SNK's take on the whole VS. fighter thing; not to be confused with Capcom's (obviously related) Capcom vs. SNK games.
The first game in this series was actually not a fighting game at all; rather, a card game for the NeoGeo Pocket Color. Released in Japan on October 21, 1999, Card Fighters Clash wasn't exactly what fans had been hoping for, but it turned out to be quite addictive nonetheless. It also is noteworthy as the first appearance of then-unknown artist Falcoon in the credits to an SNK game.
Soon thereafter, in December, came Match of the Millennium. The game was rushed for a Christmas release and to some degree showed it, in some (supposedly)1)2) glaring bugs and balance issues. However, these problems were nothing compared to the scope of the package. Beyond the core fighting engine, there were minigames and even an almost dating sim-style element.3) The game could even link up with Capcom's pending Dreamcast rebuttal, the first Capcom vs. SNK. Two years later, SNK released a Japan-only sequel to Card Fighters Clash; soon afterward, SNK went bankrupt.
This was not the end, however. SNK was soon revived in the form of SNK Playmore; before too long, rumor was actualized in a new SNK vs. Capcom for the arcade Neo-Geo system – indeed, one of the final games for the hardware. SNK Playmore had a lot to prove, as time had marched on in the intervening years and Capcom's latest entry, Capcom vs. SNK 2, had become something of a fan favorite. Upon Japanese release, on November 13, 2003, SVC Chaos didn't exactly set the world on fire. Capcom players complained about balance and gameplay systems, while NeoGeo Pocket players complained it just wasn't as fun as Match of the Millennium.
Fortunately, SNK hasn't given up yet. High off a recent streak of success, at the Tokyo Game Show 2005, SNK announced a new edition of Card Fighters Clash for the Nintendo DS. Planned for a 2006 release, Card Fighters DS should make decent use of the system's dual screens and stylus.
One of the more surprising things to come from the SNK and Capcom cross-over was a real-life version of the first Card Fighters game. Released in Japan only, it featured cards with the same artwork used in the game. Some cards were adjusted a bit in an attempt to balance the game. There's no fun in everybody playing with the same deck based on Yashiro and Akuma tactics afterall.