Darkstalkers Series

Throwback Thursday: Darkstalkers series

Robert Knuckles

Time for another Throwback Thursday folks and this time we’ll talk about Capcom’s famous monsters fighting it out in the series called Darkstalkers. In this throwback I’m going to talk about the series as a whole and not just one specific game.

Darkstalkers is a 2D fighting game that features monster characters such as a Vampire, Werewolf, Zombie, Mummy and many more. Darkstalkers was released in Japanese arcades in 1994 then a year in a half later Darkstalkers was released on the PS1  in America in 1996.

Now when players first get a glimpse of Darkstalkers many of them would say “oh this is Street Fighter with monster characters” well part of that may be true but Darkstalkers features a very fast paced fighting game. It also features chain combos meaning that players can connect a light punch to a medium punch and end it with a hard punch. Darkstalkers also features air blocking. Now just like Street Fighter Darkstalkers has a super meter but what makes it different is that once it's filled players have a certain amount of time to perform a super combo or a powered up version of a normal move.

Darkstalkers story is about the evil non-playable alien Pyron whose collecting planets as he devours them and now he has plans set on Earth. The only thing that can stop Pyron are the 10 playable monster characters that the player picks. Darkstalkers features interesting characters such as the Vampire Demitri who claims to regain his throne of the dark world. Another great character Morrigan the Succubus who’s a princess of the demon world Makai. Morrigan neither good or evil she just wants to have fun fighting strong opponents. Morrigan still today is one of Capcom's famous characters and she’s in a number of different fighting games outside of Darkstalkers.

Darkstalkers continued to grow with the sequel Night Warriors: Darkstalkers Revenge. This was basically the updated version of the first Darkstalkers. Players can now stock up to unlimited number of gauges. The two types of super moves players could do which are ES Specials which are enhanced regular special moves and EX Specials. Players can also play as new characters Donovan Baine the demon hunter and Hsien-Ko the Chinese Ghost. Players can also play as the boss characters; Huitzil the robot and alien boss Pryon.

In 1998 Darkstalkers 3 was released. Darkstalkers 3 removed veteran fighters Huitzil, Pyron and Donovan (but available on the console version PS1) but introduced four new characters Q-Bee, bees that crave souls, Lilith Morrigan's other half, Jedah demon the (new boss for most characters) that's trying to recreate the demon world and the famous B.B. Hood whose appearance looks innocent but deep down there's a monster inside with no heart.

Now the gameplay has changed quite a bit. Gameplay is a bit more faster than the previous Darkstalkers games. There is only one round with characters each having two life bars. First play to knock down both life bars win. Definitely similar to Killer Instinct. Sometimes matches can end pretty fast. Darkstalkers 3 features the new Dark Force where players can perform unique abilities such as Felicia gets a little kitty helper or Lilith having a double copy to give out multiple hits.

Another unique thing about Darkstalkers is that the animation that the characters perform is amazing. The faces they make getting hit, getting frozen, burned or getting hit by Demitri's Midnight Bliss (which is probably one of the most famous special moves ever) when he turns everyone into a beautiful girl and drains the life out of them.

There have been other Darkstalkers titles after the third game. Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower for the PSP came out in 2005. It featured all 18 characters and now players can choose a different playstyle from all three Darkstalkers games and the Chaos tower also features Tower mode where players fight CPUs under certain conditions. Another Darkstalkers game was released in the same year called Vampire: Darkstalkers Collection for the PS2 that was only released in Japan a collection that featured all five Darkstalkers arcade games.

In 2013 Darkstalkers made a comeback with Darkstalkers Resurrection. A downloadable game for Xbox 360 and PS3. It features Night Warriors Darkstalkers Revenge and Darkstalkers 3 both featuring online play.

I’m a fan of the Darkstalkers series and really love the characters. Some people can argue that the characters are more popular than the actually game. Now the question comes to mind is that will there be a brand new Darkstalkers game? It’s hard to say because Darkstalkers Resurrection sales didn’t do so well. If sales did well we possibly could have seen a new Darkstalkers game. I would really love to see a new Darkstalkers game. I’m still hoping for a new one. It might not be as famous here in America but in Japan it gets a lot more love. Darkstalkers is a really fun game. If you love fast paced fighting games with monsters then this is the throwback fighting game for you!