, Mai, Morrigan, Nakoruru, Rolento, Sakura, Shin Gouki, Vega, Yun, Yuri

Stun Meter of 70: Balrog, Blanka, Chun Li, Dan, Eagle, Geese, Guile, Haohmaru, Iori, Joe, Ken, Kim, King, Kyo, Maki, M. Bison, Rock, Rugal, Ryo, Ryu, Sagat, Terry, Todo, Vice, Yamazaki

Stun Meter of 80: Chang, E.Honda, Raiden, Zangief

There are some weird choices that Capcom made, in my opinion. Rolento is part of the 60 group and Dan is part of the 70 group? You'd think that Capcom would've loved to put Dan in the lower group. Guess they really are being nice to Dan in this game. ^_^ And Capcom has something against the women, it seems, as all of them, save four, are in the 60 group. And of the four in the 70 group, it's Chun Li, Maki, King, and Vice? I would think that Morrigan and Mai would be more likely to be in the 70 group in place of Maki and Vice. Oh well.

Timer

There is not much to discuss on the Timer. The Timer is the same thing that you know from practically every Fighting Game in existence. The Timer starts at 99.9 at the beginning of a Round and quickly counts down to 00.0. Once the Timer reaches zero, whichever character has more Life Meter left over wins the Round, and if both characters have the exact same amount of Life left, the Round is considered a draw. If that happens to be the final round of the game, both characters lose. There is no sudden death, and the game ends for both players.

Counter Hits

Counter Hits occur when you strike the enemy during the "start-up" animation of their move. Basically, whenever you perform a move, there are about three parts to a move: initiation, hitting, and recovery. Let's look at Ken's Towards + Roundhouse (HK) as an example. When you perform this move, Ken first goes into the animation where he begins to swing his leg around. These Animation Frames do not hit, not yet. He's just bringing his leg out in front to kick you. That's the initiation phase. Then, his leg becomes fully extended, and in that one frame, Ken's kick can hit you. That's the hitting phase. After that frame passes, Ken moves back to a normal standing position. His kick can't hit anymore, and he's just slowly getting back to the normal Neutral State. During this period, Ken cannot attack, move, or do anything because he is in the recovery phase.

A Counter Hit occurs when you are struck out of the first two phases: initiation and hitting. Anytime you are hit during these frames, your character will flash white when they are struck and the words "Counter Hit" appear on the screen under your Life Meter and Guard Meter. Some moves bypass certain phases (Uppercut-type moves, for example, generally do not have any initiation phases). Also, Projectiles (like Ryu's Hadouken, Guile's Sonic Boom, Rugal's Wind Slice (The Reppuken ground Projectile), and Terry's Power Wave do NOT COUNT as having recovery. If you strike the enemy during their delay from throwing a Projectile, you will be rewarded with a Counter Hit. You can also be rewarded with a Counter Hit for hitting people out of the air. As long as you hit the enemy during the initiation or hitting phase, you get a Counter Hit.

So what are the implications of a Counter Hit? A Counter Hit rewards the person landing the hit two things: 1) Increased damage. 2) Slightly longer Reel Stun. Regarding the increased damage, a Counter Hit will reward you with 20% extra damage. So a move that does, normally, 1000 Hit Points of damage will now do 1200. The second effect makes it so that moves will cause longer Reel Stun. This allows for certain moves that never Comboed before to actually Combo! However, there is a lot of details regarding this, and to learn more about it, please read up on the "Counter Hits" section in the second half of this FAQ (the Combo FAQ half). Otherwise, it is enough to know, for now, that Reel Stun lasts longer.

As far as I know, if you Counter Hit someone out of the air, the only added benefit you get is the extra damage. Since there is no Reel Stun in the air, there isn't any Reels Stuns to increase.

Counter Hits definitely do NOT play as big of a role in this game as they did in Street Fighter Alpha 3. In Alpha 3, Counter Hits affected gameplay all over the place. In Capcom Vs. SNK 2, more than likely, you will barely notice the affects of Counter Hits.

Walking, Jumping, Crouching, Attacking

If you've ever played a Fighting Game before, Capcom or SNK, just skip this paragraph, trust me. But I'll be brief about it, in case you read it anyhow. The four basic actions that are given to a character in almost every fighting game created are the ability to Walk forward or backwards (by hitting Towards or Back), to Crouch (by hitting any of the three Down positions on the joystick), to Jump in any of three directions (Up for a straight up Jump, Back Flip to Jump backwards, or Forward Flip to Jump forward), and to Attack (by hitting a button with or without the combination of a joystick motion). These are the four absolute most basic actions given to a character.

Blocking

Although this can be considered a fifth basic action, I will give this it's own section just to clarify one thing. Unlike the original SF games, CvS2 takes the stance of Blocking similar to more recent Street Fighter games. Your character will only Block if the enemy is attacking you and the attack is NEAR you. In other words, if your character is a screen away from the opponent, and your opponent throws out a bunch of Crouching Shorts (LK), your character will not go into Block stance. The attack has to be near you in order for it to cause you to Block.

Everyone knows this: hold Back to block high, mid, and Jumping Attacks, as well as Overheads. Hold Defensive Crouch to Block mid and low attacks (Sweeps).

Once you Block an attack, you are rendered "stuck" in Block Stun. If another attack connects on your character before you end your Block Stun, you will again be put into Block Stun and forced to Block again. In fact, since you are stuck in Block Stun during an attack, you can let go of the controller altogether and still block the next attack if you have not recovered from the first Block Stun. So for example, if Ryu performs a Shinkuu Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku (Super Hurricane Kick) next to you and you block the first attack, you can pretty much let go of the controller at this point, because you will automatically block every other attack from that move.

However, if you are Blocking in the wrong height (in terms of high/low attacks), you will still be hit. So, let's say the enemy does a Jumping Roundhouse (HK) and you high Block it. If the enemy does a Crouching Roundhouse (HK) while you are still in your Block Stun and you don't low Block it, just because you are in Block Stun doesn't mean you will automatically Crouch to Block the Crouch Roundhouse (HK). You still have to adjust high or low for Blocking, even during Block Stun.

Special Moves

Every character in Capcom Vs. SNK 2 (and in almost EVERY 2-D Fighting Game for that matter) have what are called Special Moves. A Special Move is an attack that requires a specific joystick motion or a combination of buttons to perform. Examples of Special Moves are Ryu's Hadouken (which requires a Down, Offensive Crouch, Towards joystick motion before pressing Punch), Zangief's Double Lariat (which requires you to hit two Punch buttons simultaneously), Chang's Spinning Iron Ball (which requires you to tap Punch as fast as possible), and Raiden's Super Drop Kick (which requires you to hold two Kicks for a period of time before letting go of the Kicks). There are two main things about Special Moves that make them significant besides the alternate methods required to perform them. The first property of a Special Move is that they do damage even if the attack is Blocked. This Block Damage is by far less than the normal amount of damage that it would deal if it connected. However, if you have no energy left and you Block a Special Move, you will be defeated. Another property of a Special Move is the ability to be canceled into from a "Bufferable" Normal Move. This technique is invaluable to many characters as a form of attack and for performing Combos. Please view the sections on Buffering later in this chapter and also in the Combo FAQ half of this FAQ for more details on what Buffering means and how it affects things.

Super Combos

Regardless of which Groove you select in Capcom Vs. SNK 2, you have the ability to perform Super Combos. Just like Special Moves, these require joystick motions to perform. The motions needed are generally far more complex than that of a Special Move. The thing that sets them apart from Special Moves is that they require (in most cases) the use of the Super Meter. Regardless of your Groove, you can do a Super Combo, but how much Meter a Super Combo takes up is dependent on which Groove you are in and what Level you use. Every Super Combo has three different levels that can be performed: a Level 1 Super, a Level 2 Super, and a Level 3 Super. The Level 3 version of a Super Combo always does more damage than the Level 2 Super Combo which always does more damage than a Level 1 Super Combo. There are also certain Supers that can ONLY be performed as a Level 3.

Certain Grooves can only perform certain Leveled Supers. A-Groove, for example, can only perform Level 1 Supers. S-Groove can perform Level 1 or Level 3 Supers, but the conditions needed for a Level 3 Super are very specific. Please see the Grooves chapter for specifics on which Supers can be performed and how.

Buffering (Cancelling)

Extremely useful, highly practical, never dropped, and always mimicked, Buffering has been around since the original Street Fighter II. This technique is also known as "Two-in-ones" in some circles. It has been adapted into almost every fighting game you can think of, from popular arcade games like King of the Fighters, Samurai Shodown II, Mortal Kombat 4, Killer Instinct, and Guilty Gear X to even small time and relatively unknown console-only fighting games like TMNT: Tournament Fighters, Critical Blow, and Dynasty Warriors.

• The concept of Buffering is the ability for a character to cancel the animation of a Normal Move into one of their Special Moves or Super Combos. Normally, the Normal Move causes the enemy to reel long enough for the Special Move to hit them while they are still in their Reel Stun, rewarding the attacker with a Combo. An example of this is the ability for Ryu to cancel Crouching Forward (MK) into a Hadouken for the 2-Hit Combo that we've seen since the dawn of Street Fighter.

Buffering can only be done with certain Normal Moves, and this isn't consistent between characters, not by a long shot. Only certain Normal Moves for every character is "Bufferable". That means they have the ability to be canceled into a Special Move or Super Combo. Even though some characters may have three or four times as many Bufferable Moves as a different character, you can be guaranteed that EVERY character has at least one Bufferable move.

Also, Bufferable Normal Moves generally can only be Buffered on certain Animation Frames. For example, a Kyo Crouching Fierce (HP), if performed right next to an enemy, can be Buffered the instant the move hits into any of his Special Moves or Super Combos. However, Kyo's Crouching Fierce (HP) can also connect later in it's animation. Let's say an enemy Jumps at you and you use Crouching Fierce (HP) and hit him/her out of the air with the frame where Kyo has his arm almost fully extended. If you try to Buffer Crouch Fierce (HP) at this time, it won't work. That is because only certain frames of moves are Bufferable. Kyo's Crouching Fierce (HP) is only Bufferable on it's first hitting Animation Frame.

To Buffer a Bufferable Normal Move, simply do the code for the Special Move or Super Combo and make sure you have hit the button to activate the Special Move the instant the Bufferable Move connects with the enemy. Remember, only Bufferable frames work with this technique.

Also, some Normal Moves can ONLY be Buffered into Super Combos. For example, Benimaru's Crouching Forward (MK) cannot be Buffered into the Lightning Fist (the Raikouken spark) or his Shinkuu Katategoma or any of his other Special Moves. However, he CAN Buffer it into his Heaven Blast Flash (the Taikuu Raikouken spark Super) or his Discharge Spark. Many Normal Moves are like this. In fact, I'd dare say that more Normal Moves in this game can be Buffered into a Super than cannot. That could be an exaggeration, but I do know that MANY moves can be Buffered into Supers.

Buffering becomes very useful for attack patterns. But they are ESPECIALLY useful for Combos. Moves that are normally not safe to use by themselves can be turned VERY useful thanks to the ability to Buffer Normal Moves. For example, Yamazaki's Fierce (HP) Serpent Slash, while having good recovery, can be relatively dangerous to use against opponents who move around constantly. If you use it too often, the enemy can easily Jump over it or Roll through it and punish you.

However, if you learn that you can Buffer Yamazaki's Standing Fierce (HP), the Serpent Slash becomes vastly more useful. Since the Standing Fierce (HP) hits so much more quickly that a Serpent Slash, you can tag enemies with the Standing Fierce (HP) first, and then Buffer it into the Fierce (HP) Serpent Slash, which allows you to safely dish out Block Damage. And you end up safe afterwards as well! Thus, you can see how Buffering is very useful in creating attack sequences.

Reversal

This describes the ability for a character to go from a "non-hittable" state straight into a Special Move instantly with nothing happening in between. Whenever you successfully perform a Reversal, the message "Reversal" will actually appear on the screen under your character's Life Meter and Guard Meter.

• There are four situations that a player is able to perform a Reversal attack:

1. 1) Going straight from getting up off the floor (during which you are invincible) into a Special Move (the INSTANT you are done getting up, the first Animation Frame you go into is your Special Move)

1. 2) Going straight from Block Stun into a Special Move (the INSTANT your Block Stun ends, the first Animation Frame you go into is your Special Move)

1. 3) If you are hit out of the air by a non-Knock-Down move and can no longer be Juggled, you can go straight from your landing animation (during which you are invincible) into a Special Move (right when you land, the first Animation Frame you will go into will be your Special Move)

1. 4) The instant you come out of a Stun, you can do a Special Move that will count as a Reversal (this one is the only situation where you don't go from invincible to the Special Move, so I'm not sure why they included this scenario...).

Reversals are most useful in conjunction will moves that are invincible when they start. They don't even have to be invincible, but just have high priority. Most "Dragon Punch" or "Uppercut" type moves are good for Reversals, moves like Ryu or Ken's Shoryuken, Cammy's Cannon Spike, Kim's Flying Slice, etc. Also, Level 3 Supers (or any other level Super that has good priority) can be used, as can Custom Combos. Even Dodges and Rolls can be used as Reversals. The Level 3 Supers and Uppercut-like moves will beat any attack or Throw that is attempted on you at that first instant when you become vulnerable again while the Customs, Dodges, and Rolls will just avoid them.

Also a common term that is used in conjunction with Reversals is the "Meaty Attack". A Meaty Attack is an attack that is timed so that the enemy will get up into it after being knocked down. In other words, if the enemy tries to perform a move when they get up against your Meaty Attack and he/she mistimes it so that they do not perform a Reversal, they will get hit the instant they get up. An example of a Meaty attack would be Bison's Crouching Roundhouse (HK). If you knock the enemy over, and then do Bison's long-lasting slide attack and time it so that the enemy gets up into it, that is considered a Meaty Attack.

However, keep in mind that a Reversal that has invincibility will ALWAYS beat a Meaty Attack. Also, performing a Reversal to properly beat a Meaty Attack requires VERY good timing. In fact, the window during which you can perform a Reversal is very small. Thus, if you are hit by Meaty Attacks and fail your Reversal, do not worry. This is a common occurrence: no one, I don't think, can perform a Reversal 100% of the time.

Note: through out this Guide, I will also refer to Reversals as "Wake-ups". Wake-ups are Reversals, but they are pretty much ONLY referring to Reversals that are performed when getting up off of the ground. So if I say something like, "Ryu can perform a Wake-Up Shoryuken...", I'm referring to Ryu performing a Reversal Shoryuken when getting up off of the ground.

High Jumping

If you are a fan of the Versus Games, like Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, make sure to note that, although performed the same way, High Jumping is NOTHING like Super Jumping. No, in Capcom Vs. SNK 2, High Jumping is more similar to the High Jumping from the King of the Fighters or the Street Fighter Three Series. A High Jump is simply that: a High Jump. It's higher and longer than your standard Jump. To do a High Jump, simply hit Down right before you hit any of the three Up positions on the joystick. You cannot just hold Down, then Jump and get a High Jump. You MUST tap Down before hitting any of the three Up positions.

Doing so will result in your character doing a higher, longer Jump. You'll know if it's a High Jump because your character will leave behind a "shadow trail". This is good for attacking enemies across the screen, or getting an advantage on air to air attacks. Otherwise, there are no special properties of a High Jump. A High Jump is simply just that: a higher version of your regular Jump.

Cross Ups

Cross-ups really were an "accident" on Capcom's part. They existed in the very first Street Fighter II Classic, and somehow I don't think they were an intentional thing. But strangely, they have worked their way so strongly into gameplay that possessing a Cross-up can make or break a character. I can't possibly express how much I wish someone like King had a reliable Cross-up. If she did, I swear she'd be SO MUCH better than she is right now. And I also can think to myself that a character like Blanka just didn't NEED a Cross-up. He's good enough of a character without one, and having one only makes him much better than he needs to be.

So born out of an accident, Capcom now purposely tries to give characters "Cross-ups". They seem to be pretty random with their decisions to reward some characters with Cross-ups. Some characters have Cross-Ups that work like a charm, other characters don't have ANY Cross-ups. And then some characters have Cross-ups that require precise distancing that, after practicing it enough and getting accustomed to it, become like clockw0rk... er... clockwork. And THEN some characters, if you land their Cross-ups, you probably would have been better off going to Las Vegas and using that luck on a slot machine!

So what exactly is a Cross-up?

A Cross-up is a move that you perform while Jumping that has a "Hit Box" slightly behind the Jumping character. Basically, what this means is that you can strike your opponent when Jumping OVER them, because your move hits far enough back to catch the enemy that's still under you.

This is a VERY important thing to possess. It allows for you to attack characters, whether they are getting up or whether you just managed to get close enough to Jump or High Jump over them, from the air with relative safety. Jumping at, for example, Kyo from the front is a fairly risky thing to do. If he's ready for you, he's gonna Fire Ball (Kyo's uppercut) you out of the air. However, if you distance it right and manage to jump just barely over him, his Fire Ball (Kyo's uppercut) will miss, and you can punish him from behind. If he doesn't do the Fire Ball (Kyo's uppercut), you'll force him to Block your Cross-up, and you can end up right next to him with total Frame Advantage. From there, go for a nice poke sequence, a good Block Combo, or even a Throw attempt from one of the various Throw set-ups you can try.

But best yet, because you Jump so that you hit them after you barely pass over them, Blocking sometimes becomes ambiguous for the enemy, and they might end up Blocking the wrong way! If that happens, you can easily HIT the enemy, and then go for a Combo right there and then! And after Cross-ups, you end up RIGHT next to the enemy, which usually means you can go for a nice, long, damaging Combo.

Every character, as I said, has different levels of effectiveness for their Cross-ups. Also, some characters have more than one Cross-up! In a future version of this FAQ, I may include a "Cross-up" chart, indicating what the characters' best Cross-ups are. But for now, you'll just have to experiment and figure it out on your own.

Throws And Tech Hits

Throws have been reverted back to their original style of only needing one button to Throw for those of you from the Capcom side of things (especially the Third Strike and Alpha 3 players). For you SNK players out there, Throws are pretty much done the same as in King of the Fighters.

To perform a Throw, simply walk right up to the opponent, hold Toward or Back, and Press Fierce (HP) or Roundhouse (HK). Every character in this game has two Throws, so either one will work. And unlike older Capcom Fighting Games, two Throws is ALL you get. You CANNOT Throw with Strong (MP) or Forward (MK) in this game.

Obviously, the use for a Throw is that the enemy cannot Block a Throw.

Contrary to popular belief, this does NOT make Throws cheap. Actually, because Throws have such little range in this game, Throws are everything BUT cheap. They are a necessity to gameplay. After all, everything in a Fighting Game needs a counter. In your traditional 2-D Fighting Game, Throws are a counter to Blocking. Pure and simple. So if you think the enemy will Block, Throw. And if you're wrong, you'll wind up eating anything from a single hit to a small Combo to a Level 3 Super. So Throws aren't cheap by any means. Don't complain about them, learn to play with them.

Apologies with regards to my little editorial there about Throws and the common misconception that they are cheap... ^_^

Characters cannot be Thrown out of Hit Stun or Block Stun.

If you intend on performing a "Tick" or a "Cheap Shot" (which is what some people refer to as the act of making someone Block an attack like a Crouch Short (LK) and then following up that with a Throw. It's NOT cheap, regardless of the name people give it, I'm telling you...), you MUST wait for the character to come out of their Stun (whether it's a Hit Stun or Block Stun) before you can Throw. So for example, you can land a Cross-up Forward (MK) with Ryu. The instant you land, you are RIGHT next to the enemy and in range for a Throw. But if you try to Throw with, say, Fierce (HP), you'll end up punching instead. Why? The enemy is still in Block Stun, so the pressing of Fierce (HP) will check to see if you can Throw the enemy or not. Since you cannot, it will then make the Standing Fierce (HP) come out instead. So if you WANT to Throw the enemy after a Cross-up, you must wait half a second for the enemy to come out of Block Stun, and THEN hit Fierce (HP) to Throw.

Some characters also have Air Throws. They are done pretty much the same. If you Jump and your opponent is near you in the air, hold any direction except up and press Fierce (HP) or Roundhouse (HK), depending on which button your Air Throw is. Not every character has an Air Throw (more don't than do) and those that have Air Throws may only have one, unlike ground Throws where everyone has two Throws.

They also have implemented Counter Throws (their official name is a "Tech Hit") in this game. If you get Thrown by the enemy, but anticipated it and tried Throw them before they Throw you, you will "deflect" their Throw attempt. Both of your characters will push each other away (a big, bright light flashes between you, and you two slide away from each others with arms in the air...) and no one will take damage.

The way to perform a Tech Hit is to simply hit Fierce (HP) or Roundhouse (HK) when you are Thrown. If you timed it correctly, your character will deflect your opponent's Throw, and both characters will come away unscathed.

One VERY important thing about Teching Throws in Capcom Vs. SNK 2: you cannot Tech Hit a Throw 100% of the time. There are many situations where, if Thrown, you simply are not allowed to Tech Hit, such as during a Roll. In Capcom Vs. SNK 1, you were even allowed to Tech Hit during a Roll! But now, you aren't allowed to, so punishing Rolls with a Throw is 100% guaranteed. Please see the Throw Technical Data below for situations on when you cannot Tech Hit. Also, you cannot Tech Hit Air Throws, even if your character has an Air Throw too.

• Throws are NOT instant in Capcom Vs. SNK 2. This is a VERY significant thing to note, as you can see how it'll affect gameplay. In games like Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Throws were instantaneous and could even be used as a Wake-up! A Wake-up Throw would beat a Meaty attack in Super Turbo. But in Capcom Vs. SNK 2, Throws CANNOT be used as a Wake-up, because they are not instant. They take a few frames to register and, by then, you've already been hit.

In general, Punch Throws come out faster than Kick Throws. However Punch Throws, however, do a little bit less damage than Kick Throws and have a larger window to be Teched. So while they are faster, they can be escaped much easier and do less damage for the most part. See the Technical Throw Data below for the exact frame numbers for the Throw.

Sometimes, when an opponent Throws you and you hit your button at the EXACT same time, you do not Tech Hit the Throw. This usually generates the steady supply of "Why didn't I Tech that Throw?!?" complaint. Well, there's actually a reason for this. Let's say your opponent comes up to you and tries to Throw you and you hit your button at almost exactly the same time as your opponent hit his/her button. If you and your opponent try to Throw each other with Punch Throws (it takes 3 frames for a Punch Throw to officially come out and connect) and you hit your button one frame after he/she hits his/her button, you will get Thrown because your opponent hit the button first. However, even though you hit your button practically at the exact same as your opponent, you do not Tech Hit the Throw! What's going on?

Well, as it turns out, in order to Tech Hit properly you actually have to hit the button slightly AFTER they Throw you. The reason for this is that you hit your button before their Throw actually registers as connecting against you: during the 3 frames of start-up time for the opponent's Throw. So your button press is registering as a Throw, not a Tech Hit! Since you pressed your button a little too early, you aren't getting a Tech Hit. Plus, even if you tap the button twice in a row really quickly, you STILL won't Tech the Throw. This is because the first time you tapped the button makes it so that you are trying to Throw... which means you AREN'T IN A NEUTRAL STATE. And remember I said you cannot Tech a Throw unless you are in a Neutral State. So hitting a button to Tech too quickly CAN result in a guaranteed Throw for your opponent. VERY frustrating...

• Note, you cannot Tech Hit Special Move Throws. So if Zangief, Raiden, Benimaru, Vice, Todo, Morrigan, Rock, Yun, Athena, or Chang catch you with any of their Special Move Throws, you will be Thrown. There is no way to Tech Hit those. Also, though I've said this already, you cannot Tech Hit Air Throws.

• One fun and trivial thing to note about Throws: they implemented the DarkStalkers missed Throw animation system!! If you try and Throw an opponent and the opponent leaves your Throw range RIGHT before you hit the Throw button, your character will actually execute a missed Throw animation! The best, so far, is Terry, who utters a "WHAT?!?" when he misses his Throw. ^_^ Of course, as Majestros was quick to point out to me, Rolento is less shocked and more pissed. Take a listen to Rolento. ^_^

Technical Data

On the www.shoryuken.com Forums, hyt posted a lot of details regarding Throws in CvS2 taken from the Capcom Vs. SNK 2 Millionaire Fighting 2001 Official Guidebook by Famitsu. Below is this exact same information, but heavily edited by me for presentation's sake. I also added a few more bits of info here and there, but otherwise all information below was taken from that post. Thus, the real credit goes to hyt for taking the time and effort to transcribe all of this information down. Thanks, hyt!! This is great stuff.

Throw Rules

Remember I stated that you cannot Tech Hit a Throw in certain situations. Below are these rules.

You cannot tech a throw when you are: 
1) in the execution or delay frames of a Special Move or Super Move.   
2) in a Roll.   
3) Running.   
4) Dodging.  
5) Dizzy.  
6) Guard Crushed.  
7) Charging your S-Groove Meter. 
8) Breaking a Power Stock in N-Groove.  

Autoguard

I remember, back in the Capcom Vs. SNK days, many of the SNK fans were griping about the lack of patented King of the Fighter type aspects to certain characters. One of the bigger complaints was the removal of any presence of Autoguard. In KOF, many characters had Autoguard: the ability for a move to "absorb" a hit and continue on. Kyo had it on a couple of moves. Shingo had it on a number of moves as well. Goro even had it on one of his Super Throws! It was present in various characters. If you struck these moves in certain frames of their animation, you would see a hit spark but the character would continue their moves regardless. This feature didn't exist anywhere in Capcom Vs. SNK, and many SNK fans were not happy about this.

Well, it seems that Capcom decided that the SNK fans were right... to an extent. They decided to put Autoguard in the game, but as far as I can tell, only three characters have it... and one of them isn't even an SNK character!!! Kyo has Autoguard on the Poison Gnawfest, Chang has it on the Breaking Iron Ball, and Eagle has it with the Canterbury Blue.

Kyo's Autoguard is VERY brief. It falls just about on the two Animation Frames of where his back is facing the screen during the punch... about halfway between when you start the move and when you actually land the punch. It's very, very short and is very difficult to actually use to your advantage intentionally. Kyo can Autoguard all Normal Moves and Special Moves that are not Sweeps. Sweeps will get under Kyo's Autoguard and hit him.

Chang's is much more practical and it lasts for a while. His Autoguard frames take place when Chang's back is turned away from the opponent while performing the Breaking Iron Ball. It lasts much longer than Kyo's and can easily be used in strategic places without needing the incredible precision timing that Kyo requires. But just like Kyo, Chang's Autoguard can Autoguard everything except Sweeps. So if it hits low, it will get past Chang.

Eagle's is by far the most practical, because you can choose how long the Autoguard lasts and choose WHERE the Autoguard protects you. When you perform the Canterbury Blue, you can hold the button to keep the move going. And as long as Eagle holds the stick out, Eagle is in the midst of Autoguard frames. So the timing required is far less precise. And since you can hold it out for so long, you can Autoguard multiple hit moves! If Rugal, for example, charges up the Kaiser Wave to its full strength, Eagle can easily hold the Strong (MP) Canterbury Blue out and Autoguard ALL THREE HITS (Chang's Autoguard frames do last long enough to absorb more than one hit, but not much more than two hits in a row. He can't Autoguard all three hits of a fully charged up Kaiser Wave, for example).

Not only can Eagle hold the Canterbury Blue, but he can aim where it Autoguards as well. Whereas Kyo and Chang can always be swept, Eagle can choose where his Autoguards will cover. Fierce (HP) covers everything low, Strong (MP) covers everything mid, and Jab (LP) covers everything high. So if you think the enemy will Sweep you, the Fierce (HP) one will Autoguard it. Plus, since it's an Autoguard and not a Counter, you don't have to be perfectly precise with "aiming" it to have it work. Geese, for example, can only Counter Jump Attacks with the High Counter. Eagle, however, can do a Strong (MP) Canterbury Blue (which covers mid attacks) and if the enemy Jumping at you Kicks low enough in his or her Jump, you'll Autoguard it anyhow! Basically, the move just has to hit the area the Canterbury Blue covers, and it'll Autoguard. That makes it far more versatile.

So striking the enemy during any of those above Animation Frames will not cause the move to stop. Autoguard has the ability to absorb any Normal or Special Move that hits the Autoguard area. One thing to mention, though, is that Autoguards do not work against Supers at all. Supers will blast through any Autoguard you try. Otherwise, Autoguard can catch anything, including Projectiles (except for ground-based Projectiles, if you are Kyo or Chang, since they count as Sweeps).

So Autoguard, essentially, is similar to gaining sections of "invincibility", in the way that the enemy can't hit you (like how Zangief becomes invincible along his waste when he does the Double Lariat, allowing him to pass through most air-based Projectiles). However, there is a very subtle difference between having invincibility and having Autoguard. This difference mainly comes from the fact that when a move strikes you during Autoguard, the enemy actually freezes with Hit Stun, but you keep animating as if nothing hit you at all.

To see this difference, let's compare Chang and Raiden. Chang's Breaking Iron Ball and Raiden's Giant Bomb are similar type moves... they both can be used as Anti-Air to bypass a Jump attack. Let's say Ryu Jumps at Raiden and does a Jumping Roundhouse (HK). Raiden does the Giant Bomb as Anti-Air and, because of the Giant Bomb's invincibility, Ryu's Jumping Roundhouse (HK) will pass right through Raiden. BUT RYU DOESN'T PAUSE IN THE AIR because the Kick just misses. So he will miss Raiden but can potentially land and Block before the Giant Bomb actually hits Ryu. Then, since the Giant Bomb has delay, Ryu can punish you with the Combo of his choice.

Now, with Chang, if Ryu kicks at Chang and he did the Breaking Iron Ball, Ryu connects with the Kick during Chang's Autoguard. However, Ryu will FREEZE IN THE AIR with Hit Stun as if he hit Chang, but Chang will continue to animate as if nothing happened. So the Breaking Iron Ball has a better chance of catching Ryu out of the air because the mock Hit Stun will keep Ryu in the air for a brief second longer. Thus, Autoguard as Anti-Air (mostly with Chang and Eagle) can be very practical. Sad, though, that it in the end, SNK fans got their Autoguard, but a Capcom character has the best and most useful Autoguard move in the game...

Trip Guard

Trip Guard is a concept that has existed since the beginning of Street Fighter... except that what made Trip Guard so prominent in the original Street Fighter was that it didn't exist!

Trip Guard is the ability for your character to Low Block attacks when landing from a jump.

In the old days, back in the entire original Street Fighter series, if you Jumped at the enemy and they threw an attack that needed to be Blocked Low the instant you landed, you could not Block. They just simply wouldn't let you Block Low when you landed from the Jump. And because, in the old Street Fighter games, most Sweeps had better range than most Jump Attacks, using concept this along with Projectiles was particularly deadly (just ask any Honda player who's fighting a Ryu).

In later versions of Street Fighter, like in the Alpha series, this was taken out and you were given the ability to Block Low the instant you land from a Jump: Trip Guard. Trip Guard (along with Jump Attacks that reached farther than Sweeps) all but eliminated the problem from above.

Capcom Vs. SNK 2 decides not to pick a side and go with it, but to do a mix between the two. Basically, your character is initially equipped with Trip Guard when you Jump. However, the instant you do a move in the air, your Trip Guard is gone. Thus, if you perform a Punch or Kick in the air, you will not be able to Crouch Block the instant you land. However, if you choose not to do anything while Jumping, your Trip Guard stays intact. The same thing goes for Low Jumps, too, except with Low Jumps, your delay is a LOT longer than from a normal Jump.

However, no matter what, regardless if you did an attack or not, you cannot perform a Special Move or a Super Combo the instant you land from a Jump. This is even if your Trip Guard is still active. There is, I'm guessing, a 1-frame delay upon landing that prevents you from doing a Special Move or Super Combo the instant you land.

Now, now... I know what you're going to say. "But I've baited people in trying to Sweep me when I land hundreds of times only to end up Supering them or Uppercutting them! You can cancel your delay!" As I said: ONE FRAME. One frame is hardly any time at all... 1/30th of a second. People who want to Sweep you when you land need to have unbelievable timing to land a Sweep on you with perfect accuracy 100% of the time.

Still don't believe me. Uh huh... I see... Well, let me put it this way: I tested it using the ultimate of Sweeps: Bison's Crouch Roundhouse. He slides for a VERY long time, and there's no issues with timing to make sure that you connect at the precise moment the opponent lands from a Jump. I tested it out in Training Mode of CvS2 and Jumped and had Bison slide and I tried to perform an Uppercut or a Super or Zangief's Screw Piledriver (which has zero frames startup) and I was NEVER able to pull it off. Does that mean that I'm 100% positive you can't do it? Well, more like 99% positive. But I will believe otherwise if someone can send me a video clip of someone Jumping and landing and beating Bison's slide when they land with a Special Move or a Super Combo. I'm pretty sure it can't be done, and positive that the only thing you can do when you land is Block.

However, curiously, I HAVE done a Normal Move the instant I land if I don't do a move in the air. I land and hit buttons the precise moment I land and I get a "Counter Hit" message for Bison. So Bison ends up hitting me out of SOMETHING. And I am not moving the joystick anywhere, so it has to be a Normal Move. So strangely, it seems you CAN do a Normal Move the VERY instant you land, but not a Special Move. But if I did a move during my Jump, I was NEVER able to get the Counter Hit message to appear, so I'm guessing that if you do a move in the air, you cannot cancel the period of delay during which you cannot Block with a Normal Move.

Taunts

One of the MOST important things in Capcom Vs. SNK 2 is the Taunts. Okay, so maybe they aren't important at all, but Taunts are still in the game and Taunts are still cool. ^_^ Basically, if you hit your Start button (in the PlayStation 2, you can choose a button to assign Taunts to. On Dreamcast, you have to hold Start and then press Short (LK)), your character will go into an animation where you leave yourself completely and utterly vulnerable to the enemy's attacks. They are exactly what their names imply: they are Taunts! So you can use them to egg on your opponent, or just to let your opponent know that something really bizarre just happened (like accidentally Parrying a move into a Super Combo... Taunt afterwards for a good laugh).

Taunts DO count as Special Moves, so you can Buffer into Taunts or do Wake-up Taunts and such... Why you would EVER want to Buffer a Normal Move into a Taunt is beyond me, but it is possible. Also, Taunting builds up your opponent's Meter, so there's even MORE reason that Taunting is an insult. It's almost as if you are saying, "You know what? I'm so confident I'm gonna beat you... Here! I'm giving you free Meter!!!" Nothing in the game builds up a Meter faster that having your opponent Taunt. Of course, Taunts are for fun, in the end, more than anything. ^_^

Picking Your Characters

In Capcom Vs. SNK 2, you have to choose SO MANY THINGS just to get started! There are just so many steps: 1) Pick your Groove; 2) Pick your characters; 3) Select the Ratios for your characters; 4) Choose an order for your characters. Choices, choices, choices, decisions, decisions, decisions!!!

Obviously, we've covered the Grooves, so pick the one you like the most. Then comes picking your characters. The way Capcom Vs. SNK 2 works is that you can have 1, 2, or 3 characters on your team. Now, the selection screen is a little weird at first, but is quite simple once you get used to it. I only say this because of Capcom's bad decision to make their selection screen this weird "diamond" motif. In the Beta version of this game I played at the E3 of 2001, it was incredibly confusing! Even though the cursor for selecting characters moved diagonally (along the diamond pattern), you moved the cursor with up, down, left, and right. It's like playing Q*Bert with a non-diagonal joystick! Needless to say, it sucked.

So they changed it to this "mouse-like" system where the joystick moves this arrow very slowly around the grid. Thus, up is up, down is down, etc. Just move the arrow to point to the character you want to use and hit any button to choose your character. There is also an "End" diamond near the top and the bottom of the selection grid. You can use this to stop picking characters, if you just want one or two characters. If you pick a third character, it automatically ends your character selection.

Be careful and not too hasty when picking your characters... Quite often, I try to go to "END" with only two characters, and accidentally pick Dan just 'cause I'm in such a hurry and have gotten careless. ^_^ Not that there's anything WRONG with picking Dan, of course. ^_^

Color

Heh, picking your color for your character is always a way to personalize yourself. You may simply like the way one character looks in one color over another, or you may simply just want to picked the ugliest colors because you're masochistic. ^_^ For example, you can pick the Dark Blue Mai because you like Mai, and blue is your favorite color. You can pick the pink Chang because, well frankly, he just looks completely silly that way. Or you may just enjoy picking Orange Rugal because the color peach is your thing. ^_^

Whatever your prerogative, you have a total of 8 colors to choose from. To select these colors, you choose your character with a different button. The way to access all eight colors is: Jab, Strong, Fierce, Short, Forward, Roundhouse, any two Punches, and any two Kicks. Two Kicks is usually reserved for the REALLY funky colors. ^_^

Also, ONLY ON THE HOME VERSIONS, you can create your own colors using Color Edit Mode. There, you can make them whatever color you want. You can come up with some really cool ideas!! Some of my favorites include my friend's idea of turning Rugal into the Joker with purple outfit and green hair, turning Geese African-American... which results in giving him corn rows (!!!) and makes him look completely bad-ass, and bringing back old favorite colors like Queequeg Dhalsim from Hyper Fighting (man, for any of you who know what Queequeg refers to, pretty good... ^_^ But it makes sense, right? Yellow skin, purple tattoos? Right? ^_^)). You can also just come up with some REALLY bizarre ideas. Most people who are lazy to try and make really good colors resort to the all-black "shadow" color of a character or the "acid trip" random colored character who just looks like a multi-colored blob.

The coolest part about this is that you can also change the NAME of the character using Color Edit Mode. So for my Rugal color, his name actually IS the "Joker" during a fight. ^_^ It's pretty cool. I don't know, maybe I just get off on Color Edit Mode too much, but I REALLY have too much fun making up new colors for characters.

Ratio System

In Capcom Vs. SNK 2, Capcom decided to opt for a Free Ratio System, unlike the last game. In CvS1, every character was a fixed Ratio: King was a Ratio 1 character, Ken was a Ratio 2 character, Rugal was a Ratio 3 character, and Akuma was a Ratio 4 character. You didn't have any choice about this, that's what they were... In Capcom Vs. SNK 2, however, you are now free to choose characters at any Ratio you so desire.

The ratios you have access to are dependent on how many characters you select, and you can select up to 3 characters. Here are the ratio options you can pick depending on how many characters you choose (I will simplify "Ratio" to "R" here):

• 1 Character - R4
• 2 Characters - R3/R1, R1/R3, R2/R2
• 3 Characters - R1/R1/R2, R1/R2/R1, R2/R1/R1

So, with that knowledge, what's the best option in a competitive setting? Almost always, you pick the R1/R1/R2 option. You have access to the most characters, and your strongest character can be at the end to make comebacks or close the game, hence why they're called anchors. What about the other options, can they still be used? Well, all of the 2 character ratio options are completely unviable at high level. The bonuses you get from R3 and R2 aren't enough to take down the 3 character teams consistently. Even if you have a 2 character team of Blanka and Sagat, it will not be enough for even high tier teams. R4 is a meme mostly. Even the most casual of player can clearly see that R4's damage bonus is insane. However, it is only just a single character. If that lone character dies, you lose the match. R4 is way too volatile and inconsistent to actually use, and really the only R4s that you can actually put in work with would be the top tiers.

What about the other two 3 character options? That's where it gets interesting. Japanese players sometimes choose different ratio options with their 3 character teams to potentially gain an edge early (like placing their R2 anchor first) but this is a very risky move. If that anchor dies too quickly or they didn't get the kill on the first R1, they are immediately at a huge disadvantage. The same goes for R1/R2/R1, but to a lesser extent since they also start with an R1. The issue here lies in that it's really dependent on what character you have as an anchor. If you use an anchor that uses meter really well, you can make it work, but if not, then you'll be left at a disadvantage.

Ultimately, use R1/R1/R2 when making your team. It is the most consistent tried and true ratio option regardless of what characters you use. That way, you can instead focus on where you order your characters.

Team Order

You can change the order of your team even outside of the select screen. During the versus screen, you can make last minute changes to your team ordering by inputting button combos that correspond to each character. The first button combo you press places that corresponding character first in the order, and if you have 2 characters, doing another button combo places that corresponding character second. Here are the button combos:

• LP+LK is the 1st character
• MP+MK is the 2nd character
• HP+HK is the 3rd character

Once you've switched your order, the decision is final and cannot be reverted, so make sure you're confident when switching up the order.

Say, for instance, I'm using a team of Sagat, Ryu and Ken. Sagat is my 1st character, Ryu is my 2nd character, and Ken is my 3rd. If I want to change that order so I can instead have my order by Ryu, Ken and Sagat, what I do is first press MP+MK. Since that button combo corresponds to my second character (Ryu), he gets placed first since that was the first button combo. Then, I press HP+HK, which corresponds to my 3rd character (Ken) and since it is the second button combination used, he is placed second. Sagat is automatically placed last, so no additional inputs are required.

Or, say I'm playing a team of Geese and Bison, with Geese as my 1st character and Bison as my 2nd. I want to put Bison first, so what I do is simply press MP+MK since it corresponds to the second character, and my order is flipped. Obviously you can't do any team order changes with R4 since it's just one character. If you want to make the versus screen process go by faster and you've already selected your order, you can simply press start and it automatically confirms your team order.

There is no visual indication of exactly what character got placed where, only a flash and the sound that indicates an order change/confirmation was made. This leads into some mind games as the opponent might not be aware that you are switching the order for, say, a counterpick. In the wise words of the CvS2 announcer, "The strategic game has already begun."

Round System

There are various Round formats used in Capcom Vs. SNK 2, but the standard one is the Ratio Match format. This is the Round format you'll experience in the arcades and on the home versions by default.

Ratio Match works just about how you think it would... After both players have selected the order in which their characters will be used, the first character for both players go up against each other. When one is defeated, he/she is replaced by the next member of the team (based on the order you selected). The winner from the last Round fights the new character until another one of the two characters is defeated. Team members continue to replace fallen team members in their chosen order until one team finally has all of the characters on his/her team defeated. The other team then comes out victorious.

If the Timer runs out before a character is defeated, the character with more health wins the Round. If both characters trade hits that causes them both to have fully drained Life Meters, or if the Timer runs out when both characters have the same amount of life, the Round ends in a draw. In that case, both characters "lose" and the next characters from both sides come into the match with full health. If only one player has a character left (the other was on his/her last character), the person with the character left automatically wins. If neither player had a character left, the game ENDS and both players lose the fight, which means, in the arcade at least, both players need to pay again for their next game. The fight is declared a draw.

The only thing to mention is that, between Rounds, the character who won the Round does NOT get a full Life Meter at the start of the next Round. The character will only keep the energy they had left at the last Round. So if you are a Ratio 2 character and beat a Ratio 1 opponent with half of your life remaining, you'll start the next Round with half of your life remaining still. You DO get a small portion of your life back, however. That's essentially the motivation to win the Round, otherwise it really doesn't make much of a difference who wins a Round. The amount of life you get back is dependent on how much Time is left on the Timer. The more time is left on the clock, the more life you get back. This can factor a lot into strategy, as well.

For example, Ratio 4 characters have the best chance to kill characters quickly. Thus, the best way to defeat a Ratio 4 character is to try and damage the opponent and, at the same time, try to eat as much time off the clock as possible. That way, when your character inevitably gets defeated, the enemy will not be rewarded with much life in return. If you let the Ratio 4 opponent defeat you too quickly, chances are he/she will get back about as much life as he/she lost, which isn't good for you at all. A side note: if you are playing on the home version and you have it set to no Timer, the amount of life you gain back will always be the same.

The second format that can be played on the home systems is the 3 on 3 Match. This emulates a King of the Fighters style Round format. You have to pick 3 characters, and choose their order. Then the fight proceeds like a Ratio Match, with winner remaining, gaining back only a portion of his/her life. The only thing that makes it different from a Ratio Match is that you are forced to have three characters, and all characters behave like Ratio 1 characters. So every match is essentially a Ratio 1 vs. a Ratio 1 character.

The third format is the Single Match format. This emulates your standard Street Fighter match. You choose only one character, and play a best of 3 Rounds. When one character is defeated, both character return for the next Round with a full Life Meter, and fight resumes. Whomever wins two Rounds first, wins the fight. In this mode, all characters behave like a Ratio 2 character, so every fight is basically a Ratio 2 vs. a Ratio 2 character.

Glitches

No game is without their share of glitches. Capcom Vs. SNK 2 has some glitches. One is just a nuisance, one can really hurt you if you don't know it exists, and the last one can potentially change the way the game is played.

"Vacuum Left Corner"

It's a stupid name to give something: the "Vacuum Left Corner." But I don't care because a stupid glitch deserves a stupid name. Basically, what the Vacuum Left Corner is is the tendency of having a character as far into the left Corner wall as possible to fall OUT of the Corner when knocked into the air by an opponent right next to them as if some magical force is sucking them out. Sound strange? Okay, this is much easier to understand when you see it for yourself. Get Chun Li. Use Chun Li. Move the enemy into the right Corner all the way up against the wall. Move Chun Li right next to the enemy. Now do her Offensive Crouch + Roundhouse (HK), which makes her hop into the air and come down on the opponent with her knee. What happens? The enemy gets knocked INTO the corner. Now switch corners. Get Chun Li. Use Chun Li. Move the enemy into the left Corner all the way up against the wall. Move Chun Li right next to the enemy. Now do her Offensive Crouch + Roundhouse (HK) kick. NOW what happens? The enemy gets knocked into the air and then proceeds to fly OUT of the corner for no discernable reason. There is your Vacuum Left Corner in effect.

This doesn't happen too often, fortunately, but can still be frustrating for certain characters in certain situations. For example, in the right Corner, Chun Li can do the Offensive Crouch Roundhouse (HK) and if it hits the enemy, they stay in the Corner so you can still apply some good Corner traps. Plus, it's EASY to react to the enemy getting hit and following up the flipping kick with a Level 2 Kikoshou canceled into a Short Spinning Bird Kick followed by a Level 1 Kikoshou. Great Combo. Great damage. Simple to do.

And the left Corner? If you connect the move, the enemy flies out of the Corner. And if you try to react to the enemy getting hit by the flipping kick, the enemy will most likely have passed over your head by the time you have reacted, spoiling your Combo. Plus, you aren't in proper position for keeping the enemy stuck in any Corner pressure tactics anymore.

Here's an example of this problem ruining a Custom Combo. Try the following Custom Combo with Terry with your opponent in the right Corner. Activate your Custom and do the sequence of Crouch Roundhouse (HK) canceled into a Short (LK) Crack Shoot 4 times. Then do a Fierce (HP) Rising Tackle followed by another Fierce (HP) Rising Tackle right away. Right before your Meter runs out, do the Buster Wolf. The enemy should bounce on both hits. Follow up with one last Fierce (HP) Rising Tackle. VERY good Combo, lots of damage, not too hard.

Now, let's try it in the LEFT Corner, shall we? Do the same Combo and what do we see happens? After the second Rising Tackle, you can't get the Buster Wolf off because the enemy starts to fly OUT of the corner. No Buster Wolf, no extra Rising Tackle at the end of the Combo, say good-bye to 2000 points of damage.

Now granted, you CAN time everything right so that you can land the entire Combo in the left Corner (do the second Rising Tackle a bit later than normal, but that might not give you enough time to pull off the Buster Wolf before your time expires), but it's just an extra hassle that you really shouldn't need to worry about. A Corner is a Corner. There shouldn't be any inconsistencies between Corners.

Of course, this really doesn't come up THAT often, so it's not that big of a deal. But I'm not sure how this glitch could have possibly escaped Capcom. It's just something that could have been avoided if your were just careful.

P2 Crossup Glitch

This glitch actually CAN factor into gameplay if you or your opponent is aware of it. In Capcom Vs. SNK, one of the biggest confusion tactics involved the Corner, especially for Nakoruru. There were ways for her to knock you down in the Corner and start playing mind games with you, Dashing in and out of the Corner and making you guess which side she ended up on. They tried to all but eliminate this problem in Capcom Vs. SNK 2. If the enemy is knocked into the Corner, they will REMAIN in the Corner and there isn't any way for the other player to work their way INTO the Corner and catch you Blocking the wrong way. Needless to say, they failed.

Of course, it does require very specific set-ups to get this to work, so as long as you are aware of them, you should be able to be ready for them. But you need to know exactly when it can occur.

Basically, it works like this: ONLY PLAYER 2 can set it up so that, when knocking Player 1 into the Corner (either Corner), they can go over Player 1 and end up IN the Corner. However, the prerequisite for this to work is that the move that you use to knock Player 1 down must knock Player 1 into the Corner with his or her head sticking OUT of the corner (feet first). This actually severely hinders the number of set-ups available for this trick. But still, if you aren't ready for it, you can easily get caught by a player who gets over you and Combos you for 70% life from the other side (characters like Sagat can do this... not a pleasant thing to happen to you).

For example, with Ryu, he can Throw you into the Corner with either button. When he Throws you into the Corner, you will fall into the Corner head out and feet first. Now, before you actually land and stop bouncing, Ryu can pass over you with an airborne move and end up in the Corner himself. So Ryu can Throw you into the corner, then perform a Hop Kick (Towards + Forward (MK)), a Short (LK) Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku, or a simple Jump. He'll end up in the Corner and can land a painful Combo on you while you are still expecting to be Blocking towards the Corner when in fact you need to be Blocking away from the Corner now.

But all of Ryu's other Knock-downs (Crouch Roundhouse (HK), Tatsumaki Senpuukyakus, Shoryukens, and Shakunetsu Hadoukens) knock the enemy into the corner head first, so the trick doesn't work! Same goes for most other characters. Most characters only have one set-up if they have a set-up at all. Sagat can only do the trick with a Punch Throw (and then Tiger Knee or Jump over the fallen enemy to get to the other side) for example. So not many characters can actually use this trick at all. But if you run into a player who DOES know the trick, you'll have to become very aware of it and get ready to switch your Block if you see them go airborne after putting you into the corner feet first.

OTG Throw Glitch

This glitch, for some weird reason, only works on Rolento and.... Dan. Poor Dan. The way it works is that during Custom Combos specifically, you can throw Rolento/Dan when they are knocked down. Unfortunately, you cannot throw them when they're downed without CC. Is this useful? Well, kinda. For characters like Zangief or Raiden, you can instead end your CC in a knockdown into 720 super, this gives you a lot more damage than your usual ender (anti-air super for Gief, flame spit super for Raiden), and for characters like Athena or Iori, you can actually get a confirm off of a knockdown (DP, sweep or throw), as their grabs can allow for a combo afterwards. This nugget of knowledge is pretty niche. You can only do some crazy shit on two characters with one of them being an F- tier character that won't be played seriously and the other being an admittedly played character but definitely not the most popular. If you manage to do some cool stuff with this glitch in like a tournament you'll definitely either have the commentators hyped as hell or confused as hell so there's that.

jay_ts made a video about this glitch and explains how it works in-game.

Roll Cancelling

If the game detects a roll input, but then detects the completion of a special move input within 3 frames, it will assume the player flubbed trying to execute the special move and will cancel the roll animation to perform the special move instead. The roll animation stops but its invulnerability does not, leading to invulnerable special moves, a.k.a. Roll Cancelling, CvS2's most famous bug. It can only be done in grooves with a roll, so it is noted in this section for ease of discovery.

See Roll Cancelling for more information.