Groove System
Making its first appearance is the groove system, in a much more basic form. There are two grooves to choose from, the Capcom groove (Based on SFA3's A-ISM) and the SNK groove (Based on KOF '94). The only difference between the two grooves is the meter and how it's used. The Capcom groove grants you 3 stocks of meter, allowing for 3 levels of super. You build meter by attacking and performing special moves. Your meter will also fill up (though at a slower rate) when you take damage. You get a slight damage boost when you fill up a stock of meter, with the boost increasing every stock of meter you fill. The SNK groove has a little bit more going on. In the SNK groove, you need to manually build your meter (Though you do still gain meter when taking damage) by pressing HP and HK simultaneously. Once you have built max meter, it will slowly deplete over time, and you will have access to 1 level one super and a damage boost (this damage boost is equivalent to a full Capcom groove damage boost). However, once your health is at critical level, and your lifebar is flashing, you will have unlimited access to level 1 supers without meter and another damage boost which stacks with the Max Mode boost. While in this critical state, if you have a fully charged meter, you will have access to level 3 supers.
Ratio System
Capcom vs. SNK would be the first game to introduce a Ratio system. Though similar to CvS2's, the ratio system here is more restrictive, as characters have an assigned ratio from 1 to 4, which cannot be changed (Outside of the home release's versus mode). Like CvS2, your team composition must fill up 4 ratio slots; no more, no less.
| RATIO 1 | RATIO 2 | RATIO 3 | RATIO 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benimaru | Balrog (Boxer) | Geese | Akuma |
| Blanka | Chun-Li | M. Bison (Dictator) | Evil Ryu |
| Cammy | E. Honda | Rugal | Orochi Iori |
| Dan | Guile | Sagat | |
| Dhalsim | Iori | Vega (Claw) | |
| Joe | Ken | Yamazaki | |
| King | Kim | ||
| Sakura | Kyo | ||
| Vice | Mai | ||
| Yuri | Morrigan | ||
| Nakoruru | |||
| Raiden | |||
| Ryo | |||
| Ryu | |||
| Terry | |||
| Zangief |
EX Characters
The majority of characters in Capcom vs. SNK 1 have alternate versions; called "EX versions". EX versions of characters have different moves than their regular counterparts (often-times Special Moves and Supers, but sometimes even Normal Attacks and Command Normals).
To select EX characters, hold the START button when selecting your characters, and you should see the NORMAL turn into EX. This means that if you select them, you'll select the EX version of your character. Releasing START will let you select their NORMAL variants. Not all characters have an EX version (for the purposes of this wiki, this includes Ryu and Iori's evil counterparts). Keep in mind that, with the exception of the Dreamcast version of Capcom vs. SNK Pro, you will need to unlock EX Characters for use beforehand.