Haru Ichiban!

Pocket Fighter

Games
(where Sakura made an appearance)

Marvel Vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000)

The latest game in the Capcom Vs. series in in high resolution (well, except for the "recycled" 2d sprites from previous games), has realtime 3D backgrounds, a 3 on 3 tag-team feature and contains a vast amount of 50+ characters. (Including the *many* secret ones!) The game was released in the arcades, and for the Sega Dreamcast. Later it was also released for the Microsoft Xbox.

This game plays a bit different because you had only 4 attack buttons, leaving the remaining 2 for calling your teammates during the fight. (And activating team supers.) The game is fast paced and with some practice, incredible combos can be done. The only letdown is the ending, which is the same for everyone.

Sakura is in here and fights the way she did in Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter, but fortunately she had been improved and she can even transform in her "Dark Sakura" alter-ego during the in-game match. (At the cost of 3 super stocks.)

Capcom Vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 (2000)

This was Capcom's first game with SNK characters; possible because of their deal with SNK. (That Capcom could make and release a number of games with SNK specific characters and vice versa.) Thus it featured all familiar artwork and characters from SNK, mostly from the "King of Fighters" and "Fatal Fury" universe. Characters portraits had been done both in Capcom and in SNK style, where the SNK ones where clearly done by SNK designers.

The game was available for arcade, Sega Dreamcast, and Sony Playstation. The arcade and Playstation received in 2001 an upgrade in the form of a new game called "Capcom Vs. SNK Pro", which added Dan Hibiki and Joe Higashi as new characters.

Well, Sakura is playable in two different versions. In the standard one she plays quite different from the Alpha series, as her Hadou-ken for example hasn't got any reach (more like Dan's Gadou-ken.) There's also a special "EX" version of her in which she plays much more like the familiar Alpha version. In this game she also sounds a bit different.

SFA3b

Capcom Vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium (2001)

Known as "Capcom Vs. SNK 2: Millionaire Fighting 2001" in Japan, I thought this game was overall pretty good. (Didn't like most of the music and stages though.) The number of characters is huge, not to the likes of Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, but still very impressive nevertheless.

The game was released for arcade, Sega Dreamcast and Sony Playstation 2. Later, the Nintendo Gamecube and Microsoft Xbox both got the "updated" version: "Capcom Vs. SNK 2: EO", which had minor gameplay changed, fixed the roll cancel glitch and made it possible to do things like special and super moves using the right (Xbox) and C (Gamecube) analog sticks.

Sakura has one new move in this game: a Dive Kick, which has to be done in mid-air. (Like Akuma's.) She plays more or less like as she did in the Alpha series of games.

Oh yeah and this game has a stage set in Kinderdijk (in the Netherlands where I live.) It wasn't far away from where I lived so I went to check out the mills over there. I didn't see some Kyo and Ryu fighting over there but there where some Japanese tourists. (If you really are interested you could check some pictures I took over there on my page at Picasaweb.)

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