Capcom/SNK 2d fighters RPG -- what system?

[Desdichado]

Just recently I've picked up Street Fighter Alpha 3 and King of Fighters 99 for the PS1, and I'm likely to pick up Dark Stalkers 3 in the next little bit. I'm also excited about picking up, for my xbox when I get it soon, the Capcom vs SNK 2 EO game. I've got a lot of fond nostalgia around these anime-like, "supers" games, even though normally I don't really care for anime.

So I'm curious; if I wanted to develop an RPG setting similar to these types of games, what system would you recommend? I've thought maybe Mutants and Masterminds, although it's perhaps too comic book oriented to fit the genre without significant "cuts" to the system. BESM 2 maybe? I'm not familiar first-hand with the rules, but I've heard little but praise for the system, and it might be perfectly designed to reflect this kind of "martial arts supers" genre where karate fighters throw fireballs and the like. And, of course, there's he old Street Fighter game under the Storyteller system, but it's very difficult to find, and I've not necessarily heard great things about the game itself anyway.

Any suggestions/recommendations?

 

[Viking Bastard]

Exalted.

After all, it's basically the same system as WW's old Street Fighter
game, which to me, seemed to capture the feel of the game pretty
well, even if I never really got into the game, but that's because I
never cared for the setting and we were all into dark 'n gritty at
the time. Hmm, maybe time to dig up that book.

BESM also seems to have been designed for this kinda thing, but
I've never played it, so I can't say whether it does it justice.

EDIT: But anyway, Exalted really captures the essance of the
Power-Fantasy-Animes. If you ditch the setting, a pretty solid
flexible game.

 

[digitaldark]

Not sure about Exalted, as I have never really checked it out at all...but if it is like the White Wolf Streetfighter game then I'd say it would work nicely...I still have all the books they produced for Street Fighter actually...very good game (I'm looking at them now )

also you might wanna check out a game called Thrash. Its a free "fighting game" based rpg that captures the feel rather well.

Thrash - Anime Martial Arts RPG

 

[Darkness]

I would use Hero. Specifically, I think the Ultimate Martial Artist and Ninja Hero sourcebooks would do a wonderful job for this kind of thing.

Or, like you said yourself, BESM would also work very well.

 

[Barastrondo]

A vote for the Street Fighter RPG here, assuming of course that you can find it. There was a pretty solid little engine in place there, and of course it was designed to handle characters with pretty much Capcom/SNK-style chi powers and fighting styles. I was always meaning to work on a Darkstalkers game using the system, but you know how it goes...

Failing that, the Hero System is pretty good for that sort of thing; place a few caps on how much points and where you can spend them, and you can get anywhere from just-starting-out thug to Hadoken-throwing World Warriors. You'd probably have to mess with the lethality assumptions of Exalted to get it to work; the Street Fighter RPG was designed to be a "beat the hell out of, not kill" experience, and Hero is pretty non-lethal, but you take heads off easy in Exalted.

Haven't messed with Mutants and Masterminds, so I couldn't say for sure.

 

[Desdichado]

Hmmm... more props for the SFRPG than I expected. In the past, I've generally seen a pretty mixed reaction to the game. What books are out for that, other than the main one, anyway? I don't need tons of setting, obviously -- just rules.

Ethan, I'm curious what adapting for DarkStalkers you'd have to do. Since the Darkstalkers games played so similarly to SF (especially the earlier incarnations of each, before they got all kinds of isms the grooves and whatnot) I wouldn't think too much more than wacky supernatural backgrounds would be required.

 

[Welverin]

If you're a SF fan you really need a Dreamcast and/or a Saturn, anyway...

Ethan, I'm curious what adapting for DarkStalkers you'd have to do. Since the Darkstalkers games played so similarly to SF (especially the earlier incarnations of each, before they got all kinds of isms the grooves and whatnot) I wouldn't think too much more than wacky supernatural backgrounds would be required.

This is more about the differences between SF and DS then conversion ideas, but hopefully it will help anyway.

DS is more over the top then SF, for you should go with bigger flashier moves, with a bit of horror twist to go with the monster theme. Vampire Savior (DS3) actually had the White Wolf logo on it, though I never figured out why.

SF is the more technical and gritty of the two series, so it should have less emphasis on big flashy moves and more on combining more basic things. e.g. If you were to use Exalted a SF game should focus more on having the characters using stunts and have charms be lesser element (and maybe rule out combos altogether), DS should make a charms and combos and rather than stunts (perhaps by giving everyone a higher starting essence or calculating their essence pools differently to encourage the use of more charms).

 

[Anime Kidd]

As digitaldark said earlier, Thrash is probably best suited to it more than anything else, it being written as a martial art-based game system. Though IMO, it kinda has to much detail for fighting techniques.

The most recent version is available at the Yahoo group and also has a few sourcebooks available for it as well. Like one for Darkstalker-like games, a Street Fighter one, and others.

 

[Desdichado]

If you're a SF fan you really need a Dreamcast and/or a Saturn, anyway...

Yeah, except there's no reason to get a Dreamcast except for the SF games! I wonder, though, with the latest ports of Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Capcom vs SNK 2 to xbox, ps2 and Gamecube, if any of the SF3 titles will be ported?

 

[blackshirt5]

I'll toss in another vote for Thrash, it's an awesome system; to get ALL the stuff for it, I'd suggest this site:
daishinaga.homestead.com

It's got everything, just about, from both versions.