Complete Collection

Posted by Jacob H. on 19th Nov 2010

The Vampire series, better known to Americans as Darkstalkers, has always played second fiddle to its big brother, Street Fighter. At least that's always been the case outside of Japan. Luckily for the the Japanese that isn't the case as Vampire: Darkstakers Collection gives this series the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology treatment. This collection has all of the games in the Vampire series in one disc, two of which have never made it outside of the land of the rising sun.

At its core, this collection is very much like Street Fighter Alpha Anthology. It's got all the games in the series and they are arcade perfect. There are secrets and unlockables which include Capcom art and and fan art for you to enjoy. While that's all fine and good the main attractions here are the Vampire games. Like I said, they are all arcade perfect with every frame of animation in tact. The graphics are colorful and vibrant while the music is dark and moody. Think of a gothic Street Fighter Alpha with monster movie characters and you get the idea. The only thing that purists will scoff at is a loading screen which is almost non-existent. The PS2 handles the game with almost no noticeable load time. For me, it's arcade perfect. Some may disagree.

Incidentally this is an outstanding collection and should be in every 2D fighting game fan's collection. For the money it's a great deal. While Vampire Hunter and the two Vampire Saviors are the gems that steal the show, the inclusion of the other games is nice and there are some great unlockable pieces of art to be seen as I mentioned before. All in all this is a great fighter. It feels like Street Fighter Alpha with a twist. Darkstalkers 3 saw a release on the PS1 and was nice because it included all of the characters in one game (Capcom's wish came true). The only problem was the load times were terrible and the animation wasn't up to standards. This is a better collection for fans of the Darkstakers series.If you are an importer and are concerned with the game being in Japanese, not to worry. The menus are all in English as is most of the game. The only part that holds Japanese text is the dialogue between fights when someone wins or loses and the endings. It's very minimal and has no effect on game play. So feel free to import and enjoy. Vampire: Darkstalkers Collection is a great collection of one of the most overlooked fighting series out there.