Vampire Darkstalkers Collection

By Spencer . September 28, 2005 . 3:01am

Purchase at Play-Asia

 

Purchase at Lik-Sang

 

Capcom has it’s fair share of franchises. Most people in the US think of Resident Evil, Street Fighter and Mega Man. In Japan you have to add another to the list, Vampire Night aka Darkstalkers in America. A spiritual successor to Capcom’s progressive sprite based fighting games ended up being a smash hit in Japanese arcades. Darkstalkers didn’t have that much arcade presence and debuted at a time where local arcades were closing up. Most people had a chance to play the fighter on a buggy home console version.

 

Those gamers were missing out. Home versions on the PS1 had choppy animation and slowdown. In a way Vampire Darkstalkers Collection redeems the home renditions of the Vampire series with arcade perfect translations. All five arcade titles: Vampire Night, Vampire Hunter, Vampire Savior, Vampire Hunter 2 and Vampire Savior 2 are in one package. As an added bonus players can unlock artwork by completing the arcade mode with different fighters.

 

The mythological monsters that the characters are based off of is what gives the game it’s unique appeal. Dimitri is a well dressed vampire, Sasquach is a hulking Bigfoot with ice breath, Ankaris is a huge mummy, cleverly named Victor looks like Frankenstein’s monster and who can forget the Ryu like succubus Morrigan. At a time when most fighting games were hashing out different martial arts styles, Darkstalkers strived to be something different.

 

However, the difference is cosmetic. While the Vampire series is fresh, Capcom couldn’t shake the notion that Darkstalkers was Street Fighter with monsters. The first title Vampire Night shows few differences from Street Fighter Alpha. Each character has a special bar to execute their ultimate move, basic air blocking and a speed dash. The main difference is the frame canceling combo system. Gamers can do up to a six hit combo by starting with a weak punch then pressing short kick and moving up to a roundhouse kick. What was different in Darkstalkers is that you didn’t need to hit all six buttons. You could mix and match how many buttons you press to make a custom combo. All though you still have to make the combo start with light attacks moving up to heavy strikes.

 

Besides the system similarities the characters play a lot like Street Fighter counterparts. Victor borrows Zangeif’s spinning clothesline attack, which lets him move through projectiles. Control-wise Morrigan is a lot like Ryu. Her soul kiss is like a haduken and the shockwave is just like the dragon punch. The merman, has Dhalsim’s Yoga torpedo and a move with equal  range as the Yoga flame. It’s not to say that there aren’t any unique characters. Ankaris is a hulking beast with long range and a lot of power. Felica is also different being more of an evasive character. The first game appeals to Street Fighter fans, but compared to 2D fighters today it doesn’t have classic appeal.

 

From this point on the games are split into two groups. One side is the Vampire Savior games that have something in common with Killer Instinct games. Instead each battle gives each character two life bars. Lose a match and the game shouts "Down!" your life bar is refilled so the fight can continue. At the same time your opponent retains all of the life energy in their meter. This clearly favors the attacker because if you lose one life bar too early you’ll have to beat your opponent with way more life than you. To balance this system out Vampire Savior gives slight life regeneration. After every hit a small part of the meter flashes. This part of the life meter can be refilled, slowly to recover a little bit of life. Vampire Savior also introduces some classic Darkstalkers characters like the deceptively innocent Bulleta (B.B. Hood) and a half human half bee girl.

 

What both Vampire Savior and Hunter games share in common is a system where you can super charge special attacks. Instead of using your super meter to perform a super "EX" attack, it can be used to amplify an existing move. New ES (enhanced super) attacks allow more variation in the game. Timed correctly and you can move into a combo with a ES attack. Since the only sign for doing an ES attack shows up while the attack is going on, it lets gamers pull off surprise attacks. While ES moves are more versatile, EX moves are pure power. A single ES attack does slightly more damage, while an EX attack can take off up to half a life bar. EX attacks typically have slightly more complex controls than an ES attack.

 

Vampire Hunter games stay more true to the Street Fighter formula. Everyone gets to fight for a full two rounds. Gameplay has more of an emphasis on blocking since single hits can cause a headache of damage. To compensate for beginning players Vampire Hunter games offer an auto block option. While frowned upon by expert gamers, auto block allows quick defensive action, without any button presses. The chain combo system from Vampire Night remains and so does the character roster with a few additions.

 

The graphics in the game are intact from the arcade versions, meaning it’s slightly better than any home versions before. Best of all the slowdown problems that plagued other home versions aren’t present in Vampire Darkstalkers Collection. When you switch from game to game you can see that Capcom reused a lot of sprites with each new version. Creative character design is what made the Darkstalkers games so cool in the first place. So even if Capcom reused graphics and they aren’t up to par with other PS2 titles, the game still looks OK. Sound-wise Capcom choose to stick with the original Q-Sound track rather than clean up the music. It was effective one generation ago, but compared to other Playstation 2 titles it doesn’t sound as great.

 

Unfortunately Darkstalkers games don’t hold a timeless appeal. Repackaged titles, with no upgrades shows the age of the fighting system and the games. Capcom could have added a Hyper Street Fighter 2 mode where you can take fighters from any series and battle them against each other. Or at the very least add in online play. Because of this, Darkstalkers Vampire Collection is limited to fans of the series. Fans will surely enjoy playing all five games plus unlocking pictures in the art gallery. If you do pick up this game do yourself a favor and get an arcade joystick. The game doesn’t control that well with the PS2 shoulder buttons being one punch and one kick. A six button joypad, like the Sega Saturn Darkstalkers pad should do fine too.

 

Import Friendly? Literacy Level: 1

The major menus are in English, minus the bonus menu. The move list is also in Japanese, but you can probably figure it out with a FAQ or a little trial an error. It’s defiantly an import friendly title.

 

US Bound?

While Darkstalkers never took off in the US like it did in Japan, it seems unlikely that Capcom will bring this over to the US.

 

+ Pros: Getting five quality 2D arcade fighting titles in one package.

 

- Cons: Five really similar titles, limits this game’s actual appeal.

 

Overall: While the series was impressive when the Saturn was around, the fighting engine has aged considerably. It’s really designed for people who love the series and Capcom’s more traditional 2D fighters.

 

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