DarkStalkers are Home (Finally!!)

After an interminable wait, DarkStalkers: The Night Warriors has finally arrived on the PlayStation. Great graphics make this one shine, but unfortunately, outdated gameplay hurts this title drastically. Overall, every PlayStation owner should rent this one, but only Street Fighter fanatics will buy it.
Graphically, this is the most impressive 2-D game on the PlayStation to date. Huge characters, fantastic animations, and lush colors make this game a visual treat.
Special moves, while not original in nature, offer spectacular blasts of fire and ice, as well as swirling clouds of noxious gas. One especially nice move is Sasquatch's super ice blast, in which his jaws open perpendicular to the rest of his body and fire a gigantic blast of ice. Screen captures just don't do this game justice, since the animations are where it really shines. It must be seen to be believed.
The sounds are not this game's strong point. Regular grunts, blasts, and video game tunes play lazily in the background. Nothing bad, just not outstanding.
Sadly, DarkStalkers is one of the least original titles on the PlayStation. Borrowing heavily from the Street Fighter game engine, the only thing that this disc has going for it is its monster theme, which is rarely used in games, especially fighting games. All of the moves are done using quarter and half circle motions, as well as dragon punch motions. Yawn.
While the special moves are very easy to pull off, the gameplay is outdated and needs serious improvement. Special moves are not really needed, since their only real function is to showcase the game's flashy graphics. One could easily beat the game using jumping fierce kicks and an occasional punch. Combos are very inconsistent, with button-mashing prevailing over strategy. I seemed to have a great deal of success using the Felicia character, and was able to do a 6-hit, 50 percent combo once. No other characters had useful moves. For example, the dragon punches of Demitri, the vampire character, and the succubus character were ineffective because they are too short and directly vertical. I even attempted some Ryu-Ken combos with their imitation character, Demitri, but I just couldn't pull them off. The game just ends up being a poorly executed Street Fighter clone.
While it is fun looking at the graphics in this game, playing it is a whole other story. Lack of an original game engine just destroys this title. The most fun part of the game is finishing the opponent with a rushing sword slash using the samurai, which will cut them in half. It is a joy to notice that this slight detail was slipped into a game. Is it worth 60 bucks, though? Nope. Rent it to look at the pretty graphics.
And now for the grades...
- Graphics-19/20
- Sounds-3/5
- Originality/Innovation-2/5
- Play Control/Gameplay-25/40
- FunFactor-20/30
- Total Score-69/100
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