Game review: Darkstalkers Resurrection

Here, Here! Vampires, demons, mythical monsters and supernatural beings gather round!
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Darkstalkers

We are here to witness the resurrection of two 2D fighting game classics, brought forth to our PlayStation 3 systems via PlayStation Network.

With this, I of course mean Darkstalkers Resurrection brought to us by developers Iron Galaxy Studios and publishers Capcom, which combines arcade classics Darkstalkers 3 and Night Warriors: Darkstalkers Revenge.

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These are straight ports of both games with minor improvements, and both games feel just as good to play as they did the first time round and the graphics have stayed put. With a wide assortment of characters to choose from each with their own set of moves and super moves, Darkstalkers Resurrection, whilst being criticized in the past for being a Street Fighter clone, remains a force to be reckoned with and brings a sense of maturity to 2D fighting games.

Both Darkstalkers games feature different plots in arcade mode, Darkstalkers 3 sees Jedah who is one of the high nobles of Makai resurrected after a premature death. Seeing the plight the current demon world has encumbered, Jedah decides to recreate it by creating a dimension called Majigen to which he calls upon worthy souls to feed the world he wishes to recreate, so a fair few try to fight to destroy Jedah and his plans.

In Night Warriors, overlord Pyron has devoured many planets and plans to add Earth to his collection but a small collection of Earths most feared, are ironically the only ones who can save it. Both stories feel like backdrops for the core gameplay giving the player some degree of reason to fight, there’s no cut scenes midway or intro sequences, just an ending clip after fighting the last boss. With Resurrection being straight ports, nothing has been included to add said cut scenes which were quite a disappointment.

Luckily though, the gameplay saves the day as it utilises the same game engine as the magnificent Street Fighter 3 series. Both games play exactly the same, 3 punch buttons (light, medium and heavy) and 3 kick buttons which can be combined with certain directional sequences to unleash special moves unique to whoever is chosen.

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Continuation of attacks towards your opponent fills a special gauge that climbs up to 3 levels, this is for your characters ex super combos which are screen filling moves and are the most powerful moves in each characters arsenal.

The gameplay feels nice and tight, buttons are super responsive and special moves are simple to pull off and beginners can pause the game to view each characters move list. We have a wide array of characters to choose from here with a mixture of demons, zombies, Dracula wannabes and huge monsters which makes it accessible to all gamers.

Newly added online play is laggy however, which ruins the whole experience online, and it made me not want to go back to it, but it’s the Arcade mode in both games that shines above it all and for newcomers or gamers who want to sharpen their skills, there’s a training mode.

Both Darkstalkers games look no different to the way they did the first time they were released. The game itself is centralised on the TV with a border on the sides with achievements scrolling constantly, fulfilling these, gives the player more points. Each character looks cool and each has unique animations which give them personalities and their winning animations are entertaining to watch.

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My favourite character is Lord Raptor who is a living dead rock star, who just looks and moves superbly with his winning animation being him playing a guitar in a heavy metal fashion, love it. With Night Warriors being the latest release of the two, it looks better with its sharper crisper graphics and with the inclusion of new characters and each of the backgrounds look fantastic.

Summary

Here we have faithful ports of 2 of the most interesting 2D fighters ever released; with the superb character design and tight accessible gameplay and action that are a colourful blaze of visuals. Darkstalkers Resurrection shows us what the Darkstalkers games offer, however, could have done without the broken online gameplay. This game will appeal to all 2D fighting fans and retro fans alike.

Darkstalkers Resurrection

Developer: Iron Galaxy Studios

Publishers: Capcom

Xbox 360® (XBLA)

Playstation 3®(PSN)

Genre: Fighting

Release Date: 13th March 2013

Story – 3/5

Gameplay – 5/5

Graphics – 4/5

Overall – 4/5

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