SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters DS review (DS)

Because the opposition isn't much of a barrier, there are arbitrary and annoying roadblocks that will impede your progress. For instance, some bosses won't fight you or let you pass to the next level until you bring them specific cards. So instead of just beating the boss in a straight-up card battle, you have to visit shops and talk to other characters to try to track down the cards the boss demands.

Once you clear all 21 levels of the tower in the single-player game, you can play through again in a new-game-plus mode. However, there's a glitch that prevents you from getting more than half way up the tower in this mode. When you speak to a certain character, the game freezes, and because you can't beat that character, you can't progress any further up the tower. The glitch is a seemingly simple programming error that can be incredibly aggravating if you're the type of person who wants to see 100 percent of a game. If you're only interested in getting through this game once and don't care about collecting all the cards, then you won't have to worry about this glitch.

In addition to the single-player game, you can play local head-to-head battles with a friend who also has a copy of the game. You can also trade cards with friends, but other than the very basic multiplayer features, there's not much in the way of bonus content in Card Fighters DS. Except for sliding the stylus across the screen to open new card packs, there aren't any touch-screen features to be found.

Because this is a card battling game, there's very little animation. The illustrations on the cards look good, and you can view them in the card gallery. However, during battle, the cards in play are so tiny that they're virtually indistinguishable. The backgrounds are all plain and simple but at least inoffensive. There is a bit of variety to the rudimentary battle animations, but none of them look especially flashy or powerful. The battle music in Card Fighters DS is an upbeat, catchy tune that sounds good.

It's disappointing that Card Fighters DS received such second-rate localization and quality assurance testing because the underlying game is fun and addictive. If there was just a bit more care put into it, this could have been a great game. As it is, the game fails to realize its potential.