While it is useless to dwell on the past and what is done is done, I cannot help but think about the many ways this game could had been better. One things that Capcom is known for its ‘If ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ policy when it comes to their games and Capcom never messes with the formula of any of their fighting games even if they are redundant. This was going to be their last 2D title before going to 3D completely and you think with something like this they would put all their efforts into making a fantastic game. What fans got instead was pasted up concoction with no real thought on how it was going play out.
For one thing the characters aren’t all balanced, some characters can destroy everyone else especially the SF3 characters. Capcom could had added in every character from all their respective beat 'em up franchises including Final Fight and updated their sprites to CPS3 graphics while giving new moves or supers. Could imagine classic heroes like Mike Hagger, Strider Hyu, Guy or evne the entire SF2 cast in CPS3 graphics? They could had updated their movesets to fit the new generation like they did for Ryu, Ken and Chun Li but instead they brought over the sprites form the previous games and some of them look really dated. Even if they were going to use the same sprites form previous games, they could had an option where they could ‘regress’ some of the new characters like Urien to Alpha style graphics or adapted his moves to the Alpha style. I always how certain characters would fare if they played in SF2 style or how past characters could be adapted to SF3 style and gameplay.
It would also been nice if they had put in some Easter eggs where you could see of the design notes or even some artwork from the previous games. They could have had a training mode that not only shows what you need to do execute some of the characters moves but explain how to them without confusing new players or irritating the veterans. They could have had a comprehesive guide where they explain how certain moves are executed, why they chose such motions for the characters, how the character plays or even how certain mechanics such as the Alpha Counters, Parrying, Taunts etc. work. We already websites for those already but it would had been nice if they put it in there. They could had added the final bosses from every game and beefed them up to provide some challenge for players. They also could had added in some sort of boss rush where you have to fight every boss from every series.
They could had done a lot of things with this game but it felt like they didn’t even try to make into a good fighter. I had seen what Capcom could do over the years but Fighting Jam is a real spit in the face for a lot of fans. I really wish Capcom could had made some effort into what was going to be their last 2D fighting game.
In this age of people pointlessly whining about how Skullgirls could’ve been better, or how UMvC3 is terrible, or how they dropped the ball on SFxT, it’s good to see forums member GAP hitting the important issues.
were you even playing fighting games competitively when this “spit in the face” was released? maybe we can also dredge up more ancient history like the atrocious sf2 genesis ports? IM STILL PISSED!!!
I remember one time I was on vacation in 1996 when I was 8 years old, I was dragged to the the arcade near the hotel by my older brother, and there was this cool new “Street Fighter Alpha 2” that was definitely not there before… And it was great! It had such great graphics! And custom combos! My brother and I took turns trying to beat the CPU, and we kept coming back to it until vacation was over and we all went back home.
Later that year I discovered that Street Fighter Alpha 2 on the SNES is really disappointing.
Can’t front, I actually find CFJ pretty fucking fun. Not good but really fun to mess around with, alot of my faves like Anak, Jedah, Guile, Bison, and Leo being buff didn’t hurt.
I wish that a lot more work could had been done. Some on another forums, someone even suggested that they just use Marvel vs Capcom as a base but just take out Marvel characters and just leave in the Capcom characters.
Was it really that badly balanced? I remember MAJ saying that the game was actually “quite balanced” despite the Darkstalkers characters initially ruling the rankings.
I didn’t realize that it used characters from beyond the SF universe. I didn’t even realize it had Alex in it or had a kind of Parry system. It could’ve been a decent 3D fighter. Probably better than those EX games. It also had fatalities. Let that sink in.
But for whatever number of reasons it was cancelled and Ono was brought on to salvage the project and spend as little money as possible in the process. Hence the entire cast being made up of re-used sprites. Not having selectable supers was pretty baffling and the Warzard characters broke the game. This was released to the arcades, right? I don’t think it’s on Naomi or Atomiswave. A little surprised Capcom didn’t try to release a revision like they normally do, I guess it bombed that badly.
The sad part is that CFJ directly lead to the lay offs of Capcom’s Fighting Division and the outsourcing to Dimps and Niitsuma’s team.
If that’s true then wouldn’t it make more sense on Capcom’s part to -I don’t know- fix the game? Address the complaints? Makes no sense to completely scrap the project. At the very least it would’ve done well in the West like the Marvel series.
Believe it or not, apparently there were so much troubles and shit around CAS that it was preferable to scrap the game and just release CFE instead.
From what i understand there were broken stuff on the engine and mechanics, plus some of those were not well received during the local tests
It wasn’t only all the negative feedback, but also that there were a lot of problems during the developing of the game.
I got the game as a gift a couple years back and I enjoyed it.
The thing that gets me is that everyone is like “oh, SF3 characters ruled” or “Darkstalkers characters” or “Alpha” but I don’t think anyone played the game long enough to find out for sure. While it’s unlikely, it’s possible that the game could actually be something of a gem. But no one really gave it much of a chance, so I guess we’ll never know.
If you’ve ever seen high-level competition matches for this game, I must say, they’re pretty hype. Most, if not all, matches kept me on my toes for who was gonna win and the spacing and footsies were amazing. I do think that it wasn’t balanced and some characters had a clear advantage over all the others(Anakaris), but it clearly wasn’t that bad to the point where it had to be ditched altogether by the community.
They could have tried to make a MvC without the M, instead they tried to make a CvS without the S which was pretty stupid since the whole idea of CvS was to see a game with both Capcom and SNK elements. In the end they had a game with no hook, no selling point behind it other than a SFA with some guest Capcom characters which was a pretty weak pitch. At least with a MvC without the M you can sell it as a spiritual successor to MvC2 with the Marvel characters replaced by some cool Capcom characters.