This is not the greatest game in the world…..but it will get a tribute!

If you know me personally, you know that I’m a fan of fighting games.  I’ve been a fan since 1988 when I saw Street Fighter in arcades.  However, it was when I saw Street Fighter II: The World Warrior on my SNES that I became a hardcore fan.  Sure, it wasn’t my copy (it was my older brother’s), but I enjoyed every bit of it.  I loved the combos, the characters, the artwork, the story (yes there is a story to it, so stop saying there isn’t, you spiteful fighting game miscreants who aren’t as pronounced as fans as I), the music, the design, and the like.  It was around the same time or so that I saw it in arcades and was more than taken aback by its sheer magnitude.  In fact, when I did, I saw the Championship Edition of the game as well.  My mind was blown.  I mean, before this, there were platform games and “beat ‘em ups” (I literally graduated from Mario Bros. and Ninja Gaiden to Final Fight and Double Dragon in about 3 years), but now I could add fighting games into the mix. 

Now, when it comes to fighting games, I have a wide palette of game series I enjoy.  Street Fighter II and Street Fighter were the gateways to other great franchises.  There was the brutally realistic Mortal Kombat, the ambitiously interesting Fatal Fury, the artistically violent Samurai Shodown, the laughable yet innovative World Heroes, the unique and impressive King of Fighters, and more.  But, this isn’t about any of those.  This is about a series, that I feel hasn’t truly gotten the love it deserves amidst its peers.  Sure, it’s well-known and memorable to an effect.  But, when it comes to franchises, it does get a bit lost in the shuffle.  In fact, it was the first to fully utilize the innovative capabilities of a graphics engine put in place by Street Fighter II and its many sequels/rehashes.  And to top it off, it had an eclectic cast of characters that made Monster Squad look like a Sunday School outing.  By now, I think you know what I’m talking about.  If not, venture with me, if you dare.

The game franchise I’m talking about is Darkstalkers (or Vampire in Japan).  This ambitious little series, to me, is one of the most underrated series in Capcom’s entire library of fighting games.  It is right on the cusp of franchises that ruled the fighting game roost for Capcom and franchises that were gone, but forgotten or notten…I mean, not.  The first game of the series, “Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors”, debuted in early 1994 in arcades.  I witnessed one pretty impressive game that looked worlds different than that of Street Fighter II and its incarnations at the time.  It played differently as well, with special moves that could be powered up to a super level, obscure super moves that combined complicated controls with stunning visuals, air blocking, guard canceling, and even the dreaded “chain combos” which lived on in every sequel and iteration of the game.  Speaking of visuals, this would be the first game that would start the more animated look that the CPS II game engine was known for in the mid 1990’s.  Ironically, it was not the first fighting game to use this engine, as Super Street Fighter II had that distinction, along with Q Sound, a digital sound setup that gave the game the ability to use real instruments for music instead of synthesized music.  The differences, albeit very great, did not diminish one game from the other and made for an amazing gaming experience.  After this game, more games utilized this animated feel, giving it a more “anime” style or look. The game also used 10 characters, instead of the standard 8.  Instead of four bosses, we had 2.  So, you had 12 characters, but more to choose from.  And speaking of characters, these creatures were a cornucopia of classical monsters, spooks, and such.  You had the vampire (Demitri Maximoff), the werewolf (John “Gallon” Talbain), the “Frankenstein” monster (Victor Von Gerdenheim), the ghoul/zombie (Lord Raptor, or Zabel Zarock to others), the succubus (Morrigan Aensland), the mummy (Anakaris), the catwoman (Felicia), the samurai demon (Bishamon), the merman (Rikuo, or Aulbath), the bigfoot/yeti (Sasquatch), a robot (Huitzil, code name “Phobos”), and an alien (Pyron).  How diverse a cast could this be, right?  And, they came from different countries, just like in Street Fighter.  The game could not have been any more innovative, if not unique. And yes, the music was just as catchy as the next Capcom game, completely creating an atmosphere each character symbolized wonderfully. I was in love and wondered if there was more.  The game had managed a decent to growing fanbase, as SF fans flocked to the new series, knowing that Capcom could do no wrong at the time.  This game was evidence of that.   And then, we got the sequel…

In about a year’s time, a sequel was made called Night Warriors: Darkstalker’s Revenge.  This game added more to the first, giving us 14 characters.  You had the original 10, the two bosses, and now a ghost (Hsien-Ko, or Lei Lei to her family) and a Dark Hunter (Donovan Baine).  It was obvious or had become crystal clear that Donovan was the focus of this game, for he was the only human, or such, to be added to the game.  And, like most humans, he looked to hunt these creatures down.  Why the term, “Dark Hunter”?  Let’s just say, he was as dark as these creatures was, with a dark secret surrounding his past.  Nonetheless, the game added a few nuances here and there, including more colors per outfit, more artwork, and different songs for each stage, and a more pronounced story.  In fact, this game was practically a reboot of the first, but it wasn’t.  See, even though the endings were veritably the same, there was a continuation to their stories upon finding the endings, setting up what would happen in the next game.  The game added a few more tweaks to the gameplay, if not for balance purposes, then for the purpose of freshening up the characters and differentiating it from the previous game.  This game brought in more fans to a great effect, as it has been seen in tournament battle on a competitive level even to this day.  In fact, it is still being played in Japan to this day.  Can this get any better? 

The third and final original game in the series was Vampire Savior (or Darkstalkers 3): The Lord of Vampire, in about 2-3 years after the first game’s release.  This game would be the most pronounced in the series’ innovation and differences.  For starters, it had a grand total of 15 characters, which were the original 10, Hsien-Ko, and 4 new characters which included a Dark Bounty Hunter (B.B. Hood), a mutant Bee (Q-Bee), another succubus (Lilith Aensland), and a vampire overlord (Jedah Dohma).  For the first time in my life, I came across a fighting game series that didn’t have the entire cast from the previous game or games returning to a sequel.  Ok, so that’s not entirely true (Mortal Kombat II and MK3 were the first or so), but this was the first Capcom game that fell into this category.  It wouldn’t be the last, but that’s another story.  Another sweeping change was the match system.  Instead of rounds of combat, you had a survival motif where each player had bats symbolizing a full life bar.  Once the life bar was drained, a bat would fly away.  Once you were out of bats, the match was over.  As for the winner, he or she recharged their health steadily during the match, albeit slowly, but not fully.  But, once they sent a bat flying, the opponent got a full recharge in health while they had the remaining health from that first encounter.  The super meters could stock up to 99 stocks of super power, which could be stored over time in combat.  Guard cancels could be super charged or regularly charged due to the character.  Also, there was an extra mode called “Dark Force” mode, where, once activated, the character had an extra nuance added to their repertoire, be it super armor, extra power, flight, or whatever.  The background would change, and there was a timer on how long this would last.  Air blocking remained, along with the ability to “Tech hit” while blocking.  Since this didn’t penalize you with removing super meter or such, techs were done frequently, frenetically, and strategically.  It kept the match flowing quickly and frantically, and if you couldn’t keep up, you’d lose.  And, let’s not forget chain combos.  In this game, it was open season with this game as it was probably the only game to utilize chain combos actively as a means of combat, without having to re-balance the game in any way.  In short, chain combos were allowed here with no problems.  Throw in some secret characters, extras, new music, and such, and you had one solid finale.  To date, there are tournaments and league battles in Vampire Savior in Japan. But, Darkstalkers wouldn’t meet its untimely end on consoles until 2005.

Between 1996 and 1999, Darkstalkers made its way to consoles, with the first game released on the Sony PlayStation exclusively in Japan and America and the second game released on the Sega Saturn exclusively, in Japan and America.  The third installment was released only on the PS and Saturn in Japan and America.  Afterwards, Japan would be the only place you’d find Darkstalkers games as a bevy of revamps and collection games were released in Japan.  There was Vampire Hunter 2 (Night Warriors 2) and Vampire Savior 2, which were both upgraded versions of Vampire Savior with tweaks and changes to the systems, along with differences in the roster.  Hunter 2 had everyone from Night Warriors, while Savior 2 had everyone from Vampire Savior, except Rikuo, Sasquatch, and John Talbain.  In their place were Huitzil, Pyron, and Donovan.  This was most likely done to appease the fans who wanted those three in the third game.  Both games were PS2 exclusives. There was also Vampire Chronicle for Matching Service for the Sega Dreamcast.  This game had the entire cast of the Darkstalkers series all in one game using the Vampire Savior engine, and the game also allowed for tournament battle, hence the matching service.  This game was released in Japan and America on the Sony PSP and was called Darkstalkers (or Vampire Chronicle): The Chaos Tower.  The addition was a straight-up survival mode of sorts where you fought every character in the game, rising through the Chaos Tower until the very end.  The final console game was a collection game, released exclusively for the PS2 in 2005 only in Japan.  Every game of the series, except for Chaos Tower, was released in this game, a la Street Fighter Alpha Anthology.  This also marked the debut of the latest and newest character, Dee, who looked very, VERY, familiar to Darkstalker fans.  In fact, his ending gives away his identity.  Other than that, the first Darkstalkers game has been or will be released for the PSN in 2012.  The reason: a bit of a teaser to fans from Yoshinori Onoo of Capcom to remind fans that Darkstalkers will make its return to consoles and arcades, in the coming months.  However, with Capcom’s history of spurning fans, one has to wonder

It looked like Darkstalkers had quite a game library, and an astute fanbase.  So, you’re probably wondering why I say this game hasn’t truly received the love it deserves.  Well, for starters, if you look at the game library, only 4 games were released on consoles in America.  The timeframe of these releases were also spread out unevenly.  The first 3 games were released between 1996 and 1999, while Chaos Tower was released in 2004 at the start of the PSP’s lifespan.  The remaining games would be released on the PS2 and/or DC only in Japan.  I would mention Darkstalkers for the PSN, but that is a downloadable, and not quite a full console release.  Not to mention, it isn’t a new title or a collection/anthology game.  So, why is there a lack of love for this game?  I have come up with two possibilities.

Firstly, the game was obscure.  In fact, it was too obscure.  Obscure and complex, really.  Now, I know it’s good to be original and diverse, but when you have a game from the world of Capcom, the first thing you are thinking is how well it plays, compared to Street Fighter games.  If it’s comparable, then you have a great and solid title.  However, if the path is too divergent, you may lose the fans.  Yes, there are your standard fighting game motions and such, but when you have button combinations like the “Raging Demon” combination, only very different, it may raise an eyebrow or two.   Also, here’s an example of a Ryu or Ken character not quite being Ryu or Ken.  Demitri has the standard fireball/dragon punch/hurricane kick motions, to say the least.  However, they don’t behave as such or share the same priorities, leaving fans wondering how useful the moves can be.  His “Dragon punch” isn’t a rising fist, but him rising and spinning into the air to knock you down.  Now, you can dash into this move for a more forward-moving attack, but it’s not as capable as an actual dragon punch to knock someone out of the air, let alone combo into it.  If it is, you rarely see it in America.  His “hurricane kick” is where he disappears, and re-appears above you, drilling into you with his feet.  Not quite something you expect from a hurricane kick.  It leaves you wide open for counterattacks, to say the least.  Morrigan seems more like a Ryu/Ken character than Demitri, even with the priorities in place, hence why she is probably selected more often.  However, she’s not quite Ryu or Ken either, just easier to use.  Also, in the first two games, when a projectile was thrown, it could be countered by another projectile.  However, instead of an instant nullification, you got two projectiles struggling against each other to see which lasts longer, forcing you to be ready to block anything.   The winning projectile was determined by a variety of things, from timing to strength.  It wasn’t until Vampire Savior where this was remedied to an effect.  One such remedy was the re-tooling of a slew of projectiles, leaving some people hampered, if not empowered.  Lastly, there are chain combos.  These are or can be the banes of the existence of many fighting game fans.  Since they aren’t really regulated in this game, matches usually come down to who can out-chain the other.  This gives a decided advantage to those who can handle this.  And, to add to this, the moves themselves are very unique to each character adding to the depth of each character.  However, you’ll be happy to know that this helps to keep the game balanced in its entire imbalance.  When I see matches, I do see more of one or two than others, but I do get to see more than 50% of the characters being used.   Regardless, it’s hard to enjoy a game when it feels very awkward to you.

Secondly, and I think this is the most significant of possibilities, is the timing of its release.  When Darkstalkers was released, it was amidst the war between Capcom and Midway.  Capcom still had a strong following with Street Fighter II as it released Super Street Fighter II for home consoles and arcade consoles and the turbo version of said game would follow.  Midway had just released Mortal Kombat in arcades with a home version coming in late 1994, with Mortal Kombat II in arcades later.  Then, you had SNK releasing such inspired arcade games including Samurai Shodown and the first of its most popular series, The King of Fighters 1994.  Lastly, Capcom, in an attempt to broaden its gaming horizons, released X-men: Children of the Atom for arcades months after Darkstalkers.  Not only did this game have a more frenetic and playable style (ex. Super combos were one motion with all 3 punches or kicks, as opposed to just powered up special moves like in Darkstalkers), but it played up the popularity of X-men: The Animated Series, which was on television and receiving great reviews and fans.  It also helped that these games had a less obscure approach to their game style.  This type of competition would hamper Darkstalkers greatly, as I remember this game not lasting long in my local arcade with the debut of X-men: COTA.  In fact, I recall not even seeing Night Warriors: Darkstalkers’ revenge in my local arcade when it came out.  That had to deal with MK2, MK3, SSF2T, Marvel Super Heroes (the spiritual sequel to the X-men game), KOF 1995, Samurai Shodown 2, the debut of Street Fighter Alpha (which some would say is how Darkstalkers should have been made), and the rise of 3-D and 2.5D gaming, with Tekken, Virtua Fighter, Soul Calibur, Street Fighter EX and even Killer Instinct making waves.  By the time Vampire Savior made its way to my arcade, it had to deal with the stiffest of competition in the forms of Samurai Shodown 3, and Capcom’s biggest guns Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3, and its two newest franchises in Street Fighter 3 and the Marvel/Capcom versus games (specifically X-men Vs. Street Fighter and Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter).  It remained as long as it did, but once SFA3 came through, that would be the end of Vampire Savior.  It’s one thing to worry about other companies, but when you have to worry about your own company cranking out great titles; it’s almost curtains for you.

Darkstalkers, in my view, is vastly underrated to me, but it did have its share of increased longevity in America.  It was in the various versus games and collection games where Darkstalkers found renewed, if not continued life.  Demitri, Morrigan, Hsien-Ko, Felicia, Anakaris, and B.B. Hood, along with Pyron and I believe Donovan and Jedah may have been the only Darkstalkers to find life outside of Darkstalkers to some effect.  Although their styles and abilities lend themselves well to the games they were in, it wasn’t the same as playing a Darkstalkers game, to say the least.  Lately, fans have clamored for a return of Darkstalkers, as many games have been released with some or most of the above mentioned characters in action.  While we have seen various teasers, we have reason to believe that Darkstalkers will return as a franchise.  We can only hope the justice is done well to it, knowing Capcom’s need to anger or spurn fans with their actions (the whole MVC3 DLC situation and the “return of Mega Man” to fighting games are more than enough reason for me to not have faith).  Until then, if you’ve own any of the titles I named, take a step back, plug in your controller, and embrace the awesomeness of a series that was great enough to merit sequels, guest appearances from characters in other games, and a very unique and obscure fighting game from the company that has blessed us with the greats.  Shed some light on the Darkstalkers games in your library.  Monsters need love, too.