Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge - Saturn Review

Capcom Entertainment

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Since the first time it appeared on the screens, the Street Fighter video games series became one of the most popular, even catching Hollywood's interest to produce a movie based on the characters of the game. This infatuation for the Street Fighters universe found expression in huge sales, which proved the theme to be successful, and at the same time skyrocketed Capcom to the pinnacle of 2D fighting games. More Street Fighter titles were created later with conversions spreading over multiple platforms to appeal for a greater number of fans across the world. Then, strengthened by their success, the creators at Capcom imagined a new series called Darkstalkers, whose cast of mystical and legendary creatures was once again to reveal a new blockbuster.

Although "Night Warriors: Darkstalker's Revenge" is the second installment in the series, it is this title that was chosen to be converted on the Sega Saturn, while the first episode, "Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors", only being available on the Sony PlayStation. Both games have been faithfully converted from the arcades to their respective platforms, keeping the very same winning graphics and exhilarating game play found in the original versions.

With four new characters, Darkstalkers' Revenge features a total number of 14 fighters, including the two bosses of the previous game, Huitzil and Pyron, and two newcomers, Donovan, the Dark Hunter, and Hsien-Ko, a Chinese ghost seeking for revenge of her beloved mother's death. The other characters of Darkstalkers will surely surprise you if you are not already familiar with the series. From the Canadian Yeti Sasquatch to the Romanian Vampire Demitri Maximoff, the most frightening creatures of the night will fight in a deadly challenge for supremacy.

Among the exclusive features of Darkstalker's Revenge are the air block possibilities, fast recovery and escape, pursuit and the way you can stock up in your special move gauge. The fast recovery feature will allow you to recuperate more rapidly from dizziness caused by your adversary's attack, while the pursuit will give you the opportunity to attack even when your opponent falls. To avoid having your enemy use the same technique against you, you can always distant yourself before you get up by pressing on the left or right button of the directional pad. Darkstalkers' Revenge contains four types of moves: regular, special, ES (Enhanced Special) and EX (Extra Special). The regular moves include 3 kicks and 3 punches that you can combine with 8 possible movements (forward, crouch, jump, etc...). Special, ES and EX moves consist in particular combinations that can unleash destructive attacks. The differences between them depend of the special move gauge that is filled up whenever you attack, perform special moves or block your opponent's attacks. When the gauge fills up completely, you will get one additional special move that you can perform. You can thus accumulate them in the gauge before striking your adversary. The EX move, for example, will only be available once you have stock built up in your special move gauge.

The multi-layered backgrounds of the numerous locations reflect the various places haunted by the characters. Contrary to other games where backgrounds are often static, those in Darkstalkers' Revenge contrast by the use of many animations during combats and also at the end of every fight with each character displaying a particular winning pose. Even though the game is serious about fighting, it has a humoristic content that sometimes has characters with a hilarious face as in cartoons after they have been burnt or electrified, for example. The dazzling graphics displayed during special moves are also impressive, and much more diversified than in other fighting games, combining weapons and natural elements (fire, water, ice) for stunning visual effects. If someone was willing to demonstrate at the same time, the Saturn possibilities and the amazing creative talent of Capcom, Darkstalkers' Revenge would definitely be the best example.

The music also contributes to the surreal atmosphere of Darkstalkers's Revenge, each song goes remarkably well with the backgrounds and characters. Plenty of sound effects such as speech, attacks and sounds from the backgrounds while continuing to entertain the player, will sustain the heart-pounding action. To reward the players when they play with the arcade mode and successfully beat the ten Darkstalkers, they will watch an animation showing the events after the combat. These animations are, of course, very far from what you can watch for the ending sequences of Tekken 2, but they will provide players with answers to the questions they might have asked about their characters.

Conclusion:

Whatsoever the mode you choose, either playing in versus mode against another player, or alone in the arcade mode, you will tremendously enjoy Darkstalkers' Revenge if you are into 2D fighting games. It looks great, plays awesome, and sounds cool.

Written by Frederick Claude

Click here for screen shots.