For those who don't remember the Neo Geo Pocket, trust me when I say that it was the one system that looked like it might beat the Gameboy. Needless to say, it failed, and, in typical Nintendo style, its conquered enemy's strongest title is now making its return on their hardware.

Fans of SNK and/or Capcom will have quite a bit to love in this card battle retread. In addition to an expanded character list (including Phoenix Wright characters), cards now also feature trivia and character backgrounds.

Unfortunately, the attempts to balance the actual gameplay have ended up making it completely unbalanced. Decks with low-cost cards can wipe out stronger decks in one turn, especially since whomever attacks first does damage without any worry of being blocked.

First-time players will also find themselves accidentally allowing attacks to go through thanks to a misleading Defend button. It also doesn't help that there is a fatal crash halfway into the game.*

“SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters DS” is solid enough a card game though, and SNK and Capcom fans will be too distracted by collecting their favorite characters to really get distracted by the game's flaws.

*Note: SNK has announced it will replace the game cartridges with the crash bug with fixed versions of the game if consumers send the flawed one in.

Grade: C