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[Arsic]

Over the years I've played many many many fighting games. For the longest time my favorite was tied between Garou Mark of the Wolves and Street Fighter 3 Third Strike. But in the year of lord and vampire savior 2026, both have become dethroned.

Vampire Savior, AKA Darkstalkers 3, is the most genius fighting game I've put my hands on.

In the past I've seen some VS be played, dismissed it, tried it myself for a few minutes and didn't feel it click right away, and dismissed it. This had to do with me thinking combos must be super hard to do since I couldn't cancel a chain into a special or multiple hits into a special. Which isn't how VS works.

Thanks to the capcom fighting collection, the recent doom and gloom of physical media, nostalgia overload, and EVO Japan and USA 2026 VS hype - I jumped in.



This game is the godfather of so many incredible ideas that didn't exist before it like an air dash, and character archetypes like I-No from guilty gear were born here.

I'm baffled that VS baseline isn't copied today in what so many people are asking for in a fighter. Easy to pick up, combos are short, chains, it's fast, it's flashy, it has personality, incredible art style, and that soundtrack? Oh baby!

Personally my two favorite aspects are how combos work for chains, and how cancels into special moves works. It's perfect for beginners and feels like the combos portion of the game isn't a barrier at all and you get to jump into learning the footsies, match ups, etc. Yes there is plenty of advanced tech, hard AF shit to do like Sako combos but it isn't mandatory to get in and feel competent to hang and have fun.

I wish Capcom would give this IP a revival. Highly recommend Capcom fighting collection to mess with it if you're interested, or Fightcade if you want to play others and try to get good against others.

 

[MrRibeye]

Red riding hood with an Uzi

Werewolf with nunchakus

Undead British punk with electric guitar

And a vampire girl whose tits are exploding …

Never seen this game before (fighting is not my thang) and wtf are these gifs bro, but downloading this now for Fightcade to give it a try, because how can I not after this OP

 

[Arsic]

Red riding hood with an Uzi

Werewolf with nunchakus

Undead British punk with electric guitar

And a vampire girl whose tits are exploding …

Never seen this game before (fighting is not my thang) and wtf are these gifs bro, but downloading this now for Fightcade to give it a try, because how can I not after this OP

It was developed after Street Fighter 2 and a few iterations of it.

It's a 6 button fighter like SF, but combo routing is very different, and the "rounds" function like stocks in smash bros where you immediately go into it from where the life bar died off. First to take off 2 bats wins.

Play turbo 3 speed (that's the standard), and do not pick auto. (Auto guards for you which is not allowed in competitive play lol).

Standard combo is cr lk, cr mp, cr MK, into either a cr heavy kick or stand heavy punch for example. Depends on character buttons.

There's also push block but that's more advanced to explain. For now go mash and have fun.

The whole roster is just horror theme monsters and such. Victor uses his ass cheeks for command grabs. It's sick.