CVS: Pro is one of the best fighting games on the Playstation, even if the Dreamcast version is technically superior.
CVS:Pro uses a fighting system similar to the Street Fighter Alpha series while using the character selection system of King Of Fighters. When you start out, you first decide how you want to play by determining the super combo gauge with which you fight. You chose between "Capcom" groove or "SNK" groove. I'll get to the groove details further down.
After you chose your groove, it is time to pick your characters. Like KOF, you choose a team of 1 to 4 characters. Each character is given a set number of ratio points from 1 to 4, and you chose your team accordingly, and can not equal more than 4 ratio points. The lower the point value of your character, the less damage they do and the more damage they take, but you can put more characters with lower ratio points in a team together. Once you chose your team, you then chose in which order they fight. It's a great idea to position your most dominant character last. Now, the fact that each character has a set ratio value is quite dissapointing, because if you chose a 3 point character like M. Bison, you have to chose another character and it has to be a 1 point character to equal 4 points. So you can't have a team of M. Bison and Geese, who is another 3 point character. Or, a team of 2-point Guile and 4-point Akuma. Thankfully, Capcom has added a mode called "Pair-Match" where every character equals 2 points so you can pick any two characters for your team. It sucks that you're limited to two, but at least I can have the Bison/Geese team up I've always wanted! Also, in the Vs. mode, player 1 and 2 can both give any ratio value to any character, so you can have a 1 point character like Sakura and give her all 4 points and play with just her, or you can give Akuma 2 points, and Ryu and Ken each 1 point and have a full-shoto team.
The gameplay is a more quick-pased and visceral experience than any 2D fighter you can play except for Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, or the PSone's other shining star, Street Fighter Alpha 3. Like MVC 2, Capcom decided to take away the Medium Punch and Kick buttons, leaving only the simplified four button layout. It works surprisingly well for this type of game. If you choose "Capcom" groove, you have a three stock meter like SFA. One stock gives you a level one super combo, two stocks up to level two, and three stocks up to level three. If you choose "SNK" groove, then you have a meter similar to KOF that fills up by pressing and holding down Hard Punch and Hard Kick together untill the meter fills up, which gives you access to a level one super combo. What's great about "SNK" groove is when your life is below a certain level, you enter the "desperation mode" where your life bar starts flashing and you have unlimited access to level one super combos without having to charge your meter! But, if you do charge your meter when you're in desperation mode, you have access to a level three super combo. It becomes a very cheap groove to fight against, but it is thankfully balanced by the fact the character is vulnerable to any attack while they charge their meter.
Much like the KOF series, the one-on-one match begins with the characters chosen to start on each team. Whichever character wins goes on to the next round and has a slight, but helpful health increase, much like a standard survival mode, to balance the match out. The players keep fighting untill all of one team's characters are K.O.ed.
Once again, plenty of the usual modes to play. You already know what "Pair-Match" mode is. If you play "Arcade" mode, you obviously fight against CPU characters untill you reach the end. The end boss, though, differs on the type of team you chose. If you chose a prodominately Capcom team, you fight the 3-point ratio valued Geese. If you chose a prodominately SNK team, you fight a 2 point Balrog, who's quite challenging, to say the least, then, you fight a 3-point-less-cheap-than-Geese-because-he-doesn't-have-an-air-fireball-yet-still-cheap-nonetheless-because-he's-freaking-M. Bison! I know it's a boss battle, but geese doesn't have a character added to his team that makes a ratio count of 5! An ending will play saying that the team in first place dissapeared and that the team in third (your team) "graciously" stepped up to take their place, and you see a stupid, generic win-quote with a picture of your character that you've seen a million times by now. Oh, yeah....Dan and Joe are in the game now...they weren't in the original Dreamcast or arcade versions....Joe kicks ass.......Dan is, well...Dan!
Vs. mode is self-explanitory, and options mode has the basic difficulty, damage, match time, game speed, etc. settings.
The graphics are unsurprisingly beautiful. The clever, vibrant, 2D backgrounds mix perfectly with the fighters in front of them. All of SNK's characters are completely redrawn by Capcom, but some of the sprites of Capcom's characters are recycled and look dated, especially compared to the Dreamcast version, but that leaves your mind when the action heats up, and any game that does that is a great game indeed. Even with the limitations of the PSone, the on-screen hit and elemental effects make for quite stunning eye-candy, as do the effects accompanying the backgrounds, and the frame-rate never once dips...never once! Capcom has, once again, outdone theirselves.
If you own a Playstaion, you absolutely must get this game. And, at the $19.99 price point, you just can't go wrong. If you own a PSone and a Dreamcast, and you haven't bought this game on either system, get this game on PSone, you get two extra characters and the graphics don't really differ from DC to PSone. Plus, the Dualshock controller seems like it was made for 2D fighters, and the Dualshock controller is the undesputed champion of fighting game controllers if you aren't using a fighting stick, so that's just another plus over the Dreamcast version. If you own both systems and you have it DC, don't bother, it's the same thing, and you won't miss Dan...Joe, maybe, but not Dan. Either way, this game is arcade perfect and fun for months on end, alone or with a friend. The rhyme was not intended, I swear!