‘SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos’ Re-Release Censors Cover Art, Adds Disclaimer Apologizing For Outdated Content
In the latest case of ‘unnecessarily deferring to modern audience sensitivities’, the re-release of SNK Vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos has not only been found to feature a censored cover art, but also a disclaimer apologizing for its early-2000s era content.
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Originally released in 2003, serving as the third (and thus far final) Capcom-produced meeting between the two respective video game studios, SNK Vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos sees 36 total characters from across their respective franchises – including The King of Fighters, Samurai Showdown, Street Fighter, and even Mega Man Zero – come together to settle the score in a series of 1-on-1 brawls with the fate of their universes hanging in the balance.
In a move that no one saw coming, during the 2024 EVO world fighting game championships, Capcom and SNK surprised announced that the fan-favorite fighter would be receiving a re-release for the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Steam platforms – First on PC on July 20th, then consoles on July 22nd.
Upon its official announcement, Capcom and SNK released the game’s first full trailer, therein revealing not only the game’s various quality-of-life improvements, such as rollback netcode and its entire selection of characters being unlocked on boot-up, but also its official key art, as illustrated by long-time SNK artist Eisuke Ogura.
Also featured as the re-release’s digital cover, the piece depicts members of the game’s roster, as divided by company lines, staring down and preparing to fight against their counterpart – save SNK’s Mai Shiranu and Capcom’s Chun-Li, who have instead chosen to exchange a hi-five rather than a fiery glare.
An admittedly beautiful piece, unfortunately, players soon discovered that the artwork as it appears in both the trailer and on the game’s digital storefront was intentionally censored.
In the original version, both the aforementioned Mai and the purple-haired lead of the Athena series are shown with their cleavage prominently on display.
However, in the version used to promote the game in the west, Mai’s chest is covered up by her gi while Athena’s is hidden by both a black border and an added ‘shine’ coming off of her sword.
Further, in providing an additional mea culpa regarding its character, the re-release of SNK Vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos also includes a disclaimer apologizing for the fact that the game’s content was presented in its original form, and thus had not received any type of ‘sensitivity updates’.
“This product aims to faithfully recreate the content of the original game at the time of release in 2003 as much as possible,” reads the warning. “Therefore, the content of this game does not represent the ideals of our company, but is provided as is, respecting the original intent of the game, and is not intended to promote or attack any particular ideology or group.”
Unsurprisingly, upon being met with this disclaimer, a number of players took to the game’s Steam page to press the port’s developer, Code Mystics, as to the reason behind both the application of censorship to the key art and the inclusion of said warning.
Regarding the artwork, the developer clarified,” To reiterate, the ROM, in-game art, and function have not been altered from the 2003 release. The opening disclaimer provided for us to include likewise states that it ‘faithfully recreate[s] the content of the original game at the time of release in 2003″ and “is provided as i2s, respecting the original intent of the game.’ This applies to all regions. There is no distinct Japanese version of the game. Steam Store artwork may or may not vary per region, but we aren’t privy to that.”
Addressing the disclaimer in a separate post, Code Mystics added, “To be clear the disclaimer is not our creation, but we believe it is meant to allow for the possibility that, as an emulation, there is the possibility of a defect/bug. However, our emulation tech is quite robust, so we hope errors in reproduction to be rare and obscure, and if any are found we would fix them. At any rate it does not imply any deliberate deviation from the 2003 release.”
“There are only so many ways we can say this,” they then definitively asserted. “We did not alter anything.”
Given Code Mystics’ insight, it currently appears that the censorship and disclaimer seen in SNK Vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos was mandated by either SNK or Capcom.
However, as of writing, it’s unclear which company or specific employee gave the actual orders to modify the game.
As noted above, the re-release of SNK Vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos is now available on the PC, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch platforms.
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