Tizoc
Member
Let it never be said that Capcom's games during the 90s didn't have some of the best animations in the industry at the time, with Darksatlkers (and their Marvel fighting games) being testament to that.
In 1994, as part of the new games running on the new CPS2 arcade hardware, Darkstalkers was one of the first games released on the board that showcased Capcom's great skills in 2D animation.
Despite its re-releases only 2 games cover the plot of the series, but first here's a quick breakdown of the main games released by Capcom
Darkstalkers aka Vampire in Japan
The first game in the series introduced much of the known cast, going for a horror inspired fighting game was a nice idea, and in-game Capcom outdid themselves with the animation and stage design.
Gameplay-wise it doesn't seem to have caught on, as if you search for ANY high level Darkstalkers footage, you'll find sets for Vampire Hunter and Savior only. It is however among the first Capcom games to utilize the chain combo mechanic which would become common in many of Capcom's crossover fighting games.
The characters introduced in this game are
Morrigan (Succubus)
Dimitri (Vampire)
Felicia (Cat woman)
Jon Talbain/Gallon (Werewolf)
Anakaris (Mummified pharaoh)
Aulbath/Rikuo (Merman)
Lord Raptor/Zabel Zabrock (Zombie)
Sasquatch
Victor (Frankenstein's monster)
Bishamon (Undead Samurai)
Huitzil/Phobos (Terminator)
Pyron (God-like alien/cosmic being)
The game's plot would be re-used in its updated successor, which involved Pyron wanting to add Earth to his collection, and Dimitri wanting to find out who the strongest Darkstalker is.
Or something, I don't really remember nor care for the main plot TBH.
http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/flyers_video/capcom/10014501.jpg
Darkstalkers' Revenge AKA Vampire Hunter in Japan
This update changed much of the gameplay mechanics and introduced a multi-stocked power bar, allowing players to hold up to 9 stocks.
It would be better to mention here that another introduction or innovation that the Darkstalkers series offered were 'powered up' special moves. Commonly each character in a fighter would have special moves and super moves, but Darkstalkers allowed players to perform stronger variations of their special moves at the cost of meter for some extra damage.
In addition, the Darktalkers series are among the few Capcom fighters, where super moves do not have 'freeze frames' when performed.
Speaking of which, it is perhaps the only Capcom fighting game series where various supers had needlessly complex inputs, like Dimitri's supers.
Vampire Hunter introduced 2 new characters along with making Pyron and Phobos playable-
Donovan
Lei-Lei/Hsein-ko
Darkstalkers 3 aka Vampire Savior in Japan
Vampire Savior reworked some of the elements of Hunter becoming more fast paced, and going so far as to allow players to hold up to 99 stocks of meter (not that they'd ever need that much).
One major alteration is that after a player is defeated in a round, the victor does not recover all their health and the match continues straight into Round 2, etc.
To make up for that, recoverable health was added letting players recover a small portion of their life bar after taking damage.
Vampire Savior si the most known ver. of the game and some of the most iconic stages in a video game to date
What's that on its foot?
The game introduced 4 characters:
Lilith
B. B. Hood/Bulleta
Jedah Dohma
Q-Bee
Taking place years after the previous game, the plot of Darkstalkers 3 involved Jedah, being displeased with the state of the world, wanting to unite all souls into one vessel.
Among the characters intended to be in the game were Phobos and Pyron, along with Anita, the little girl that would follow Donovan from Vampire Hunter, but Capcom never got around to adding them into the game upon its arcade release, but some basic data remains in the game's code of them.
After VS' release, Capcom released 2 other Darkstalkers games on Japanese arcades, which were mainly gameplay alterations:
Vampire Hunter 2 which featured the entire cast of Vampire Hunter sans the new ones introduced in Savior.
Vampire Savior 2 added the missing 3 characters that didn't make into Savior but removed a few of the original cast.
Among the many re-releases over the years, the following are considered the recommended titles:
The Dreamcast ver. of the game
The PS2 Compilation release
The PSP game Darkstalkers Chaos Tower
The recent PSN/XBL Darkstalkers compilation release
HG101's entry on the Darkstalkers series
Darkstalkers & the 12 principals of animation
THE must have Darkstalkers artbook
What are you favourite, characters, themes and stages in the series?
For me, #1 would most likely be Pyron, and to that extent, his VH stage and theme are my favorite in the series.
