SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters (series)

SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters is a Collectible Card Game series released by SNK Playmore between 1999 and 2007 for Neo Geo Pocket Color and Nintendo DS. The series include references and cards of several characters and games from SNK and Capcom video game series like Mega Man, Street Fighter and King of Fighters. The Neo Geo Pocket Color games are illustrated in the SD (Super Deformed) art style, while the Nintendo DS game uses normal art style, with only a few exceptions.

SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters' Clash
SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters' Clash (SNK VS. CAPCOM 激突カードファイターズ) is the first game in the series, released in 1999 for the Neo Geo Pocket Color, and the first crossover between SNK and Capcom. It was released in two version: Capcom and SNK, each with a different starting deck, different playable characters (Cap or Comet in Capcom version, Shin or Kei in SNK version) and cards that can be obtained only in certain versions, but the gameplay is the same. There is a total of 300 cards, being 120 SNK Character Cards, 120 Capcom Character Cards and 60 Action Cards.

In Japan, the game also had a soundtrack released in 1999 by Pony Canyon and a real card game known as "Versus TCG", which has all 300 cards from the game and 36 new foil Special Cards. The rules and some cards where modified, some of the changes being the deck limit of 40 cards and the new "Star" ability type.

SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters 2 Expand Edition
SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters 2 Expand Edition is a sequel released only in Japan in 2001 for the Neo Geo Pocket Color. Instead of being released in two different versions, players choose if they want to start with a SNK or a Capcom based deck. The playable character is a 14 years old boy named Rikuto Arata. The games begins when Rikuto has his cards stolen by Neo Mantle, a mysterious card fighter, and goes after him with his friend Haruna Hatena. There is a total of 424 cards, being 160 SNK Character Cards, 160 Capcom Character Cards, 64 Action Cards and 40 Reaction Cards.

In 2008, an English translation of the game was released by fans as a patch to the original game.

SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS
SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS was released for Nintendo DS on December 2006 in Japan and on April 2007 in the United States. The gameplay, mechanics and cards had sereval charges, and character from other game series like World Heroes, Devil May Cry and Ace Attorney where added. Characters from the Power Stone series are absent in this game. The playable character is a 13 years old boy called Taiki. Players can choose at any time one of the 19 faces that will appear in battles, two of them being Taiki and a Servbot. The story begins when a man named Makito created the Card Tower and its MAX system, a new card battle system that malfunction and tries to control the world, kidnapping Makito and controlling several card fighters in the tower. Taiki, Rico and Makito's son, Kaito, enter the 21 floors tower to rescue him. The game has a total of 400 cards, being 150 SNK Character Cards, 150 Capcom Character Cards, 60 Action Cards and 40 Counter Cards.

In early US versions, there is an unavoidable bug that occurs in the ninth floor of the tower, during the second play through. The game crashes after talking to an opponent named Jon, who has to be defeated in order to finish the game. On June 6, SNK announced that the replacement cartridge would be available in stores on June 25 and began the process of implementing a recall. These cartridges have been sent by mail along with a package of 5 King of Fighters trading cards. The recall ended in January 2008. Fixed versions of the game features a black and white graphic behind the title font on the cartridge's label. The label of the bugged version is in full color.

Terms and card types

 * Deck: The Deck is made of 50 cards used by the player. There can be only 3 of the same card in the deck.
 * Ring: The field where characters fight. Each player can put up to 3 (8 in SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS) Character Cards in the Ring.
 * Hit Points (HP): The player's life energy. When the HP of one player reaches 0, the opponent win the match. The maximum HP is 9900.
 * Character Cards: Characters from SNK and Capcom that are used in combat.
 * Battle Points (BP): The character's HP and the damage caused to opponents. During a counterattack, the characters have they BP reduced by the same value of the opponent's BP. If the BP reach 0, the character is defeated, and both player and opponent characters are defeated when they attack cards with the same BP value. BPs aren't lost when attacking the player's HP. The maximum BP limit is 9900. In SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS, the HP was separated from BP.
 * Card Hit Points (HP): In SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS, the HP of Characters Cards is separated from its Battle Points.
 * Soul Points (SP): When a Character Card is placed in the ring, the SP points of the card are obtained. They are needed to use Action Cards, Reaction Cards and Unite Attacks. The maximum SP value is 99. The SP was replaced by Force in SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS.
 * Force: Introduced in SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS, Force icons replace the Soul Points from previous games. They are used to place Character Cards in the Ring, Back-ups, Special Powers, Fusion Attacks and counterattacks. There are 5 types of Force: White, Red, Yellow, Green and Blue. White Force is neutral and can be replaced by any other Force color. Players start with 3 White Force icons, and there are three ways to obtain Force: In the begin of the turn (In each turn the player get 1 White Force icon and 1 color Force icon corresponding for each Character Cards placed in the Ring), discarding cards in the hand to obtain Force of the same color, and freezing Character Cards in the Ring.


 * Action Cards (AC): Cards with special effects that need SP to be used. In SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS they need Force icons to be activated.
 * Reaction Cards (RE) / Counter Cards: Cards with special effects introduced in SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters 2 Expand Edition. Like Action Cards, they need SP to be used, but can only be used during a counterattack against the opponent. In SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS, they where renamed as Counter Cards, and need Force.


 * Back-up: Link one character card in the hand with one in the Ring to rise his BP by 300 points. Back-up can be used only one time per turn, and can't be used in Frozen characters. Characters can only combine with predetermined cards. In SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS, Back-up can only be used to heal BPs that where lost in battle, and only Cards with the same trait (color) can be used.
 * Unite Attack / Fusion Attack: Character cards combine attacks by using SP (5 SP with 2 characters and 10 SP with 3). If the BP is higher than the opponent's character, they can pierce his counterattack and attack the opponent's HP with the remaining BP. The Unite Attack was renamed as Fusion Attack in SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS.
 * Freeze: A condition in which characters can't attack or use a Square Ability, being unable to act for one turn. Characters can't attack in the same turn they where placed in the ring.
 * Abilities / Special Powers: Special ability used by cards. There are three types of Special Power:
 * Triangle Ability: Card which ability can only be activated when the Character Card is placed in the Ring, and can't be canceled as long as the character is in the Ring.
 * Square Ability: The card can be activated at any time the player want, and the Character Card is frozen after activation, and can't be used while the character is frozen.
 * Circle Ability: The character's special power. The effect is activate as long as the character is in the Ring. The effect is disabled for one turn if the character is used in a Unite Attack.

Gameplay
In the begin, players shuffle their decks and draw 5 cards to the hand.

Phases:
 * 1. Active Phase: All Character Cards in the player's Ring are released from the Freeze Phase, and they can attack or use Square Abilities. Some characters may stay in Freeze Phase depending on Action Cards and Abilities.
 * 2. Draw Phase: Draw one card. If there is no card in the pile during this phase, the player lose. Some Abilities can skip this phase, avoiding players to draw cards.
 * 3. Main Phase: One or more of the following can be done during this phase:


 * Place a Character Card in the Ring. Only one character can be placed per turn.
 * Use Back-up Attack (Only once per turn).
 * Use Square Abilities.
 * Use Action Cards.
 * Attack opponent with one or more character cards normally or with Unite Attacks. End the turn after the attack.
 * End the turn without doing anything.
 * 4. Counterattack Phase: The player counterattack the active player by doing one of the actions below. The turn ends after this phase.


 * Let the characters attack the player's HP.
 * Counterattack the attacks with characters.
 * Use Reaction Cards.

In SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS, the gameplay was modified. The main changes are the replacement of SP by Force icons and the Ring now allow 8 Character Cards in each side, and any amount of characters can be placed in the Ring in one turn as long as there is enough Force icons to pay their AP cost. In the begin, players draw 6 cards to the hand instead of 5.

Mega Man related cards
Cards from the first two games that can back-up Mega Man characters or receive back-up from them are also included.

SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS
Note: There are a few mistranslations in the game, like Proto Man's Special Power "Bruce Strikes Back" (Blues Strike), Mega Man's Special Power "Lock Buster" (Rock Buster), and Wily being called "Wiley" and "Wylie" in the descriptions of Proto Man and Bass. In both English and Japanese versions, the description of the two Zero cards where switched between the Mega Man X series card and the Mega Man Zero series card.

Manga
SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS had a manga adaptation by Yuuga Takauchi (高内優向) on Fami2 Comic from January to March 2007. In the first chapter, the protagonist used Mega Man and Terry Bogard to defeat Baby Bonnie Hood, Mudman and Red Arremer.

Trivia

 * G-Mantle, a character that appears in several SNK games, is present in the first and third game of the series (renamed as "Mask, the Game Crusader" and "Germont" in the English versions). The second game has characters based on him: Neo Mantle, Robo Mantle and G-Mantle Lady.
 * Many locations and character names from the series are based on games, characters or real life people related to Capcom and SNK. For instance, the characters Cap Com and Comet Com are based on Capcom, the character Kido Yoshiji (known as Kid in the first English game) that works in Joy Joy is based on the game Joy Joy Kid, and the character Fō Gotton that works in Lost World is based on the game Forgotten Worlds.
 * Besides the cards, Mega Man has a few references in the games. In the first game there is fictional Neo Geo Pocket game called "Mega Man Z" for rent and a girl thinking if she should call a dog as "Poppy" or "Rush".