Originally posted on www.Defaultprime.com
Tatsunoko vs Capcom is the latest in the vs. line of games. For a long time it had very little chance of being released outside of japan due to licensing issues and the fact that Tatsunoko’s characters aren’t very popular outside of Japan. Americans and Europeans are finally getting their hands on Tatsunoko vs Capcom later this year. We must thank Capcom for putting so much work into getting this game overseas, After going throguh what was basically licensing hell. Some how Capcom was able to get all the characters except one over into the North American and European version of the title. The question is, was it worth all the effort, or were fans just clamoring for the fact that we didn’t receive the title?
There is little chance that you don’t know the name Capcom if your a avid gamer. With so many hit franchises like Resident Evil, Mega Man, Street Fighter, and Monster Hunter. Chances are you have played a game developed by them. What may be a bit more obscure to you though is what Tatsunoko is. Tatsunoko is a anime company in Japan with tons of classic anime series like Yatterman, G-Force, and Tekkaman: The Space Knight. In Japan all of these are under one company name. In America and Europe they are spread out through many companies. This is what made the game so difficult to localize in the first place. While you may be unfamiliar with these characters, a lot of them may grow on you while playing Tatsunoko vs Capcom.
Tatsunoko vs Capcom is a typical one on one fighting game. You fight until one of the players runs out of health bars. In the game you can choose a partner as well, which you are able to switch out at almost any time. While this gives you the advantage of two health bars and multiple move sets, it also allows you to recover some temporarily lost HP. When you take damage your yellow bar (total health) goes down. Behind it there is also a red bar. This is health that you can recover by using a special move or, the much easier way, put that character into resting while you fight with your other character. Although when you switch a character there is about one second of vulnerability so, players who constantly switch characters may be at a disadvantage if timed incorrectly.
Tatsunoko vs Capcom follows right behind other vs. titles with its simpler control scheme and faster paced game play from the usual fighters such as Street Fighter, Virtua fighter and Tekken. You have light attacks, medium attacks and hard attacks and the partner button, which allows you summon the one partner you picked to come into battle and do an attack. Using the partner button you can also switch to that characters. Doing this is the most basic and easiest way, but it also removes any red health they had left over. Overall the combos may seem a little basic for those who enjoy hardcore tournament fighters but for those looking for a fun fighting game will find some depth without too steep of a learning curve. Artificial Intelligence’s difficulty is handled by a star system similar to street fighter’s which progressively gets better as the amount of stars you add increase. Overall the computer AI isn’t too hard, but all of a sudden it jumps up at the last 2 stars. A smoother curve in the difficulty would be nice in the localized version.
Quite a few advanced techniques are used in this game. Mega Crash, which allows you to deal damage to your self but break out of combos. Baroque allows you to sacrifice your red health in order to pull off attacks with no lag, so you can combo much easier. It also gives you a power boost to your attacks. Advancing Guard is a push block that allows you to push a enemy off your attack and let you slip in and counter during a attack. Advancing guard also lowers the damage you receive while guarding. Along with quite a few other techniques to increase combos or switch characters without having to worry about the vulnerability.
As with other Capcom fighters a super bar that charges up and allows you to do super moves. It can charge up 5 times till it’s at maximum. Depending on the move it will use one to five bars. You can also do partner super moves, some just have animations with them and others have them doing their super move at the same time you do yours. Super moves may feel really easy to pull off but a large amount of them can easily be blocked, evaded or even canceled. This provides a balance of having easy to pull off super moves but also being able to avoid damage from them easily. Using your specials at key times are important, rather then just unleashing it all at once at random times.
When it comes to modes available, Tatsunoko vs Capcom doesn’t really impress. Theres the story mode which takes you through a series of fights and eventually at the end a final boss and a anime cut scene unique to each character. Survival mode where you try to live through as many fights as possible with minimal recovery. Time trial which times you on how fast you can beat 10 fights. Training mode allows you to work on your skills. Last, and least enjoyable is the Mini game mode with a Mini game for each character. These mini games are up to 4 players but really feel tacked on. They don’t really help the experience at all other then they wanted to use Wii’s unique controller for no reason.
Tatsunoko vs Capcom has 22 playable characters. It’s a pretty good size for a fighter list, but with 1 character down the US version is currently looking at 21 characters. Hopefully there will be more characters introduced in the localization. Capcom said there is a possibility for new characters, but as of writing this there are no announced characters. The character roster has a good mix of well known and lesser know characters. While overseas the whole Tatsunoko side may be not well known. On the Capcom side Ryu, Chun-li, Mega Man, and Roll are on the list as well as some lesser known characters, like Batsu from Rival schools and Saki Omokane from Quiz Nanairo Dreams a Japanese only arcade quiz game. There seems to be a few balancing issues but each character feels like they have a fighting chance once you come to understand how to use them.
Visually the game is very appealing. There’s some stiff character animations in the background but it doesn’t matter in the heat of battle. Character models can look a little blocky, but the special effects are top notch with the special moves. The music is great but how it transitions between songs is quite strange. Typically you would have something like a character theme for a stage. Instead after a certain amount of time, if a partner is changed the theme will change to that character. It just makes a awkward transition completely interrupting a song and throwing in another characters theme. Sound effects are great, advancing guards have a nice sound to them that really feel like your pushing a character off of you. Japanese voice acting is good, but who knows if it will change in localization yet.
Overall Tatsunoko vs Capcom is a great fighter. Some improvements can be made and the tacked on Mini games could be removed completely. Whether or not Capcom decides to change much is yet to be seen. At the very least the possibilities of new characters and on-line play in the localized version of the title are definitely promising and should improve the experience. Those who are looking for a casual fast paced fighter should keep their eyes on Tatsunoko vs Capcom. If your looking for a deep fighter, Tatsunoko vs Capcom may not be for you.
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