Now that I think about it I don't recall seeing English texts for that game ever. Not on my Dreamcast, not on Arcades and neither on any other console because I didn't have them at that time. Only Japanese texts.
And given more though about it, I could have sworn the first Capcom Vs. SNK had an EXP counter below the character selection screen. I also recall a SFIII machine with Ryu stage having a group of school girls as fanbase in the background.
Either my memories are betraying me or there are still obscure versions yet to be found.