To get us started, I'm a huge fan of Street Fighter II and Street Fighter III. I absolutely love them. So, I was browsing Gamestop's used section today and saw this beauty. I wasn't expecting much, but boy, did it blow my mind. Here's my review of Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower.
Graphics
Darkstalkers is a 2-D fighting game by Capcom. As such, you will not see any flashy CG effects. Rather, it looks like a painted canvas. Very crisp, very orginal, very anime-like. It's beautiful. The backgrounds are mostly generic, but the character art is outstanding. Capcom really brought a group of diverse characters to live. The animation is fluid and never skips a frame, either, even during the chaotic super moves. Also, there is a tad of bouncing breasts physics, as well. At least Felicia does, anyway.
Pros: Excellent character animation and art. Fluid movement and extremely fast framerate. Cons: Generic backgrounds.
Audio
Capcom's fighting series are known for their impressive musical scores and sound effects. Darkstalkers is no different. The music is mostly Castlevania type music with a bit of modern pop and mild rock thrown in. Quite a unique combo. The sound effects, especially the character voices, are very well done. Note, the females have extremely high pitched voices.
Pros: Excellent musical score, impressive audio effects. Cons: Female's voices are far too high-pitched.
Gameplay
Here is where Darkstalkers: Chaos Tower really shines. There are several different game modes for you to thrust your fighting rage into. Arcade: We all know it, and we all love it. Beating up character's repeatedly never get's old. Network: Use Ad-Hoc to battle your friends! Haven't tried it, though. Chaos Tower: The newest and best addition to the game is the Chaos Tower. Here, you will unlock most of the art collection and such. Basically, you pick 3 characters and advance throught "stages" that often have set requirements that you must obey. Very difficult at points, but very engrossing and fun. Chronicle: View movies, listen to audio, and look at your unlocked illustrations here. Training: Practice makes perfect, no?
The enemy AI is actually somewhat beatable (unlike the inhuman AI in Street Fighter II) although they aren't slouches. They will eat you alive if you mash buttons.
Pros: Wide assortment of game modes to keep you busy. AI isn't cheap (for the most part). Cons: Nothing really new. Just Street Fighter II on crack, and I do mean that literally.
Controls
Here is where the game suffers a bit. First off, I'd switch from normal mode to easy mode. Normal mode controls (the arcade controls) require all 6 buttons on the PSP, and the combos are annoyingly difficult to pull off for the simple reason that the d-pad on the PSP isn't made for "fire-ball" moves. In normal mode, just about all of the character's moves require sliding of the d-pad. It's almost impossible to get it to work right.
Easy mode fixes most of the problems. It takes away M-K and M-P from the lists. You simply have H-K, H-P, L-K, and L-P, meaning you only use the face buttons. Also, many of the sliding moves have been changed to simply pressing right or left on the pad and a button, making it much easier to pull off moves. Trust me, do yourself a favor and switch to Easy mode.
Pros: Easy to learn combos. Cons: Normal controls are annoying. Fire-ball type moves are almost impossible to pull off in this mode, and slide moves (sliding your thumb over two directional points quickly, like Sagat's Tiger Uppercut in Street Fighter II) are also basically impossible. Switching to Easy mode helps greatly.
Load Times
Load times aren't long. They're just short enough to make you not get aggravated, and the load times allow you to stretch your fingers quickly.
Overall
This is a great 2-D fighting title. There are better 2-D fighters (Street Fighter III and King of Fighters 2003) but this one definately comes close. Excellent game, totally recommend it even for casual fighting game fans.
Eh. It's the first game I bought, but it's a typical fighter. Doing the same stuff
over and over and over until you unlock everything, then wish you had somebody
to play with.
=P
'Cause let's all admit it. Fighters are only really fun when...
A) You're kicking someone elses' butt.
B) You're getting your butt handed to you by someone else.
No?
Multiplayer would be great, but everytime I link up, no one
seems to be playing soooo blah.
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