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The first game in Capcom's horror fighter is still impressive 

A couple weeks ago Capcom released the Capcom Fighting Collection. I picked it up because I’ve always been intrigued by the Darkstalkers games. Released in 1994 for arcades, Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors is (I believe) the first non-Street Fighter fighting game made by Capcom. It was eventually ported to the Playstation in 1996. What’s unique about the game is that it features horror monsters as the main characters (definitely a great idea). 

The game’s story is that the alien Pyron invades Earth and wants to add it to his collection of planets that he has destroyed (a strange hobby for sure). Forget the Army, the only ones tough enough to stop him are the world’s greatest monsters. I’m not sure why these monsters are fighting each other, but it is a fighting game, so you have to defeat all the monsters before facing Pyron himself. The game doesn’t give you this story at all, although there is a brief opening where you get to see all the fighters with the focus being on Morrigan and Demitri. 

The game has ten playable characters. Demitri Maximoff is a strong vampire lord (he’s a well-balanced fighter). Jon Talbain is a werewolf (fast fighter). Victor von Gerdenheim is a mix of Frankenstein and the Hulk. Lord Raptor is an Australian punk rocker ghoul. Morrigan Aensland is a succubus from Scotland, and has been a fan favorite throughout the series (for obvious reasons). Anakaris is a huge mummy that has some of the most ridiculous attacks in the game. Felicia is a catgirl (which is a Japanese thing) and is the most un-monster of all the monsters. Bishamon is a demon samurai (he resembles Sodom from the Final Fight series). Rikuo is a merman (also not scary). Finally, there’s Sasquatch, who is the most adorable abominable snowman you’ve ever seen. Overall, this is a really solid cast of fighters. 

As for the gameplay, it’s very similar to SFII right down to certain moves. Just about everyone has a projectile that they can shoot out. Morrigan plays very similarly to Cammy. Demitri is probably the most well-balanced of all the fighters as he has a good mix of close combat moves and long-range attacks. Victor, Anakaris, and Sasquatch are the huge slow characters, but they offer some very powerful attacks. If you want a fast fighter, then you will want to stick with Morrigan, Jon Talbain, or Lord Raptor. As you play, be aware of the common tropes: don’t get trapped in corners, and know the moves that your opponent will use on you and be ready for a counter-offensive. 

The game has three unique features: first, you can air block, although the only way to do this is if you are jumping backwards. I found this to be very difficult to pull off. Second, there is crouch walking. Unfortunately, I never learned how to do this, but apparently it’s in the game! Finally, there are chain combos, which simply means that you get more points when you land successive hits on your opponent. You also have a special meter at the bottom of the screen that fills up as you attack. Once it is full, you can unleash it by pressing the L button. However, if your opponent manages to hit you just as you’re trying to do it, it will negate the attack and your meter will become empty (this happened to me a lot). 

The single player mode is a grind. Your opponents can be really tough, but this makes sense because this was an arcade game (those machines want your money). No doubt the Playstation version of the game balanced the difficulty a bit. When fighting the CPU, they will often “play it safe” at first, and when you get their lifebar down to less than half, they will become very aggressive. You won’t be able to get through arcade mode by just mashing buttons—you’ll actually have to use some strategy by learning your character’s moves and also learning your opponent’s (this is fighting game 101 stuff, I know). 

After defeating all nine monsters, you will then face Huitzil, a boss character that is a robot. But actually, he wasn’t any harder than the other fighters. After beating him, you will face the final boss, Pyron. Now this IS a tough fight, mostly because Pyron seems to anticipate your moves. He also has a lot of long-range attacks and can teleport. Defeating Pyron is very satisfying, although you’ll realize that you’ve spent way too much time just beating arcade mode once. 

The graphics, of course, are really beautiful. This is superb spritework, and it must have been truly impressive back in 1994. The stages are excellent with plenty of moving things in the background. The animations of the fighters are very fluid too. Some attacks will cause blood to squirt out, and some of the moves are truly awesome. For instance, I was in awe when Bishamon performed his special and literally cut Morrigan in half! The music is also really good, and I found that I enjoyed the most Morrigan’s theme, Lord Raptor’s theme, and Pyron’s theme. I’ll put those down below so you can listen to them. 

Final Verdict—4 Stars: Recommended 

Darkstalkers is a great fighting game. The horror motif is really cool, and the monster designs are excellent. As per usual, this game is at its best when playing multiplayer. The single player mode is really tough, but if you want to play with friends, you can’t go wrong. I think there’s a good variety of different characters and movesets. I also recommend the Capcom Fighting Collection, which also has the sequels for this game. The series added some pretty weird monsters (a bee woman???) but you can’t go wrong with Capcom’s winning formula.