million dollar fighting tournament called Mark of the Millennium 2001/Millionaire Fighting 2001, all of the original fighters from both powers clash once again, but with more fighters both legends and newcomers. Epilogues The celebration is uninterrupted, as the camera zooms out of the stadium to a shot of Akuma or Rugal's foot. Akuma or Rugal interrupts the celebration, demanding a match against the winners on top of Osaka Castle. If the player wins, they comment on their strength before challenging their true rival (the other boss), as a large explosion occurs. The fates of everyone are left unknown. The celebration is interrupted by the fight between Akuma and Rugal. Depending on the player's Groove, one of two scenes play. In one, Akuma mortally wounds Rugal, only for the latter to infuse his Orochi force into Akuma, who is driven insane by the power and turns into Shin Akuma. In the other, Rugal kills Akuma and absorbs the Satsui no Hadou from his body (his special intro has him throwing away Akuma's corpse), transforming into God/Ultimate Rugal. The winning team goes on to fight the bosses in the Osaka Ruins. Defeating Shin Akuma has him being swept into the sky by the Orochi force while God/Ultimate Rugal's defeat results in Akuma and Rugal's spirits merge, turning into one being, before walking away. The following news coverage depicts Osaka being rebuilt, the critical reception to the tournament, and the (text-only) fates of the champions. Playable characters Capcom vs. SNK 2 features a total of 48 playable characters, including the entire returning roster of Capcom vs. SNK. The arcade release features 44 playable characters, while an additional four characters are exclusive to the home console ports. New characters to the franchise are listed below in bold. Capcom characters SNK characters Notes Development & Release Design of sprites Because Capcom vs. SNK 2 features a roster composed of characters from numerous games and hardware eras, the appearances of several of Capcom's characters have been considered substandard in comparison to the newly drawn SNK characters. Instead of choosing to redraw its characters, Capcom took the approach of reusing old character sprites from previous games and inserting them in among the other characters. The result created a significant disparity, particularly in the case of characters like Morrigan Aensland, whose sprite from the Darkstalkers games appears retro and lacking in detail when compared to Capcom's newly drawn