I played it for a couple of days when it first came out, but the only thing that was keeping me going through the game was to see as many of my favourite Capcom and Namco characters. It got to a stage where i didnt know who some of them were, but looked up on info on the game and found out who they were. So in that way it was fun.
Also stringing togeather all the moves iirc using the D pad directions X and triangle buttons. Ill dig the game out again, and see exactly how the battle system worked, but it was somthing like you had a number of attacks, and if you managed to do certain amount of damage, that attack number would rise and you could continue the combo and and tag between your team mates.
The battle grid thing was quite confusing, but i figured out the basics of how to move towards enemies on the screen within about 10 minutes. As far as story and lvling up goes, the absolute killer amount of Japanese text ruled out me ever trying to see if there was such a way to lvl up your character. Although from my 5 hours of playing it, i dont think i ever got to return to a character which I had used previosley, so all that info must of been somthing else.
Watching the animation just left me wanting that Capcom\Namco actually take all those characters, add in some extra animation sets and do a Super Puzzle Fighter into Gem Fighter remix on the game. ^__^ Had some great Cameos in it too, including Lt Lin Kurosawa from Alien vs Predator, and Makoto who would appear during one of the characters costume change supers.
Pure fan service ^_^
Great art work, music and sound effects though. Its great listening to some of the reworked themes while your character is out dishing damage on a classic stage. Some of the team up moves and special effects are really beutiful and over the top.
WOOO, how cool is that?
Here some sprite rips i found, although there was a site that had actual animated sprites of some of the characters, sadly dont think they did one of Haggar.

But they are out there but I cant find the link to the animated ones.
http://www.slateman.net/images/gaming/nxc/
Great for avatar use ofcourse...but dont think i can use one yet here.
I also heard that Capcom\Namco couldnt realease this game in the west due to conflicting publisher right for certain games and characters in NxC. IIRC...think it was the Breath of Fire characters...could be wrong though. Also, the amount of speech in this game is quite considerable. Espcially when you are on the map, the majority of all conversations have got full speech. If it does come out, all this will prolly be lost, OR they will butcher some of the characters voices. >_<;
It also has a brilliant fully animated intro though, i had captured the intro, but i no longer have it on my pc.

Heres some videos from the main site and gametrailers that i still have bookmarked after all this time. :lol: After a quick look though, cant find the original trailer that was doing the rounds, that had everything in it that made me want this game BADLY.
http://namco-ch.net/namco_x_capcom/movie/index.php
Only really a purchase if you are a MASSIVE fan of Namco and Capcom and it still quite expensive on Playasia. :s